Music in Medicine — Reading Companion

s the chief physician at the Salpêtrière Hospital, the largest and best known hospital in France. Dr. Louis tried to repeat the cures promised by Nollet but was unable to secure success in any of the patients whom he exposed to static electricity. He published the story of his failure to do so, which so excited Abbé Nollet that he wrote an entire volume condemning Dr. Louis. Instead of refuting the ability of Dr. Louis to diagnose paralysis and evaluate a cure, he climaxed his remarks with the classical question addressed to the doctor, “Is electricity your field?”[61]

For many centuries philosophers and musicians have claimed the ability to cure mental illness through the use of music, and have at times called this procedure Musical Therapy. Although the physicians might well say to these musicians that therapeutics is definitely not within the province of musicians, it is unlikely that a musician would at this time have the courage to ask physicians, “Is this your field?”

A thorough search of the history of medicine will show that almost all phenomena and substances have at one time or another been tried in an attempt to combat disease. Many of these agents were abandoned when they became unfashionable to a more sophisticated civilization, or were recognized as unwholesome by a more educated generation. The fact that few were given up merely because of their ineffectiveness can be seen in the great number of quack nostrums which still enjoy an active sale among the ignorant, and by the impossible claims of highly organized cults which continue to gain in numbers and followers in this country. Healing schemes based upon the use of herbs because they are delivered right from nature’s womb, or the fanciful notion that all diseases arise from the imaginary displacements of the spinal bones, are still in their ascendency. The liberal system we call democracy has not only permitted their growth but has rewarded their ingenuous and ingenious development. Exposure of the fraudulent methods involved serves little purpose because the mentality which is so susceptible to warped reasoning responds poorly or even antagonistically to enlightening guidance.

There are, however, certain valuable features in herb and spinal doctrines which have been partially ignored by reputable physicians because of the intimate relation of these ideas to cult practice.

In spite of a spirited rebirth of the movement towards the establishment of a system of healing based on music, there are many valuable uses of music in medicine which might suffer a like fate unless a critical analysis of the worth of music as a therapeutic agent is effected before Musical Therapy reaches the dubious distinction of classification as a healing cult.

This book has been written with a view to preserving for medicine that which is good for patients, and in an attempt to aid musicians under medical guidance in using music to help the sick.

Primitive peoples throughout the world still use music in association with the healing arts. This of course is an indication that they have probably used it for more centuries than are recorded in the pages of written history. Ancient civilizations frequently associated music with the divine, but placed diminished emphasis upon its association with healing. Even so, the Hebrews accredited to music curative and inspirational powers[7], as can be seen by the reference in Scripture: “And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took a harp and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed and was well and the evil spirit departed from him.”[63]

For the Greeks to whom we owe the origin of the word music, Apollo served as the God of both medicine and music, and there were some among them who suggested its use for both mental and physical disease. “Plato and Aristotle claimed that the Dorian mode was regarded as virile, energetic, and proper for the perfect citizen; the Phrygian made them headstrong and the Lydian included effeminacy and slack morals. The modes of Asiatic origin were considered suitable for banquets.” Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, Pythagoras[I.] founded a brotherhood “based on music as a means of life and moral uplift.”[70] The influence of music was so great among the Greeks that it is not surprising that they used it in all walks of life, including medical treatment. The extent to which they and the peoples who followed them, used music in this manner will be more fully discussed in the first chapter.