DOES MOZART’S MUSIC HELP TO IMPROVE THE BRAIN

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A term paper

Presented to

Mrs. Catalina B. Santiago

English Department

Adventist University of the Philippines

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Course

Communication Arts II

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By

Matthew Kim P. Ybañez

September 2014

REDUCING SIBLING RIVALRY

_____________

A term paper

Presented to

Mrs. Catalina B. Santiago

English Department

Adventist University of the Philippines

_____________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Course

Communication Arts II

_____________

By

Orpha Jef Silvestre

September 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………….1

II. HISTORY …………………………………………………………………………….1

III. BIOGRAPHY OF MOZART ………………………………………………………..1 A. Birthplace and Birthday…………………………………………………………...1 B. Family Background ……………………………………………………………….1 C. Childhood …………………………………………………………………………1 D. Years of Travel ……………………………………………………………………2 F. Death ………………………………………………………………………………3

IV. WORKS………………………………………………………………………………3 A. Musical Pieces …………………………………………………………………….3 B. Major Works …………………………………………………………………….. 3 1. Le nozze di Figaro ……………………………………………………………3 2. Don Giovanni………………………………………………………………... 3 3. Sonata in D for two pianos …………………………………………………...4

V. MOZART EFFECT …………………………………………………………………...5 A. on students………………………………………………………………………….5 1. Studies………………………………………………………………………….5 2. Findings………………………………………………………………………...5 B. on Infants and Children ……………………………………………………………5 C. on Disabled Person (Epilepsy) …………………………………………………….6

VI. Illustration ……………………………………………………………………………6

VII. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………...…...6

References Cited

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OUTLINE

DOES MOZART’S MUSIC HELPS TO IMPROVE THE BRAIN?

I. INTRODUCTION

II. HISTORY

III. BIOGRAPHY OF MOZART A. Birthplace and Birthday B. Family Background C. Childhood D. Years of Travel F. Death

IV. WORKS A. Musical Pieces B. Major Works 1. Le nozze di Figaro 2. Don Giovanni 3. Sonata in D for two pianos

V. MOZART EFFECT A. on students 1. Studies 2. Findings B. on Infants and Children C. on Disabled Person (Epilepsy)

VI. Illustration

VII. Conclusion

References Cited

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DOES MOZART’S MUSIC HELPS TO IMPROVE THE BRAIN?

I. INTRODUCTION

As humans, we all share one unique feature – the ability to produce and enjoy music. All people know what is music because its common. More than 165, 000 years ago our ancestors have already invented percussion instruments. With these ancient roots, music plays a very important part in our lives today. It affects our emotions and activates certain brain areas, the same centers of the brain for food and drug addictions. It seems that our knowledge for music is inborn.

Music helps us to improve our performance. It improves assembly line performance, bolster morale, relieves fatigue and increase output. For many years of investigations haved noted the positive effect of listening to music on an individual’s performance. In an observational study, Davidson and Powell observed that background “easy listening” music improved fifth grades’ performances of everyday tasks. According to Gosta Giomi (2003:3), “children who received piano keyboard instruction scored significantly higher on spatial-temp-oral test did children who received computer lessons or no lessons” and Antrim found that music influenced worker morale and production. Furthermore, Music has many advantages in different areas, it is highly possible that it could impact on the learning environment.

The “Mozart Effect: is a myth that popped up after a research was done studying the effect of Mozart’s music on brain power. Once the news got out, the data was twisted to say that it increase the listener’s IQ. The idea was marketed, and many people started to buy into the phenomenon. The reason that people seemed to think that this worked because the music actually “warmed” up the brain, causing it to think quicker for a brief period. The Mozart Effect is use in advertising.

The main purpose of this study is to know who is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We will also learn what is the affect of Mozart’s Music in Students, Infants and Disable Person.

II. HISTORY

The phrase “Mozart Effect” was coined in 1991, but it is a two years in the Journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest which they found that college students who exposed to the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata in D major for two Pianos performed better on a spatial reasoning test that involved mentally unfolding piece of paper. It is one of those ideas that feels plausible. Mozart was a greatest composer, his music is complex and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it, a little of that intelligence might rub off on us.

