"To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps
contented with reports hear only in heaven."
MILTON: PARADISE LOST

Since October last year, Prof Mathew Mendes has been teaching people what is popularly known as "Healthy Living Therapy through Baroque Music". Every Sunday evening a batch of around 15 enthusiastic persons, seeking inner peace for minds troubled by pain or illness or hyper tension, make it to "Serenity", the "Holistic Home" nudging a hillock, in the placid Novo Portugal valley in Moira-Bardez.

The tranquil environs, amidst ample foliage and pleasant birdsong, are just right for the valuable experience, about which Prof. Mendes says, "It has been proved abundantly that Baroque music besides being holistic is therapeutic and curative. The therapeutic value of Baroque music is not available in rococo and other classical music. Therefore, I have dedicated my entire efforts to Baroque music."

To get the best results from Baroque music, be believes that it is of utmost importance "that you are able to internalize and experience it to the fullest extent possible". So, he provides instruction on internalization of Baroque music through the principles of vipassana and yoga. He also says, "Since life is definitely not one-dimensional it becomes important to reinforce Baroque music through another dimension, namely literature. It is a fact not generally known that two of the greatest literary geniuses, namely Shakespeare and Milton add a new dimension to Baroque music."

Quoting great poets entirely from memory, the renowned music professor shows the participants "how meaningful Baroque music can prove when it is performed against the backdrop of the great literature of Shakespeare and Milton". Khalil Gibran, John Milton and Keats also people the narrative during the breaks while Mendes explains how the combination of poetry and music helps "stimulate the nerves and send uniformly, agreeable sensations throughout the body. In the process, the blood flow is regulated, with a concentration of the mind."

Prof Mendes developed the unique concept two years ago through some inner compulsion towards internalizing and understanding Baroque music. By a quirk of fate, he was compelled to put in all his efforts towards it, when he developed very high cholesterol in the blood, necessitating strong doses of medicines plus strict diet.

"I followed neither but instead concentrated entirely on internalizing Baroque music as a curative to control my cholesterol level. The results proved that I was on the right track, from which I have not wavered, and never will. Baroque has thus become a part of my life, which has engendered salubrious results. RES IPSA LOCQUITUR (the things speaks for itself)."

Prof Mathew Mendes, hailing from a family of persons who had music for a full profession besides a way of life, took to music at the very early age of five. The initiation into music was under his musician father, the late Tilbert Mendes. Subsequently, he was trained under Zeferino Mendes, who became a wellknown musician in Melbourne-Australia. Advance training came from Harry Lyttler, the former examiner of the Trinity College, London, besides Prof Rainer von Zastrow and Madame Olga Craen-Athaide.

By the age of 20, Mendes had already been acknowledged as an accomplished radio artiste in Bombay, where he graduated from St Xavier's College. His music qualifications include ATCL, LTCL, LRSM from Trinity College and Royal School of Music, London. For his prowess at the piano, he has been the proud recipient of the prestigious Sir Adrian Boult Award and the BMSO Challenge Shield, for securing the highest marks in India at the LRSM examination 1973.

The "BAROQUE MUSIC THERAPY" comprises of a course of five sessions, to get the full benefit, relieve stress, depression and blood pressure. Moreover, even those not given to music and its nuances, get "fairly inculcated to the beauty and love for classical music and its appreciation."

"BAROQUE MUSIC THERAPY" is something like alternative medicine, where different sounds affect the body differently, soothing and energizing. He instructs his class to close their eyes and breathe uniformly, to soak in all the vibrations one receives. People from the age of 7 to 80 attend the healing sessions, lasting 90 minutes every Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

TEL: 2262197, 2470356. email:mailto:jmendes@sancharnet.in