Our sincere apologies for the delay!
We bring to you the 3rd piece of the Touch series:
It Should Flow Like Oil
When the word “oil” is analogised to music, you probably think of flowing passages of running notes flying gracefully across the keyboard. The above quote was written in the book The Great Pianists by Harold Schonberg – American music critic and journalist most prominently for The New York Times – in citation of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791).
Mozart was an Austrian composer of the Classical era that many regard as a prodigy. Competent in both the keyboard and violin, he composed his first work at age 5. Writing over 600 works in his lifetime, Mozart composed 27 piano concertos, many symphonies, 18 piano sonatas as well as quite a number of operas, of which Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro are amongst the most famous.
The style of Mozart’s compositions is one that emphasises “clarity, balance, and transparency”, as evident from the numerous, almost acrobatic running passages that so characterise his piano sonatas and cadenzas in piano concertos. Historically, Mozart himself was a keyboardist of impeccable technique and clarity, known to handle such difficult passages effortlessly and with finesse. Such overwhelming musical genius is indeed rather unfathomable, and it is here that I introduce the Mozart Effect.
A popular hypothesis that many subscribe to is that early childhood exposure to Mozart’s music has a beneficial effect on the child’s cognitive development, training them to be more intelligent, creative and imaginative. The term “Mozart Effect” was coined in 1991 by French researcher Dr Alfred Tomatis who first attempted to cure a variety of psychiatric disorders with Mozart’s music as a stimulus. Years later in 1997, Don Campbell in his book "The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit" discussed the theory that listening to Mozart may temporarily increase one’s intelligence and improve mental function. He recommended playing specially selected classical music to infants, expecting that to boost their mental development.
In a recent neurological research study by the University of California, it is shown that Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos K448 does increase one’s spatial-temporal intelligence for about 15 minutes, making one more adept at 3-D type problems like mathematics, architecture, engineering and games like chess. Interestingly, this sonata also significantly increases the speed and ability of rats navigating through a maze, and diminishes the number of seizures in epileptic patients! Nevertheless, there have been no conclusive findings on the bearing of listening to Mozart on long term intellectual performance.
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Interested in experiencing the Mozart effect for yourself? Take a listen to the 1st movement from the abovementioned work: Sonata for two pianos in D Major, K448.
For our concert, we will be performing the 3rd movement from the sonata. We look forward to seeing you there! (: