# Mozart the Healer



## Guest (Jun 29, 2007)

Mozart's Music is well known to heal troubled soul, isn't it?

I read somewhere that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concerti) would also temporarily increase IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. And playing specially selected classical music to infants is recommended in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development.

What do you think?

_(I chose this title in order to pay homage to Mozart who he is more criticized, here and there, than he deserves…) _


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## JohnM (Aug 12, 2006)

> Mozart's Music is well known to heal troubled soul, isn't it?


I think so. Every Mozart piece I can think of - happy or sad - leaves me with the impression that the world is a better place at the end. I think of it as the ultimate feelgood music


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Alnitak said:


> Mozart's Music is well known to heal troubled soul, isn't it?


The answer to that question at best is subjective.



> I read somewhere that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concerti) would also temporarily increase IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. And playing specially selected classical music to infants is recommended in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development.
> 
> What do you think?


The 'Mozart Effect', as it's known, doesn't have much in the way of scientific evidence backing it up. At most, is supposed to have increased mental activity (in a good sort of way) on a few kids, for a few minutes, after listening to Mozart. I think this was more like a one-time thing.

I'm listening to K.314, BTW.


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## JohnM (Aug 12, 2006)

opus67 said:


> I'm listening to K.314, BTW.


And doesn't it make you feel good?


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## Guest (Jun 29, 2007)

A compendium of compliments:

http://www.spiritsound.com/sing/mozartquotes1.html


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## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

Alnitak said:


> Mozart's Music is well known to heal troubled soul, isn't it?
> 
> I read somewhere that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concerti) would also temporarily increase IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. And playing specially selected classical music to infants is recommended in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development.
> 
> ...


Any music can heal. Mozart included of course.


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

JohnM said:


> And doesn't it make you feel good?


It does. But sometimes I prefer silence over Mozart when my "soul is troubled." 

Anyway, here's a better summary of the Mozart Effect:
http://skepdic.com/mozart.html


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## Guest (Jun 29, 2007)

As you are talking about silence, it reminds me of that Sacha Guitry’s word:

"When we have just listened a Mozart’s work, the silence which succeeds it is still of him..."


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Must we credit Mozart for silence also ?

Do the scriptures say, _'Be still and know that I am Mozart'_ ?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2007)

robert newman said:


> Must we credit Mozart for silence also ?
> 
> Do the scriptures say, _'Be still and know that I am Mozart'_ ?


Haarg ! the controversy is back !…


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## Leporello87 (Mar 25, 2007)

Alnitak said:


> Haarg ! the controversy is back !…


Surely you're not surprised, are you? After all, the word "Mozart" appears in the title of the thread!


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

What is more controversial than to appeal to common sense ?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2007)

I don't speak English very well, but I read in your sentence the word "also":
"Must we credit Mozart for silence also"

Why also? Because you presume that Mozart is not credited for something else?
And for what else? 
- for his works, is he?

I am tired of your monomania, Mr Newman.


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## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

One think I support is to put out Mozart of his piedestal (i.e. from an overrated god to a good composer status)


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Dear Alnitak,

I used the word '_also_' since, it seems, there are so many examples of Mozartean omnipotence now available to the faithful that we can credit Herr Mozart with everything from charming snakes to increasing the size of potatoes in controlled growing experiments. Not only is tje music of Mozart (rather than JS Bach, Beethoven and others) good for students about to take colleage exams (since their IQ is raised by several percentage points) but Mozart can also heal our mortal bodies. You will forgive me thinking that reference to him being credited with the silence that follows listening to 'his' own music is still another example of the remarkable virtues of Saint Amadeus of Salzburg. I really must ask the Austrian Tourist Board if there a place where we can queue to drink consecrated water at Mozart's shrine ? And is it true that water there turns in to chocolate milk at certain times of the year ?

