Playing classical piano music to patients prior to surgery has unexpected benefits

In an article in The Guardian, Susan Tomes reports a study by an eye surgeon in Hawaii that found playing live classical piano music in the “preoperative holding area” produced a beneficial decrease in heart rate and other signs of anxiety once the patient was in the operating theater (“Going under the knife? Ask for a concerto first”).

There seems to be something about classical music — maybe the gentler tempo and strong melodic line of many pieces — that has a power to relax not offered by more up-beat, popular genres. I know that, when I was at university, I always studied to the sound of classical music in the background. I still much prefer to hear classical pieces if I’m feeling stressed.

Even when driving, I find that music that is too fast, aggressively rhythmic or loud adds to my anxiety and distracts me from what I’m doing. In heavy traffic, I have to turn it off.

As Ms. Tomes, herself a classical pianist, says:

. . . in the thoroughly non-medical setting of the concert hall, I’ve been struck by how often audience members confide that they have experienced some kind of beneficial effect on their wellbeing or state of health. All kinds of music can be beneficial, but I believe there is something about classical music which makes it specially effective, and I think its therapeutic effects could be more widely harnessed.

Is live music, with all the problems of hygiene, better in the operating theater than recorded music? Ms. Tomes thinks so, but I’m not so sure. I suspect that any medium that produces the right kind of music would do just as well.

Have you experienced the healing or calming power of music? Maybe you would be willing to add a comment and share your thoughts on this topic.

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