What makes 21st century man so powerful as to rule the world and at the same time so individually vulnerable?
The firm answer of both Doctor Luigi Maria Bianchini, neurologist, psychiatrist, acupuncturist and anthropologist, and Maestro Stefano Vagnini musician, poet and music theorist, is to be found in the idea that emotions, repressed or emphasized, are the cause of most psychic and neurological disorders. These disorders inevitably affect health, provoking diseases of different nature and intensity.
Their research, in neurological as well as in musical terms, aims to a healthy and emotional balanced recovery without the pharmacological intervention but rather with a simple exercise of multiple counting to be carried out while listening to music (Ergo Sum, a deep music experience (DMX) by Stefano Vagnini – 2018)
In the effort of exemplifying the complexity of the cerebral activity, the emotional side (predominant in the right hemisphere) rapidly reacts to external stimuli by triggering instinctive and automatic responses (frontal lobe) which are then analyzed, filtered and inhibited by the rational side (left hemisphere). Once the elaboration is done, the modified message is sent back to the right hemisphere.
Just as in Parliament, where the two chambers modify and update a law before approving it, similarly in our brain the ping pong game continues until the mind reaches a satisfying state of consciousness: hence the hemispheres are aligned and synchronized (the emotional side stops the hormones and neurotransmitters secretion while the rational part judges the chosen move as adequate). Finally the action is deliberated and implemented.
This natural and efficient dialogue between hemispheres would be quite perfect, if it wasn't hindered by obstructing situations of every day life that slow down the brain response timing and delay the entire cerebral process explained above.
As a matter of fact, this easily happens anytime we hear a tragic news broadcasted by the media. We have not actually taken part to the event, but our brain reacts as if the situation was real. This motion creates unaware conditions filled with tension and anxiety with the consequent result that the vision of reality is distorted and dangerously spoiled.
In order to overcome the obstacles caused by the above premise, Stefano Vagnini identifies in music and precisely in its rhythmic / mathematical aspect the chance of intervening with a simple mechanism, already present by default in most of the music pieces we are used to listen to.
We are referring to what we call a DMX Multiple Counting: in short, it consists of a simultaneous exercise of counting out loud bars and beats of a music composition. Given a 16 bar piece of music with a ¾ tempo, the counting would be as follows:
1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3… up until the last bar: 16, 2, 3.
The music melody, harmony and form we listen to, mark our counting exercise which can be done either individually or collectively.
This practice implements a series of conscious and unconscious activities that find in the counting act a precise synchrony able to restore the confused and unbalanced scheme of the two hemispheres.
Giorgia Ragni, soprano and linguist together with Stefano Vagnini have always envisioned music as entertainment: concerts and performances, even in their most experimental dimension of research, entertain an audience who seeks, in the art of sounds, an ever-ending opportunity of emotional shelter......but actually music potentials can go far beyond that. Through music man can interfere with unconscious dynamics and patterns which could undermine individual and collective health!
Furthermore, numerous tests on single people as well as on groups have been carried out. The partecipants were subjects of different age, culture and music expertise as to verify the legitimacy of the DMX Multiple Count. For several reasons, the composition chosen to guide the counting is Johann Sebastian Bach's Aria with 30 Variations (Goldberg Variations BWV 988). An fMRI conducted on a brain while listening to Bach's music highlighted a much wider brain area engagement than that activated by the music of any other composer.
A few participants' feedbacks on the DMX Multiple Count over Goldberg Variations music are here reported:
➢ Andrea, 49 years old – Insurance Technical Inspector
Time Length: 20-minute-one-time session.
At first, he shows feelings of Embarassment and concern. His anxiety is related to the fear of being inadequate to face the task. He is so tense that he refuses to lie down, but once reassured on the type of exercise, he accepts to sit down and begin the counting test.
The starting piece is Goldberg variation n. 1: performance with loop counting. He is very concentrated and decides to keep his eyes closed for the entire session. While he is asked to count the bars, the Maestro simultaneously counts the beats. Andrea skips a bar and he apologizes for the mistake.
After the second run, he is already more serene and confident, so much that he even succeeds when he is asked to count bars and loops at the same time.
After a 10 minute exercise he is more relaxed and well synchronized.
Andrea's feedbacks: "I feel like I've achieved a good centering, I am calm and relaxed, so much that, if I had to take a decision right now, I would be able to clearly analyze every aspect of the issue".
Conclusions: The DMX Exercise requires a lot of concentration that is immediately translated in a calm state of mind and a feeling of mental order.
➢ Marco, 8 years old - Elementary School student- interested in piano
Time Length: 3 sessions of 50 minutes each.
Marco knows the name of the notes but not in the correct order; looking at the keyboard he is asked to associate each key with the right name.
After 15 minutes he can already associate notes with keys.
Marco is asked to count while the Maestro is playing the first 20 bars of J. S. Bach's Italian Concerto.
The pupil's immediate reaction is very emotional; he asks if he can cry. The Maestro tells him to freely vent his feelings out.
Given the young age, Marco's feedbacks are mostly emotional. He discovers the pure joy generated by the act of "counting music" and he bursts into tears.
Conclusions: As from the quote by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz - initial statement that opens the ERGO SUM, DMX book- : Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.
➢ Paolo, 53 years old – Real Estate Contractor
Time Length: 2 sessions of 50 minutes each.
Paolo has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at its last stage.
The patient performs the count together with the Maestro. After the first session he can already experience an enhanced state of relaxation and ease.
During chemiotherapy sessions, he practices the count while listening to the Goldberg Variations with headphones on.
The doctors were surprised that the 4 weeks of life prognosis became 5 months.
Paolo's feedbacks: "The pain is inhibited by the deep state of concentration I am in and I feel and overall and unusual sense of well-being and hope for the future".
Conclusions: The DMX therapy can be very helpful in relieving pressure and stress, delaying disease degeneration and reducing the pain.
Unfortunately the pandemic interrupted a Deep Music Experience project applied to patients with phase ONE of Alzheimer (Margherita Alzheimer Institute in Fano – Italy). The therapy applied to patients affected by neuro-degenerative diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer has demonstrated great potentials since it first started. More and new future fields of applied research will be autism, dyscalculia and dyslexia.
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