“Music has the power to change evil into good, and that good induces to harm”.
Shakespeare
A modern man lives in a more and more tightened information stream. It is so diverse that we are unable to adopt and recognize everything. And there are few people who thinks of the quality of informational stream, of its influence on our way of thinking, psychological and physical state.
Music is also a part of informational stream. There is no matter what is the listener’s reaction on music, it will undoubtedly affect on a people’s psych. Ancient philosophers used to claim that music has creation and destruction features. It can make us feel loads of emotional experiences, which keep for a long time after the listening. Though, it is well-known that an emotional state provokes consequent actions, choices and decisions.
Some historical facts claim that music is able to make true miracles.
For example, in the 16th century the population of a few provinces in Italy was seized with an extraordinary psychical epidemic. Thousands of people lapsed into a deep numbness, they stopped dead, gave up eating and drinking. From such a numb state only special dancing music could help ill people out. That music was very slow at the beginning and then accelerated gradually. Tarantella that is so popular all over the world was descended from it.
In Middle Ages during plague epidemic in cities and towns they used to ring the bell continuously. Scientists determined that the intense activity of germs after bell ringing and spiritual music decreases by forty per cent. The concept to cure with the help of music was conceived long before the modern civilization origin. It is mentioned in the Old Testament (when David had cured Israelitish tsar Saul of deep melancholy by his playing the psaltery.)
Doctors in Ancient Egypt advised to listen to choir singing to those who suffered from insomnia. Arabian physician Avicenna a thousand years ago treated people with music for neural and mental diseases. Pythagoras appealed for listening to music in educational process. He reckoned that music could harmonize mental illnesses.
Russian famous scientists such as I. Sechenov, S. Botkin, I. Pavlov had been saying about extraordinary capacity of melodious sounds to evoke pleasant emotions, to increase cerebral cortex activity, to amend metabolism, to incite breathe and circulation of the blood.
It’s obvious that not any kind of music is harmless, even more so not any kind of music has the ability to cure. A great number of investigations prove a harmful effect of rock music on our body. Russian academician Natalia Behtereva, a director of the first-rate Russian Institute od Experimental Medicine that has been studying the work of the highest neural system for many years. They claim that rock music destroys our brains.
Negative information that is laid in lyrics of rock music has a direct distractive effect on human organism by its loud sounds. Such kind of music is characterized by its abundance of high and low audio frequencies. Such interchange together with loudness damages the brain greatly. David Elkin, a scientist and a doctor, once brought an experiment that consequently helped him to prove that strident loud music provokes the folding of the protein. At a rock concert he had put a raw egg in front of a loudspeaker. By the end of the concert the egg happened to be soft-boiled just in three hours.
Music appeared “by the shamanic fires” in order to treat mental disharmonies. It really holds a strong therapeutic potential when listening to the “right” kind of music.
What is the right kind music?
It is established that classical music of composers of previous centuries has a wholesome influence on human organism.
Beethoven’s music is believed to be from God. His main works were written whe he was already deaf. Mozart’s “Requem” was used for expulsion of diseases, and music by Bach, Handel, Brahms helps to become self-disciplined, to clear mind from false and superficial ideas. Classical music boosts people’s memory. Such a conclusion was made by researchers from the university in Chieti in Italy. They had founded the so-called “Vivaldi effect”, and proved that a regular listening to his famous symphony composing “The Four Seasons” enhances the quality of memory of elderly people.
American scientist John Campbell in his book “Mozart effect” wrote the results of his research he had made for twenty years. The result had shown that Mozart’s music has a healthful impact on health and human mental abilities.
In 1953 ISO (International Organization for Standardization) set A=440Hz as the International Concert pitch.
Here is a question, has it always been so? NO!
Even in ancient Greece in times of Platon, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pythagoras there was a pitch A=432 HZ. Archaic Egyptian instruments, that were discovered in present times, were adjusted for A=432Hz. Antonio Stradivari created his masterpieces right in such tuning.
The frequency A=432Hz is a tuning that mathematically is the closest to Universe. Such frequency affects human organism in a way that all cells begin to vibrate in harmony with the outer world. A=432Hz was considered to be important only in ancient times. That’s what is written about it: “The length of one side of pyramid Cheops is 432 of “standard ground unit” (measure that was used by ancient Indians Toltecs and according to myths they had got it from Gods). The main complex of pyramids in Teotihuacan in Mexico has a foundation of 864 of standard grounds units (it is 432 multiplied by 2). Every side of the pyramid of Sun is equal to 216 standard ground units (a half of 432).”
When did 440Hz appear and why exactly it replaced an analogous note A=432Hz?
After all a musical tuning with 440Hz doesn’t harmonize in any rate and doesn’t coincide with space movement, rhythm or natural vibrations.
The first attempt to change waves fundamentally was hold in 1884, but owing to Giuseppe Verdi it has kept its former structure (after that it was named as “Verdi’s A”.
Later in 1910 J.K. Digen, who served in Naval Forces in the USA, convinced American Federation of Musicians to accept 440Hz as the Standard Universal pitch for orchestra and musical bands. He was a trustworthy scientist in some circles, that why his opinion was fundamental in musical acoustics studying. J.K. Digen planned military tinkling for A=440 HZ that was used for propaganda news during the World War II.
Also, shortly before World War II in 1936, Nazi propaganda minister and a secret chief in mass control, P. J. Goebbels, reconsidered the standard of 440Hz. Such frequency has the strongest effect on human mind and is suitable for a great number of people control. If the person’s body is deprived of natural setup and the natural pitch is toned a little higher than the norm, a brain gets a regular annoyance. Besides, people stop their development that results into a great number of mental deviations, a person becomes unsociable and so it’s easier to control him. That was the major reason why Nazi accepted a new pitch of “A”.
In about 1940, the USA authorities set a tuning of 440Hz all over the world, and finally, in 1953 it was proved by ISO-standard. Although, even nowadays 440Hz are unnatural tuning standard. Such kind of music makes a conflict with human energetical centres that results into dissonance of person’s consciousness. Try to compare music with 432Hz and 440Hz. That is just 8Hz, but it’s a huge difference! Music with frequency of 432Hz is rather calm, and triggers harmony and the feeling of balance.
It is necessary to realize that any song or musical work reflects the state of its composer, it’s like a musical narration of his emotional state. The works that were created in a deep depression, indignation or with joy and love, they record this information forever and bear it to the listener.
Leo Tolstoy was keen on music, nevertheless, he was careful because it certainly has an influence on people’s consciousness , and it is extremely tiny so that it is impossible to predict the results.
Be careful with choosing of music, because you are not aware of the aim of its creation and what can happen to you after listening to it.
OM!
The material was prepared and adapted by yoga instructor Nadejda Shishkanova.