Music For the Mind (2CD)

This beautiful collection is called ‘Music for the Mind’ but really it’s for the mind and heart.

As acclaimed neuroscientist, Oliver Sacks, says in his book, Musicophilia, music calls to both parts of our nature, the intellectual and emotional. ‘We may be moved to the depths,’ he says ‘even as we appreciate the formal structure of a composition.’

It is twenty years since the research which gave us the oft-quoted (and misrepresented!) ‘Mozart Effect.’ It looked at three different listening states – silence, relaxation music and a Mozart sonata – and compared the effects of each on one aspect of listeners’ IQ tests. At the time, the findings were picked up by a frenzied media, exaggerated and the fire of controversy has raged ever since.

Today, developments in neuroscience have spawned a veritable research revolution which supports the assertion that there is a host of positive impacts on individuals and on society which come from listening to – and making – music. For example, we know a lot about the wondrous impacts of music on the physical aspects of our brain development, from our time in the womb to the end of life.

Whether you listen to this collection alone or with others, be attuned to those moments in this music when the sun comes out for you, when you have a deep connection with it – for reasons of love, hope, health or meditation.