# Is classical music...relaxing?



## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

I'm borrowing this idea from another thread on another forum. I thought it was a great topic, so I am "borrowing" it here.

People often talk of classical music as being "relaxing." In other words, music for medetation, falling asleep, getting rid of stress, etc.

Does anyone else get a little irritated that classical music is, in a way, dismissed as nothing more than relaxing sounds? 

Of course, relaxing music in the classical repertoire exists, but I'd like to know who finds Beethoven's 9th relaxing...or Carmina Burana...or any of Shostakovich's symphonies, and the list can go on and on.

There is music which is meant to stimulate the senses, and get you excited! And I suppose, there is music that has a great calming effect (Debussy's Clair de Lune comes to mind.)

But is it all just menat to make us sleepy?


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

I don't think I've ever found classical music relaxing, if by relaxing, we mean entering into a quasi-hypnotic state such as we might experience soaking in a warm bath. The sort of music I'd associate with that kind of relaxed state would be something like New Age music - you know, the gently pleasant repetitive stuff whose very purpose is not to draw attention to itself.

But classical music is invariably too interesting for that, I think. It requires too much attention. But what classical music _can_ induce is a heightened state of consciousness that is meditative, in a sense - we can become so absorbed in the music as to be almost unaware of ourselves as a separate entity. That does have a deeply restorative effect, in my experience; but to call it 'relaxing' would be to miss its essential value I think.


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Ditto, Elgarian,
I'm afraid that classical music is often reduced to, nothing more than just relaxing ditties for a modern, stressful lifestyle. (eg, Classic FM)
Having said that I can think of several pieces which can be just used for a windown process. 
Full marks to the great masters who could envelop any emotional state through their music.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

The thing that is most annoying about people saying that classical music is 'relaxing' is that they make it sound as though it's elevator music - muzak. But most of those people's exposure to classical music is limited to the *Elvira Madigan* slow movement (which IS very beautiful of course) playing in the background when they are doing their shopping or Andrea Bocelli singing an easy listening pop song that they think of as opera because they hear violins instead of guitars in the background.


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## Isola (Mar 26, 2008)

If you can call blood boiling, heart-wrenching, goose-bumping "relaxing"! 



Elgarian said:


> But classical music is invariably too interesting for that, I think. It requires too much attention. But what classical music _can_ induce is a heightened state of consciousness that is meditative, in a sense - we can become so absorbed in the music as to be almost unaware of ourselves as a separate entity. That does have a deeply restorative effect, in my experience; but to call it 'relaxing' would be to miss its essential value I think.


Well said Elgarian, as always. 



jhar26 said:


> The thing that is most annoying about people saying that classical music is 'relaxing' is that they make it sound as though it's elevator music - muzak. But most of those people's exposure to classical music is limited to the *Elvira Madigan* slow movement (which IS very beautiful of course) playing in the background when they are doing their shopping or Andrea Bocelli singing an easy listening pop song that they think of as opera because they hear violins instead of guitars in the background.


Indeed.


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## Mark Harwood (Mar 5, 2007)

I'll not disagree with a thing that's been posted so far.
Three years ago I had what used to be called a nervous breakdown. Music had always been a major part of my life, but for some months I completely stopped playing but began instead to listen, really listen, to Classical guitar music. Having an anxiety disorder I found it very healing to pay attention to something better, deeper, more artfully executed. Perhaps "relaxing" is not quite the word; "comforting" and "uplifting" come closer. Sometimes a solo guitar would do it, or a duet; at other times, a concerto; but on a variety of levels, from mere diversion, through admiration, to musings on how joy is shared through art, this music helped me through the days and continues to do so.
So "Thanks" to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaquin Rodrigo, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Fernando Sor, amongst many others, and the players who make the music live, too many to mention.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Elgarians comments hit the mark so well.

Well-crafted classical music is too well conceived to be merely "relaxing." It is such a profound art form; in many cases, it should act as a stimulant, not as a narcotic!

