TeledyN

“Sun Ra. Interviews & Essays” (Headpress London, 2010) offers a splendid introduction to a younger generation of Sun Ra fans. Among its essays are memories of the man and his concerts (Amiri Baraka, John Sinclair, David Henderson, Ben Edmonds, Rick Steiger); reflections by musicians and DJ’s (Wayne Kramer, Steve Fly Agaric 23); articles on Ra’s art and film appearances; and annotations to his enormous output on vinyl.

Tune in, tune up, and take to the stars. See you on Saturn; meet you there a Year from Monday.

The Newton Symphony Orchestra presents a special weekend of events focused on the knowledge that music has the power to transform lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  The Healing Power of Music ~ The Mind/Body/Spirit Connection is a two-day program for all ageS, music-lovers of all genres and those who seek to learn more about the many ways that music has been used for centuries and across cultures to promote healing, respite, and personal fulfillment.

But now I have an esoteric question to ask and forgive me if this is just plain naive: I know of several 'new age' composers who specifically work on various theoretical (perhaps speculative) scientific grounds to produce therapeutic changework musics (eg Jeffrey Thompson and his Schumann Resonance and brainwave entrainment compositions) but I'm drawing a blank finding composers in the acoustic instrument orchestral (or chamber) realm who are attempting to apply scientific principles in their composition.

I know in the classical and jazz realms we have a great many artists who are firmly convinced of a therapeutic value in their work. Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane to name just three, but in these musics (perhaps with the exception of Sun Ra's occult reasons) there is no peer-reviewed published theoretical foundation to their approach, theirs is entirely an empirical thing, folk art, a principle discovered or handed down, not a principle derived and deployed (I may be wrong there, feel free to correct me) and of course Brian Eno had hoped his non-repeating cycles would, as a product of creating nearly endless pieces, influence people to think about the future although I don't find anywhere any psychological foundation for his thinking. Stockhausen too had his own reasons for believing in the power of his works to change listeners, but I'm not certain his reasons had been demonstrated first elsewhere, except perhaps in meditation classes. And, as the NSO wellness event shows, a great many people are applying orchestral music, repurposing existing music of all types for all sorts of clinically very effective music therapy, but what I'm seeking here is music that was designed to be therapy, composed with peer-reviewed reason to believe the composition itself would be directly therapeutic.

Oliveros I believe did explore some sort of theoretical framework for a music-for-therapy although now I cannot find the reference. I'm not saying that any of these musics would have to actually be medicinal, I'm just curious to find examples of musics that were, with good reason, intended to be medicinal. Can anyone point me in any directions toward anything like this?

Listen carefully and you’ll hear the same refrain at a rising number of hospitals. From Massachusetts General to the Mayo Clinic, patients are hearing the first strains of a harmonious movement — the infusion and inclusion of music in the treatment of ailments, from brain disorders to cancer. This goes beyond the psychological smile favorite songs can induce.

Doctors are increasingly studying — and employing — the physiological dance music does with the body’s neurons and blood-carrying cells.

“We’re in the infancy,” said Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic. During a surgery called deep brain stimulation — performed while patients with Parkinson’s disease are awake — Rezai and his team play classical compositions and measure the brain’s response to those notes. “We know music can calm, influence creativity, can energize. That’s great. But music’s role in recovering from disease is being ever more appreciated.”

Using music to help the ill has been employed for thousands of years, even though modern medicine is just starting to understand how it works

For nine days after his surgery at the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute in Morristown, N.J., Fabry soaked up that tranquil, wordless strumming. And while he praised his surgeon, he raved about the musical score that accompanied his recovery.

His heart literally fell in rhythm with guitarist Tomaz Lima. The music became his medicine.