Kirstin Lund looks back at how music developed as a therapeutic solution throughout history
"Let the music heal your soul, Let the music take control..."
Whether it is wise to take medical advice provided by the lyrics of the Backstreet Boys is debatable. But song words such as these show the strong partnership that music and healing share in popular culture today. Recognising the healing power of music through its role in altering moods, relaxation practices, and as an adjunct to improving memory has created a thriving music therapy movement.
Historical background
The creation of music therapy as a professional entity makes it easy to assume that music therapy is of relatively recent origin. In fact it marked only one milestone in a long and comprehensive historical tradition of music within medicine, dating back to the early modern age. Today holistic treatments, championing the importance of recognising links between mind and body, have an increasingly important place at the forefront of medical care. By examining the attitudes of our ancestors towards music as a therapeutic solution, one can begin to understand where our present day beliefs in the efficacy of such practices originated.
Medical model and early cures
Until the 19th century, people believed that an individual's physical and emotional state was a product of a unique combination of the four bodily humours--blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. In health, these existed in harmonious accord. However, if any imbalance disturbed this equilibrium, disease would ensue. One well recognised example is the condition melancholy--modern day "depression"--whose cause was assumed to be an excess of black bile. Humoural balance was maintained through a healthy constitution, achieved by eating and drinking appropriately and ensuring the correct amounts of exercise, rest, and sexual activity.
If disease did occur, methods such as purging, bleeding, and vomiting were used to bring the humours back into alignment. Music had its place in this medical armoury--in particular, it was felt that performing or simply listening to music provided therapeutic effects against "passions" or disorders of the mind. One might liken this to the belief that psychological disturbances increase our susceptibility to physical illness. The common understanding was that music created a harmony between body, soul, and mind, which ensured that the individual remained in good health. Early explanations assumed that the success of music rested on its ability to stimulate internal motion, which in turn rebalanced the humours preventing them from accumulating around major organs, such as the heart, and causing damage. Theories were established that music produced its medicating effect by stimulating animal spirits which were believed to reside within the brain and which flowed through the nerves creating a positive vibratory effect.1
Macrocosm and microcosm
In his esoteric book on the History of the Macrocosm and Microcosm (1619) the physician Robert Fludd (1574-1637) explained music's healing powers through a mechanism based on astrological medicine, which enjoyed a popular following in the early 17th century. Music was seen as the vital link between the macrocosm (God and the universe) and the microcosm (man's body, mind, and soul). The mechanism assumed the existence of hidden forces or "sympathy," which operated throughout the universe.2 These forces could be understood in terms of the sympathy, or resonance, which can occur between musical instruments even though they are at a distance from each other. Just as a string plucked on one lute could make the corresponding string on another vibrate in sympathy, there was also sympathy--or invisible interaction--between man and God's creation, mediated by music. Thus music was granted status in keeping the microcosm of each individual in a status quo with the environment around him. This might be considered similar to meditative practices, such as tai chi, often encouraged today as part of stress relieving therapies, where people seek to achieve a heightened awareness of their surroundings.
Folklore
Another historical example of music therapy, all the more important because if its continued existence in present day folklore, is the practice of tarantism.3 The custom, which originated in medieval southern Italy, is a method of curing the venom of the tarantula. The only recognised antidote for the poisonous bite entailed the afflicted patient dancing to the tune of the tarantella folk song. It was believed that this frenzied movement acted as a physiological purging mechanism that cleansed the body of its poison. Conflict has long existed among practitioners with regards to whether the symptoms of this affliction, known as tarantati, which include vomiting, dizziness, and fever, are a direct result of the spider's bite or whether the creature is purely mythical. This has resulted in a shift in thought with regards to how music creates its therapeutic effect. Today many still put their faith in this folk music to overcome what others essentially consider a psychosomatic disorder.
Body, soul, and mind
The earliest medical discussions of musical therapy date from the early 17th century, although it achieved professional status only in the 1950s. Today's generation is increasingly willing to value the relations between body, soul, and mind when considering medical treatments than generations before us.
