VIII Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся

Старт в науке

«The Impact of Classical Music on Human Mental Development»

• Авторы
• Руководители
• Файлы работы
• Наградные документы

Кургуева С.П. 1

---

1МАОУ Домодедовская СОШ № 2

Арзуманян Р.В. 1

---

1МАОУ Домодедовская СОШ № 2

Работа в формате PDF

85 KB

Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя I степени

Диплом школьникаСвидетельство руководителя

Introductory

Music has always been an integral part of human being’s life. Since ancient times people loved creating and listening to music. During the evolution they have created millions of different musical instruments which led to birth of various music genres and styles, and even to unpredictable mixtures of them. There are hundreds of music styles such as classical, folk, jazz, country, pop, rap etc.

Music is one of the oldest forms of expressing needs, emotions, and states. Classical music is believed to introduce very high level of emotional intelligence. In this project we study classical music in the aspect of use while doing mental work.

Music is a very significant part of our daily routine, and one of the most popular hobbies with youngsters today is listening to music. The image of the quietly-focused student isolating themselves into a personal study zone has led to interest into whether listening to music actually helps studies or not, therefore the relevance of our topic is obvious. Many researches have proved its positive and negative influence on human body, brain and abilities.

The most famous theory linking music and cognitive performance is the “Mozart effect”, the popular idea that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. The research itself was interested in the relation between Mozart and ‘spatial-temporal reasoning’, or knowing how to fit things into other things, basically. The idea that music - particularly classical - can improve exam results has endured, with websites such mozarteffect.com selling music supposedly designed to “charge the brain.”

Our project work is an attempt to analyze different scientific resources on this issue and to confirm the hypothesis that listening to classical music has a positive influence on humans’ brains and can improve their learning abilities. Our purpose is to create a CD containing the best collection of music for student to listen and to improve their learning abilities.

Our aims are: 1) to study theoretical materials on the issue, 2) take a survey among school students on this topic, 3) to conduct an experiment among students in our school, 4) to collect the best classical music affecting on people’s brains and mentality, and 5) to create a CD with the music.

We use analytical and survey methods to carry out this work.

Before starting our project work, we interviewed students in our class to ascertain the relevance of our topic. The questionnaire and the results of it can be seen in appendix 1 and appendix 2. There were several questions to answer which helped us to distinguish that all of our classmates listen to music, the genre and style of it are various. Most of them do it almost all day long, some of them listen to music while doing their lessons, few of them listen to classical music. Some of the students claimed that music helped them to concentrate. But the most important discovery was that not many of the students believed that classical music can help them to become more successful in studying. That was the starting point for our project work.

The History of Classical Music

Classical music is a very general term which normally refers to the standard music of countries in the Western world. It is music that has been composed by musicians who are trained in the art of writing music (composing) and written down in music notation so that other musicians can play it. Classical music may also be described as "art music" though it was not good in classical period that term also Includes types of serious modern music which are not classical. Classical music differs from pop music because it is not made just in order to be popular for time or just to be a commercial success. It is different from folk music which is generally made up by ordinary members of society and learned by future generations by listening, dancing and copying. It includes the work of Haydn and Mozart, most of Beethoven, Bach or Wagner, Debussy or Copland.

The word “classic” tends to mean: an art which is so good that it will always be enjoyed by future generations. It is something that has become a model for future artists.

Middle Ages : The history of classical music really started in the late Middle Ages. Music written for the church was almost always vocal (singing). Medieval composers who are remembered today include Léonin, Pérotin and Guillaume de Machaut

Renaissance : This period from the 15th century until the 17th century saw a massive increase in the composition of music, both sacred and secular. he greatest composers of this period include: Giovanni da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd

Baroque period: The Baroque period was from about the 17th century until the mid-18th century. This was the time when the modern orchestra was formed, more or less as we know it. The greatest composers of this time include: Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Georg Philipp Telemann.

