A new study suggests listening to classical composers can lower heart rate and blood pressure – but ABBA is not so helpful.

Can music really soothe the savage beast? New research suggests that listening to the music of Mozart and Johann Strauss can lower both heart rate and blood pressure. The study was conducted by Hans-Joachim Trappe und Gabriele Voit of Ruhr University Bochum and published in the journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International under the title The Cardiovascular Effect of Musical Genres.

Trappe and Voit measured the effect on 60 participants of listening to 25 minutes of music by either Mozart, the waltz king Johann Strauss, or Europop legends ABBA. This was compared with a control group of 60 people who enjoyed 25 minutes of silence. All of the participants had their blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol concentration measured before and after the session.

Representing the Classical period was Mozart’s popular Symphony No 40 in G Minor, KV550 and representing the Romantic era were various dances by Strauss, including An der Schönen Blauen Donau (The Blue Danube Waltz). For the 20th-century, a suite of songs by Swedish band ABBA was used, including Thank You for the Music and The Winner Takes it All.

Participants lay on a lounger in a room at a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius and those listening to the music did so through headphones. The study found that participants who listened to the classical composers recorded lower blood pressure and heart rate than those listening to ABBA or sitting in silence. No substantial effect was measured in the participants listening to ABBA, and while resting in a supine position did lower the blood pressure of participants in the control group, the effect was far more pronounced in those listening to Mozart and Strauss. It was also noted that the cortisol levels of male participants dropped more significantly than those of the female participants – especially in those who listened to Mozart and Strauss – which suggests that the sex of the participants might have played a role in how they responded to the music.

So why was ABBA less effective? The researchers float a number of hypotheses, the main one being that the music by ABBA included lyrics – which stimulate different parts of the brain – but they also suggest that the use of synthetic instruments may have played a role.

While the reasons for the success of the Mozart are complex and still rather opaque, the researchers suggest that it may be something to do with the way the music is constructed. “Analyses of the musical scenarios of this study also hint at notable periodicity, repetitions, and effects of recognition,” they write, “According to these insights, the Symphony in G Minor is particularly beneficial for the cardiocirculatory system because of the special arrangement of its compositional elements.”