“A Jazz musician juggles with harmonies” – Benny Green
Recent years have witnessed an explosion of scientific, evidence-based research on music therapy. The power of music as a healing treatment for a broad scope of physical and mental conditions which includes AIDS, cancer, comas, multiple sclerosis, senile dementia and children with developmental disabilities is drawing the attention of a dedicated team of researchers n this novel field, which promises to be the ‘future medicine’.
Music offers a holistic approach based on the notion of musicality as an expression of self, with the power to energise, balance and harmonize. ‘There is always a chance’, says Colwyn Trevarthen ‘that music will spark the fire of life and creativity, setting a spirit free and bringing happiness’. In skilled and sympathetic hands, it can educate and heal. In this process, the potential musical expressions could be identified for therapeutic use with the help of experts in neuroscience and psychobiology.
Recent advances made in neuro-musicological research indicate that, where neuro-degenerative disease restricts movement, communication and thought processes and impairs the sense of self, music therapy could be an effective intervention in neurological rehabilitation, successfully restoring the performance of identity within which clients can recognise themselves.
Music therapy has also been found to aid rehabilitation of clients affected by dementia, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis, among other neuro-generative diseases. Though research and clinical work used to be viewed as opposites in the field of music therapy, recent study indicates that these two areas of work can creatively complement one another, proving beneficial to both disciplines.
Music and Altered State
The opportunities for using music-induced states of altered consciousness to promote physical and mental healing, treat substance dependence, and in spiritual and palliative care is increasingly recognized by the modem researchers in music therapy.
Successful use of altered states and their therapeutic potential, providing examples from different cultures and clinical, therapeutic and spiritual settings is being increasingly reported in recent years.
A wide range of music types have been found capable of inducing altered states. These types include polyrhythmic music including cross-rhythms as common in African cultures, monotonous drumming known in the Indian subcontinent, Arab musical schemata and the more common Western pop. (Aldridge and Fachner, 2005).
Music for Dementia Care
During the last decade music therapists have concentrated on the problems of the elderly. Dementia care has received notable attention as music therapy is viewed as a reliable means of improving memory, health and identity in those suffering from dementia-particularly the Alzheimer’s type. Some researchers in recent years have shown how music therapy facilitates and enables communication through sound and movement. (Aldridge, 2000).
Music Therapy for the Handicapped Children
It is heartening to note that where all the other methods give way, music therapy remains to be a dependable method especially for the handicapped children. This author’s experiments with the mentally retarded children of Visakhapatnam, India have shown the way music makes the severely depressed child cheerful and bright, Experiments with various Indian ragas are under way, with a view to isolate those raga structures which are conducive in ‘awakening’ the special children.
Nadine, a German child who is blind, had communication problems with others. With music, she could develop vocal abilities and begin to sing. She now attends a school for normal children despite her blindness.
Ishita, a six-year old severely retarded girl-child at Lebenshilfe, Visakhapatnam was dull and withdrawn. With repeated dose of Indian ragas such as Kadanakudhoohalam and Faras and with their improvisations by a group of local musicians (a tablist, a violinist, a mridangist and a harmonium player) it was observed by the volunteers as to how she gradually started becoming social with other children of her age.
Through the use of very skilled musical improvisations of ragas, not only Ishita, but also a number of other children of Lebenshilfe — of various age groups were able to enjoy this musical experience. A video-recording of this therapy session clearly shows the transformation of these children at the end of such a session as they start responding to both the sound and the movement in music.
This theme of sensory development and the entry into a world of communicative richness through music has been dealt with by Aldridge (1968) in his book Music Therapy with Children. The use of music therapy in children’s hospices is also burgeoning.
Eleven music therapists working with children who are in the final stages of life-limiting illness have discussed the adaptation of the therapy to the hospice environment and to the individual needs of the patient. They explore the key concerns of all practitioners in this field such as how to empower the patient, how to help bereaved siblings and how the therapists themselves can find support. Their work takes a holistic approach to children’s hospices with chapters on involving family and staff in sessions and the creation of a music community. This compilation Music Therapy in Children’s Hospices edited by Pavlicevic (2005) seems to inject some hope and remind us of the saying that the sablest cloud has a silvery line, the silvery line being music therapy.
Bibliography
Aldridge, 2000. Music Therapy in Dementia Care.
Aldridge, D. 2005 Music Therapy and Neurological Rehabilitation: Performing Health
Aldridge, D. and J. Fachner. 2005 Music and Altered States: Consciousness, Transcendence, Therapy and Addictions.
Pavlicevic, M. 2005 Music Therapy in Children’s Hospices
Perret, D. Roots of Musicality: Music Therapy and Personal Development
Sairam, T. V. 2006 (Ed.) Music Therapy: The Sacred and the Profane
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, Nov 27, 2021