Study of music by Mozart includes tunes “not necessarily music composed by Mozart”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy – famously writing music at an age when other children need lullabies to help them to fall asleep. 

Despite how prolific he was, however, Mozart did not write an album called “Bedtime Mozart.” That has now created a headache for the authors of a study published in Pediatric Research in August that found the particular set of melodies helped soothe babies during a particular blood test.

Like many “Mozart Effect” studies before it, the new research prompted a press release referring to Mozart in its headline, and plenty of press coverage. But Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup, a correspondent for Frankfurter Allgemeine, thought something was off-key: 

The question arises as to whether the newborns actually listened to Wolfgang Amadeus: The YouTube video linked in the press release, which is supposed to contain a piece from an album “Bedtime Mozart: Classical Lullabies for Babies”, sounds tinny and is difficult for adults to bear – that Gedudel, published under the song title “Deep Sleep”, could hardly have been written by Mozart.

As Feldwisch-Drentrup reported in August:

After this newspaper inquired about these discrepancies, the Springer Nature press office deleted the word “Mozart” from the press release; the authorship of the song could not be clarified – now there is only talk of a lullaby. It initially remained unclear whether the study would be revised accordingly. According to a spokeswoman, the publisher contacted media that reported on Mozart’s effects on babies and apologized for the inconvenience.

The press release lost the word “Mozart,” and the paper has now indeed been revised. A correction, which ran on September 29, reads:

The original online version of this article was revised: the music used for this study is from an album called ‘Bedtime Mozart’ and not necessarily music composed by Mozart. Any references to Mozart music have been corrected accordingly. The original article has been corrected.

Saminathan Anbalagan, the corresponding author of the paper, told Feldwisch-Drentrup in August his team used the recording “because it had previously been used for research on ‘Mozart’ effects.” Anbalagan did not respond to a request for comment from Retraction Watch.

Good news for composers not named Mozart, though: Your music, too, can soothe babies undergoing minor medical procedures.

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