Combining Music and Imagery in the Context of Medical Music Therapy

We live in a world filled with sounds and images. A storm comes close, we hear the thunder, we see the lightning, we feel the change in the atmosphere. Or we meet with friends – we hear their voices, we watch their facial expressions, and we interact and relate to them based on our own personal experiences of what we see and hear. We go to a concert, we hear the words and the music, and we use our mind to conjure up images that relate to not only the music but also who we are and how we feel as we live in our world...

Applications of Clinical Improvisation and Aesthetic Music Therapy in Medical Settings: An Analysis of Debussy’s ‘L’isle joyeuse’

The application and use of clinical improvisation is an important technique in medical music therapy. Through the analysis of Debussy’s ‘L’isle joyeuse’ this study aims to provide the beginnings of a new way of working within a music-centered philosophy for music therapists in medical settings. The piece is divided into eight sub-sections, offering practical suggestions for how the music can be adapted and used for specific clinical outcomes. Each analysis may be used separately to create smaller improvisations or collectively in varying combinations, to create larger improvisations. Throughout the study connections are made between musical process and clinical outcome. Due to the transparent and ever-changing environment of patient’s experiences in hospital settings, the potential for the free-flowing form of improvisation is emphasized as an important clinical technique. This paper offers a contemporary and musically scientific view of clinical improvisation in medical settings.

Mary Rudenberg, Music Therapist Pioneer

It was during my training when I came to understand and appreciate the knowledge base and experience that Mary Rudenberg has contributed to the field of music therapy. Medical music therapy was still in its infancy and the music therapy internship program at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas was one of a few internships in the nation offering music therapy training in a medical setting.