Nordisk Tidsskrift for Musikkterapi

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Music Therapy History and Cultural Contexts

Even Ruud

To cite this article: Even Ruud (2000) Music Therapy History and Cultural Contexts, Nordisk
Tidsskrift for Musikkterapi, 9:2, 67-76, DOI: 10.1080/08098130009478003

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Published online: 13 Jul 2009.

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 ESSAY

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 9(2), pp 67-76.

Music Therapy - History and

Cultural Contexts
Two major new texts on music therapy

Even Ruud
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An essay review of:

Horden, Peregrine (Ed.) (2000). Music as Medicine. The History of Music Therapy since Antiquity.
Aldershot: Ashgate.
Gouk, Penelope (Ed.) (2000). Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Introduction
discovered, however, was that my general
Twenty years ago, when I was writing my historical knowledge was far too incomplete. To
doctoral dissertation, I had the idea of tracing the do justice to the field would require extensive
history of music therapy back to its Western scholarship in Arabic language, Greek and Latin.
historical roots. I located some sources from And then in 1977 Friedrich Kummers monumental
various historical periods and events, and was work on the history of music therapy appeared
fascinated by the idea of a possible continuous with a wealth of details, extensive source reading
historical line from antiquity up till present day. and a tremendous knowledge of many intellectual
By combining different sources, I could see a fields. And I left the subject with Kiimmel, realising
continuous line, although mine became more a that in order to become proficient in music therapy
history of ideas of music therapy rather than a theory, one had to renounce some areas of
detailed continuous narrative. What I soon research.

EVEN RUUD
Dr. philos, Professor, Department of Music and Theatre, University of Oslo. Adjunct professor in music
therapy, The State Academy of Music, Oslo. He has published several books about music therapy, music
education and music and cultural studies, like Music Therapy and its Relationship to Current Treatment
Theories (1980), Musikken - van nye rusmiddel (1983), Music and Health (1986), Musikk for yet (1988).
Musikk og verdier (1996), Musikk og identitet (1997), Music Therapy: Improvisation, Communication, and
Culture (1998). Since 1978 Ruud has been an active participant in the training of music therapists and has
held the position as the Head of the Department of Music and Theatre, University of Oslo for two periods.
Address: Dept. of Music and Theatre, University of Oslo. P.O. Box 1017 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway. E-
mail: [email protected]

Thanks to I-'elicity Uaker Tor help with the editing.

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2) 6 7

 EVENRUUD

I was rather surprised then to receive these about music therapy in Norway, it was argued
two new books on the history and cultural that Plato had spoken positively of the beneficial
contexts of music therapy. A bit sceptical first, I effects of music on humans. Ergo, music had to
must admit, because I feared this might have been be an excellent therapeutic tool, it was stated. From
another amateur project by music therapists not then on my empirical mind was suspicious of all
knowing historical or cultural research. But very kinds of "historical proofs". Although I am not
soon I realised that these were gifts to music totally free from using history as legitimation,
therapy, written by historians, musicologists, during my own re-search I was fascinated by the
anthropologists, people who are experts in their ongoing rethinking of music as medicine across
respective fields devoting their skills to what might historical times. As new medical theories were
well be regarded as an obscure field within evolving, music seen as therapy always seemed
mainstream history. On the other hand, I have to find a place, a new articulation. Although, as
always held that the history of music therapy is a Horden remarks, for a long time, the idea of music
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forgotten history, one of the "small narratives" as therapy was upheld by a few basic assumptions.
threading its way along other grand narratives First exists the theory of ethos, i.e. that each mode
about philosophy, music and medicine. In that of music can induce a specific response in the
sense it is not surprising that these books appear listener. Furthermore, there are the medical theories
today. about the four humours; that "mental illness" is
At the initiative of Peregrine Horden, the somatic of origin; and finally that the mind can
Horden book contains a series of articles based hinder or generate ill health. This last idea
on papers from a conference held at Royal acknowledges that the psychosomatic traffic is
Holloway College, University of London in 1997. two-way, although as Horden states it, it was not
Horden has written a stimulating introduction to wholly put into practice until the Arabic scholars
the whole book, as well as smaller introductions from the ninth century onward synthesised the
to all the historical sections, demonstrating not ideas and laid the ground for a preventive
only the historical overview and detail, but also medicine. Here music found its place among other
knowledge of the contemporary situation of music so-called "non-natural" determinants of health.
therapy. Horden's critical remarks on Kiimmel also
At the same time as Peregrine Horden question the idea of a streamless historical
organised his symposium on the history of music continuity. Kummers way of organising his
and medicine, Penelope Gouk, also in London, evidence could easily give us the impression of a
gathered a group of scholars in another "single march past of a huge army", where in fact
symposium: ''Music, Healing and Culture; we are witnessing "the effect of a smaller number
Towards a Comparative Perspective" (1997). The of soldiers coming around again and again" (p.26).
symposium inspired these scholars to publish this In other words, up until the nineteenth century,
collection. Again we are privileged with a scholarly evidence of music in therapy was considered a
work by non-music therapists adding substantially persistent recycling of a few anecdotes
to the self-refiexivityof the field of music therapy. reproduced through the intellectual tradition and
formed part of the training of the medical
profession. Penelope Gouk argues that the
Legitimation introduction of almost every book on music theory
from the middle age on includes a passing
In his introduction, Horden makes the point reference to the healing properties of music. Gouk
that most historical comments written by music adds that was more a literary convention following
therapists have had the agenda of using history a pattern set by Boethius' Fundamentals ofMusic
as a tool for the legitimation of current practice. I (6th century AD), and "in virtually every case the
recall that during one of the first lectures I heard