The only 'monomania' in this case is the 200 year old relentless pumping of Mozartean mythology that culmnated in the marzipan 'Mozart Year' of 2006 - a year in which other composers of great status had anniversaries too that were virtually drowned out by 'wall to wall' Mozart. Dimitri Shostakovitch, for example. What is more clear than the gross exaggerations and hype that surrounds the (supposed) musical achievements of Herr Mozart, not simply on a few critical forums but in European and even in modern society generally ? The monomania is of course the creeping canonisation of Herr Mozart. For, it surely cannot be long before 3 miracles are confirmed and the process of sainthood is confirmed by H.Q.

It is a musical abberation that such 'snake oil' should be so widely sold which, under close examination, collapses so easily.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2007)

Getting back to the subject, this quote seem very apposite, and I trust Mr Newman will approve:

_Mozart wrote everything with such ease and speed as might at first be taken for carelessness or haste. His imagination held before him the whole work clear and lively once it was conceived. One seldom finds in his scores improved or erased passages. _​ - (Franz Niemetschek)

Talking of improved or erased passages (it took Beethoven 5 years to write Sym 5, for example) this is interesting:

_Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven created his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it-that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed. _​ - (Albert Einstein)


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2007)

robert newman said:


> Dear Alnitak,
> 
> You will forgive me thinking that reference to him being credited with the silence that follows listening to 'his' own music is still another example of the remarkable virtues of Saint Amadeus of Salzburg. I really must ask the Austrian Tourist Board if there a place where we can queue to drink consecrated water at Mozart's shrine ? And is it true that water there turns in to chocolate milk at certain times of the year ?
> ...
> ...


Mozart can't be canonized, because he was Freemason. 
Please, be attentive.


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

Dear Alnitak,

I was specially attentive to your last post and am specially keen that you should do the same for mine.

If I might be so bold, here are some facts -

1.In 1983, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic church reiterated: "_Faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."_ - Which begs the question of whether Mozart was a Catholic during the last 7 years of his life ?

2. In late July, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, gave the Mozart issue a new lease on life in an interview with the Editor of 'L'Avvenire', the official newspaper of the Italian Roman Catholic Bishops Conference. The paper quoted Schönborn as denying that Mozart was a Mason, saying that reports of his membership "are without foundation." !!! Thus, according to a Cardinal (second in authority only to the pope) there is no foundation to the view that Mozart was a Freemason ! I mean - is this strange, or what ?

3. One of the stated favourite composers of the present Pope is Mozart - which is strange if, in fact, Mozart was in a state of grievous sin by being a Freemason at the time when he composed most of his greatest works.

4 According to the editor of this same publication -

_"It is necessary to understand that Freemasonry in the 18th century was a completely different thing from [that of] the 19th or 20th centuries. There was no problem to be a deeply convinced Catholic and a Mason at the same time, as is illustrated by the examples of many priests, abbots, etc. [who were Masons] in the late 18th century."_

I trust that you, Alnitak, are making sense of all this ? But to the rest of the Christian world this is as clear as mud.

Regards


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

opus67 said:


> The 'Mozart Effect', as it's known, doesn't have much in the way of scientific evidence backing it up. At most, is supposed to have increased mental activity (in a good sort of way) on a few kids, for a few minutes, after listening to Mozart. I think this was more like a one-time thing.


Agree... 100%.

That's not to say, however, that pursuit of activities that require the application of mental acuity (such as _active_ listening) have, in my opinion, the potential to act as a preventative to mental decline. More significantly, though, avoidance of cognitive challenge can lead to the erosion of such capacities (I believe).


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## robert newman (Oct 4, 2006)

The avoidance of cognitive challenge applies as much to the music of JS Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin and any other composer, doesn't it ? What specific properties are claimed for the music of 'Mozart' ? It is absurd, of course. It's not true. And it's silly.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2007)

Anyway, I forgive him for having been freemason, because he gave us such wonderful works.
Thank you, Wolfgang, for healing my soul when I need it.


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## Mr Salek (Apr 11, 2006)

As a baby, I fell asleep to Symphony Concertante every night, and I turned out alright 

The "healing properites" or whatever you want to call them are supposed to be because of the equal phrases and general organisation of his music which encourages your brain to work that way.


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