Output details

Music for The World's Most Relaxing Room : [music created in response to a psychology literature review to promote relaxation]

This music was created for 'The World's Most Relaxing Room,' devised by psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman. It was open to the public and world press, 21-24 October 2008 as part of the University of Hertfordshire's Health and Human Sciences Research Institute Showcase.

Originality: Music designed to induce relaxation is overwhelmingly intuitively created. The key innovation for this research project was the creation of music specifically related to the parameters resulting from a psychology literature review in this area of research, carried out by Prof. Wiseman and focused on the work of Grinde, 2000; Fink, 1970 and Baber 1999.

Significance: This research project had the greatest global news impact of any research project in the history of the University of Hertfordshire, with feature articles in all the leading UK press (including Times, Telegraph and Guardian), and science press. ‘The music was euphoric’ – The Times. It was featured on BBC news and over 250 other leading TV and news sources worldwide. Similar installations have resulted from the project around the world, and inquiries are received on a regular basis.

Rigour: Contribution to knowledge, research questions and a thorough literature review informed the process. The music was also subject to critical appraisal from Professor Wiseman. Significant measured reductions in heart rate and blood pressure of users demonstrated the effectiveness of the experiment.

Prof Wiseman selected the piece Memorare from Prof Blinko's compositional output to form the starting point for this research project as it had several desirable characteristics from the perspective of the psychology literature review: a steady, unchanging pulse, slow speed and largely consistent dynamics. Through discussions it was decided that Professor Blinko would completely rewrite the piece (which was submitted as a liturgical, choral piece with a Latin text to RAE 2008). Details are included in the submitted portfolio.