Mozart’s symphonies grow ’sweeter bananas, tastier sake’

TOKYO - Mozart’s music has regaled man for years, but now some are exploring the possibility that his symphonies may benefit fruits and vegetables too.

In July, the Hyogo Prefecture-based fruit company Toyoka Chuo Seika shipped out its first batch of “Mozart Bananas” to supermarkets in the area.

The bananas are exposed to “String Quartet 17″ and “Piano Concerto 5 in D major,” among other works for one week in their ripening chamber.

In fact, over the past few decades, a wide variety of foods and beverages have been exposed to classical vibrations - soy sauce in Kyoto, udon noodles in Tokyo, miso in Yamagata Prefecture, maitake mushrooms in Ishikawa Prefecture and “Beethoven Bread” in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, to name a few.

A representative from the company, Isamu Okuda, said that it’s no joke, and they believe it makes the bananas sweeter.

Ohara Shuzo, a sake brewery in Fukushima Prefecture, also uses Mozart’s music to brew sake. They experimented with jazz, Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, among others.

“We found Mozart works best for sake and that’s why we use only his music,” the Japan Times Online quoted Shuzo as saying.

For 24 to 30 days, during the third step of the brewing process, Mozart is played for one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon as the sake ferments in enamel-coated stainless-steel tanks.

“It makes the sake have a richer fragrance and a milder taste,” she said.

One explanation for Mozart’s popularity attributes it to theories behind “1/f noise,” or “pink noise,” which is a high frequency sound said to have relaxing and rejuvenating effects on humans.

The music of Mozart happens to be rich in such frequencies - those above 8,000 Hz, which is why sound and music therapy both tend to use it.

Dorothy Retallack, in her 1973 book, ‘The Sound of Music and Plants’, found that playing various kinds of music to plants for three hours daily made them flourish.

However, there isn’t enough research to confirm the effect of music on plants, fruits or vegetables. (ANI)