The other day while I was baking cookies, I put on the greatest hits of Donovan.  Remember him?  I hadn’t listened to “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” or “Mellow Yellow” for years, but I found that I could remember all the lyrics.  Soon the baking was done and I was still humming.  And I was in a great mood.

Congreve coined the line “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast” in a seventeenth-century play.   Somewhere along the line, breast morphed into beast – but the quote works either way.  This all got me thinking about my “serenity in old age” project and about the uses of music in summoning memory (“Blue Velvet” puts me right back to “slow dancing” in a Junior High gym), or quickening the blood (Country Joe’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” makes me want to challenge the “man”), or motivating (“I Am Woman Hear Me Roar” propelled me through my early career) and, especially, music’s power to soothe.  Think of lullabies.  Or hymns.  When I am really upset, nothing soothes me like belting out old hymns on the piano.  When I just need some peace, I put on Gregorian chants.  In my working days, I often played chanting as background music in my office, giving me an undeserved reputation for being very religious.  I might not have the serenity of the monks or nuns who are singing, but their calm certitude washed over me and often seemed to defuse the kind of angry people my position sometimes exposed me to.

The songs of the baby boomers’ youth were not, largely, soothing songs.  They tended to be about unrequited love, break-ups of all kinds, the frustrations of growing up, and the obtuseness of adults. Yet, we still cling to them.  Psychologists and marketing experts know that there is a “reminiscence bump” for music that we listened to when we were between ages ten and thirty.  Grocery stores play oldies in the morning when the retirees are in the market and switch to newer and newer music as the day goes on.  Automobile manufacturers’ ads feature songs from the youths of their target audiences.  Do these old songs work because they make us feel young again or just because they are so familiar?  Surely a little of both.

Music also helps to prevent dementia.  In 2025, the National Endowment for the Arts published a study, Strength in Numbers: Large Study Suggests Role for Music in Preventing Dementia, came to the following (quoted) conclusions of how music helps us elders:

• The greatest benefit was experienced by older adults who “always” listened to music. Their risk for dementia was 39 percent lower than that of adults who “never,” “rarely,” or “sometimes” listened to music. They also had 17 percent lower risk for other types of cognitive impairment, and better cognition and memory scores overall.
• Playing a musical instrument “often or always” was linked with a 35 percent lower risk for dementia, though there were no associations with reduced risk of cognitive impairment, and no changes in cognitive test scores over time.
• Frequently listening to music and playing an instrument was associated not only with a 33 percent lower incidence of dementia, but also with a 22 percent lower incidence of other types of cognitive impairment.

In this study, “voice” counted as an instrument.  And, in my opinion, singing or humming along to whatever music you are listening to helps – even if you’re out of tune.  Growing up, everyone in my family sang – even when they couldn’t hit the right notes.  When large groups of my relatives got together, they sang. For hours.  And I have no doubt that they were happier and got along better than families who discussed politics!

So, it would seem that music is a tool that we could use – for both serenity and brain exercise.  In these days of 24-hour news cycles, it is hard to remember to turn off the news or the podcast and turn on the music, but it is a worthwhile practice.  And think of all the music that is at our disposal.  What calms you?  What makes you feel alert but not agitated?  For myself, it is Bach, Gregorian chants, and Leonard Cohen.  For you, it might be a Disney soundtrack. (Did you know that much of the music in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty  came from Tchaikovsky’s ballet music?)  Just like the other things that lead to serenity, the point is to make a conscious choice.  Proactive rather than reactive. More on that later, because I have found that do be an important mantra for my serenity project.

I once posted a story (“It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) about the effect of music on a young woman.  The story’s sad ending reminds us that music is not a panacea; it is not reality.  But it can, perhaps, put us on an even keel so that we can cope with confronting the real challenges to our enjoyment of these precious days.