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In 2005, the Barenboim-Said Foundation launched the Early Childhood Music Education project in Andalusia (Spain) to promote music education for young children. Ten years later, an initial study was performed to evaluate the influence of the project on the development of the participating children. The results of this study form part of a broader ongoing research project, in collaboration with the University of Seville, aimed at investigating the influence of the Early Childhood Music Education project on general aspects of child development. This study has a quasi-experimental design, framed in Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, consisting of an experimental and a control group (n = 1101) and the administration of a questionnaire, adapted to measure and compare means between the two groups, as the sole measurement tool. The results, analysed using an independent samples t -test for the comparison of means and Cohen's d effect size, reveal statistically significant differences in the means of the dimensions of the experimental and control groups. This confirms the hypothesis that the Early Childhood Music Education project has a positive impact on the different dimensions, in accordance with Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this qualitative study was to explore music therapy students' learning experiences of participatory role-play in the context of the integrated music therapy master's program at the University of Bergen in Norway. Role-play is one type of experiential learning that initiates an interaction between students in a simulated scenario, thus producing concrete experiences as the basis for reflection. Empirical data were collected in two focus group interviews with 13 alumni who had attended role-play classes. We applied a thematic and interpretative hermeneutical strategy to data analysis. We identified five continua of learning experiences: (i) one's personality & becoming a professional, (ii) being spontaneous & being prepared, (iii) feedback from self-experience & from others, (iv) experiential learning & theoretical learning, (v) music therapy as a discipline & in interdisciplinary contexts. The continua highlight empathy, reflexivity, and person-centeredness as core learning assets for becoming a health-care practitioner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music plays an important socio-cultural role in constructing and/or reflecting geo-cultural and universal emotional states by giving voice to personal emotional sensibilities, such as self-searching, romantic longing, and desire, alongside collective spatial sentiments, patriotism, etc. Moreover, popular song lyrics reveal the socio-cultural values, norms, tastes, and emotional conventions of both their creators and their audience. Thus, this article focuses on decoding geo-cultural vs. universal emotional sensibilities via narrative analysis of the first place winners of the annual Israeli Hit Parades between 1963 and 2018, broadcast on the two major Israeli radio stations, Kol Yisrael and Galgalatz, every year on the eve of the Jewish New Year. This long-standing tradition offers a unique opportunity to examine ongoing changes in socio-emotional coping with fear and death, wars and terror while providing a contemporary conceptual and practical inquiry into the normalization of emotions within a culture and politics of fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objectives of this study were (a) to elucidate young tennis players' use of music to manipulate emotional states, and (b) to present a model grounded in present data to illustrate this phenomenon and to stimulate further research. Anecdotal evidence suggests that music listening is used regularly by elite athletes as a preperformance strategy, but only limited empirical evidence corroborates such use. Young tennis players (N = 14) were selected purposively for interview and diary data collection. Results indicated that participants consciously selected music to elicit various emotional states; frequently reported consequences of music listening included improved mood, increased arousal, and visual and auditory imagery. The choice of music tracks and the impact of music listening were mediated by a number of factors, including extramusical associations, inspirational lyrics, music properties, and desired emotional state. Implications for the future investigation of preperformance music are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented to the article "A Dual-Process of Xunzi's Philosophy of Music" by Hannah H. Kim, which appeared in the 2023 issue of the magazine.

