There is a Polish saying – “music soothes mores”. It has several meanings. The first is that music is a common ground in situations that differentiate us. It helps us put the divisions aside. The second meaning is about stress or uncertainty. Then music is what allows us to calm down, to catch our breath and restore balance.
The last few years have been full of tensions. Due to the pandemic, each of us found an area in our lives that could become a source of anxiety – health, work, education, life plans, or dreams. Many of these things have been at risk. Fortunately, music, especially neoclassical, came to the rescue.
Neoclassical music is, above all, sounds full of emotions that allow us to find peace and balance, and, as also proven by numerous medical studies, has a positive effect on our health. For many years, important scientific journals have published the results of scientists’ work that seeks to confirm the beneficial influence of neoclassical music on our minds and bodies. Thanks to it, we can not only relax or calm down. We can also really help our health.
According to an Oxford University study, listening to that kind of music can help reduce blood pressure. Another effect is lowering the risk of heart disease, an impact uncovered thanks to the results of research by one of the most important cardiologists in world history – Professor Peter Sleight and his team. Finally, neoclassical music helps relieve pain, both physical and mental, such as cases of depression or anxiety. After all, “music soothes mores”.
For several years, we have been observing a rapidly developing scene in Europe, created by young and talented artists. They perfectly combine well-known patents and sounds with a fresh vision, and new ways of interpreting music. Neoclassical in their image is not banal, boring, and sterile. It is no longer the music reserved for great concert halls, where only people dressed in elegant outfits can attend. It is more and more often a sound that can be heard at a festival, between gigs performed by pop bands, or rappers, or a DJ set. There are no longer ladies in dresses or gentlemen in suits sitting behind the piano. Instead, we see young people in hoodies and jeans. They look like people from the audience. They look just like us.
Such a change allowed neoclassical music to reach a completely new set of listeners. Agnes Obel, Nils Frahm, and Ólafur Arnalds achieved great success and helped the world recall the oeuvre of outstanding European composers. Frederic Chopin, born 212 years ago in a Polish village called Żelazowa Wola, would be proud to see how such young artists break conventions, just like he did in his time. Chopin’s unique style of playing and composing was initially considered controversial, as he tried to present classical forms in a new way. With time, he was recognized as a virtuoso, a “poet of the piano” and was especially appreciated for introducing the fashion for playing and listening to classical music at home, not only in great concert halls. Today, we talk about him as one of the most important pianists of all time, someone who changed the music forever and left a magnificent, distinctive mark on it.
Contemporary European neoclassical music is a strong trend that perfectly coexists alongside pop, alternative hip-hop, and even electronic. Young artists such as Hania Rani, the Polish queen of dreamlike-romantic minimalism, or the virtuoso of bittersweet nostalgic melodies by Carlos Cipa of Germany, the Icelandic sorcerer of stirring songs Eydis Evensen, and Federico Albanese, the Italian master of cinematic and moody sound, are gaining just as much popularity as the stars of mainstream genres. Thanks to them, the musical landscape of Europe is becoming richer and more beautiful.
