GG: and surgery

[Katherine Lee <klee@dna.bc.ca>]

Found this on the net
<http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/flaxman/cd0016.html>
while I was looking for Gould links ... it reminded me of the thread on
what music was appropriate for certain tasks.  And there is a reference to
Gould ... which makes it MORE than relevant to this list ;-) !  Hope you
enjoy it.

K.


        		Surgical Selections



Toscanini for a tonsillectomy? Bach for brain surgery?

These sound like the crazy concepts of a CD columnist, but don't blame me
this time! These ideas come from the lead paragraph of an AP story from
Chicago
reporting on research which concludes that surgeons are likely to do a
better job at the operating table with a little background music.

"Surgeons had lower blood pressure and pulse rates and performed better on
nonsurgical mental exercises while listening to music," the article
continued,
relaying information they painstakingly uncovered by reading the latest
edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"It has to be classical music," according to a cardiovascular surgeon at
Loyola University Medical Center. "Anything else interferes with the rhythm
of the
operation." But this particular surgeon is totally against singing. For
some unexplained reason, he feels strongly that opera isn't good for
operating.

Turns out the surgeons were hooked up to a polygraph and their stress was
measured through blood pressure and pulse. I think urinanalysis might have
been useful to determine if Puccini or Prokofiev caused anyone to pee in
their pants. But, if this was done, it wasn't reported by the AP.

The article did say that the quickest, most accurate performances with the
least physical stress came while the surgeons were listening to the music
they chose.
But it was better to have music the experimenters chose in the background
than no music at all.

The authors of the scientific study noted that more than a century ago
Nietzsche wrote that "Without music, life would be a mistake."

"Our data prompt us to ponder if, without music, surgery would be a
mistake," the researchers quipped. I like that. Scientists with a sense of
humor. What's the world coming to?

Well, I'll tell you what it's coming to. In the near future, making a
reservation for surgery will be something like making airline reservations
now. Instead of choosing an isle seat or a window seat, you'll get to
select between a live string quartet and a recording of the Grateful Dead.
You'll fill out a form with little boxes to check marked "Classical, Jazz,
New Age, Rap, Soul, Country & Western, Rhythm & Blues, Musicals, Opera,"
and, for classical-loving pessimists,
"Requiems."

As if it isn't hard enough to select a surgeon now, in the future you'll
have to find out in advance as much about their musical tastes as their
scalping
techniques. And when you check to see whether the operating room has the
latest statzelfratz, you'll want to make sure the ultrasound machine
includes decent
speakers.

"I realize my spouse isn't allowed in the room during the operation," you
might say. "But can I bring my favorite compact disc?"

If you are allowed to pick your own CD, you can play a new version of that
old game, "Which Recording Would I Select if I Could Only Bring One with Me
to a
Desert Island?"

Does Galway go best with gallbladder removal? Offenbach with ovaries?
Puccini with prostates? Telemann with testicles? Brahms with breasts? Do
you choose
melancholy music to fit the unwelcome nature of the occasion or happy tunes
to lift your spirits? These are evidently very serious questions, judging
by recent
research results.

According to a report on "What Works: Music to Heal By" in the
September/October 1994 edition of Natural Health: The Guide to Well-Being,
if you want to relax,
manage stress, or recover from an illness, you should select soothing,
"sedative" music.

I have some soft, concrete suggestions:

If you don't know Tomaso Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for Organ & Strings,
you certainly should. I think it is one of the most beautiful pieces ever
written,
and would certainly work well with any organs or strings you might need
removed. A lot of people must agree with me, since there are some 26 CD
recordings of
this piece currently available, and organs are popping out at a
sound-barrier-breaking rate these days.

Which one to pick is partly a matter of what other compositions you would
like to have on the same disc. Several come with the Pachelbel Canon (i.e.
London
411973-2 LH with Münchinger conducting the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and
DGG 413 309-2 with Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic).

Pachelbel is an excellent choice, I suppose, for those suffering from
pachyderma, but not recommended for those with pachelbelphobia. And the DGG
disc also contains Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits from "Orpheus and
Eurydice," which makes most folk feel they've died and gone to heaven
anyway.

My favorite composer of sedative music, however, is Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Almost everything he ever wrote puts me to sleep. Try The Lark Ascending
when the baby's descending, Greensleves for gangrene, or Fantasia on a
Theme by Thomas Tallis with phalloplasty Ñ all on the same recording (Argo
414595-2 ZH with Marriner conducting).

All kidding aside, the most beautiful, reposing, first class compositions I
can think of are Bach's Goldberg Variations (CBS MK 37779 with Glenn Gould
as the
pianist), Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings (Newport Classic NC 60033 with
the Manhattan String Quartet), and Chopin's Nocturnes (2 RCA's 5613-2 RC
with Artur
Rubinstein).

But my biggest "compact discovery" in this area is a CD put out by a small
company in Portland, Oregon, called Gagliano Recordings: Songs from the
Cello (GR 927-CD) with Hamilton Cheifetz, cello, and Harold Gray at the
piano. Included is the Aria from Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5,
arrangements by Cheifetz of five songs by Schubert and four by Schumann, as
well as works by Couperin, Ravel, Debussy and de Falla. A fantastic
recording in every respect!

You might wonder if it really matters what music is played during your
operation. A friend of mine recently confided to a few million classical
music forum members on the Internet that he went in for surgery twice in a
period of two weeks. The second time he said to the medical crew, "Hey
guys, how about some classical music this time?"

One of the interns replied: "That's what we played last time. Don't you
remember? Well, that's the last time we'll play your suggestions. If you're
just going to fall asleep, what's the point?"

Another Internet correspondent wrote that when he was having eye surgery
several years ago, he distinctly remembered hearing the music from
Beethoven's Egmont
blasting out over several speakers. Turns out that it was nothing more than
an auditory hallucination induced by the local anesthesia.

"The surgeons were awfully amused," he wrote, "when I complimented them on
their choice of music!"

Fred Flaxman
<fflaxman@jeffnet.org>

Copyright © Fred Flaxman, 1995.


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