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From: Herald DE-STRESS WITH STRAUSS By Melba Mergulhao-Carvalho Antao Holistic Healing DON�T be put off at the thought of classical music - it doesn�t bore you to death as the average person is prone to believe. It certainly unknots the jangled and taut nerves of your mind and body. I experienced a serene feeling after a mini-demonstration Prof. Mathew Mendes formulated for me. At the start of the therapy he first played - on his <i>Strein </i>piano and there are no other instruments - a very stressful and turbulant piece called Toccata by A. Khachaturian a Russian musician of the 1930s. My reaction? My sensibilities were rattled and jarred. I was all strung up! But, after the short ordeal, Mathew then changed over to a Baroque piece by Bach - calm and peaceful - called contrapuntal music which is a �tune upon a tune� ie. a tune in the bass part and another tune in the treble part. I was told to "listen to the tunes individually first and then listen to the tunes (bass and treble) together" - an immediate assuaginh effect crept over me for I was absorbing, internalising and assimilating the musical vibrations and making it part of my system. You feel good from head to toe. Interspersed among Bach and Beethoven music, Mathew, who reads a lot, enhances the effect of his music by incorporating relevant quotations from Shakespeare, Milton, Kahlil Gibran, etc. Here�s one: The man who has no music in him and who is not moved by the concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treason, strategems and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus Let no such man be trusted - Shakespeare Midway through the session, you listen to Bach�s Jesu Joy of Man�s Desiring. Bach was a very religious man and composed this stirring piece to manifest his great love just to desire Jesus for himself - not, as is our want, to either praise, request, ask or thank Him for personal favours. This piece transports you to a divine level - works fail you, so you just let your feelings flow and encircle you...... The session ends with a sweet tune - a fairy walze, and its sweet melody stays with you all the way home.... Well, who is Mathew Mendes? He�s a 50-year-old Mumbaikar and is an ex-student of St. Xavier�s Mumbai (when the city was Bombay). He has been playing music from the age of 4 which is not surprising with both his father and uncle - Thillbert and Zeferino respectively, proficient musicians. His uncle was a professor of music in Melbourne, Australia. Thereafter, Mathew studied under Madame Olga Athaide-Craen, who was rated as the best pianist in the whole of Asia in th 50s. His musical qualifications are commendable - he secured an ATCL, LTCL and LRSM which are affliated to London. In LRSM examination, Mathew stood firt in India and was awarded the Sir Adrian Boult Award in 1973 when he touched his 20th year. From that age to today, teaching music has been his passion and profession. Are the western classics apprecaited only by certain classes? Earlier most upper class Christians and Parses went in for classical musical training in Mumbai but, today, many more have started studying western classical musics because they�verealised its universal language of classial music," points out Mathew How did the music therapy idea originate? "Ten months ago, I was ill with high cholestrol and cardiac complications. I had read that music heals but I never tried this therapy on myself. And I did so then and played a combination of classical music for myself in the wee hours of dawn. Over a period of 4 months, I began to feel much better. That�s when I decided to introduce my experience to the public so that they too could benefit from it. You must know that in America this is a very common therapy not only for humans but for animals and plants too. You know cows yield more milk and hens lay more eggs after imbibing balmy music. Many modern farmers have introduced music in the farmyards so that animals are happy and relaxed." If music has a therapeutic effect on animals and plants, can man be otherwise? "Of course not. Many have realised the holistic power of music, particularly classical music. Many corporate companies have found that the efficiency of top notch executives is more is heightened and productivity levels shoot up. This is because classical music relaxes, de-stresses and eases the mind. The head is cleared of its cobwebs and the tightness disappears." Doesn�t classical music go above the head of the average person? To benefit from the therapeutic effect of classical music you don�t need to know classical music. All you have to do is close your eyes, relax and breath evenly and absorb the musical vibrations which, in turn, will set right the improper vibrations in your body. Here�s an email, sent by one of the participants, to the internet: From Nazar da Silva ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) It is 3 am. Even before the birds awake to sing the praises of the Creator; before even the air is laden with the delicate fragance of fresh crushed leaves on which nocturnal animals feed, even as the village of Moira is wrapped in deep slumber, the amazing grace of sublime music wafts over the crisp, still air and merges with the dreams of the populance in the neighbourhood. Prof. Mathew Mendes ia at his piano. Mindful of the morning hour, his fingers gently caress the ivory keys of this beloved </i>Steiner <i>in hormage to Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven. Strauss and even to Chopin who considered his own composition as vastly inferior to that of the incomparable composer of the Baroque period; a position that Bach occupies is without peer to this day. There is good reason for Mathew�s early morning foray into the realms of the divine. Science confirms that there is a discernable aura that surrounds all living things . This aura is seen to respond to vibration emitted by sound. With appropriate vibrations, trees and plants grow more vigourously, cows produce more milk, chickens more eggs. And as Mathew Mendes has discoverd from his own experience music heals! Diagnosed with high cholestrol and cardiac risk, he was advised medication and diet which he ignored. He immersed himself instead in long spells of profound music through which one suspects he has hada "God experience". It was and continues to be a physical and spirit enriching expeience. One that has restored him to health </i>without<i> medication or diet. The excitement of his discovery drives him today. He is a man on a mission - determined to spread the good news through music and holistic living. One does not require any previous musical background. Step by step he will teach you to concentrate and he will teach the proper techniques for breathing. That approach, with the right choice of music can heal you both spiritually and physically. It is a given that without inner healing, one can have neither peace nor physical healing. That is the secret of Mathew�s wellbeing today. Check it out for yourself! The musical soiree lasts 1<font size=1>1/2</font><font size=3> hours from 5 pm every Sunday at Moira will include refreshments at a nominal cost per head. VENUE: 278, SERENITY Near Immaculate Conception Convent Novo Portugal, Moira, GOA-403507 2470356/2254312/2262197/9890192342
