Tunes that soothe; the healing power of music...

The sound of piano music coming from the operating theatre was the first clue that something unusual was afoot. As the theatre doors swung open and the trolley was wheeled in, the patient was greeted by a smiling surgeon sitting at a piano playing "The More I See You".

As the surgeon played on, with random extracts from other piano works, the patient was sedated and prepared for surgery. With the patient and theatre team ready, the music finally stopped, and the surgeon stood up and began his day job.

The experiment in Hawaii, a world first, was testing whether music has an effect on health, pain and vital signs, such as blood pressure and heart and breathing rates, as well as levels of hormones and antibodies. More...

See also:

• Beatles music more than 'auditory cheesecake', scientists find, but we already knew that, didn't we?
• Most Sung-About Body Part? The Eyes Have It...
• Astaire and Rogers: Let's face the music and dance...
• Stringfever and the History of Music! Nice!