68 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2)

 MUSIC THERAPY-HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

author has nothing substantial to say on the contemporary music therapy theory. But I am not
subject." sure that more readings into exotic healing
The fact that a lot of the writings on music and traditions will help music therapy survive unless
medicine have been taken from literary and we are able get beneath the surface of these
philosophical traditions further supports this idea. traditions. That is, what we need from
Some of the great systems of medical thinking anthropology is some methodology to help in the
barely mention music, with a tendency for music understanding of how music, therapy and social
lo be prescribed by a doctor for personal reasons contexts work together and also how some of the
rather than in a systematic fashion. The history workings of contemporary music therapy can be
Horden wants to offer us, is in that sense a understood as a specific cultural practice. This is
balanced outline - a history in "just measure, a exactly what we may find in Penelope Gouk's book.
golden mean between excess and deficiency", as She conceptualises the problem areas into
Horden states it. "identities", "sites and technologies of
performance" as well as "conceptualising the non-
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Horden"s own reading of contemporary music

therapy deserves some criticism. He admits lacking verbal", which may well serve as ways of self-
an intimate knowledge of music therapy and seeks knowledge to contemporary music therapists.
support from contemporary music therapists such The title (and the picture on the front page) of
as Leslie Bunt and David Aldridge, as well as from Gouk's book signals a broader anthropological
medical doctors such as Ralph Spintge and Oliver outlook upon healing rituals around the world,
Sacks. Along with reports from more heterodox, but the volume in fact contains several case
or "New Age" - inspired voices, his reading of studies on music and healing in historical context.
contemporary music therapy likens a music In that sense these two volumes complement each
cultural diagnosis with some rhetorical other, at the same time as both concern some of
undertones. The writings of Ken Bruscia are the historiographical problems facing the
absent, along with his astute definitions, areas of discipline. There is always a danger when writing
practice and levels of therapy, his distinction history, that chronology, historical figures and
between music "as" and music "in" therapy. ideas make up the space (which is the case in
Horden seems somewhat confused about music some of the essays in Horden's volume - nicely
therapy - "their discipline's nature and purpose counterbalanced with his own introductory
have proved remarkably hard to specify", he remarks). The investigation of historical cases will
remarks. I will not blame him too much. On the give a broader understanding of historical
other hand, the way music therapy is background, contexts and broader intellectual
conceptualised, or should be, is probably not in currents which are necessary to gain a fuller
the manner of grand narratives about the curative understanding of some of the ideas behind the
effects of music, as we learn from the history of practice of musical healing.
music therapy. The same sense of "just measure, In her introduction, Gouk states how the choice
the golden mean between excess and deficiency", of "healing" instead of "therapy" has become the
as he expects as hallmark of historical scholarship book's focus. First of all, the book does not claim
have also become the ideals for some of the more to do a survey of current practices of music
empirically minded music therapy. therapy. Instead it is the non-expert kind of music
therapy which is treated - "the only form which
really existed before a recognised body of music-
Looking to anthropology therapy professionals came into being". Therapy
is being used to denote the "general therapeutic
I find Horden's advice about "looking to effect, which can be gained from being involved
musical anthropology" highly important for in any form of musical/artistic performance". This