Classical period: The years between 1760 - 1825 was known as the Classical period. Composers thought a lot about the forms of their pieces and were influenced by the classical art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The symphony was invented and various forms of chamber music including the string quartet. The greatest composers include: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christoph Willibald Gluch, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Romantic period: From 1820 to 1910 was known as the Romantic period. Composers continued to use the forms that had been invented in the 18th century, but they also thought that personal feeling and emotion were very important. One of the greatest composers include: Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.

20th century: This time many composers felt that everything had already been done by the composers of the past, so they wanted to find new ways of composing. Some of the most important composers are: Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Dmitri Kabalevsky, James MacMillan, Judith Weir, Peter Maxwell Davies.

Music affects nature and human beings.

Since ancient times people noticed that music affects every living thing in the nature. There were 3 directions of the influence of music on the human body: 1) on the human soul; 2) on the intellect; 3) on the physical body. Therefore, many scientists were interested in studying the topic. A lot of researches and experiment have been made to confirm the hypothesis.

Several researches made in 1999 by Emoto Masau, a Japanese scientist and a doctor of alternative medicine, have revealed that the molecular system of water changes when it is influenced by different styles of music. For example, “Mozart Effect” leads to beautiful lace structure of a water molecule while roc music destroys it.

In the 19th century, I. Dogel established that while listening to classical music, blood pressure changes. The well-known Russian academician B.Petrovsky used music during complex operations: according to his observations, with the influence of music, the body begins to work more harmoniously. An outstanding neuropsychiatrist Academician Bekhterov believed that music has a positive effect on breathing, circulatory depression, relieves rapid stiffness and gives physical vitality. Students from the Götingham University in Germany gave an interesting experiment: they tested the effectiveness of sleeping with background lullabies on the group of volunteers. To the specialists’ surprise, the melodies turned out to be much more effective than medicines: people slept better.

For example, American professor Robbert Schofler, the creator of musical pharmacology, prescribes his patients to listen to all the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and the Mozart orchestra, as well as of Schubert's "Forest King". Schoflep believes that it provides quick recovery.

Mikhail Lazarev, pediatrician, director of the children's rehabilitation center, claimed that classical music has a positive effect on the bone structure formation of the fetus. With the sounds of the harmonic music, the child, while being in the mother’s womb, will be evolving harmonically and physically. Studies showed that musical vibrations have an impact on the whole body. They have a charitable influence on the bone structure, the thyroid gland, they massage the internal organs, reaching the deep-lying tissues, stimulating the blood circulation in them.

It is especially recommended for future mothers to listen to Mozart. Scientists at Stanford University, in California, have recently revealed a molecular basis for the Mozart Effect. Dr. Rauscher and her colleague H. Li, a geneticist, have discovered that rats, like humans, perform better on learning and memory tests after listening to a specific Mozart sonata. According to the research, musical pieces, such as those of Mozart referred to as the Mozart Effect, can relieve stress, improve communication and increase efficiency.

Experimental evidence confirms that after listening to Mozart's piano music, so-called “IQ”. An interesting fact was that the music of Mozart enhanced the mental abilities of all participants of the experiment - both those who love Mozart, and those who like it. In his time, Goethe noted that he always works better after listening to Beethoven’s typical concert.

So, classical music is more than just pleasant background noise; it may actually make people healthier. Here is how Mozart and Vivaldi could help to become smarter, healthier, and even get a good night’s rest.

Classical music lowers blood pressure.In a study participants who listened to classical music had significantly lower blood pressure levels than participants who did not hear any music.

Classical music makes you more emotional.In a study participants who had classical music in the background while writing about the most significance event in their life became more emotionally vulnerable and more willing to disclose information than those who didn’t.

Classical music helps you sleep. A 2006 study found that students with sleep disorders slept better when they fell asleep to classical music than those who didn’t conk out to music.

Classical music eases pain. A 2006 study found that groups with chronic pain who listened to music reported feeling less pain and more power over their depression and disability than those who didn’t.

