Why should classical music be there for relaxation?

Here's a great article from Patrick Castillo (MPR)

OPINION: Beethoven didn't write the Eroica Symphony for your yoga class

by Patrick Castillo, Special to MPR

September 16, 2014

NEW YORK — As an advocate and practitioner of the art form, few tropes cause me greater distress than the old saw that classical music is relaxing. So Sheila Regan's recent article listing "Ten times when classical music can help you relax" got my heart rate going molto piu mosso, let me tell you. Following Regan's advice, I reached for some Mozart to help settle me down. It didn't work.

Because it's not meant to be relaxing.

With all due respect, Regan's well-intentioned article widely misses the mark in assessing the value of classical music.

The greatest music ever written — and I'm no genre partisan here: I'm talking the St. Matthew Passion, A Love Supreme, Quartet for the End of Time, Abbey Road, Fear of a Black Planet — all of this music exists to fascinate the ear, challenge the mind, and elevate the soul. Not to be "[kept] at a low volume," as Ms. Regan suggests, "to help you drift off to sleep."

Want to keep reading? Click here:http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2014/09/16/classical-music-not-for-relaxing?