Objective: Urodynamic studies (UDS) include assessments of the physics and physiology of the lower urinary tract (LUT). It is an invasive test and patients can feel fear and anxiety, especially at the beginning of the test. The aim of this study was to determine whether listening to music during urodynamic study decreases patient anxiety and pain. Methods: Sixty‐two patients who underwent urodynamic study were randomized into the following groups: no music (group 1, n = 30) or classical music (group 2, n = 32) during the procedure. Patient anxiety levels were quantified using the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI). A visual analog scale (VAS) was used for self‐assessment of discomfort and willingness among patients to have a repeat urodynamic study. Results: Demographic characteristics, mean age, duration of procedure, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) and heart rate before procedure were statistically significantly similar between the two groups. Statistically significant differences were detected between the two groups in the mean pain score on VAS (4.1 ± 1.4 vs 2.6 ± 1.8), mean post‐procedural STAI score (46 ± 5.8 vs 37.3 ± 5) and mean BAI score (14.2 ± 1.7 vs 3.5 ± 0.7). SBP and DBP and heart rate were similar between the groups. Conclusion: Music is a cheap, safe and effective intervention that has gained increasing recognition as an effective tool to reduce pain and anxiety. Listening to music during urodynamic study reduced patient pain and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: For most people, music serves as a calming influence or as a pleasurable stimulus that lifts their spirits. In an attempt to both distract and cheer up hospitalized patients, we designed a brief intervention that would bring music to their hospital rooms in attempt to enhance their mood and minimize their awareness of pain.Methods: In this prospective study of adult patients on the general medicine ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital, we assessed the impact of self-selected music delivery on patients' mood and their perception of pain. Patients' mood and pain were assessed using the modified Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Verbal Numerical Rating Scale, a validated 10-point Likert pain scale.Results: Of the 151 patients studied, their mean age was 57 years, 57% were women, and 65% were white. Ninety-seven percent of patients described listening to music regularly at home, but only 28% of patients reported that they had listened to any music since being in the hospital (P < 0.0001). The patients' modified Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score and pain score were decreased significantly (-4.99, standard error 0.45, P < 0.0001, and -0.72, standard error 1.51, P < 0.0001, respectively) after listening to a couple of their favorite songs.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that bringing music to hospitalized patients and encouraging them to listen to their favorite songs are genuinely appreciated. If this intervention can enhance moods and reduce pain for patients in the hospital, then directing resources to make it sustainable may be justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I will focus upon a case narrative described as 'Trine', and her participation in a community group called Come Closer. I relate the discussion within a broader context of Community work and Community music therapy. The article combines vignettes taken from music therapy practice and various theoretical views. I argue that music has a potential as a force for social change and spans an unlimited number of combinations. Music can function as a practice that involves the activity of personal reflection processes and music can function as a sociopolitical force, able to change social realities and alter power relations. In sum, the article concludes that three strategies which might be appropriate for further investigation and implementation regarding music as resource in child welfare work. First, there is the need for an individual strategy. The individual strategy includes person-oriented activities such as conversation, song writing, and the use of music technology. Second, there is the need for a community-oriented strategy wherein activities such as playing in a band or song writing comes into focus. Third, there is a need for a strategy which implies working with networks, social environments, and power relations. The third strategy is very closed related to ideals taken from a traditional community work perspective, whereas ideas such as Arnsteins ladder of participation is prominent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Several recent studies have demonstrated that music can significantly influence the eating/drinking experience. It is not clear, however, whether this influence would be moderated by the expertise of the taster. In the experiments reported here, we tested a large group (N = 154) of very experienced wine tasters—the majority of whom were professionals working in the wine business—at a winemaking conference. The first study assessed the impact of putatively “sweet” and “sour” soundtracks on taste evaluation, whereas the second study assessed more subtle wine‐specific terminology such as length, balance, and body. The results revealed that the effect of music on wine perception can indeed be demonstrated in wine experts. Moreover, the amount of wine tasting experience, as measured in years, did not moderate the influence of music on sensory and hedonic wine evaluation. This result suggests that the aforementioned auditory modulation of drinking experience is not influenced by the increased analytical abilities afforded by traditional wine tasting expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI), i.e the internal experience of a repetitive musical fragment, is one of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition. Findings regarding the relationship