Choir singers 'synchronise their heartbeats'
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    From the BBC.
    Researchers in Sweden monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works.
    They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate.

    And this I found very interesting at first --
    The scientists studied 15 choir members as they performed different types of songs.
    They found that the more structured the work, the more the singers' heart rates increased or decreased together.
    Slow chants, for example, produced the most synchrony.

    --until I realized that they don't mean "chant" as we understand it, but in the Taize, mantra-style way. For metered music like they used for the study, the conclusion doesn't surprise me at all. But I would like to see the same study where the subjects are a very well-trained Gregorian chant schola. To me, the results aren't particularly interesting unless the music is not metered (or perhaps more accurately, "pre-metered").

    Here's the actual paper.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    This is fascinating, esp. because of the connection between respiration and heart rate. I'm not too surprised, though, since I'm always fighting the instinct to breathe at the same time as my husband when we're singing the propers. Whenever he takes a breath, I automatically breathe with him even if I've already just taken a breath. The only way I can stop is by putting in breath marks and sticking to them.

    P.S. Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary, so it's no surprise we breathe together! : )
    Thanked by 5jpal CHGiffen Gavin Chris Hebard canadash
  • elaine60elaine60
    Posts: 85
    As a music therapist we have known this for a long time.
    Thanked by 2jpal chonak
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