Out of the rubble of the Haitian earthquake, one of the miracle survivors was a renowned blind violinist who survived more than 18 hours with his legs and hand crushed in the wreckage of his felled music school by playing Brahms and Mozart in his mind.

Somewhere in the dust and blood of what he believed might become his own grave, Romel Joseph kept hope alive in his heart and fought against panic and pain by doing what comes naturally to him. He played his violin - in his mind. He started with the strains of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and kept playing the classics hour after hour.

By the time he was rescued from the ruins of his Port-au-Prince music school almost 20 hours later, he had recited every concerto in his mind that he had ever performed.

``I never thought I would get out,'' said Joseph, who has already undergone two surgeries at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital to repair his shattered legs. ``The earth just opened up.''

Joseph's remarkable tale of survival speaks volumes about a study that finds music is the stimulus that most seems to keep people's minds off the pain. The study was published in the Journal of Psychology of Aesthetics,Creativity, and the Arts.

Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland found that people who were listening to their favorite music felt less pain and could stand pain for a longer period.

Pain researcher Laura Mitchell, PhD, and lecturer in the university’s Division of Psychology, has measured how people respond to pain with various forms of distractions, including relaxing music, listening to humorous audiotapes, doing math puzzles and looking at art.

"Favorite music has come out consistently, even to an extent that's really surprised me in designing these studies, as being extremely effective in how people can tolerate the pain and in actually reducing how much pain they feel," Dr. Mitchell said.

But not just any music — it's not the relaxing jazz playing in the dentist's office or the classical piped into the clinic waiting room that does people good, but their own personal favorite. She said favorites have ranged from Smashing Pumpkins to Destiny’s Child. In the destruction of Haiti, Wolfgang and the Classical Era composers staved off Joseph’s pain and helped him to survive the devastation.

The study involved people dunking their hand in frigid water and keeping it there as long as they could stand it to measure tolerance for pain. The 400 participants reported their ability to distract themselves from pain more than doubled if they were listening to their favorite music, while their perception of the amount of pain they felt fell significantly as well.

Most significantly, Dr.Mitchell says she feels the findings will make a difference in a range of medical situations from dealing with chronic pain to facing the pain of uncomfortable medical tests.

Meantime, despite his remarkable rescue after last week’s earthquake, the 50-year-old Joseph must now confront wrenching losses.

His pregnant wife, Myslie,26, perished in the disaster two floors below him. With two severe fractures inhis left hand, the Juilliard graduate may not be able to play the violin again. But he has vowed to rebuild the school.

Joseph told reporters he came to a stark conclusion while lying in the rubble: He needs to rebuild his school and continue teaching children the beauty of classical music.