# Tchaikovsky and sleep disorders



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Jim Svejda on KUSC is right now playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, _Winter Dreams_. In a rather lengthy introduction, he claimed that Tchaikovsky, upset by recent reviews, was suffering from insomnia when he wrote it. It was unfortunate, commented Svejda, that neither Philip Glass nor Ludovico Einaudi was around to relieve his insomnia.

Is Mr. S being a bit unfair? What say ye? Could Glass and Einaudi have provided the same service to Tchaikovsky that Bach did to Count Keyserling?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Jim Svejda on KUSC is right now playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, _Winter Dreams_. In a rather lengthy introduction, he claimed that Tchaikovsky, upset by recent reviews, was suffering from insomnia when he wrote it. It was unfortunate, commented Svejda, that neither Philip Glass nor Ludovico Einaudi was around to relieve his insomnia.
> 
> Is Mr. S being a bit unfair? What say ye? Could Glass and Einaudi have provided the same service to Tchaikovsky that Bach did to Count Keyserling?


Not unfair, just the wrong prescription, although how he confused emetics with soporifics is beyond me.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Yes, if they don't give me a headache first.

I was listening btw.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

As a sleep aid Glass would more likely irritate the hell out of me and thereby wake me up. I like some of his earlier music but it is all somewhat manic - both in its restlessness and its tendency to make much of slender ideas.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Svedja is a rather recent addition to the Record Reviewing staff at Fanfare Magazine. He does seem to be a master of hyperbole


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I can not sleep with any kind of music. I can sleep with the lights turn on, with noises, etc. but not with music. Instinctively I can't stop to follow the music. This is something happened to me many years ago, because I'm listening music the whole day long. So, when I have to go to sleep I need no more of music... :lol:


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## rodrigaj (Dec 11, 2016)

If my body is ready for sleep, but my brain isn't, I find _active_ listening to classical music is the key that turns off the brain.

Many years ago I was assaulted (punched in the mouth) by a student in a hallway at a school that I taught in. Consequently, my doctor prescribed alprazolam in order that I could sleep at night. My brain, thinking about the incident, would not shut down.

I always liked classical music but never really actively listened to it. I began to actively listen and found that it was as effective, if not more so, than alprazolam.

I believe this was exactly what Count Keyserling had discovered, only he did not have the modern playback comforts we have.

The downside to this phenomenon is that if my body is tired, active listening always triggers the sleep response, and that can be embarrassing during live performances.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Well, if Tchaikovsky had slept better , we would have been the losers, as the Winter Dreams Symphony is one of my favorite Tchaikovsky works


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Obviously ambient drone music is far more suitable for this purpose.
I like a lot of ambient music, as background music, for active listening, or somewhere in between. In the past it has helped me sleep as well. No doubt, some of it would be called new age drivel by many. 

But Einaudi... no, that's worse.  You see, ambient music is "just" ambient music, it doesn't try to be anything else, or more. Einaudi on the other hand, his music doesn't work from any perspective: neither as engaging, melodic music nor as background, ambient music. It's simply terrible.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

KenOC said:


> Is Mr. S being a bit unfair? What say ye? Could Glass and Einaudi have provided the same service to Tchaikovsky that Bach did to Count Keyserling?


Well, I think he's speaking with his tongue in his cheek. But if Tchai really wanted to sleep, he needed to get a choir outside his bedchamber singing English choral music like John Tavener and William Cornish. Those soaring voices of the trebles have a way of calming me down and making me sleepy but in a good way.


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## Westindieman (Nov 8, 2018)

Triplets said:


> Well, if Tchaikovsky had slept better , we would have been the losers, as the Winter Dreams Symphony is one of my favorite Tchaikovsky works


Just cant relate to it or 2nd or 3rd no matter how many times I listen. I love the other 3 though.


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