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2) 6 9

 EVENRUUD

is a form, which does not depend upon the

intervention of a therapist, it is a form of recreation, medical, healing, psychotherapeutic, recreational
a "'healing'" in the sense of "making strong, whole and ecological practices of music therapy. I have
again". myself described music therapists also as social
From a body of questions guiding the Gouk workers, special educators, care-givers and
symposium, three themes provides the framework cultural workers. In sum, this ""trickster'-identity
of her book: "identities"', "sites of technologies does not only make it hard for the public to grasp
of performance", and "conceptualising the non- what professional music therapy is really about, it
verbal"'. I will deal with each of them in detail, makes the rules of transaction and interaction and
trying to understand how this project might the common basis for a contract upon which to
enlarge our own understanding of the field of establish any intervention difficult.
music therapy. What this argument about identity also makes
evident is the problematic therapeutic-ideological
situation that current professional music
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Who does music therapy? therapists have to deal with. (Any observer of
contemporary music therapy should be aware of
The first theme, identities, focuses on "roles the high-speed growth of new positions. For
assumed by, or conferred on, participants in the instance, while we in Oslo trained six students in
process of musical healing". The examples Gouk 1980, in the year 2000 almost sixty students are
draws from are from the book, for instance Islamic enrolled in music therapy programs in Norway).
medical traditions, Ngoma healing rituals and the Working in all kinds of therapeutic settings, within
drumming rituals of Timbuka of the northern different institutional and therapeutic regimes, not
region of Malawi. In all these examples it is evident least within a highly complex music cultural field
how there is a correlation between the ways with all its musical codes and blends of musical
healers and their patients identify themselves and aesthetics, it seems quite a miracle how any
interact with each other, and the way they "musical cure" may be offered at all. Not least
understand the human body and the relationship working under the prevailing bio-medical model
to the world more generally (p. 10). "Identities" in medicine gives only marginal space to enact
are structured within roles, and as we know roles any therapy which claims to influence the body
grant possibilities of action within certain through a musically altered frame of mind. No
institutional frames. Boundaries are set up wonder why so many orthodox music therapists
through socialisations, social expectations, and share a common mistrust toward alternative New-
ideological constraints. This is hardly knew Age musicotherapies. Since music therapists have
knowledge for the music therapist, although to negotiate this space of intervention in almost
probably not acknowledged by outsiders (or from every new situation, a lot of effort has to be spent
all insiders). upon securing boundaries and identities, aiming
When Peregrine Horden characterises music towards some sort of credibility.
therapy by stating that "their discipline's nature This kind of music therapeutic sensibility is
and purpose have proved remarkably hard to "embodied knowledge", especially among those
specify", I suspect there is an element of fuzzy of us having spent a life as music therapy
role-identity communicated by the field of music educators and public negotiators. This knowledge
therapy. For instance, when Kenneth Bruscia is sometimes hard to articulate for oneself. In such
defines music therapy in his last revised edition a situation, it might well be that other professions
of Defining Music Therapy (Bruscia 1998), he has and other identities occupy the space for "musical
cut down areas of practice from eleven to six. In cures", which seems more aligned with the musical
the last edition of his book we read about didactic, healing traditions that these two books outline.

