Painted by Barbara Kratt 1764-1825
Many
of us know that our mothers went to art museums, listened to classical music
and, read books specifically to influence us when we were still in the womb.
Most continued during our childhood and we can recall and treasure our bedtime
stories. Do you think this influenced you as a writer?
WQXR, the publicly funded and much loved
classical music station in New York,
has celebrated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the entire month of November. Last
weekend they talked about the Mozart effect.
The terminology originally came from a
study performed in 1991 with 36 young adult students who listened to ten
minutes of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos
in D Major. The students tackled a group of mental tasks before and after
listening to Mozart. One was ten minutes of absolute quiet, the second ten
minutes of directions on how to relax and the third was the sonata. The
students who listen to Mozart did better when they were presented with a
sequence of cerebral tests to finish—but the effect lasted approximately
fifteen minutes.
Scientists were intrigued and agreed that
listening to music could have a short term effect but listening to Schubert or
reading a book by Stephen King would bring about the same result if you took
pleasure in the composer or author. In 2006, a study was conducted in England
with eight thousand children who listened to either Mozart, a discussion about
the experiment or three popular songs. The children who listened to the pop
songs did better than the children who listened to Mozart.
Books have been written, CDs made for
children, and Governor Zell Miller requested $105,000 to provide a classical
music CD to every child born in the state of Georgia.
Music does lift the spirits, lower blood pressure and the playing of
instruments—free musical instruments and training are often given to children
in school—has promoted their social and cognitive skills.
Bests,
Elise
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