Some studies didn’t succeed to replicate the result. But other work received widespread media attention and gave rise to a pop-psy-chology trend known as the “Mozart Effect”. Dozens of Mozart compilation CDs that promise to enhance intelligence are now on the market, with titles such as Mozart for Mommies and Daddies Jumpstart Your Newborn’s IQ. The claims have had social policy repercussions. According to Alix Spiegel (2013, Hill 2)

"Americans believe in self improvements but also quick fixes. A particular group of people who latched on to this new idea were parents of infants and young children"

Behind much of tis enterprise is a U.S musician named Don Campbell, who is only a musician , but who quickly trademarked the “Mozart Effect” and has written two best-selling books on the subject and compiled more than a dozen CDs. According to Don Campbell (2006,45)

“In a Instant, music can uplift our soul it awakens within us the spirit of prayer, compassion and love. It clears our minds and has been known to make us smarter”.

Indeed, the book, along with subsequent speaking engagements, CDs, tapes, and a well orchestrate media blitz, has created the impression that listening to the music of Mozart will magically ”increase verbal emotional and spatial intelligence, improve concentration and memory, enhance right-brain creative processes and strengthen intuitive thinking skills,” as the promotion for one of the many Mozart Effect CDs promises.

While Campbell’s book and the unfortunate mass of commercially motivated hyperbole it has generated are generally aimed at an unsophisticated audience, there is serious research that suggests that music does have an impact on cognitive ability.

III. BIOGRAPHY OF MOZART

A. Birthday and Birthplace Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, a city then situated within the

territory of Austria. Salzburg was the seal of an archbishopric, one of the numerous quasi-independent political units of the German Empire, it had a long musical tradition and in Mozart was belong from early youth of a townsman and cosmopolitan.

B. Family Background

Mozart was the 7th child of Leopold Mozart and (his wife) Anna Maria. Mozart and his sister was the only two to survive infancy. Leopold Mozart – a talented violinist, and the author of a successful treatise on violin technique – played in the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg one of the most powerful prelates in Austria.

Mozart’s relationship with his father was very close. Leopold Mozart has been vilified as the archetypal domineering father, dragging his prodigiously talented son around the courts of Europe at an early age, not only subjecting him to the rigors of prolonged travel, but forcing him to display his skills on the keyboard to any bored aristocrat who would pay money to listen then hectoring him when he grew older, trying to obstruct him from leaving a miserable existence in Salzburg for the excitements of Vienna, and interfering in his personal life.

In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that Leopold was motivated by anything other than love and solitude for his son. The Mozart family was very close and their voluminous correspondence is full of protestations of affection. Leopold’s only concern was for Wolfgang wellbeing and success.

C. Childhood and Early YouthMozart was born with incredible gifts. He had a highly developed ear, or the

ability to hear and reproduce sounds exactly. He could identify intervals, reproduce melodies after a single hearing, and identify when a note was out of pitch by a little as a quarter of a tone. These talents manifested themselves when he was only 3. He quickly began to master the clavichord and soon after, the violin. His talents for both instruments seemed to come as much from an innate sense of how to play them as from any instruction from his father. According to Kelly Creagh (2010: __)

“Shed never seen a boy with hands like that with long delicate fingers, beautiful but still masculine, His fing- ernails were long too, almost crystalline tapered to poi- nts. They were the kinds of hands you'd expect to see underlace cuffs, like Mozart or something"

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The first period may be considered Mozart’s apprentice and journeyman years. During all this time he was under the tutelage of his father-completely as far as practical affairs were concerned, and to a considerable extent also in musical matters.

Wolfgang was not the only talented child in the Mozart household. His elder sister, Maria Anna was a prodigy on the keyboards. Both children were not only extraordinary talented musically but, as Leopold recognized, ready to be a larger audience outside of Salzburg. At this time, musicians could travel from court to court, seeking patronage and favor from the nobility. Leopold knew that a pair of talented child virtuosi would certainly attract attention.

D. Years of Travel

To trace the Mozart’s travels over the years from when Wolfgang was 6 to his early adolescence would be to make a crisscross map of the major European capitals of art and culture. They made a great impression on the Viennese court. They made a great impression on the Viennese court. It was here that Wolfgang performed hid first “tricks” such as playing with one finger and with the keyboard covered.

Between 1763 and 1765, the Mozarts embarked on a longer trip that eventually took them to the court of Versailles and, in April 1764 to London. The Mozarts made many trips between 1765 and 1769 returning home as fevers plagued the young children or simple exhaustion called for the rest.

The next important outing began in December 1769, a complete tour of Italy. Italy was the musical capital of the world at this time, and it was important for the young Mozarts to hear and be heard by the leading composers of their day. They visited all of the major Italian cities: Mantua, Cremona, Milan, Bologna, Rome, Florence, and Naples. The young Mozart had ample opportunity to display his talents.