70 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2)

 MUSIC THERAPY-HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

We can see this when medical doctors increasingly surface through common music making. (For a
move into this space, claiming (more than further discussion on emotional discourses, see
negotiating) authority through their professional Ruudl992).
identities and offering supposedly non- The theme of instruments in music therapy has
contextualized promises of musical healing though been given attention in the music therapy
techniques of "pure sounds"; such as vibration, literature, but not from the point of view of culture
toning, and pure auditory stimulation techniques and context. Sometimes music therapists are
(Tomatis). We welcome any anthropologist carrying on traditions, which are more
wishing to disentangle this complex mess of multi- idiosyncratic to some of the earlier modern
vocality at the present day scene of musical founders of music therapy than the practical and
therapies. I am more than willing to become an cultural demands of the situation. Sometimes I
informant. wonder why many music therapists are carrying
this grand piano around, which surely may estrange
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some clients from communication, rather than

Where and how is music therapy taking further it. More challenging to an anthropological
place? attitude is perhaps the tradition in post-sixties
music therapy of improvisation through all kinds
The second theme, sites and technologies of of exotic instruments, which in sum connotes or
performance, concerns instruments and space. sets up a context of "otherness" and exoticism.
What kinds of mythologies are inherent in our (For an interpretation, see my essay on liminality
perception of various instruments and musical inRuudl998).
technologies and how does this interact with the
cosmologies forming the backdrop of healing
rituals? The book gives rich documentation of The discourse on musical meanings
how "music itself and the emotion it arouses are
culturally negotiated as well as being mutually When I discussed how music therapist
interdependent on each other" (p. 13). As some identities have to be negotiated within a paradigm
readers may know, a long time ago I took the stand of bio-medical thought, the third theme of
of music cultural relativism as an approach to "conceptualising the non-verbal" was briefly
understanding how the implicit sharing and touched on. This theme, touches the very problem
construction of common music cultural codes of legitimising music therapy within a medical-
forms a necessary ground for doing musical cultural climate infused with positivism, not to
communication, at least if mutual intentionality is mention being caught in-between professional
involved. Gouk further develops the argument and struggles among bio-medical doctors,
points to how music "not only provides a context psychotherapists and psychologists.
in which a language of the emotion can come into How meaning interacts with cosmologies
being, but also gives actual shape and meaning always becomes important when we are
to the emotions themselves, to what it means to approaching our own native as well as other music
be human". This constructivist attitude is worthy therapy cultures. This becomes evident in many
of investigation, and is positively applicable in of the articles in both volumes. For instance, in
the process of understanding what is going on in Horden's text, a chapter is devoted to "Music
many situations of improvised, so-called Creative Therapy: Some Possibilities in the Indian
Music Therapy. I would prefer more music therapy Tradition". Here (again), we find that music
writings to be stated in this manner, rather than therapy is more linked to the philosophical and
fuzzy talk about bringing the "inborn, natural, real musicological tradition than the medical tradition.
or whatever emotions and musicality" to the And as we know, the documentation on the

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 EVENRUUD

"philosophy of ragas" clearly points to the order, it also modifies that order immediately it
possibilities of therapeutical effects on the body. is intoned by arousing in its listener a series
However, as the author of this chapter - J.B. Katz of discrete emotional states whose cultural
- writes this presupposes a cultural situation significance is variable." (Gouk 2000, p. 147).
where the listener is enculturated. The listener is
familiar with a whole matrix of musical structures, Anthropologists (and historians) sometimes
melodic and rhythmic, which gives rise to a whole have the advantage of dealing with cultures far
iconic world of saints and deities. I suppose that less complex in competing cosmologies compared
a raga without this perceived cosmology does to our post-modern culture. At the same time, good
not have much of an (therapeutic) effect upon crafted anthropology and historical cases, as
any listener. witnessed in these books, pin-point the very
This point is emphasised in Cheryce Kramer's essence of the problem of congruency between
essay (in Gouk) on "Soul Music in German cosmologies and healing practices. Every first
semester when teaching new music therapy
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Psychiatry". She presents an interesting

