The Whole Music Experience

I found a short news clip, "Striking the Right Note" in Taste For Life (November 2011).  According to a research study conducted at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care (9-13-11), "Lifelong musicians experience fewer age-related hearing problems than non-musicians." I doubt this applies to rock musicians however since I've known many rock musicians who started losing their hearing in their 30s and 40s. However, if you wish to check out this intriguing news bite, go to http://www.tasteforlife.com Also in this publication, "Listening to music can ease cancer patients' anxiety and reduce their pain..."

Photo by Patricia Herlevi So often with sound healing or the concept of healing with music, an assumption that healing music must relax us rears its head.  Healing comes in many guises and each of us needs different types of healing.  We might need to boost our immune system, or boost our energy/vitality, we might need music to help us focus better or to relax from a stressful day. This brings up one of my favorite concepts and that is purposeful music.  As we grow more conscious of how music affects our soul-mind-body, we build a music tool kit with multiple purposes.  Often I suffer from headaches and so I choose relaxing music, even drones without melody or audio sound scapes.  Some times I could use a good sound healing session with crystal bowls and tuning forks and other times I need to dance to West African drums, Brazilian samba, or need to get my body moving to something hot and Latin. The purposeful music concept visited me twice within the last week.  I've dea

  Joshua Leeds Good Night Baby Music to Soothe Your Infant to Sleep Sounds True Jai Uttal Kirtan Kids The Elephant, the Monkey, and The Little Butter Thief Sounds True If adults find the technological era stressful, imagine what children feel, especially the extra-sensitive infant.  Plenty of record labels release recordings for children and I’ve featured a handful on this blog already.  I contacted Putumayo about its children’s compilation series and never received a response, then Sounds True came out with Jai Uttal’s  (famous in the world of yoga kirtans) Kirtan Kids and psycho-acoustic researcher Joshua Leeds’ Good Night Baby (Music to Soothe Your Infant to Sleep) .  While I don’t have any children myself, I feel that music is a healthy non-toxic medicine for stressed out children.  And in the case of Jai Uttal’s recording, he offers an avenue to a higher spiritual source.  A child needs to feel connected to the natural world and the Divine. 

  Grieg and Liszt Piano Concertos Stephen Hough Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with Andrew Litton Hyperion Records Many years ago when I researched European classical composers who included folkloric dance and folk songs in their work, I encountered Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.  This was around the time that I became familiar with Norwegian folk music so the timing felt perfect.  As far as, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, I’m most familiar with the work he composed after he joined a Franciscan monastery.  However, I had read stories about the romantic composer’s affects on ladies in attendance at his concerts.  Remember the passionate violinist in the movie The Red Violin ? I’m guessing that character was loosely based on Liszt or at least the composer’s persona. So when I placed Stephen Hough and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest recording featuring piano concertos by Liszt and Grieg, I expected to hear the kind of music that causes listeners to