Dr. Kae Ferber keeps a CD playing classical music on in her office at Dean Clinic every moment she's there.

A geriatrician, Ferber is convinced that the music helps decrease anxiety--for herself and, more importantly, for her elderly patients.

"All music has an anti-depressant effect. For one thing, it makes people feel less isolated. Big band and swing music make the elderly remember when they were young. And classical music, as a rule, has a calming effect. I find Beethoven the most calming. Tchaikovsky and Mozart are good for stress, too, but they're more energizing. I usually play Beethoven in my office," said Ferber, who is herself a pianist.

Music often produces stark improvements in people with dementia, who often have insomnia and roam at night.

Ferber often recommends "Spinoza Bears"--teddies with tapes of soothing music playing inside them, intended to reduce a dementia patient's agitation at night. "It combines music with pet therapy, which I also highly recommend."

Suzanne Lee, a music therapist at Attic Angel Health Center, said, "People who wander or pace constantly, who won't even sit down for meals, respond to music. It's the one thing that engages them."

Many elderly patients who obsess about going home or finding lost children will finally relax when the right music is played.

"It's a pleasant distraction," Lee said. "People who can't talk about the present, because they can't remember it, will hear music from their childhood and early adulthood, and it brings back memories of everything."

Lee recalled a 98-year-old woman at the health center who didn't speak, couldn't find her room and had no idea of time or place. What she did know was every word to just about any old song played for her.

"When her daughter came, she always went to the piano. That's how they'd visit," Lee said.

"Normally she was withdrawn. But she lit up when her daughter played. The songs led to conversation. 'Remember when?...' "

Lee said many geriatric patients who are relearning to walk after a stroke do much better with music.

"Music is very motivating when other things aren't. That's why you have music in aerobics classes."

Another music therapist at the health center strums a guitar when one of her elderly patients is being fed through a gastrointestinal tube. By all accounts, it relaxes the patient and makes the procedure go more smoothly.

When the elderly create their own music, the effects are even more striking.

"When people get old, they should keep playing music. I feel strongly about that," Ferber said. "It not only reduces their stress, but it maintains dexterity and keeps their social contacts alive.

"If they played a violin, they could play in a chamber group. If they played in a polka band, they should keep that up. When they drop those things, they will almost certainly drop out of other areas of life."

Psychologists, musicians and musicologists have been trying to understand the emotional power of music for some time. There's still no complete explanation, and little data, on how music can trigger long-forgotten memories and feelings. It's a reaction as ethereal as humor, love or appreciation of art.

There are, though, some provocative clues.

One theory is based on the fact that music is highly patterned sound -- composers usually follow rigid rules. Those who listen to the music learn the rules intuitively. So when the music sounds the way we expect it to, we relax. When it doesn't, we feel tense.

An artful flow of musical expectations, with occasional surprises, forms the basis of our emotional response to a piece of music.

The score of "Jaws" did that, with a jagged, edgy sound whenever the shark was near. And when the shark appeared without the musical cue, audiences were even more horrified.

The body's reaction to musical tempo is thought to be innate: the human heart beats about 70 to 80 times a minute -- about the same pace as most moderate-pace Western music. Some experiments have shows that slower music has a sedating effect.

One area of research took off after stories in a medical journal about Ronald Price, who developed cerebral palsy later in life but whose symptoms disappear when he plays a harp. Price eventually decided to become a professional harpist so he could play three to four hours a day. All signs of his cerebral palsy disappeared, though they return if he doesn't play for three or more days.

Price has even founded a group in the Chicago area called Healing Harps. For information call (815) 753-1551.

Another account tells of how a comatose 67-year-old was awakened by the Polish national anthem.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, who wrote the book "Awakenings" (which led to an Oscar-nominated movie), describes music as a "neurologic necessity" because of its resonance with human rhythms. On his first meeting with patients, Sacks often asks if they like to sing, to see if they can organize their thoughts better when they sing.

Sacks claims that music has prompted the mute to talk, the frozen mask of Parkinson's patients begin to thaw, the flailing of people with conditions like Tourette's syndrome to stop, and lost personalities of Alzheimer's victims to flicker again, at least momentarily.

Many scientists believe it happens because the brain processes music differently than it processes language. For one thing, the left hemisphere of the brain usually dominates in language, while the right side is being asked to remember musical tones.

That could explain the many anecdotal accounts of how elderly people with brains damaged by stroke, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's can sing but not speak.

But applying music therapy will never be as simple as prescribing a pill. Music that thrills one person makes another hold his or her ears and flee. The vivid, free- floating associations triggered by music are entirely different for everyone. A lively merry-go-round tune might recall an awful childhood moment in an amusement park.

But unlike a pill, there are no side effects. A growing number of insurance companies, and even Medicare, have begun paying for music therapy -- and paying much less for it than most other therapies.

One area that could yield savings is among orthopedic surgical patients over the age of 65, primarily those with hip fractures. While patients with hip fractures make up only 34.5 percent of total hospital admissions, they generate 50 percent of total hospital costs. Direct care for hip fractures is $7 billion a year. There is evidence that falls resulting in hip fractures can be reduced by music therapy, because rhythmic stimuli increases coordination, balance and reaction time.

Other recent research shows that music can do a lot more than evoke calmness or activity. It can affect blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, galvanic skin response, pupil dilation, discomfort and pain tolerance.

Music therapy is becoming more common in health care facilities, including those in the Madison (WI) areas. More often, the elderly who'd been sitting on the sidelines in nursing homes are being drawn back into the musical action: Some are performing in handbell choirs, with bells adapted so even a feeble, erratic movement can produce music that an audience will enjoy.

Frances Rauscher, a UW-Oshkosh professor who is studying the link between music and brain activity, said listening to music helps "organize" and "exercise" parts of the brain that are responsible for higher function.

"Perhaps the cortex's response to music is the Rosetta stone for the internal language of higher brain function," she said.