discussion of how a German mental hospital students, I use the case of Digo-healing rituals
(Illenau) throughout the nineteenth century came (see Maler 1977) as a point of departure in
to put a major emphasis upon music. Kramer discussing the problem of bringing one form of
disentangles the medical ideologies behind this healing practice into a totally new cultural context.
approach, and suggests that the Illenau Through this anthropological case I want to
physicians linked the idea of "Gemilth" to a discuss how a kind of magical healing practice
capacity to mediate sensations by connecting through music can be understood not only from
states of body with states of mind. Through an indigenous perspective or rationality, but as
musical activities (and other disciplinary well as from the perspective of social psychology
techniques!) the idea was to perform the right kind and group processes, mechanism of inclusion and
of "Gemiith". In the concluding remarks, Kramer exclusion, scapegoating, and other topics from
gives a very articulate statement about how music the sociology of deviance. In other words, frames
interacts with culture in forming the backdrop of of explanations prevalent and acceptable from the
every treatment effort: point of view of Western academia. This often
immediately leads into a discussion about how
"The efficacy of music therapy is a result boundaries, responsibilities, therapeutic
not of the music alone but of its apprehension sensibilities, and possibilities affect the discipline
in experience. Due to this dependency on of music therapy.
experience, the therapeutic influence of music The necessity to comply with the prevailing
is necessarily governed by an extant rules of doing health business, have led music
phenomenal framework organising the musical therapist into all kinds of discourses. There is a
experience for its participants. That is to say need to negotiate a space for music therapy within
the same cultural conditions which legitimate all shades of psychotherapies, from orthodox
certain therapeutic practices also render the Freudian to recent approaches coloured by child
target audience susceptible to the influence interaction theories, humanistic-existential and
of those practices. This general feature of cognitive-behavioural, to transpersonal, not to
healing cures is especially apparent in the case mention hybrids of theories taken from special
of rituals employing music because the shared education, neuroscience, gerontology, palliative
assumptions, habituated expectations and care, neuroimmunology - you name it.
conditioned emotional responses which Paradoxically, theorising about music itself is often
uniquely identify a given cultural context are left out. The communicative strength of music,
also coded into the music itself. Music does the core phenomenon which give rise to the very
not merely represent a given phenomenal effect of doing music is often ignored. But, as we

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 MUSIC THERAPY-HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

continue to discover, these two discourses, the learn about the ultimate fate of King Saul, we hear
musical and the therapeutical, are forever bound our first example of music therapy, and also our
together in dialectics which are inseparable, almostfirst example of a music therapy failure. It also
impossible to articulate, unless locally situated. describes a particular therapeutic relationship, a
case of a multi-layered history of illness
interwoven into the political and cultural situation
Pythagoras - the ultimate New Age phi- of the time. Chava Sekeles lectured about this issue
losopher at the last World Conference in Music Therapy in
Washington. Shiloah, however, gives more space
Horden's book is a chronological journey with to what has been called the golden age of Muslim
detours and historical case-studies, which support civilisation, the period extending from the second
the narrative. Starting with antiquity, Martin West half of the ninth to the end of the tenth century.
gives a brief and authoritative outline of major This is a remarkable period where numerous circles
ideas and figures based upon primary sources. I of scholars emerged discussing ideas rising from
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find his remarks on Pythagoras interesting, as a the recent Arabic translation of the Greek scientific
historical figure we seem to know very little about and intellectual heritage. It is within this emerging
him, although his influence seems so great. He intellectual tradition that some of the ancient ideas
appears more like a mythological figure, or as West of music and medicine were elaborated and put
characterises him ''a sort of guru who beguiled into practice.
his followers with exotic doctrines about the The diffusion of the Muslim tradition into Spain
transmigration of the soul through a succession and Italy influenced the European Middle-Age
of animal bodies, punishment and purification, and practice. Charles Burnett, in a short chapter in
a paradise in the sun and moon". These Gouk's book, '"Spiritual medicine": music and
shamanistic features combine with his mystical healing in Islam and its influence in Western
interest in numbers, numerical ratios and their medicine" discusses further how many of the
correspondence to musical concords. Music Arabic texts on music and spiritual illnesses
therapists should be aware that music therapy of (mental disease) were not translated into Latin.
physical illness is almost wholly ignored by One reason was the highly technical references
history, or when mentioned it is dismissed in the to Arabic music theory, or the theory of maqmt
tradition of scientific medicine in antiquity, from (a system of melodic and rhythmic patterns in
the Hippocratic corpus and onward. Music many ways similar to the Greek doctrine of ethos,
therapy was fringe medicine. but much more elaborated). Another reason was
On the other hand, the idea of music as therapy because the Arabic tradition of treating mental
was upheld in the philosophical and musicological illnesses, or their system of classification of such
literature, and West gives many sources to our illnesses, was unfamiliar to the Western culture,
knowledge. However, I would have preferred to which had not seen such things as hospitals for
read a more thorough treatment of Aristotle as the mentally ill. This deficit in translation may have
well as the stoic ideas about music and pneuma. been a major reason why music therapy was left
Amnon Shiloah has written a chapter about of out medical practice throughout the medieval
"Jewish and Muslim Traditions of Music age.
Therapy". He briefly mentions the biblical story Though the medical application of music in
about David and King Saul, which has become a therapy may have been less than we expect from
prototypical case on music and melancholia within the literary and philosophical sources, there are
the Christian tradition. This is a much more occasional discourses in medical sources. In
interesting story than is retold in this particular Christopher Page's chapter on "Music and
chapter (as well as in most other texts). When we Medicine in the Thirteenth Century", he compares