On July 10, 1770, Mozart was admitted as a compositore (composer) into the Bologna Philharmonic Academy, despite the fact that the rules forbad anyone younger than 20 years old to become a member.

At the age of 21 in 1777. Mozart embarked on a tour of Europe. His mother accompanied him, but she was to die during the trip. They passed through Munich and made an important stop in Mannheim, Mozart was to learn much about the craftsmanship of modern symphonic writing by hearing this orchestra and encountering many of its talented musicians.

Mozart returned to Salzburg to find little had changed at home. The archbishop continued to treat him poorly. In 1781, at the age of 25, Mozart made his final break with the archbishop refused to allow Mozart to perform publically. He obtained inexpensive lodgings with the family of his old sweetheart and met and fell in love with her sister,

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Contanze. They were married in 1782, despite Leopold Mozart’s opposition to the match. Mozart’s marriage marked the final break with his father, the archbishop, and his past.

In 1781, another important event occurred, Mozart met Haydn then 49 yrs. Old. They were to meet again four years later. The two composers had a profound impact on each other. Mozart had modeled many of his symphonies on Haydn’s early works, learning how to structure a symphony from the older composers. According to Brochard, Dufour, and Despres (2006:234)

“Reading a musical score is far less linear than reading a text and relies more on processing information on the vertical axis”

F. Death

In his last years, war and recession interrupted Viennese concert life and medical problems plagued his wife, Constanze. He was forced to borrow from friends, giving rise to the myth of his poverty. Had he lived just a few more years, however, he almost certainly would have followed his friend Haydn to lucrative London. His music was already popular across Europe, and Mozart might well have emerged as its pre-eminent composers. When he died, he was cast into a common grave not because he was poor, but because every commoner, by imperial decree, got the same treatment. R. Larry Todd and Peter Williams states that “But admittedly a phenomenon like Mozart will always remain miracle that cannot be explained further” (1991, xiii)

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IV. WORKS

A. Musical Pieces

Mozart was an astonishingly productive composer. In 35 short years, he wrote more than 600 works enough music to fill nearly 200 CDs. nearly every year, Mozart wrote more music than the Beatles recorded in their entire career. He excelled in every leading musical form of his era, composing 41 symphonies, 27 piano concertos, 26 string quartets, 21 operas, 17 piano sonatas, 15 masses and a host of other pieces.

B. Major Works

1. Le Nozze di Figaro

Mozart’s two most famous operas in Italian were premiered in 1786 and 1787, when the composer was 30 and 31 years old, respectively. They are the Marriage of Figarro and Don Giovanni.

Count Almavia loves to flirt with women. He has his eyes on his wife’s maid, Susanna, who is engaged to Figaro, a valet. By threatening Susanna, the Count arranges to meet with her, but the clever maid informs the countess, who switches place with her. Thus, the count makes love with his own life, believing her to be the maid. In the meantime, Susanna, posing as the countess makes love with Figaro. When the Count catches them in the act, he becomes convinced his wife is unfaithful. The happy ending, of course, comes when Susanna and the Countess reveal their true identities.

2. Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is quite different from Figaro. Mozart did not label it as either a serious or comic opera, but rather chose the term drama giocosa (gay drama). The dramatic story of the life and loves of Don Juan is interspersed with many light touches, even though the story itself is tragic.

Don Juan is the mythical lover who could not help himself from seducing every and any woman in sight. In Mozart’s Don Giovanni, these seduction lead him to murder one of the Don’s rivals. Eventually, the murdered man’s statue speaks from the grave, vowing to avenge himself. The Don laughs at this story, but is surprised when the statue shows up to a lavish dinner. The Don is unrepentant and is swallowed up by a pit of fire for his crimes. In an epilogue that is sometimes omitted from the opera, the characters the Don has wronged happily celebrate his death in song. According to

“Rather than designating the choice between good and evil, my Father or designates the choice by which one choice by which one chooses good and evil or rules

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them out. Here the question is under what qualifications one will view all existence and personally live. That the person who chooses good or evil chooses the good is indeed true, but only later does this become manifest, for the esthetic is not evil but the indifferent.”

