Synthesis Sunday: Chapter Nine - Music in Dynamic Form and Dynamic Form in Music

It is Sunday again, and it is time to dive into the next chapter of Mercedes Pavlicevic's book, Music Therapy in Context: Music, Meaning and Relationship. Chapter nine, "Music in Dynamic Form and Dynamic Form in Music," begins with the reminder that musicality is innate and emotional in nature. We use sounds to communicate prior to the development of speech, and we learn to adapt sounds to let others know what we want or need. We have those "that's her sleepy cry" moments when we are getting to know infants.

"In clinical work,...it is usually the distortion of this innate musicality that is addressed, that points the way towards how the person can be brought towards a state of equilibrium and balanced flexibility, signalling a fully mutual expressive being." (p. 118)

Dynamic Form - "the intrinisically organised dynamic forms of emotions which are present from birth and generated in interpersonal relating" (p. 118).

So, when I place this thought into my setting (which is what Synthesis Sunday is all about, in my opinion), these concepts of innate musicality and dynamic form start to provide me with an explanation for why music encourages behaviors that are not replicated in other areas - both positive and desired behaviors and the other side, the non-desired behaviors. My clients respond to music. They may not necessarily respond to the music that I offer into the environment, but they respond to music. There are patterns and rhythms and tempos and melodies present in their interactions with the world - things that are natural and that have been taught. I, as a music therapist, have the job of noticing those musical elements and building a musical interaction where my client can express themselves in a way that does not require verbal communication.

According to Pavlicevic, clinical improvisation "is an inter-personal event, rather than only being a musically interactive event" (p. 121). Dynamic form becomes the characteristic that separates music therapy clinical improvisation and improvisation that is simply musical in nature.

Dynamic Form includes all of the elements of music that I have found and some others that I have never really considered - shape, contour, intensity, level, motion, number, flexibility, stability, fragmentation, rigidity, contrast, intimate contact, isolation. (See the figure on page 123 for a chart about this concept.) 

Throughout the chapter, Ms. Pavlicevic offers specific clinical examples of situations that are similar to those I've seen in the music therapy clinic over the years.

Here are the techniques that I am going to focus on this week - mirroring, matching, and reflecting (p. 125). Honestly, that's where I stopped with my reading this week - I started thinking about what I would like to do with my clients and just found that I couldn't continue. There is a bunch more to read and digest in the chapter, however, so I will keep reading and see what else intrigues my thinking about what I do with my clients.

For now, though, I am going to go out into the cold morning and lead the singing at church. I'll think about Dynamic Form in that setting in contrast to what it looks like in my music therapy clinic (very different, at times).

Happy Sunday.