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2) 7 3

 EVENRUUD

two texts about the effects of music. The first text the Arabic hygienics of the "non-naturals'" (for
comes from about 1100 referring to St. Dunstan instance the translation from Arabic to Latin by
who dies in 988, and the second from thirteenth Constantinus Africanus, the Isagoge of
century. While the earlier text invokes ideas of Johannitius). These (six) non-naturals or
celestial harmony and seems to attribute occasions of sickness and health are air, food and
metaphysical power to music, this does not seem drink, motion and rest, sleep and walking, repletion
to be the case in the later text. In the text from the and evacuation and the accidents of the soul.
thirteenth century music may be used to lift the "Music is a means of influencing the accidents of
spirit, and in that sense may produce an effect, the soul, which have a strong impact on the health
but only in case of special needs. In general, Page of the individual. This impact is imagined by
writes, "music is a disturbance to be banned, and various different authors, but the accidents of the
the music admitted for therapeutic reasons is a soul always affect the natural heat, and sometimes
substance no more mysterious than the meat that the spiritus, which animates the body", Jones
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was also conceded to the monks of the infirmary'* writes (p. 134). In the fourteenth century a whole
(p. 111). wave of translations (among them, Galen's work)
The reason for this historical change may be created a sophisticated discussion about
due to the new empirical attitude stemming from connections between music and medicine.
the introduction of Aristotle and scholasticism. Together with translations of Arabic medical
In his De caelo et mundo, Aristotle refuted the literature, this gave rise to a combination of
Pythagorean and Platonic belief that heavenly anatomical descriptions of brain structures and
bodies make music as they rotate. Thus we find in the four humours as explanatory devices for
a treatise by William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris mental illness. Interpretation suggests that, it
- De imiverso (1231 -1236), a chapter on the curative seems like the medical discussion of late medieval
powers of music. Here the author refers to Plato's age, when it came to the understanding of mental
view concerning the "soul of the universe" as illness likens our contemporary competition
constructed according to the mathematical between biological and psychological
proportions of music, and how we react to it. This explanations about the cause of psychiatric
is because the human soul shares the numerical disturbances.
motion of the soul of the universe. But in his
commentary, William refutes Plato's position
merely on its contradictory nature, using his From Pythagoras to Bruscia
scholastic method. However, while he rejects
Plato's explanation of music's power to heal, he is One of the most fascinating figures in the
convinced that music has a therapeutic force. history of music therapy is the Italian, or Florentine
philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99). He fore-
fronted the spiritual and cultural rebirth we call
Soul or body? the Renaissance. Ficino was a priest, theologian,
astrologer, physician and magician, and not least
Following this history to the fifteenth century, a musician. Angela Voss's article informs us how
is a narrative by Peter Murray Jones. He uses Ficino sought to unite Platonism and Christianity,
"The Case of Hugo van der Goes", the late by outlining a holistic approach to healing, i.e. a
medieval painter who was treated with music to new way of participating in the world he labelled
alleviate his insanity, to discuss the "natural magic". Through his studies of so-called
reinterpretation of the biblical story of David and Hermetic texts, neo-platonic (Plotinus) and Arabic
Saul in light of the emerging anatomical discourse texts combined with his medical, astrological and
on mental illness. Clearly we now find evidence of musical skills, he sought to bring the human soul

74 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2)

