Some thoughts about the “Mozart Effect” by Christian Weitenberg

“Listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial-temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess”, said Zell Miller, the Governor of the American state of Georgia, in a speech from 13th January 1998. He went on to say that US $105,000 would be set aside in the yearly budget in order that parents can buy their newly born a CD of classical music. A similar program was running in Tennessee at the time. In 1999 Florida made it obligatory for classical music to be played for half an hour each day in kindergartens. What’s the origin of all this activity? Which train have politicians jumped onto? The assertion that intelligence can be increased by listening to classical music is described as the “Mozart Effect”. This can be traced back to a publication in which Frances H. Rauscher and Gordon L. Shaw report on a study of 36 college students (Nature, Vol. 365 (1993): 611). The spatial sense of participants was measured using paper folding and cutting tasks taken from the Stanford-Binet IQ-Test. After hearing Mozart’s Sonata for 2 Pianos in D Major K. 448 the participant’s IQ increased by 8 to 9 points for about a quarter of an hour.

Since then the study has been repeated many times (e.g. by Kenneth Steel (Psychological Science 1999, Vol. 10, pp. 366-369)) without results able to be reproduced. The story was, despite its scanty scientific basis, picked up by the press especially in US states with poorer education systems, as noted by the Swiss psychologist Adrian Bangerter. The short term nature of the results from the original study was forgotten and the positive effects of Mozart’s music were extended from college students to children and babies - without further studies being carried out to back this assertion.

However, it didn’t stop there. Rumours soon spread purporting benefits to health which became known as the “Mozart Effect”. BBC Online reported in April 2001 that listening to the above mentioned Mozart Sonata could “cut epilepsy”. Don Campbell even patented the name “Mozart Effect” and canvasses customers at http://www.mozarteffect.com/. It is little wonder that one now hears stories of cows producing more milk while listening to Mozart. A winegrower in Tuscany even plays Mozart to his grape vines as was recently reported the Spiegel.

The effects of music on our feelings and moods have been known since antiquity. Everyone can think of music to which they like to dance and music to which they like to relax. Plato had exact ideas about the effects of music, ascribing characteristics to each mode. According to his scheme, the Mixolydian and Syntonolydian modes have lamenting and wailing, the Ionian and Lydian soft and lax characteristics. The Dorian and Phrygian modes are ascribed rousing and benign qualities making them, in his view, the only suitable modes for the training of guards into tough soldiers in his ideal state. (The Church modes do not correspond to the Greek modes). Not all rhythms were acceptable for Plato who believed that “good or bad countenance is a consequence of good or bad rhythm”. On the one hand rhythm and harmony bestow noble countenance on the soul, on the other “good content and melody as well as a noble countenance and good rhythm can be traced to a ‘noble nature’”.

The Mozart Effect isn’t only attributed to the emotional effects of music in general but draws on Mozart’s fame. Mozart remains a shadowy, somewhat unreachable figure despite what we know about his life; a person of contradictions whose excessive lifestyle and early death have transformed his genius into that of a modern hero. It’s certainly no coincidence that Rauscher and Shaw chose a Mozart sonata for their study (although why they chose this particular sonata remains a mystery). To conclude that only Mozart’s music can bring about this effect (supposing it exists) turns him into something of a magician; thus banning explanations into the realms of the mystic and un-examinable. Or is it possible that the participants might have heard the difference to a Haydn sonata? Further examinations have been carried out with other forms of classical as well as popular music with similarly meagre results. Reading a story has also been shown to have a similar effect - especially when participants liked the story - as was demonstrated in a study in 1999 (Nantais, Schnellenberg).

In January 2005 the London Underground decided to play classical music, including Mozart, in 35 stations. A test showed that after 18 months both physical and verbal attacks from teenagers had decreased by 33%. Is this the power of music? Jan Assman uses this argument at the beginning of his beautiful book about the Magic Flute. The London Underground operating company, Metronet, offers a more sober explanation: “The classical music has reduced youngsters hanging around the stations - probably because it is 'uncool' to be around this kind of music”.

Whatever future studies may or may not show, Mozart couldn’t care less either way. His unique music will survive through all periods of time - whether it makes us brighter or not. In any case we’re probably better off listening to music for its own sake.

This article originally appeared in alla breve, The Conservatorium of Music Saar magazine, 11th year, no. 1, April 2006, pp. 29-30. Extracts thereof are printed above.

This article was translated from German by Simon Barber.

Last Update 2008-01-20 | Copyright© Johannes Voit 2006 | |