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“Do I genuinely have to practice?” came the disgruntled voice of a teenager.
How a great deal of times have we heard this? I do not forget when my mother encouraged me
to exercise my instrument and how I tried to find one pardon after another to get
out of it. Soon, she was sitting at the piano, more than willing to support me practice. I reluctantly
began playing, not putting my heart into it, sentiment a bit rebellious. But it did not
take long until I begun to feel the comforting notes of the music and my soul begun to
relinquish the unruly attitude within me. Why did this music soothe my rebellious
soul?
Music has changed allround the years, but it is intent is the same. The type of
music we listen to affects the brain. Some music has been proven to support
memorization, to aid us retain info we have learned. It has to do with
order, symmetry, rhythmic patterns, repetition, idealisti mathematical form, and
harmony.
A study was done to test whether or not music may aid in holding back information.
White mice were taught to go through a maze to find food. One group listened to no
music, the second group listened to Strauss waltzes, and the third group listened to
hard rock music. After eight weeks, the mice were tested to see if they had
improved. The mice with no music had bettered but the mice that listened to
Strauss waltzes made it through much faster. When the scientists checked the rock
mice, they were not prepared for what they found. The mice did not get better in
finding the food, but had gotten worse, getting disoriented. The scientists waited
a few weeks to see if the results were the same. The Strauss mice had held their
memory while the rock mice had lost their memory of the whole thing.
The American Psychological Association wrote, “Those dreaded piano lessons remunerate
off in unexpected ways: According to a new study, children with music training had
significantly better verbal memory than their counterparts without such training,
plus, the longer the training, the better the verbal memory. Psychologists at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong studied 90 boys among age six and fifteen. Half
had musical training as members of their school’s string orchestra program. The
other 45 players were schoolmates with no musical training. The researchers,
led by Agnes S. Chan, Ph.D., gave the children verbal memory tests, to see how
many words they recalled from a list, and a comparable visual memory test for
images. Students with musical training recalled significantly more words than the
untrained students. There were no such deviations for visual memory.” (“Music
Training Improves Verbal but Not Visual Memory,” American Psychological
Association, Neuropsychology, Vol. 17, No. 3.)
C. A. Harding did brain studies in 1982 at the University of North Texas. They
brought in 300 people. They wanted approximately the same kind of learning
abilities, so every one they chose had Phd’s. These persons were separated into two
groups and taught 300 vocabulary words. The introductory group listened to Handel’s Water
Music as they learned the words and definitions. The second group learned their
words without music. To the surprise of the scientists, there was a huge divergence in
the test scores. The group with the music scored much higher. Two weeks later, the
groups were brought back in and checked to see if they had kept the words, and
there was a much more spectacular divergence in the scores. The group without music had
forgotten half the words. In the initial group, the brain ought to have felt the orderly
manner of the music and was competent to retain the vocabulary words.
I read an article in the TIME MAGAZINE from July 5, 1999 titled “Fingers, Brains, and
Mozart.” It said, “Mozart’s music has intrigued researchers since 1993, when
scientists at the University of California at Irvine found that college students who
heard 10 minutes of the composer’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major raised their
IQ scores on tests of spatial-temporal reasoning–a skill affiliated to math. Mozart
appears to beef up the neural connections that underlie mathematical thought.
Other researchers have used the two-piano sonata to improve the spatial-temporal
reasoning of an Alzheimer’s patient and to reduce the number of seizures in
epileptics.”
It has been found that music may change behavior. The right kind may turn
depression into joy, anger to calmness, hate to love, and fear to courage. Beautiful
music has an effect on people and it may soothe and take away sensations of
frustration and anger. Music unquestionably makes a divergence in extenuating tension.
Professor Vladamir Conechne tested this theory. He salaried actors to antagonize a
group of people, making them angry and hateful. After the actors left, he turned on
gentle comforting music and watched the persons cautiously as he took notes. He
noticed that their conduct and attitude started out to change and their hatred left.