between INMI and cognitive load are conflicting. In the present study, 200 participants watched and evaluated two non-dialogue, music-only film trailers. Subsequently, they either closed their eyes for 5 min (baseline), or engaged in one of three dot tasks of varying challenge and attentional demand (low, medium, and high cognitive load). Finally, they completed a novel “Mind Activity Questionnaire”, which allows for indirect INMI sampling rather than direct questioning. The same questionnaire was completed 24 hours later. Overall, a significant negative linear trend was found. At baseline, 65% of people reported experiencing INMI. This rate decreased to 32.5% in the low load condition with further reductions observed in the medium and high conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other. INMI frequency and duration followed the same pattern as the induction rates. In the 24-hour follow-up, 21% of participants reported INMI experiences. This study supports the hypothesis that INMI occurrence, frequency, and duration relate to spare cognitive capacity and demonstrates an ecologically valid laboratory paradigm for covertly inducing and documenting INMI experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background : Cancer is one of the ten leading cause of death in India. Cancer patients usually present with moderate to severe pain which results usually from the cancer itself or from their treatment. To counteract pain complementary therapies are used along with the medical treatment. The most common used in the clinical setting is Music therapy; which is found to have a positive effect on the physical and psychological response of the patients. Objectives: To find the effectiveness of Music therapy on Pain and Quality of life among Cancer survivors. Material and Method : A quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study. The data were collected using demographic proforma, Numerical Pain rating scale and McGill Quality of life Questionnaire. 50 subjects with moderate to severe pain were identified and were randomly allocated into experimental (25) and control group (25). Experimental groups (25) received Music therapy for 15-20 mins twice a day for a period of 5 days. The control group (25) received no intervention. Pain was assessed twice a day, before and after the intervention for 5 days and QoL was assessed on the 6th and 10th day for both the groups. Results: Majority of the subjectsl9 (38%) were between the age groups of 41-50 years and most of them 29 (58%) were males. Among the females the most common cancer was breast 12 (24%) and among males it was lungs 10 (20%). Most of the subjects 23(46%) had stage-II cancer, and 28(56%) were on radiation therapy. With regard to treatment, majority 29(58%) were on treatment for a duration of 1-3 months. The study also revealed a significant difference in the level of pain after the music intervention (p<0.05) and a significant improvement in the Quality of life especially affecting the physical and psychological domain (p<0.05). No significant association was found between pain,QoLand selected demographic variables (p<0.05) Conclusion: Music therapy was found to be an effective complementary therapy in reducing the level of pain and improving the QoL of the cancer survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music can be used as a therapeutic tool and has several effects in cognitive and physiological functions. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of different musical pieces in spatial memory in adult male rats. A T maze was used to investigate spatial memory, with 2h and 6h inter trial interval between training and testing phases. Before training, animals were exposed to an active or relaxing musical stimulus corresponding to rock and classical pieces. It was found that in the experiment with 2h interval, animals explore more the novel arm in comparison with the other arm, which indicated that animals still had a good spatial memory. This was not observed in rats that were exposed to the relaxing rock piece, which could indicate that this stimulus diminished memory. With the 6h interval the rats explored both arms equally, except animals that were exposed to the activating rock piece of music which indicated a slightly enhance in memory. Thus, there were found different effects of music corresponding to the time of interval and the stimulus characteristics. This data provides information to use music as a possible treatment to modulate memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I highlight ways in which ethnomusicologycentered skills can be adapted for educational, practice-based, and research-based cross-disciplinary settings where topics of music and health intersect, by focusing on recurring issues that I have encountered and negotiated as an ethnomusicologist and music educator. These issues include determining the role of the ethnomusicologist in collaborative settings and developing awareness of cross-disciplinary considerations. Through discussion of project design and methodology, I explain how I have negotiated post-injury and program-based needs through practical applications of ethnomusicology to facilitate community integration through music in a community-based rehabilitation program for individuals recovering from traumatic brain injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, both music and healthcare have been professionalized, and the major focus of collaborative projects between these two fields has been upon arts-based interventions carried out in clinical settings and evaluated in terms of clinical outcomes. Recently, however, more attention has been paid to the contribution of community arts to primary care and preventive care. On the public health side, the conversation between music, the arts, and health has been moving from the clinic to the community, from clinical medicine with its focus on individual therapeutic interventions to public health