Mozart Everyday Keeps the Doctor Away

Because Danai, my guest blogger from last week, commented on how classical music can help you physically I thought I would expand on that subject today. Music throughout the ages has been known to affect people in different ways. Even in today’s culture you will find yourself grinning, singing, or dancing to your favorite songs. You will also notice yourself grimace and slow down when you hear a song you don’t like. You could say you are motivated by your favorite beats.

So where does classical music fit into making you feel physically better? Well there have been many studies done on how classical music helps people who are recovering from surgery’s. When classical music is played while a person is sleeping you can see on the heart monitor that their heart has adjusted to keep its beat with the music’s beat. Normally doctors have prescribed slower paced classical songs so that the patient who is healing will have a slow steady pulse. The slower your pulse is the more relaxed you are, and the more relaxed you are the faster your body can heal from whatever has injured it.

Classical music is not just prescribed by doctors for those who are healing from a surgery though. Doctors prescribe it as a way of healing from many things, such as anxiety and depression. It is also prescribed to help people suffering from Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. While in the last two diseases it does not completely fix the muscle or memory loss of the patients it does lessen it a lot. 

So if you find yourself feeling a little bit out of sorts, or very overwhelmed, try listening to some classical music so you can relax and balance your emotions so you can more effectively accomplish what you are trying to do.

Classical Music and Food

Today, I was a guest blogger on a blog dealing with  living with Celiac Disease. Odd I know, but as my post discusses, classical music and food actually can be connected.

Classical music...important?

Classical music is the one universal language that is spoken throughout the entire world. Unlike pop and rap music today, classical music is complex and has the potential to speak to people on deep emotional levels, despite any language barriers there might be. Music of any kind is wonderful, but classical music can provoke intellectual thoughts and inspire new ideas in its listeners.

It is a branch of education that has been neglected because people do not see what a powerful tool it can be in communicating with others. Classical music can convey emotions from joy and happiness to anger and frustration. It also has the power to open parts of the mind that need musical stimulus and makes a person more well-rounded and balanced in all aspects of their life. People need to be taught how to appreciate and understand the complexity of the music or the wonderful potential is completely lost. 

-By guest blogger Danai Sirrine 

If Variety is the Spice of Life, Classical Music is a Bottle of Tabasco

Some people view classical music as just orchestra music, or music that has a violin or some other string instrument in it. While this is one form of classical music, classical composers do not just stick to writing for strings or for an Orchestra. There are Opera’s written in the classical style along with songs that you would play on your piano at home. There are also songs that are written to solo out an instrument and put them against a whole orchestra.


Beyond having variety in the types of instruments that play classical music, the music itself can have very different elements that make each song unique. Would anybody say that “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana is the same as Tchaikovsky's “Waltz of the Flowers?” Absolutely not. Both of these songs are classical music but composed and performed in two very different styles. There is variety in these songs that creates interest in the music and the story that it is trying to tell. The tone of both of these songs is different; the emotions behind these songs are very different; the songs create vastly different feelings to those who hear them. While all classical songs do share some attributes in common, there is a variety to them that gives a listener a sense of newness, excitement, and interest with each new song they hear.

It's a...LIVE!!

Each of us has a favorite singer or band, and we would love to go listen to them live, right? Of course we would love to listen to them live! But stop-let’s think about this. Why would we want to listen to them live when we already own their CD’s and know the lyrics to the songs they will be singing by heart? It’s the experience of being in the same room as that person. The experience of being able to listen to them live instead of through an iPod is amazing. You honestly feel like you understand better what the singer is trying to say with their words-you connect with them and their songs in a way you just can’t when you are listening to them through your iPod. The same thing happens with classical music.

In order to fully appreciate classical music you have to be willing to go to a concert and listen to it. This way you are able to connect with the music on a deeper, more personal level. The BYU Philharmonic Orchestra is having their concert in the De Jong concert hall, located in the Harris Fine Arts Center, on November 17, 2010. They will be playing a number of songs including the song Jupiter from the Planets suite, a suite which I have previously mentioned. Another concert that will be held the following night, in the same hall, will be performed by the Utah Symphony and they will be playing Bruckner Symphony No. 9, among other things. Both of these concerts promise to be educational to those of you who have never been to a classical music concert. Make sure you get tickets and go so you can experience classical music for yourself in its best setting-live performance.