The Influence of Unique Melodies of Prashasthi and Kamath Songs in Sri Lankan Folk Music on Heart Rate

Abstract

Music plays an important role in our day to day life as a source of entertainment. More importantly music can also affect the other aspects of physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing of a person. According to Western and Eastern literature, heart rate correlates with certain musical aspects including tempo, melody, and music genre. The present research studied the variation of heart rate while listening to sedative and excitative Sri Lankan folk melodies. Prashasthi and Kamath folk musical creations have been selected for this experiment. Forty-five men between the ages of 25-30 who had never studied music were used as samples in this research. The mean heart rates of the subjects have increased significantly while listening to the prashasthi song. The mean heart of the subjects three minutes after stopping the prashasthi song remained significantly increased compared to their baseline (p < 0.01). Listening to Kamath songs did not significantly change the mean heart rates of the subjects.