Mozart’s magical power
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In the past decade, more and more people have given Mozart the title of "Healer of Mind and Body." Of all the titles people have ascribed to Mozart, this one is perhaps the most controversial. According to this New Age interpretation, Mozart is the most powerful composer and therapist, whose music can cure everything from acne to Alzheimer's and even transform adults and children.
Smart.
Portrait of Mozart
Parisian artist Cadillac Eliade is in trouble. Not only was she completely devoid of inspiration, she also inexplicably lost the ability to use blues and greens in her abstract works. So she began an unusual therapy: listening to Mozart's music for two hours a day, each "course" for three weeks. According to her, the effect is astonishing: "My attitude towards myself, others and everything around me is much more relaxed. I only listened to it for eight months, but the effect is as good as ten years of psychotherapy." She said Full of gratitude to Mozart: "When you wake up in the middle of the night, he will soothe your soul, just like a loving father."
Mozart was born on January 27, 250 years ago. , celebrations for his 250th birthday are being held all over the world. This year will be a year full of music, and we should also take this opportunity to reinterpret his short life. Everyone has their own opinions about Mozart. He was both a musical prodigy who was led everywhere by his father Leopold, and a bad boy with a foul mouth - his letters show that he had a soft spot for those immoral jokes. According to a widely circulated myth, he was buried in a pauper's cemetery. According to another unconfirmed legend, he was killed by his jealous colleague, court musician Antonio Salieri. Due to the popularity of the movie "Mozart", this statement has been recognized by many people. Fanatic admirers of Mozart believe that he received a revelation, but some modern psychologists believe that he had an "infantile-regressive personality." Herbert Bruegger of the Salzburg Tourist Office (Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart) said that if Mozart had lived today, he would have become "a pop star, like Prince, Michael Jackson Pretty much the same as those Robin Williams guys.”
There is nothing new in these statements. It is worth noting that in the past decade, more and more people have given Mozart the title of "Healer of Mind and Body." Of all the titles people have ascribed to Mozart, this one is perhaps the most controversial. According to this New Age interpretation, Mozart was the greatest composer-therapist, whose music could cure everything from acne to Alzheimer's and even make adults and children smarter. Of course, some of these claims are backed by science. A neurosurgeon in Chicago conducted relevant research and concluded that certain works of Mozart can indeed relieve the symptoms of some epilepsy patients. In addition, some researchers in California have found that Mozart's music does help Alzheimer's patients. However, much of this type of evidence is unreliable. Although the French actor Gérard Depardieu said that Mozart's music cured his childhood stutter, and the aforementioned Eliade also used it to cure his own emotional disorder, little is known about it. There are authoritative organizations that endorse this type of therapy, and those "classical music therapists" are often bluffing fakes. Despite this, there are still many places that are vigorously promoting this type of therapy, mainly to help children with personality problems.
By far the most common claim - and the one that has caused the most controversy - is that Mozart can improve people's intelligence. This statement first received scientific support in 1993, when the "Nature" magazine published an article claiming that college students who listened to the first movement of Mozart's "Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos" performed better in a spatial imagination test. The unheard one performed better.
The lead author of the paper is Frances Rauscher, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, who later conducted similar experiments on white rats. Experiments have shown that rats who listened to Mozart's music were better at navigating a maze than those who didn't. In the decade since, researchers around the world have conducted numerous such studies, some supporting and others opposing Rauscher's conclusions. Regardless, Lausier's research attracted widespread attention and sparked a pop psychology craze known as the "Mozart Effect." Suddenly, dozens of Mozart music CDs appeared on the market claiming to improve intelligence. This trend has even affected government social policies. In 1998, the U.S. state of Georgia began giving classical music CDs to all parents of infants and young children, and similar initiatives have been taken in Colorado, Florida, and other places. The biggest beneficiary of this fashion was the American musician Don Campbell. He was the first to register the trademark "Mozart Effect" without participating in any related research, quickly launched two best-selling books, and compiled more than a dozen books. CD. "Music can elevate our souls in an instant, inspiring hope, compassion, and love in our hearts," he wrote. "It can cleanse our hearts and make us wiser."
Such large-scale commercial hype makes Lauhill confused and a little happy, but she does not agree with others’ misinterpretation of her research work. "No one ever said that listening to Mozart's music can make people smarter," she said, noting that Mozart's music can only improve people's spatial imagination in the short term and never improve intelligence overall. However, Campbell was indifferent to her attitude and turned a deaf ear to the accusations of other scholars. His explanation is: "I don't think we can prove that such an effect does exist. Likewise, we can't prove that such an effect does not exist. The most objective statement is that we simply don't understand why music can have such an impact on the human brain. Big influence.”
Campbell’s words hit the point. Scientific research shows that music activates many different areas of the brain, and that areas of the human brain responsible for musical responses also overlap with areas responsible for spatial imagination. However, scientists don't understand why some music is more effective than others, and knowledge of music's soothing effects is even more limited. But a growing body of research shows that music creates connections between the two hemispheres of the brain, which may lead to a clearer mind and better grades.
Until now, music listening therapy has not been recognized by authoritative organizations. The method officially recognized by registered therapists to help children with disabilities is usually to have them create music and use it to express themselves and communicate with the outside world. In the UK, music therapy has become an officially recognized profession since 1999. Gary Ansdell of London's Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Center points out: "The key to music therapy is active music making, not passive listening." For Don Campbell and his Ansdell dismissed the "Mozart Effect" career: "Music therapy is not just that simple. He reduced Mozart to an 'effect', which is not a compliment to Mozart."
However. , on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, everything seems to make sense – just look at Carlo Cagnozzi. Cagnozzi, a winemaker in Italy's Tuscany region, has been playing Mozart music to his grapes for the past five years. According to him, Mozart's music can make grapes ripen faster and drive away parasites and pest birds. Mozart knew it well, and he didn't know what to think after hearing this. But because so little is known about the functions of music, researchers at the University of Florence have begun investigating Cagnozzi's claims. As Don Campbell said: "Mozart's fascination is far-reaching, and the discussion about it should continue. So far, we have only just learned what questions to ask." Yes, the dizzying controversy will definitely continue, Campbell will continue to sell his Mozart CDs. Even if Campbell's claim that Mozart's music can make people smart is false, he at least made this great musician accessible to more people. Although Mozart died more than 200 years ago, his music is still significant