Such great comments on this thread. I think classical music is "elevator" music to many people...something played in the shopping mall to add a calming atmosphere. Is that all it's for...to be heard...but not listened to? Merely to "smooth out" you shopping experience?

By the way, I purposefully listen to the great composers not to be relaxed, but to be emotionally riled. For example, yesterday I enjoyed Andre Cluyten's fiery performance of Beethoven 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic. This performance always keeps me on the edge of my seat with utter awe. God knows this landmark of western artistic achievement has been played over shopping mall loud speakers at some point, to "relax" the over-stressed shoppers. What a shame.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

jhar26 said:


> The thing that is most annoying about people saying that classical music is 'relaxing' is that they make it sound as though it's elevator music - muzak. But most of those people's exposure to classical music is limited to the *Elvira Madigan* slow movement (which IS very beautiful of course) playing in the background when they are doing their shopping or Andrea Bocelli singing an easy listening pop song that they think of as opera because they hear violins instead of guitars in the background.


I'm trying to decide whether there's any reason why people _shouldn't _treat classical music like that (even if it's not the ersatz type that you mention) - if that's what they want to do with it. Obviously if someone chooses to treat it purely as musical wallpaper then they're missing a great deal (perhaps even the whole point, almost), but that is their choice. If people want to buy classical CDs in order to use them in that way, then I have no right to say they shouldn't. If I think about my own 'use' of my CD collection, it varies along a continuous spectrum with 'total concentration' at one end, and 'little and sporadic attention' at the other. I certainly sometimes play _Manon_ (say) because I want to create a _Manon_-flavoured _ambience_ while I'm doing something else, and I don't feel guilty about that. I suppose those are the times when the music is more 'relaxing' - I mean, in the spirit of Tapkaara's post. However, I need to know the music pretty well _already_ in order to use it in that way, so that I can switch in and out of attention, as it were.

One of the chief difficulties with the use of classical music in public, as an intended soporific for shoppers or something, is that the overkill makes it difficult to listen to that particular music again with the attention one would like. But this problem has been around in various forms for a long time. There was a period when images of Monet waterlilies were so prolific - on tea towels, stationery, place mats, etc - that it became almost impossible to see the paintings for the great works that they are.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Elgarian said:


> I'm trying to decide whether there's any reason why people _shouldn't _treat classical music like that (even if it's not the ersatz type that you mention) - if that's what they want to do with it. Obviously if someone chooses to treat it purely as musical wallpaper then they're missing a great deal (perhaps even the whole point, almost), but that is their choice.


Sure, but I'm only arguing that this manner in which they experience the music makes them think of it as 'merely' relaxing - not that they don't have the right to do so. It's their own loss after all. But I think that many of these people that we're talking about - those who aren't really interested - know very little about classical music anyway. They only play music of a certain kind in shopping malls. I doubt that these people would say that classical music is relaxing if they were exposed to some *Elektra* or *Le Sacre du Printemps* in the elevator. As it is many of them probably don't even know that such music exists.


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## purple99 (Apr 8, 2008)

I live in an inner London neighbourhood with the usual problems -- unemployment, poor housing, bad schools, illegal drug sales/consumption, gun crime etc. At the local underground station they always play classical music. The manager claims it has a calming effect. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Indeed, there’s a certain attraction in exposing local criminals to more classical music, say compulsory ballet. Why not get the local crack boys up on their toes, ideally wearing pink leotards? They’d find it more humilating than a chain gang and a few, just a few, might swap careers.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

jhar26 said:


> Sure, but I'm only arguing that this manner in which they experience the music makes them think of it as 'merely' relaxing - not that they don't have the right to do so.


Just want to confirm that I was aware of the spirit in which you were saying it. I wasn't actually arguing the point, just thinking aloud really. One of those "How do I know what I think till I see what I say?" affairs.

