Wes Crone wrote:

>I just wanted to clear something up here if I may.  It is not my belief
>that chemical responses in the body actually put a person in an
>unconscious state when listening to music.  So, Dave, I do not believe
>that the Goldberg's were used in the same way a drug might physically
>knock someone out.

The purpose of my posting was not to address the issue of using music
as a soporific.  That had already been taken care of in the responses to
Satoshi's comments on the matter.  I think there may be some confusion
about insomnia as well.  Insomnia isn't just having a hard time getting
to sleep.  It is basically a persistent even chronic inability to get to
sleep.  Insomniacs often look for ways to pass the nighttime hours, and
I can only imagine that back before TV, radio, the Internet, etc.  the
options for time killing activities were even more limited.  By all
accounts these works were played to pass the time, not to induce
drowsiness.  This jibes with what we know of the Goldbergs and our own
experience with them.  They are hardly the soft, lilting melodies one
might associate with sleep-inducing music.

>However, I do feel that music can create an atmosphere which more quickly
>allows a person to relax.

Of course it can, and I think here is where we have the disconnect.
I've said many times in the past that music has a wide variety of uses
and purposes.  That's one of the abiding powers of music.  Certainly music
can be used to create a restful, relaxing atmosphere, and this includes
classical music.  Most classical music is not particularly well-suited to
this, and that's a misconception some people have.  This last situation is
why people sometimes have a strong negative reaction to the idea that
classical music is "relaxing".

>In my experience, listening to music to "pass the time" accomplishes more
>than it suggests.  It also decreases the time in which I have to struggle
>to fade out. I wouldn't be surprised if the Count fell asleep much more
>quickly while listening to music than he did without it.

The trick is that according to what I've read - and this may not be the
whole story, I admit - the count didn't have trouble falling asleep.  He
was an insomniac and couldn't sleep.  He needed something to pass the time,
and thus the myth of the Goldbergs as soporific was born.  While I'm sure
there are people who get drowsy listening to the Goldbergs (there are
propbably people who can fall asleep in the midst of a train wreck too),
I think most of us would pick a less complex, more subtle music, such as
Pachelbel's canon, for instance.

Dave
[log in to unmask]
http://www.classical.net/