![]() ![]() Today, a whole industry seems to have been built on the premise that classical music is “relaxing” and it continues to prove a great marketing tool for record labels and some radio stations (you know which one I mean….) British-German contemporary composer Max Richter has written an entire work (lasting over 8 hours) based around the neuroscience of sleep. ![]() Music can provide a great comfort and a place of retreat or escapism, and from the Orpheus legend onwards, music has been praised for its ability to soothe: Bach may have written his Goldberg Variations to ease insomnia, and Haydn wanted his music to ‘give rest to the careworn’. Calm, soothing and (usually) slow music has been proven to alleviate stress, lower heart rate and blood pressure, and ease depression. There are any number of articles and scientific studies out there vaunting the therapeutic benefits of listening to music. – Margherita Taylor, Classic FM presenter Personally I’d rather set my hair on fire and put it out with a hammer than listen to the dreadful ‘Ashokan Farewell’, ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ or ALW’s ‘Pie Jesu’……Īnything by Einaudi transports me to another world, and I can day dream to my heart’s content Mind you, since much of what is played on ClassicFM includes a lot of “meandering ersatz-symphonic film music and post-minimalist mush”, it’s perhaps not surprising that Mr James finds this kind of music “relaxing”. Does he include the ‘Rite of Spring’ in this, Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’, or Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ symphony? Or maybe he’d prefer to chill out to Penderecki’s ‘Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima’, which opens with shrieking strings, redolent of fingernails being dragged across a blackboard…… Mr James’s comment suggests he is the victim of “restricted listening”, and that he has only experienced music which is serene, slow, soothing, calm, contemplative…. Alex James, formerly of the pop band Blur and one of the station’s presenters, declares “ I find all classical music relaxing to be honest“. 1 by Satie, the slow movement of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto and Einaudi’s ‘Berlin’. Over on ClassicFM, great swathes of its programming and website are devoted to “relaxing classics” and “smooth classics”: “ the most relaxing music ever composed” states the station of a list of works including Debussy’s Claire de Lune, Gymnopedie No. “Relaxing” is not a description I’d immediately associate with this piece – it’s far too trite for such a sophisticated work (its sophistication lies in its absolute simplicity and the austere rigour applied to its construction) and the word undermines the power of this music. “If you ever need just eight or nine minutes to calm down, relax, switch off from the world, this is the piece you want to do it to….” says pianist James Rhodes in his introduction to the piece in an episode of Saturday Classics on BBC Radio Three. ![]() Is this the most relaxing piece of classical music? asks Radio Three of Arvo Pärt’s contemplative and spiritual ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |