Tag Archives: therapeutical

The Chosen One: Mozart

Convinced about the importance of hearing and the possibilities of reeducating this ability, Tomatis developed a method which, with the aid of electronic equipment, the Gregorian Chant and the music of Mozart, determined the muscles of the middle ear to perform an osteo-muscular exercise meant to give the ear its natural ability of optimal hearing.

Tomatis considered that the Gregorian Chant invigorated the subject and facilitated his connection with his inner ego. The argument behind his claim is the fact that the rhythm of this music matches the rhythm of a beating heart and the breathing pace of a person who is resting. Moreover, it provides a great load of cortical energy due to its richness in high frequencies.

The choice of Mozart and his music out of all the great composers was not made at random. At the beginning of his studies, Tomatis used different types of music in various Eastern and Western cities, and realized that the only music that worked on everybody was that composed by Mozart. Therefore, he started to analyze the reason why this was happening and to study the concrete characteristics that made this music have a beneficial influence on all his patients.

Taking account of the principle which states that different frequencies influence concrete aspects of the evolutionary development, the music written by this composer is ideal for treatment, because Mozart “used very high frequencies, especially with flutes and violins, and is uniquely suited for hearing treatment, as his music is between 125 and 9000 Hz, the necessary interval for therapy”.

Apart from its frequencies, the music is perfectly suited also due to a distinctive feature that separates it from the others and gives it therapeutical properties: its freshness. This might have been caused by the fact that Mozart started to compose at the age of 4, before being introduced in the strict framework of cultural norms. His music was created with freshness and spontaneity, in the harmony of the spheres and the joy of childhood. This way, Mozart managed to store these characteristics until he reached adulthood, always adding to the riches of his own growth.

The scientific explanation is that sound gives us energy. A study on this matter, conducted by North-American researchers, concluded that the human nervous system needs to receive three billion stimuli per second, for at least four and a half hours a day, in order to reach the level of alertness (consciousness), and that more than 90 percent of this load of nerve stimuli are provided through the ear.

This offers a scientific basis to the statement regarding the therapeutical properties of Mozart’s music because, as mentioned previously, its combination of high frequencies proves ideal for achieving psychological and, eventually, nervous balance.