Music Therapy gets into Vineyards

When I began to restore the farmhouse at Paradiso di Frassina and to plant a new Sangiovese vineyard around it, I intuitively felt that playing music to the vines would benefit their growth, as well as making me happy and enriching this place.

My vinous musical experiments echoed around the world, and attracted the attention of researchers at the University of Florence’s agricultural faculty with whom I have been collaborating since 2005 on the music’s physiological effects; and more recently with the University of Pisa on the entomological side. With the Universities our studies, both in the field and in the laboratory, focus on the positive effects sound waves have on the vine’s root system, leaves and flowers, with particular emphasis on the repellent effect the sound waves have on parasites and predators of wine grapes.

In this way a new and dynamic impulse has been given to organic farming methods, oriented towards the effects sound waves have on the growth of wine grape vines, and although experiments are still in their early stages the early results are so far very encouraging.

Irrespective of the scientific side, music for me ultimately remains an amazing way of marrying art with new paths of knowledge.

Carlo Cignozzi