Cardiologists at Oxford University have found in a recent study that when people were played certain classical works, it coincided with a reduction in blood pressure and heart rate. The pieces in question included excerpts from works by Verdi, Beethoven and Puccini that had in common a repeated ten-second rhythm, matching phases in which the body’s blood-pressure control mechanism sends and receives messages from the brain. Faster music such as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” had no effect, while recordings by the Red Hot Chili Peppers actually increased the heart rate. (Daily Telegraph report)

The secret is in the rhythm, the matching phrases – and the melody. The human ear is attracted to a memorable melody, long enough to register in the memory, and repeated as a close variation.  The great composers have always known this, which is why classical music programs repeat and repeat them, and why most modern music is played (once) in a concert and is often promptly forgotten.

We need music that stirs the soul, relaxes and is memorable.  Like several other branches of the arts, music lost its way about a hundred years ago, and is now painfully having to take stock and find audiences whose money will support the careers of talented young people in serious music making.