3. Sonata in D major for Two Pianos

The Sonata in D major is the last of the Six Sonatas K.279-284 that Mozart had in his luggage when he set off for Paris in September 1777. He had already successfully performed this music in Munich, Augsburg home. He gave the works particularly rich dynamics markings and also found unusual solutions concerning their formal aspect. According to Seth Horowitz (2013:4)

“Mozart’s music tends to be based on relatively simple repeated double phrases or three-part forms with simple interval structure and non-over lapping tempo. In addition, the music was written to be performed on analog instruments – in other words, it was to be played at tempos mana geable by human performers.”

V. MOZART EFFECT

A. On the Students

1. Study

Early experimentation on the effect of music on the brain was conducted in 1988, when neurobiologists Gordon Shaw, along with graduate students Xiadon Leng, first attempted to model brain activity on a computer at the University of California at Irvine. They found in simulations that the way nerve cells were connected to one another predisposed groups of cells to adopt certain specific firing patterns and rhythms. Shaw surmises that these patterns from the basic exchange of mental activity. Inquisitively, they decided to turn the output of their simulations into sounds instead of a conventional printout. To their surprise, the rhythmic patterns sounded somewhat familiar, with some of the characteristics of baroque, new age, or Eastern music. Shaw (2010:__) state that:

“If the brain activity can sounds like music, might it be possible to begin to understand the neural activity by working in reserve and observing how the brain responds to music? Might patterns in music somehow stimulate the brain by activating similar firing patterns of nerve clusters?”

He later joined two other researchers, Frances Rauscher and Katherine Ky, in creating the study that coined the term “Mozart effect”. In the Oct. 14, 1993 issue of “Nature” they published a short summary of the findings from their experiment. They assigned thirty six Cal-Irvine students to one of three groups, and offered the same “pretest” to each of the students. One group then listened to a selection by Mozart (Sonata in D major for two pianos). A second group listened to what was called a “relaxation tape”, and the third group was subjected to ten minutes of silence. All of the students were given the same test, which was designed to measure spatial IQ. The test is described as mentally unfolding a piece of paper is that has been unfolded paper shape from five examples. The students who listened to the Mozart Sonata averaged an 8 endash; 9 point increase in their IQ as compared to the average of the students who had listened to the relaxation tape or who had experienced silence. The increase in IQ of the Mozart group was transitory, lasting only about the time it took to take the test from ten to fifteen minutes. Schellenberg and Hallam (2005:234) states that:

“Positive benefits of music listening on cognitive abilities are most likely to be evident when the music is enjoyed by the listener”

Rausher, Shaw, and Key reproduced and augmented their original Mozart effect experiment in 1995, by dividing seventy-nine students into three groups. This time a work by the modern experimental composers Philip Glass was substituted for the relaxation tape, Again, the group that listened to the Mozart selection showed an increase in spatial IQ test scores. A further test showed that listening of other types of music did not have the same effect.

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2. Results

The experiment compared the performance of 44 college students who had just listened to the Mozart Piano Sonata against 39 students who had just listened to a period of silence. The two musical selections who had waited an equivalent time used the same performances used in the 1995 study. The subjects had training with this tasks in a prior session, consistent with the procedure used in the 1995 UCI study. On average, the students answer 10 of 16 items correctly in the experimental session, on average. According to Waterhouse (2006:235-236):

“Cognitive neuroscience research had discovered six processes that influence the establishment of long term procedural and declarative memory”

“There is no evidence, other than evidence for the Mo- zart effect, to suggest that significant cognitive skill improvement can take place without repetition of that skill, or excitement associated with the skill activity”

B. On infants and ChildrenChildren get plenty of benefits from music lessons. Learning to play instruments

can fuel their creativity and practicing can teach much - needed focus and discipline. and they pay-off, whether in learning a new song or just mastering a chord, often boosts self-esteem.

Whether music improves intelligence in children remains to be elucidated. However, a new area of research is not studying music in childhood, but music in the womb. At late gestational stage, the fetus can hear sound from outside the mother from these sounds, can become familiarize to her voice. After birth, the infants can group stimulated with random noise. Interestingly, the group stimulated with random noise performed even worse that the unstimulated group, suggesting it is music, and not random noise, which contributed to the improvement in spatial memory.

The effect of music reducing stress and anxiety is also present in pregnant mothers. Dr. Chung - Hey Chen (2011:__) states:

"Our study shows that listening to suitable music provides a simple, cast-effective and depression during pregnancy"

In a study conducted at the college of Nursing at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, the researchers recruited 236 pregnant women in their second or third trimester, all with similar backgrounds in occupation, class, education level, and marital happiness. Half were given CDs and listened to music for half an hour each day. They were given the choice of listening to classical music, nature sounds, Chinese children's rhymes and

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songs, Although both groups received the same routine prenatal care, mothers who listened to music had a lower level of stress anxiety scores even only two weeks.

