Music To Energise: Classical Music For Your Mind

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.’ That was the strident view of American composer and conductor, Aaron Copland. The latest compilation from ABC Classics on the highly popular ABC For Life brand, Music to Energise, is certain to do exactly that.

Throughout our lifespan, whatever our cultural background, music is right there with us, marking every milestone in our life and setting the mood for all occasions, whether sombre or celebratory. Indeed, There is nothing soporific about this collection of seriously fine music, brought together to enliven and uplift you. Try sleeping after these!

Renowned writer, researcher and physician Oliver Sacks also outlines in the neuroscience journal Brain; the link between our motor system and the way we process music. He quotes the ‘passionately musical philosopher’ Nietzsche who said: ‘We listen to music with our muscles.’

Of course that’s true, says Sacks. Just think of the way we tap our feet to music, we keep time, hum, sing along, ‘conduct’, assume facial expressions which mirror the rise and fall, the ‘melodic contours and feelings’ of what we are hearing – often without our knowledge or, seemingly, volition. We know, then, that the stirring or animating power of music combines emotional and motor arousal. We turn to music –- we need it, Sacks says – expressly because of its ability to move us, to change our mood, induce feelings and states of mind.

Because our nervous systems are tuned for it, humans have a particular sensitivity to music. We know that sounds are more potent stimuli than sights in most people, as auditory receptors cover a larger region of the brain. Perhaps, argues Sacks, we are as much a musical as a linguistic species.

Whatever the conjecture over its evolutionary origin, music is firmly embedded in the rituals of every human culture. From the bugle call at reveille and bagpipes on the battle field, to heart-racing beats at the gym, fanfares at civic events or tribal ‘talking’ drums between neighbouring villages, music has an unequalled power to get humans going.

This ability of music to make us feel good or bad, to calm or excite us, seems to be related to the production of different chemicals in the brain. Dr Katrina McFerran, at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Music, Mind and Wellbeing, says that endorphins triggered by music listening and making provide a kind of natural pain relief, where dopamine leads to feelings of buoyancy, optimism, energy and power.

So, may this stirring compilation act like a guilt-free stimulant on your brain, lift you up and electrify your atoms.

Pump up the volume and prepare to be energised!