“The greatest experience of making music together is the way individual concentrations add up in the concert performance, creating singular moments.” Katalin Németh, violin, NPO
“Making music is joy; physical, spiritual and intellectual challenge and recreation at the same time.” Irén Móré, flute, NPO
“Bartók’s magnificent and always topical music offers wonderful guidance as a Hungarian to being European.” Zsófia Embey-Isztin, NPO
Music
Music became part of culture in the ancient Greek world.
The seven-stringed lute of Apollo, the God of the Sun, order and harmony, symbolised the order of nature and the inner harmony of man, living in tune with this harmony.
All of that is music, but music is foremost an art.
Music develops intuition and understanding it requires learning.
Music makes us a different person.
Classical music is extremely complex; it cannot be learnt, understood immediately, unlike a simple folk song or today’s popular music.
A person setting off on the journey to classical music will discover beauty and approach infinity. They will have something to hold onto. They will feel more love, experience more compassion, more kindness and more good; in other words, more Life.
The positive effects of music
“[…] musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, […] and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good […]” Plato
“Music is most powerful in shaping the character, which is why I believe it has a role in the education of young people.” Aristotle
In the 6th century BC Pythagoras played the harp to relax his pupils and clear their minds. He also proved that music concealed a harmony of sound frequencies that could be described in mathematical terms. His writings suggest he studied the “workings” of sounds and the influence of music.
Classical music relieves stress, depression and anxiety. It helps concentration, learning and develops the memory. It alleviates pain. Doctors use it in treating tumorous diseases, high blood pressure and psychic diseases. It is long known that some surgeons play classical music during operations.
Alfred Tomatis was the first to use the Austrian genius’s music in the treatment of children with speech impairment and communication disorders in France. Since his time, hundreds of centres have been set up around the world, where Mozart’s music is played with therapeutic purpose to children patients. It is used in particular in the treatment of concentration and communication disorders and autism.
American author Don Cambell published his hugely successful The Mozart Effect in 1997, which has since contributed to the widespread use of music therapy.
Numerous researches have confirmed that the study results of children learning music improve and that music has a positive effect on the development of community identity.
Subtler, refined and colourful means of expression and a keen ear are required in the era of the communicational revolution, which is seriously challenged by our noisy environment. We therefore need to train ourselves.