Classical music may make you smarter.In 2001, subjects who listened to Mozart’s sonata for just 10 minutes displayed IQ scores that were nearly 10 points higher after the study than before.

Classical music improves your memory.In a study published in Learning and Individual Differences, one group of students listened to a one-hour lecture where classical music was played in the background, and the other group heard the lecture with no music. Those in the first group scored significantly higher on a quiz than the second group.

Classical music relieves anxiety. One study, pregnant women reported that listening to a CD of classical music every week relieved their stress and anxiety, according to researchers at the Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan.

Classical music builds social relationships. A 2014 study published in Aging Mental Health found that among those with dementia, music served as a tool to feel connected to others because the subjects could play and discuss the music together. Families have also acknowledged the communal aspects of musical connectedness, whether it’s through singing songs together or participating in musical therapy sessions, according to the same study.

Classical music makes you more productive.When baroque music was played in the reading room at hospitals, radiologists reported that their accuracy, productivity, and work satisfaction increased, according to research from the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. A bit of Bach coming through your earphones could leave you whistling while you work.

Classical music helps you relax.A study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that subjects exposed to classical music experienced a reduction in brain activity and decreased heart rate, which lead them to feel more relaxed.

Experiment

Studding a lot of theoretical materials, we decided to conduct an experiment in our class. While studding the module of our course book, for students in our class paces of classical music played on the background. For motivating purposes, we listened to Bach or Gendel music, for stimulating our brain we listened to Vivaldi, Albinony or Chopin, for studding and creating we listened to Mozart or Schubert. The list of music is given in appendix3. While we were enjoying our lessons with music accompaniment the other class had usual lessons.

The experiment revealed that motivation for study grew almost 100%. The unusual atmosphere made students more relaxed and comfortable. It helped students to remember the new words 10 % better. The new grammatical material was understood twice faster as before. During the lessons there were no passive students and even those who usually are not very confident in their answers took active participation while working on the lesson. The result of the experiment was surprisingly obvious when both classes wrote the after-module- test. Those students, who studied with the musical accompaniment had 15% better results than those who had usual lessons. Together with the scientific researches our survey helped us to confirm our hypothesis that classical music has great positive impact on human brains and mental abilities.

After the experiment we managed to choose the suitable pieces of classical music which can be good for both pleasure and use. All pieces of music are included in the CD, which is the product of our project work. The tracks are combined in groups for listening with various purposes. The list of the music is given in appendix 4.

Conclusion

Music is one of the most universal ways of expression in human life. Music is present in the everyday lives of people of all ages and from all cultures around the world. Music represents an enjoyable activity in and of itself, but its influence goes beyond simple amusement. Listening to music, singing, playing, composing, and improvising are very common activities for many people: they not only allow one to express personal inner states and feelings, but also brings many positive effects to people engaged in them. Many benefits of musical activity have been recognized in recent times: research in music sciences has identified several dimensions of human life (cognitive, psychological, social, and emotional) which seem to be positively affected by music.

While many people regularly listen to classical music for pleasure, there have been claims that listening to and playing classical music can do far more than only entertain us. Researches have suggested that the music of Mozart or Bach might actually boost the power of our brains and help us become more intelligent. Having studied a large amount of theory, studying the results of scientific researches and conducting our own experiment, we have come to conclusion that our hypothesis is confirmed and classical music is of great use for brains and mental improvement.

We collected the best pieces of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi and many more to create a CD with classical music. The CD can be used by students and their teachers as well as by future mothers or anyone who has classical liking. Thus, we think that this topic is interesting and requires more detailed and accurate survey.

A lot of things remain to be done. We are going to continue our project and in future we are going to create a web site with classical music available on it for those who want to be healthy, clever, positive and simply to listen to highly quality music.

Appendix 1

The questionnaire

Appendix 2

The answers

Appendix 3

The results of the experiment

Appendix 4

The List of Classical Music