By Jim Wiebe
Former Assistant Professor of Music
Therapy at CMU
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail, with their feet secured in the stocks. In the dark aloneness of the midnight hour, they sang hymns to God. They used music to keep their courage up, and to communicate with their God in a communal act of worship.
In her book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, author Rachel Naomi Remen writes: “Everyone is a story . . . hidden in all stories is the One story. The more we listen, the clearer that Story becomes. Our true identity, who we are, why we are here, and what sustains us, is in this story. The stories at every kitchen table are about the same things, stories of owning, having and losing, stories of sex, of power, of pain, wounding, of courage, hope and healing, of loneliness and the end of loneliness. Stories about God. In telling them, we are telling each other the human story. Stories that touch us in this place of common humanness awaken us and weave us together as a family once again.”
The two things that strike me most about this quote are the first statement, that “Everyone is a story,” and the final statement, about our common humanness, about being a family. Music therapists and authors David and Gudrun Aldridge make similar comments about music in an article entitled, Life as jazz: Hope, meaning and music therapy in the treatment of life-threatening illness. They state: “We are composed like pieces of music.”
The authors suggest that we understand humans using a musical metaphor. Music and humans can be understood horizontally—both occur in time; they can be understood vertically, as musical harmony, and as individual voices occurring together; and they can be understood dynamically, through the louds and softs, the emphases and accents, the different voices coming into prominence and then receding as other voices take their place.
So, according to the Aldridges, instead of saying, “Everyone has a story,” we can say, “Everyone is music,” and we create the improvisation that is our life in musical community with other human beings.
Music is human behaviour. We are musical creatures and we create music, which in turn helps to shape and influence us. We use our body systems, such as the auditory, visual, motor and central nervous systems to create the organized sounds which are our music. In turn, our music has an effect on our bodies, influencing, for example, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, muscle tension and brain waves.
We are born to be musical. It is an essential component of our biological makeup and an important part of what makes us human. Anthropologists tell us that, “All people in all times and in all places have engaged in musical behaviour” (Hodges and Haack, p. 473).
Anthropologists, among others, would also remind us that humans are social beings. In my opening quote, author Rachel Remen reminds us of our common humanness, that we are family. In the September, 2005 issue of Mennonite Church Canada’s World of Witness International Report, Janet Plenert writes about going to see the movie, March of the Penguins.
Says Janet: “ . . . I became completely enthralled with a story of love as survival, survival as love, and was left in new wonder and awe about creation. God created penguins with an incredibly strong sense of purpose and of community. They know exactly what their priority is and what they must do to accomplish it. This priority is rooted in a deep understanding and reliance on community. They know that without community they would not survive. The thread that binds together the fabric of their existence is what we would call love.”
We humans are like those penguins: we need each other.
In other words, music behaviour is not just human behaviour—it is also social or community behaviour. We perform in groups, listen to music in groups, make music at home and with our families, have music in our communities and churches, and put it in a place of prominence at our special occasions. The example of playing national anthems for the winners of Olympic gold medals comes to mind.
Music is important to life, but what role does music therapy play? And what is it, anyway?
There are many definitions. E. Thayer Gaston, considered a father of the modern profession of music therapy, offered the following three core principles of music therapy:
- The establishment or reestablishment of interpersonal relationships
- The development or fostering of self-esteem through self-actualization
- The use of rhythm to energize and bring order
There are other definitions. I offer several in my Introduction to Music Therapy class. One short definition puts it this way: Music therapy is the use of music in a purposive intervention by a trained professional.
There are three components to this definition. Music therapists use music—it is our tool. The intervention (and therapy is about intervening to help people) is purposeful—there is a reason for what is done, why it is done and when it is done. Finally, the person doing the intervening has received professional training, such as is offered here at CMU.
In music therapy, music is a means to an end; usually it is not the end in itself. One could say that it is the journey, not the destination, that matters. But how does music help? How does music therapy relate to mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, which have been the topics of previous chapels in this series?
To answer that question, we first have to ask: What is mental illness, and what is normal behaviour? This question is open to debate. The answer differs from society to society. Each culture and community has its own range of acceptable behaviours. But one definition goes like this: Mental Illness is something that takes us away from our communities. Diagnosis of mental illness is determined in part by the following factors: Frequency, duration and intensity.
For example, imagine your best friend dies. You get depressed. Are you mentally ill? That depends. Have you had previous episodes of depression? How long have you been depressed? Everyone is allowed to grieve the loss of someone close to them, but if the grieving period goes on and on, there may be a serious problem. How intense are the feelings? Do they prevent you from carrying on with the normal routines of daily life? All of these factors would help determine whether you were suffering from a mental illness or not.
Psychopathology is a huge topic. Maladaptive behaviours vary greatly and there are simply too many symptoms to discuss here in any detail. Let me just point out some broad aspects of the use of music in the healing process.
Music is flexible. One can use the simplest of childhood melodies or the most complex of Classical music. One can engage in music therapy with no prior musical study or one can be a professional musician. Music therapy can occur in groups or with individuals. It can take place in a variety of locations.
Music is accessible. All cultures around the world have music. Everyone is exposed to music somewhere, sometime. It is in your MP3 player, on hold on the telephone, in the mall, or on your car radio.
Music is communicative. It communicates that which might otherwise be difficult to express. It is non-verbal communication. If words said it all, there would be no need for any of the arts.
Music is emotive. It helps us express our emotions. Music is associated with the limbic system in the brain, which is also where the emotions are located.
Through music, people can do many things: Communicate, express themselves, share interpersonal and develop group skills; increase attention, increase reality orientation and memory, develop skills in organizing, planning and problem solving; and use it to stimulate or relax, evoke affective states and images, explore ideas or reminisce.
It has been said that, art—which music is—concerns a “depth of expression which somehow reaches beneath the surface of our being and touches on mysteries essential to the core of what we are; and all the scientific inquiry and philosophizing of recent and distant centuries (even the superrationalism of our computers) has not been able to put ‘that,’ the feeling, its mysteries and importance into words or equations” (from Reck, 1977, Music of the Whole Earth”).
Music, this wonderful art that puts us in touch with our inner being as well as with the Divine, is the tool that music therapists have to work with. We humans create music. Music is part of our social, communal behaviour. When we suffer from mental illness, which separates us from our community, we can use music to help bring us back into community with others again.
Adapted from a CMU chapel presentation in February, 2006
