#2: Goldberg Variations and the song that makes people chill out

How music can transform the body and the mood

1. The myth

We are in Saxony in Eastern Germany, around 1740. The Russian Ambassador to the electoral court is a guy called Hermann Karl von Keyserling, or more simply, Count Keyserling. One might think that being a Count is the absolute free pass to eternal happiness and prosperity, but this is not the case for Count Keyserling. You see, illness and bad luck do not make discriminations. He is often ill and spends many sleepless nights accompanied by his only two dedicated friends: anxiety and depression.

How does he try to solve this? No, he doesn’t hire a life coach, nor does he engage in psychotherapy (we are a bit too early for that). What he does instead, is go back to the basics: to a concept much more fundamental than speech itself, a practice with proven healing effects throughout history: la musica.

Convinced that music would help sooth his pain and repel the insomnia that was haunting him, the Count asked for help from the best living musician at the time: Johann Sebastian Bach. The result of this request is the Goldberg Variations, named after the Count’s private harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was the first one to perform the variations.

Here is one of the performances I have been listening a lot to, by Roman Rabinovich.

2. The magic

Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations has become an iconic monument in Western music.

Here is a video that explains the genius behind the composition.

On one level, it's simply an (extremely) beautiful keyboard work, and on another, it's a Rubik's Cube of invention and architecture. The music is constructed in a very symmetrical way, beginning with a beautiful Aria. Bach then takes the bass line of this aria to create the 30 variations that follow.

3. The reality

As is often the case with myths and legends, we do not know if it is based on real facts. What we also don’t know is whether the music composed by Bach and performed by Goldberg was effective; if it actually relieved the Count’s pain.

Little did Bach know that many years later, scientists, doctors and musicians would be working together to find what kind of music is better for curing or relieving from this kind of depression and anxiety.

4. The super powers of sound and music (and silence)

I followed an extremely interesting podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman, exploring the ways that music has been scientifically proven to be beneficial for mood improvement (what the Count was looking for), for work, learning and focus (what most of us are looking for) and for motivation.

Here are some of the most interesting findings:

When it comes to sparking motivation; to get up and work or motivation to go out and work out, it’s all the same for music. It seems that just listening to any music for some minutes activates the parts of the brain responsible for movement (dancing is the extreme example of that). Yes, music is not only an auditory experience. It is a multi-sensory and a motor experience.

For work, focus, concentration and learning, the best music is no music. Correct. Working in silence is proven to be the best way to focus and absorb information that will stay. For those that cant handle the complete silence, the recommended ideal music is 40-Hz binaural beats which sounds a bit like white noise or brown noise. No idea what this is? Try this one.

Apparently, the worst type of music to listen to while working or trying to concentrate is songs with lyrics.

For mood regulation, depression and anxiety, music can obviously play a super important role. How many times hasn’t music saved us, given us hope or thrown us hard against the wall?

Now the question is: What is the type of music that can help us feel better? is it Rock n Roll? Jazz? or is it classical/baroque as Count Keyserling thought?

Well, science has spoken. Not with motivating or soothing lyrics (seems lyrics play no role at all) but with BPM (beats per minute).

For mood improvement:

The music that helps us be happier is basically anything relatively upbeat, 140-150 bits per minute or faster. So, the Goldberg variations (75BPM) seems to be a bit too slow based on the recent scientific research.

For anxiety:

A lot of research has also been done to determine what type of music can help us deal with anxiety and depression. The most amazing thing is that scientists released a paper where they find that there is one specific song that can actually reduce anxiety by 65% to those who listen 3 minutes of it. If I had to guess what song that would be I would probably assume a song from the Beatles, a piano concerto from Mozart or one of Vivaldis cello sonatas.

Nope, none of these. The song that has this magic power is called “Weightless” and was written by the band Marconi Union in 2012 specifically to reduce anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate.

Full of mellow synths, soothing melodies and natural soundscapes. The song is actually so effective that it is considered dangerous to play while driving.

The reason for this, as explained by Lyz Cooper of the British Academy of Sound Therapy,

is that the song utilizes a biomusicological phenomenon called “entrainment.” Cooper reports, “The song contains a sustaining rhythm that starts at 60 beats per minute and gradually slows to around 50. While listening, your heart rate gradually comes to match that beat.”

As you can imagine, the song/music piece was not a result of pure artistic endeavor; on the contrary it was a cooperation between musicians, psychologists and others sound scientists, trying to see how music can normalize one’s heartbeat.

It was fascinating working with a therapist to learn how and why certain sounds affect people's mood. I always knew the power of music but we have previously written using gut feeling.

Richard Talbot from Marconi Union, upon the song’s release.

This gut feeling that the band member is referring to, is perhaps what led Bach to compose the variations around 300 years ago. The story with the Count might be (and probably is) just a myth, the story of music, however, it is definitely not.

5. Silence

Talking about the history of music, I came across the Hurrian Hymn No. 6, which is the oldest melody of written music ever found (more than 3,400 years old).

The podcast from Dr. Andrew Huberman, on the 40 HZ binaural beats.

Until next time,