C. On Epilepsy (Disabled Person)

A more impressive indication of a Mozart Effect is to be seen in Epilepsy. In 23 of 29 patients with focal discharge or bursts of generalized spike and wave complexes who listened to the Mozart piano Sonata K488 there was a significant decrease in epilepticform activity as shown by the electroencephalogram. Some individuals patients showed especially striking improvement. In one male, unconscious with status epilepticus, ictal patterns were present 62% of the time, whereas during exposure to Mozart's Music this value fell to 21% the fact that improvement took place even in a comatose patient demonstrates again that appreciation of music is not a necessary feature of the Mozart effect.

In Taiwan in 2011, 58 children with focal epilepsy listened to eight minutes of Mozart K448, once a day. They then had EEG test after one, two and six months. For 47 of the children, each EEG test showed a further decrease in epileptiform activity. According to Schellenberg (2003:286) states that:

"Positive transfer effects to nonmusical domains, such as language,mathematics, or spatial reasoning could be similarly unique for the individuals who take music lessons"

Also in Taiwan in 2011, 11 children with refractory (difficult to control) epilepsy were studied. most of the children had learning difficulties. The number of seizures they had in six months were counted. After this, they listened to Mozart K488, once a day before bed time for six months. During this time, their seizures were counted again. Of the 11 children, eight became seizure free, in the months they listened to the music.

VI. ILLUSTRATION

Researchers into the Mozart effect found that listening to a Mozart sonata can improve a specific kind of spatial intelligence for a short period of time. This type of intelligence, called Spatial Temporal, is illustrated by the test shown here. The idea is to imagine a piece of paper folded in a series of steps, an indicated by the dotted lines in the diagrams at right, and then cut with a scissors, as shown by the solid lines.

VII. CONCLUSION

The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can affect us physically and mentally. Some studies indicated that if we listen to Mozart’s music, we can become smart. Other studies have found no statistically significant “Mozart Effect”. It is unfortunate that the media and commercial ventures have taken the initial modest, unverified study and conjured up a pseudo-science which gave rise to, and which continues to promote, a full-blown industry

Music educators should be educated the people about what is the importance of music to us, nor exclude the possibility that they may be a link between listening to music and intelligence.

Mozart Effect has affected this country’s culture and science in a strong way. A small study was done and the press took it to the extreme. People started believing Mozart's music could pump up brain power like a dumbbell. According to Winner (2001:237)

“If the arts are given a role in our schools because the artscause academic improvement, then the arts will quickly lose their position if academicimprovement, then the arts will quickly the arts must be justified in terms of what the artscan teach than no other subject can teach”

Although findings of a Mozart effect may be of little educational value, the music instruction studies hold much more educational promise. Both sets of studies are of scientific importance because they suggest that music and spatial task performance share common elements and may be psychologically and neurologically related. We believe researchers should continue to search for links between music instruction and cognitive performance because disregarding these effects may over look a potentially important educational intervention.

REFERENCES CITED

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Gonzales, Melecio Jr., Glenn E. Smith IV, David W. Stockwell and Robert S. Horton (2003). The “Arousal Effect”: An Alternative Interpretation of the Mozart Effect: American Journal of Undergraduate research, Vol. 2 no. 2 pp 23-28.

Gumbel, Peter (Jan 16, 2006). The power of Mozart: Time Magazine, Paris.

Hammond, Claudia (Jan. 8, 2013). Does Listening to Mozart really boost your brain power? Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/ 20130107-can-mozart-boost-brainpower.

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Lai, Rosalind (May 2011). Wagner for the Womb. Neuro 306 Principles of Neural Development, INC.

Lerch, Donna and Dr, Thomas Anderson (2000). The Mozart Effect: A Closer look. Retrieved from: http://lrs.ed.uiucedu/students/lerch/edsy/mozart-effect.html.

Maguire, Melissa (Aug. 2012). The Mozart Effect and Epilepsy Action: retrieved by: htpp://www.epilepsy.org.uk.

Moravesik, Andrew (Jan30,2006). Rethinking Mozart, Newsweek.

Rausher, Frances H. (2006). The Mozart Effect: Music Listening is not music instruction. Educational Psychologist, 41 (4), 233-238: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, INC.

Reuell, Peter (2014). Muting the Mozart effect. The President and Fellows of Harvard College: Harvard University.