CHRISTMAS MUSIC IS MENTAL

You might have wondered why, during the holiday season, we are all forced to walk through various shopping areas while accompanied by Christmas tunes. Some of us, maybe lots of us, grow quite tired of listening to the same tune over and over. Some of us like the warmth of Bing Crosby and Judy Garland tunes, others like Kenny G, or the latest renditions of Il Divo, Josh Grobam, and Mariah Carrey.  There are a lot of us who prefer the great performances of King Singers or Mormon Tabernacle Choir too. More precisely, we all tend to have a specific favorite version for each tune. Each tune, heard at the wrong time (and in the wrong way) can definitely rub us the wrong way and make us irritable, distant, and even depressed. The idea of having a favorite version of Christmas tunes that we find closer to our idea of home, family or music perfection is something worth pondering about. Certainly each song carries strong memories, sometimes even a specific tradition that we, in our families, have developed and wish to maintain.

But there is a deeper meaning attached to our preferences: we have developed music likes and dislikes not only for the way the tunes make us feel, but the way that such favorites are built. Many of us tend to dislike if not even feel offended by modern versions of our favorite holiday tunes if such versions do not follow the original musical structure. Many of us tend to like songs in their most simple version, with the original voice, and the original orchestration. We are certainly bothered if anyone attempts to tamper with the rhythm, the tempo, the key signature and the qualities of the Voice. That is simply because our wonderful ability to understand, listen and even discern music elements is linked to specific correlations between music structural elements and brain functions. We would suggest to pick very carefully your best holiday music by thinking about how the music can make you.  Ponder about the memories that it triggers and watch any change in your mood.  If you spend some time on this, not only you might end up with a more joyful experience, but you will probably make your days even more blissful with happy and thankful people around you. Listen to the great songs in the LINK and find your own favorites. 

The birth of Genote corresponds to a concert performed by choirs, orchestra and soloist in Venice, on January 6th 2013.