Never ending overture and the Mozart effect

Have you ever noticed that much classical music struggles to end? Those final notes stretch onwards until you wonder whether you are caught in a never ending overture. I don't claim to be a classical connoisseur but I do enjoy Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and others. Yet I find that as the music draws to a close, notes are played that have an air of ending about them but the end does not occur then, it occurs later, sometimes quite a bit later. It's like an early warning system - this piece is ending, it's ending soon, no really it is, it's nearly ended, it's ended. Strange but true.

Anyway, onto an interesting piece of information, brought to my attention by my boyfriend Mark. Amongst the trials and tribulations of essays and end of course, examiner marked essays, Mark alerted me to something called the Mozart effect. The theory that his music enables students revising for exams and similar to achieve improved results. (Google the Mozart effect for more on this). We decided that it may help me to focus and improve my essay scores. So, I have listened to Mozart and other classical composers during the production of three end of course essays. The most recent of which was a 3000 word reflective account, sounds easy, it wasn't. I must admit that classical music, somehow, enables improved focus. Not opera though, that just distracts and annoys me (not a fan). Beautiful music without words like Walz of the flowers, Beethoven's 5th, Fur elise, Piano Concerto No. 21, Air from Suite No.3 (Air on a G String) and so on. Indeed, following a decision to stop essaying for the night, I stayed at my laptop to type more words, actual words that directly answered the essay question because Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 came on Accu Classical Radio! Moving on, I have to say that focus, when it comes to essays, is far from my strong suit. I suffer from a disease called procrastination. So profound is this disease, that Mark has named me Distracto girl! Sadly, life as Distracto girl, doesn't mean that I get to change into a lycra suit with cape, disguise myself wearing glasses or use my spidey sense. Yet, classical music appears to be an effective treatment for procrastination and enables me to become Focus girl! The last two classical music inspired essays have achieved fairy high marks. Not the highest ever but that's because I haven't put the work in rather than any fault of Mozart, Bach etc. It remains to be seen whether the most recent academic endeavour will prove successful.

Big thanks to Mark and Mozart.

xxx