I think you've hit the point when you speak of those who are 'not really interested'. That's the difference, isn't it? It's a matter of whether the music is there just to fill a silent space pleasantly, or whether it's an urgent, vital presence (and even the gentlest of classical music can be an urgent, vital presence, don't you think?)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Due only to a difference in recording preferences, I think classical might be considered more relaxing than say a hard rock or even a pop recording. You might play both at the same volume, but the hard rock is compressed and probably uses the entire frequency spectrum throughout almost 100% of its length, but the classical recording may have a lot more contrasts and subtleties and may seem more subdued at least part of the time.

Or to use a metaphor - a fine oil pastel may have fantastic contrasts and drama within its own context, but however great or even disturbing it is, it will be out-garished (if that's a word) by a black light poster if the two were hanging side by side.

So I guess I'm trying to say - anyone finding classical always more relaxing is taking it out of context.


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## Ciel_Rouge (May 16, 2008)

In mass culture everything has to be dumbed down, regardless whether books, music or visual arts. For some people, going to a mall is a kind of a ritual (something performed regularly in a specific way at a specific time) and putting classical in there is another occasion for me to have a laugh at the superficial "plastic mass culture" and what kind of damage it can do to the perception of real art.

In my view the basic mistake here is the misconception spread by the "media" that ALL of classical is "soft". It isn't, by all means none of it is. It is neither soft in sound nor in substance. The pieces closest to "relaxation" will HYPNOTIZE you. The pieces closer to "stimulation" will ROCK YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE WORLD. That's how it works - to my mind.

Making classical music into something you "use" like a toothbrush by publishing records like "Bedside Classical" or "Classical to Make You Relax" or "Classical for a Romantic Dinner" is just wrong and most derogatory. Again - dumbing everything down. That is NOT what classical is about.


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## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

It's really quite simple, in my opinion. Nowadays, music is "by default" only supposed to serve some auxiliary purpose: perhaps as accompaniment to some sociopolitical message, or to dance to, or even just "pleasant background noise."

When you share that view of music, you aren't going to concentrate on what you're hearing--you aren't going to just *listen* to it. Perhaps it's on the radio in the store/in the car or background music in a film. Usually people make the "relaxing" comment about orchestral music, and when you aren't actually *listening* to orchestral music, you are only going to judge it superficially. "It doesn't have a mirror-shattering bass beat, a blaring distorted electric guitar, or provocative lyrics... must be relaxing!" Because you see, those are the things that don't require attention to notice--they reach out and force you to notice whether you want to or not, which is not a relaxing experience.

As has been stated earlier in the thread, that's not the worst thing in the world. But it is missing the point


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## Mark Harwood (Mar 5, 2007)

Here's another angle. 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111182904.htm


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

What was the purpose of the composer??? I mean, if it's Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn... then it's calming. But Sibelius' Tapiola or Mahler's Second, anything but. That's my short and quick response...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Mark Harwood said:


> Here's another angle.
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111182904.htm


I feel vindicated! Music is the best medicine then, not laughter.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Some very astute comments in this thread!

Quite honestly, I listen to classical to get excited...not to have "soothing sounds" in the background as I sit at home, clutching a mug of cocoa, with aroma therpy candles going to "unwind" and smooth out my hectic work day. Unfortunately, in the monds of many, that's all classical amount to...something to remain in the background. And it's soothing!

Sorry, Beethoven's 9th isn't soothing. "Mars" from Holst's The Planets ins not soothing. Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto is not soothing. Yes, it is classical, but this is music that is meant to make your ears stand up...as well as the hair on the back of your neck. You simply cannot (or should not) relax to music like this.

That is not to say, however, that music cannot be relaxing, even if you give it your full attention and respect. I generally find the piano works of Enrique Granados to be very relaxing, though I do take the time to listen...it is not just in the background. The music is good, it's mellow and it sends me to a place of calm and contentment. And there is nothing wrong with that. But his music is also a work of art that should be appreciated as such, not just aural wallpaper.


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

Depends whether the piece of music is relaxing or not!


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