In another portion of the country, this theory was proved once again. At the Soviet
Union, the Soviets employed music to rescue 3,000 Beluga Whales trapped in the Narrow
Strait off the Bering Sea. Icebreakers had cleared an escape path for the whales, but
they were confused and scared by the noise of engines and propellers that had
chopped the ice away. It in the end dawned on the captain to pipe music through the
loud speakers. When the whales heard Beethoven’s music, they started out to calm down
and after a while followed the sound, swimming through the narrow channel to
freedom. The music seemed to calm them down.
One time our little family traveled a great deal of hours to see our folks up north for
Christmas. It was an eight-hour drive. The children were tired, crowded, and
miserable from the long drive. We were traveling through a beauteous canyon and
only had a half an hour left to arrive at our destination. I started singing galore
Christmas songs, and then my husband joined in. Soon the rest of the family joined
in singing and the contention gradually left and we were laughing and having fun as
we joyfully sang Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and a great deal of Christmas Carols. Music
does make a difference.
David O. McKay said, “Music is genuinely the universal language, and when it is
excellently indicated how deeply it moves our souls!”
In 1865, for the duration of the Civil War in Atlanta, Georgia, General Sherman had his army
ready and prepared for a battle. It was recorded that while they waited, a young man
began to sing American Songs, beloved songs that were intimate to both sides. The
music was comforting and nostalgic, and it floated all over the field for everyone to
hear. The soldiers on both sides heard the songs that were sung. The hearts of
everyone were touched, and the battle that was supposed to be, did not occur that
day. No one felt like fighting. It had deeply moved their souls.
It is vitally necessary to listen to music that uplifts us. When words and music are
combined, I believe it expresses our deepest thoughts and feelings. What we can’t
understand in words, we may grasp with music. Words alone, a heap of times,
can’t express the true sensations that are meant, but music and words put together
can touch the hearts and souls of people. When music is added to sacred words, it
helps us to grasp the simple love of God and feel the spirit of reverence. Isaac
Watts described it best.
With all the power of heart and tongue,
I’ll praise my Maker in my song.
Angels shall listen the notes I’ll raise,
Approve the song, and join the praise.
—Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Album DescriptionThe initial in a two-volume set of piano compositions by Argentina’s premier composer Alberto Ginastera, performed by one of Argentina’s premier pianists. Recorded in one day at Kirara Hall in Japan.
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Pic
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Picture
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Photo
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Image
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Picture
Ginastera The Piano Music Vol 1 Photo
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
 A work of art
By A
Argentian pianist Eduardo Delgado lends a passionate yet intelligent voice to these early works for solo piano by Ginastera. He is both fiery and lyrically tender when the music calls for it, with a superb grasp of the complex and interwoven rhythmic intricacies, which is a must for this music.
For those unfamiliar with MA Recordings, their CDs are truly works of art, with heavy cardboard packaging and beautifully recorded sound. With minimalist miking techniques and attention to detail, engineer/founder Todd Garfinkle coaxes some of the most realistic piano sound I’ve ever heard from the CD format.
Anxiously waiting Volume 2!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
 Where’s the dance?
By A
The CD is well recorded, and the performances are passionate and sincere. However, the driving and wild character of Ginastera’s fast Gaucho dances are often lost by the use of excessive rubato and pedal, as in Malambo or Creole Dance. Some of the tempos are arbitrary – for instance in the Twelve American Preludes, where Ginastera goes into extra troubles when he writes metronome markings and the total duration in minutes and seconds of each Prelude.
The most enjoyable interpretations of this CD are the slower, more expressive movements, such as the Danza de la Moza Donosa (from Three Argentine Dances), performed with romantic warmth, and Cuyana, the first movement of the rarely performed Tres Piezas.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
 Good CD
By poem lover
I bought this CD because my daughter was playing Ginastera’s rondo (last piece on this CD), and I had a tough time finding a good recording for this piece.
See all 6 customer reviews…
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