What I Am Reading...The Introduction

If you read this blog regularly (first of all, thank you!), then you know that one of my goals for this year is to deepen my knowledge of music as a therapeutic medium. To that end, I was able to justify the purchase of 13 books from Barcelona recently, and I am trying to make professional reading part of my regular work day. At this moment, I am on Winter Break (for six more days), so I am not working, but I am still trying really hard to start the habit of reading some of my textbooks. So, I have started with a book that I have had on my shelf for a long time, but haven't read it from cover to cover before.

Drum roll, please...just kidding, I don't expect this type of fanfare for announcements EVERY time I do something...

A Comprehensive Guide to Music Therapy: Theory, Clinical Practice, Research and Training, by Tony Wigram, Inge Nygaard Pedersen, and Lars Ole Bonde.

I am on the second chapter. It is taking me quite a bit of time to digest - not because it is difficult, but because the perspective is different from what I am comfortable in. The language is something to decipher for meaning before understanding can occur. The book is written in English so there should be little to no difficulty in comprehending the words, but there is lots of psychoanalytical information present - not my preferred way of moving into music therapy theory or practice. That is fine because I am seeking understanding outside of my current knowledge and into parts of the music therapy world that I have little to no experience with at this time.

When I read for music therapy edification, I tend to do several processes to help me navigate the words and the thoughts. I take notes while I am reading - writing down quotations and page references as I read. I also try to process my thoughts about the things that caught my eye as I go. The end result is a mishmash of my ideas, my feelings, my ways into understanding of what is being conveyed. Right or wrong, it is a reflection of me.

I will be placing these syntheses onto this blog post, but I want to make sure that everyone knows that this is not an official book review or study guide or even much beyond my own thoughts as I go through these texts. I encourage you all to read these books for yourselves so you can figure out what all this means to you. My thoughts are just that - my thoughts. If you disagree with what I write, then let me know what you think about it - I genuinely need to know what others think so I don't get tunnel vision about a particular viewpoint.

So...

Here are my notes for the Introduction and Chapter One. I am going to type them exactly how I wrote them so you can see some of my process. Remember, I want to know what you think about all this, so don't hesitate to contact me about all this!

p. 9 Foreword - Started as Danish text with a CD-ROM of additional materials

p.10 - "wide-ranging foundation text for students and professionals, academics and clinicians." "a 'primer' for the field"

Predominant music therapy model in Europe "is improvisational, insight-based therapy..."

p. 11 Introduction - Europe - music therapy is "more psychodynamic and psychodynamically orientated approaches." "actively using music making through the medium of clinical improvisation in order to establish a musical relationship with the patients through which he or she will be able to help them understand the nature of their problem."

Here's how you will be able to tell between notes and my synthesis/reaction. I will change fonts. My first response is to, once again, protest that all music therapists do what these folks have described as a psychodynamic approach. I was raised in the Behavioral construct, have transitioned through Sensory Integration, and have finally settled on Humanistic Therapy as my foundation. I feel that often music therapist from various "camps" try to identify themselves as being more true to music therapy due to how they use and interpret music and musical behavior and engagement. It raises my hackles every time someone scoffs because I have been a behaviorist in my past. I improvise with my clients and I attempt to establish a musical relationship with my clients to do all this stuff - why is this something that is co-opted by those who practice in different ways??

p. 17 Chapter One - Introduction to Music Therapy

1.1 Music therapy - a historical perspective - "Music for a while shall all your cares beguile." - Shakespeare

Shamanism - social anthropology foundation - study - modified - modern: self-developmental work

Saul and David - I Samuel 16; Orpheus; Plato - music is common in philosophy and music theory  .

" 'It is philosophy and religion that make conceptual room for music therapy' (p,44)." Horden, 2000

p. 18 - Boethius (circa AD 600) - De Institutions Musica; Europe in the Middle Ages

Four theoretical assumptions

• the world soul
• four bodily fluids - humors
• ethos doctrine - music and the modes - music can influence consciousness
• antique and classic theories of the healing power of music are above all speculative thoughts on the relationship between music, body, mind, and spirit.

"speculative, metaphysical element is also common in the 'New Age' literature" - Are we returning to our roots when it comes to figuring out how our bodies make and experience music?

I think we will find that philosophy and science have always supported each other - approaching a common question from different sides or positions. Does NOETICS play a role here? Physical power from thought? I wonder but am comfortable with some mystery. I know that music works as a therapeutic medium and don't need every single answer...

p.21 - Pythagorus - developed measurement of mathematical proportions between tones and intervals

Humans experience music physically - vibrations

p.23 Overtones are found in nature

p.24 - "...the planets vibrate in the same frequencies and proportions as audible music. This is the music of the spheres."

Trivium - grammar, rhetoric, logic; Quadrivium - geometry, arithmetics, astronomy, music theory

• Musica mundana (spiritual)
• Musica humana (mind/soul combination)
• Musica instrumentalis (physical)

All major cultures include parallel descriptions of music levels. "Man" as "musical instrument" - "out-of-tune" or "finely tuned."

p.25 - "musical attunement" - " 'musical attunement' signifies a self-forgetting preoccupations with music (Fink-Jensen, 1997)."

references to Stern and K. E. Logstrup

There is more, but I am tired of synthesizing at the moment. What I am finding interesting about this text is that it approaches how we became a profession a bit differently than my other introduction texts - not completely different, but with a bit of a different perspective. I am going to continue my reading and synthesizing until I am finished with this text. After that, on to the next one! I have LOTS to choose from!!