Music has long been known as a useful tool for inducing sleepdeliberately or otherwise. It also can produce a generally soothing effect, helpful in assuaging mental or physical upsets, as reflected in William Congreve's remark "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast"-often misquoted as "savage beast." Many composers have written music aimed at putting children to sleep, employing the titles (depending on their language) berceuse, Wiegenlied, cradle-song, or lullaby. That the same technique can be used on an adult level is demonstrated by three notable cases involving noble patrons suffering from insomnia and allied afflictions:
 
King Saul of Israel.
The Old Testament records (I Samuel 16) how this tormented monarch employed David son of Jesse, "a cunning player on a harp . . . . a man that can play well" to perform music to quiet his troubled spirit. "So Saul was refreshed, and was well." However, the cure was only temporary, for during a subsequent performance, Saul threw a javelin at David, causing him to flee and eventually to replace him on the throne.
 
King Philip V of Spain.
Withdrawn, melancholy, and restless, this unbalanced monarch could achieve a modicum of normality only when sung to by the great male soprano Farinelli (see listing of CASTRATI). His Queen, Elizabeth Farnese, accordingly engaged Farinelli to take up residence at the Spanish court in 1737. Farinelli said that he sang the same four songs to the king every night for the next 10 years-two arias from Johann Hasse's opera Artaserse, a minuet by Attilio Aristi, and a song imitating a nightingale by Geminiano Giacomelli. In 1746 Philip died and Farinelli was able to retire to Italy with a fortune.
 
Count Hermann Carl von Kaiserling.
This former Russian Ambassador to the Court of the Elector of Saxony frequently lived in Leipzig, where a member of his household was an organist and harpsichordist named Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. Kaiserling was sickly and suffered from sleepless nights. On such occasions he asked Goldberg to play the harpsichord in an adjoining room. In 1742 Kaiserling commissioned Johann Sebastian Bach to compose some clavier pieces for Goldberg "which should be of such a soft and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up with them in his sleepless nights." Bach responded with the monumental work known ever since as the Goldberg Variations. The music must indeed have put the Count to sleep, for he responded by giving Bach one of the richest presents he ever received, "a golden goblet, filled with 100 Louis d'ors."