with its focus on community development and community capacity building. On the arts side, there is a corresponding move from concert hall, gallery, and stage toward the community. I argue that the health professions have not yet realized the potential of music and the other arts to mobilize poor communities and to provide meaningful contexts for health education and empowerment. I also contend that artists and ethnomusicologists have a social justice responsibility to work together with public health professionals to explore fully the power of personal and community agency, self-knowledge, and social change in dealing with extreme health problems. I assert that the capacity of music, with other arts, to communicate in uniquely complex and subtle ways offers significant potential for health in ways that other modalities do not. In order to illustrate this emerging field, I will present examples of existing projects and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever it comes to finding the right music for a music therapy session, music therapists find themselves overwhelmed by the numerous possible choises, though asking themselves which one is the most appropriate and with the best results. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of music on people, and to find ways of facing the challenge of choosing the right music for each individual. Starting with the fact that listening to music is predicting the personality, is increasing the creativity and is improving our motor and reasoning skills, being the centre of the therapeutic process, we find challenging the method of choosing the music although, nowadays, the new technology is of great help in making the choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study, which was conducted utilising a sample of 129 users of sound baths with gongs in 2015 in Slovenia, has shown that all users define the effect of sound vibrations as healing and/or relaxing. They testified on achieving durable inner peace, on better physical and mental wellbeing, fresh impetus for work, desire for personal growth and other positive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music Therapy practices with premature and medically fragile infants and families have been widely researched and documented across the globe. Despite such a plethora of discourse, there remain many questions within the evidence base. In particular, exploring and understanding parents’ perceptions of musically engaging with their baby, the role of the music therapist when working with the infant-parent dyad and understanding where music therapy practice is best placed to intervene within such a multifaceted and acute health care continuum. This qualitative inquiry, adopting Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology explores how parent’s experience and perceive interactions with their baby through moments of singing and using their voice in a Neonatal Unit (NU). Findings emerged across four waves of analysis with recurrent themes including the intrinsic role of singing and voice to support the developing identity of parents and act as a fundamental bridge of connection to their premature baby; the powerfully supportive role of voice to meet the emotional needs of parents; and accessing voice as a self-soothing coping tool for parents. Moreover, the concept of time across differing stages of the acute neonatal journey and its influence on parents’ experiences and perceptions of voice inductively emerged across cases. Moreover, findings highlighted singing and voice interactions as a critical dialogical encounter of perceived connection and recognition that validated the parent’s developing relationship with their baby. Finally, the role of the music therapist was explored with dialogue emerging acknowledging the importance of this role in supportively educating and facilitating parents to find their voice and connect with their baby in the NU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the bond between the soul and the body in the light of ancient musical practices and expounds on the divergence between the philosophical distinction between body and soul, and the widespread belief in their affinity, which has a medical, as well as a religious, background. This divergence is particularly evident in the testimonies regarding the use of music in the so-called Pythagorean way of life. These testimonies seem to be related to an ancient holistic approach, which regards bodily well-being as inseparable from psychical balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music, from its beginning to present time, most directly influences the spiritual development of man. From its beginning, through ancient civilizations to the present time, music has had an immeasurably important role in the formation of personality and, according to recent studies, a very important role in the influence on human health. Music therapy, as a separate branch of medicine, deals with the beneficial effect of music on the disorders in personality development, the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, as well as other kinds of diseases. This paper will show the effects, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, because of the social events of the past few decades, of various musical trends which affect negatively the development of the spiritual side of the personality, and have long-term consequences on the understanding and building up the value system. Additional exposure to media propagation of such music trends, and the negative effects that it entails, requires restoring the true values of art music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses listening to music, music effects on attention performance and affects of background music. Topics discussed include music lyrics, classical music and hip-hop music. Other topics which includes task performance, concentration and Daniel Kahneman's limited capacity model are also discussed.

