Synthesis Sunday: Music Therapy in Context and Mercedes Pavlicevic, again

As I continue to spend some time in the book, Music therapy in context: Music, meaning and relationship by Mercedes Pavlicevic, I find myself moving into times where I am focused on one sentence for a spell. Just one sentence, repeating over and over in my head as I contemplate what the words actually mean to me, in my part of the world, and in my life as a music therapist.

I like that.

I enjoy thinking through concepts that are unfamiliar to me and trying to figure out what the thoughts of the author mean to me in my place in this world. The more I read, the more I think, and the more I have to write about my process. Writing really makes me think through concepts on a different level than just reading.

Chapter two of the book challenged me to think deeply about how I interpret music, both inside a music therapy session and outside the music therapy environment. Did you know that there are some folks out there who do not consider music as a form of emotional expression? There are others who feel that the listener is the one who assigns meaning to the sounds that we call music. With a different listener, there is a different meaning. Ethnomusicologists feel that we cannot interpret music without considering the social and cultural context of the composer, the performer, and the listener. What do you think about that??

The music that I make is influenced by who I am, who I am with, where I have been, and where I will be going. I cannot change my cultural identity any more than I can change my eye color. Sure, I could put on tinted lenses (and adopt the cultural indications of another culture), but my original eye color is still there. I cannot change my experience of European musical training, but I don't think that means that I cannot develop an appreciation of the music from other cultures. I just cannot experience it the same way as someone from those different cultures, and my experiences with that music will be shaped by my experiences in the world.

I think I can see all of these ideas and conditions and thoughts simultaneously in my clients. I can see all of these ideas and conditions and thoughts in myself and in various stages of my musical development as well.

"What matters in clinical improvisation is what is happening between the therapist and client as the music is being created, as the two players share meaning and create a shared meaning through sounds that they organize between themselves." ~ Mercedes Pavlicevic, p. 26.

As I have spent some time improvising with groups of clients in the past couple of weeks, I've found myself searching for meaning. I think I find it when my clients start to sing, start to change what I am doing musically, and when we work together to make music together. The quotation above reminds me that while I am experiencing our music in my way, each one of my client is experiencing that music through their own cultural, experiential, and sensory filters. I can never assume that my clients are experiencing the music the same way that I experience it, but we may be able to connect through our own created music as a shared composition. Recorded music may not promote the same sort of connection as improvised or live music.

(By the way, I don't think that Mercedes Pavlicevic expected that I would get any of this AT ALL in her writing. This is just me thinking through writing as I go through some new concepts and ideas...)

One of the best things that comes from this chapter (for me, anyway) is the idea that music is not only ONE thing. Music may play different roles for every person - AND THAT IS FINE! There may be some people who find the song Happy by Pharrell Williams to be a symbol of a cultural experiences. Others may find it to be a prompt to find some happiness in the day-to-day events of life. Others may remember a specific person when they hear the song. Still others may have no response or reaction to the song. Others may find a strong emotion of dislike. Almost everyone will react in some way, but there is no common reaction dictated to us by either experience or culture.

Chapter Three is entitled "Music therapy and universals: Between culture and compromise." The amount that I have already read has also deepened my thoughts about music and music therapy. I will be reading this chapter again, and I look forward to the continued challenge that the first chapters have offered.

Happy Sunday, all!! Enjoy the day. 

Pavlicevic, M. (1997). Music therapy in context: Music, meaning and relationship. London: Jessica Kingsley.

**UPDATE: When I originally published this post, I wrongly attributed the publication to the wrong company. This post has been changed to reflect the correct information. Always check your sources, folks. Always check your sources.