Music Therapy

“Art thou troubled? Music shall calm thee” said an aria by Handel from Rodelinda, sung in English by Kathleen Ferrier on a 78 rpm record of my long-distant youth.

Well, up to a point. Depends on the music. Feeling a bit troubled of late, I turned to Schubert (fourth symphony) and Brahms (second symphony) and felt even more troubled. Luckily, to calm me, I did not turn to Shostakovich, Prokofiev or Rachmaninov. Instead, I alighted on Handel sung by Véronique Gens and all my troubles and cares vanished. One can generalise; but the music of the 18^th century is usually a lot more calming than the troubled music of much of the 19^th century, not to mention the stress and turmoil of the 20^th. As if Véronique Gens were not enough, I then alighted on the wonderful Simone Kermes singing Handel, with a band conducted by the late highly-lamented Alan Curtis.

“Art thou troubled? Handel shall calm thee”. Handel's (or Mozart's) music should be freely available in any national health therapy programme.