Mozart in the Morning

There have been a number of studies done on the relationship between listening to Mozart's music and learning ability. I first one I remember compared students who had and had not listened to Mozart's music taking a math test. Those who listened scored consistently higher on the test than those who had not.



Then for awhile there were CDs produced for young children and babies to listen to which were supposed to enable advanced skills and produce man-made geniuses. And shortly thereafter came a raft of studies disproving the theory that listening to Mozart music made some alteration in the brain's ability to process information.



Well, whether its true or not, I like hearing classical music, symphonic music, and have not heard any Mozart in awhile. Actually not much since my college days at Skidmore. I rather miss Mozart. I decided that I would find whatever CDs I have of Mozart's music and listen to it on my walk to work in the mornings.



I've been doing that when I can. Besides the joy of hearing his symphonies and some piano music, it affects the pace at which I walk. In the morning I can zip along sometimes at the eighth beat pace easily. Coming home is quite another story. I am lucky to keep up at the quarter note, dropping all the way to half note on days when I am beat.



It made me speculate whether there is additional benefit to chemo survivors who hear Mozart's music. There is a healing component to music in general. Especially if its a genre the listener prefers. I was amazed at the research that has been done on the effect of music during surgery, how it enables the doctors to think more clearly and react to emergencies more swiftly, how it reduces blood pressure, reduces the need for pain medication, etc.



We should have music in all our medical facilities based on the research, and I heartily agree. It further supports my thesis that Jairus House provide music to cancer patients. But is there a benefit on chemobrain behavior? I am not set up to investigate that myself, and so far I have not found any research that is specific to Mozart's music.



However, I am willing to give it a whirl on myself. Several days I noticed that I managed to wend my way further down my task list after hearing Mozart in the morning than on days when I didn't listen. Discounting the gazillion other impacting factors, of course.



Beyond that, I am curious to know if the particular performance makes a difference. I am suspecting that it does. I know there are recordings of works that I love which do not do the work justice, and others that make more of a piece than I had experienced before.



So here's the request:



Please send me a list of your favorite recordings of Mozart symphonies. Tell me conductor/orchestra/year info and label info if you have it. I will experiment by listening to different interpretations of the same symphony and see if it hits me in different ways.



Now, I realize this may seem silly to you, or inconsequential. But it will be important to those cancer patients and survivors that get exposed to Mozart music through Jairus House. So play along if you will and send me your list.



I'll let you know what I discover! Thanks.