 MUSIC THERAPY-HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

(the mediator between mind and body) into possession" which from Plato on was seen as a
harmony with the soul of the world, the mediator prerequisite for the communication of divine truth,
of heaven and earth. "Ficino understood that the "the experience of the flooding of the soul in the
most powerful means of restoring such unity was act of reconnection with its source". This musical
through the careful preparation and performance frenzy, this state of "flow" and "void", which I
of music. In short, music therapy", Voss states. have classified as a concomitant phenomenon of
The essence of this idea seems to be that the the liminal activity, reminds me of how Paul
heavenly bodies are gods, their movements Nordoff once revealed to me his sometimes exalted
indicate the will of the supreme One, their souls state when he was doing his clinical improvisation.
participating in the vast web of animated being Ficino-Nordoff-Bruscia; not only a shared
which reaches down to matter. And music was metaphysics, a shared practice also?
seen to aid in the process of creating a harmonious This short dip into some of the texts in these
interplay. In essence, as the Platonists told us, two highly important books does not do justice
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audible sound could be understood as an echo of to all the contributors. I particularly find Linda
the perfect concord in the heavens. Phyllis Austern's article on "Musical Treatment
Ficino came to be a major influence upon the for Lovesickness" highly interesting and
later writings on the subject of musical influences. important in the sense that it aligns this strand of
Echoes of his writings are still sounding in music theory with intellectual history in general.
contemporary thought, also in music therapy. In three articles about Tarantism we also are
When Kenneth Bruscia, in his interview with updated on the latest research on this strange
Brynjulf Stige (see this volume) talks about "the phenomenon as well as we follow how this ancient
absolute'", he carries this metaphysical tradition musical cure is transformed into a modern Italian
from Ficino further, echoing even further back to media and tourist event. Other articles deal with
Pythagoras. Bruscia states "In my opinion, the mesmerism and shamanism as well as with an
primary source of all meaning is the implicate overview of the history of music therapy in Great
order ofthe universe itself- that fundamental order Britain. Gouk's book offers additional articles on
which holds the universe together in myriad Ngoma healing and other anthropological studies,
relationships. This implicate order is the universal historical accounts on music and melancholia.
template or foundation for all meaningfulness, both music in nineteenth-century German psychiatry
individual and collective; it is the ultimate model and reflections on the nature of "the inflected
of meaning that exists a priori, and independent voice". Penelope Gouk's own contribution is also
of our constantly varying constructions of it". important. She discusses in detail the first modern
(Bruscia of course acknowledges other levels of academic book on music therapy - the Music and
meaning, both experienced and constructed forms. Medicine edited by Max Schoen and Dorothy
However, in the sense that he talks about the Schullian in 1948. This brought back my memories
harmony of the universe as a kind of raw material of sitting and reading this book on the floor of the
for experience, he seems to place himself in a long library of Florida State University, almost every
Western idealistic philosophical tradition). night thirty years ago, a book which has had such
A most interesting point about Ficino was his a major influence upon the outset of modern music
role as a musician. His mastery of the lyre made therapy.
him known as "the Second Orpheus": In an eye-
witness account, a bishop Campano testifies
about Ficino*s performance: "...then his eyes burn,
then he leaps to his feet, and he discovers music
which he never learnt by rote". In other words,
Ficino improvised in a state of "spiritual

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 2000, 9(2) 7 5

 EVENRUUD

References Ruud, Even (1998). Improvisation as a Liminal

Experience. In: Even Ruud: Music Therapy:
Bruscia, Kenneth (1998). Defining Music Therapy, Improvisation, Communication, and Culture.
Gilsum: Barcelona Publishers. Gilsum: Barcelona Publishers.
Bruscia, Kenneth interviewed by Brynjulf Stige Ruud, Even (1992). Musikalskstilsomemosjonell
(2000). The Nature of Meaning in Music diskurs, In: Odd Are Berkaak og Even
Therapy. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, Ruud: Den pbegynte virkelighet. Studier i
Vol. 9(2). samtidskultur. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Maler, Thomas (1977). Musik und Ekstase in einer
ostafrikanischen Medizinmann-Praxis. In:
Harm Willms (Ed.) Musik und Entspannung,
Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag.
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