The following story is a written portrait (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) of Yuna, with particulars constructed and consolidated from data obtained from several of this study's participants. All had travelled to the US to study music therapy from a country in Asia. The form, themes, and shape of the story is taken directly from transcript data, while details have been fictionalized to create greater context for the reader's understanding of Asian students' lived experiences. The music excerpt that follows the story is offered as a way to further enhance our comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory approaches to practice are a fundamental aspect of the evolving Community Music Therapy (CoMT) discourse (Stige & Aaro, 2012). While collaborative process is critical to participatory practice, there is currently limited practical understanding of the process of collaboration in CoMT projects, and the experience of collaboration for participants. This study investigates the process of collaboration between a music therapist and community participants in three participatory music projects in Melbourne, Australia. These projects were undertaken with three separate communities supporting groups of marginalised young people. The young people and their supporting communities collaborated as co-researchers in this study, and we used an action research design. Together, we sought to understand and articulate the process of collaboration in participatory music projects, and to investigate the meaning of collaboration for the young people involved. We explored these areas though cycles of action and reflection, and results emerged from a series of iterative, interpretative analyses. The results of these analyses were: 1) A practical model of collaborative process in music therapy, and 2) an understanding of the conditions required to optimise the potential for positive growth for collaborators in participatory music projects. The research process and results are articulated in this paper. The ultimate outcome of this research is a synthesis of these results. In this paper I offer an overall picture of what collaboration in CoMT project involves and requires of collaborators—a process I call "Being a player". This is articulated from the perspective of community participants, who are—as elucidated this study— critical actors and decision-makers in a collaborative approach to music therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author presents a study showing effect of music on reading comprehension performance. It mentions that irrelevant sound effect (ISE) which is one of the auditory distraction phenomena discussed include two key features need to be present for the ISE to occur, first changing-state information and second seriation. According to researchers F.H. Rauscher and E.G. Schellenberg listening to music can improve performance.

The literature has already demonstrated that auditory stimulation with music influences the cardiovascular system. In this study, we performed a literature review in order to investigate the relationship between auditory mechanisms and cardiac autonomic regulation. The selected studies indicated that there is a strong correlation between noise intensity and vagal-sympathetic balance. Also, it was reported that music therapy improved heart rate variability in anthracycline-treated breast cancer patients. It was hypothesized that dopamine release in the striatal system induced by pleasure songs are involved in the cardiac autonomic regulation. Further studies are necessary to add new elements in the literature to improve new therapies to treat cardiovascular disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the effects of auditory and visual distractions on pedestrian ambulation. A fundamental temporal characteristic of ambulation is the temporal fluctuation of the stride interval. In this paper, we investigate the stationarity of stride interval time series when people are exposed to different forms of auditory and visual distractions. An increase in nonstationary behavior may be suggestive of divided attention and more frequent central modulation of locomotion, both of which may have ramifications on pedestrian vigilance and responsiveness to environmental perturbations. One group of fifteen able-bodied (6 females) young adult participants completed a music protocol (overground walking with and without music). A second group of fifteen (7 females) did a television protocol (treadmill walking while watching TV with and without sound). Three walking trials, each 15min in duration, were performed at each participant’s comfortable walking speed, with force sensitive resistors under the heel of each foot. Using the reverse arrangements test, the vast majority of time series were nonstationary, with a time-varying mean as the principal source of nonstationarity. Furthermore, the television trial with sound had the greatest number of nonstationarities followed by overground walking while listening to music. We discuss the possibility that these conditions measurably affect gait dynamics through a subconscious synchronization to external rhythms or a cyclic distraction followed by a period of increased conscious correction of gait timing. Our findings suggest that the regulation of stride timing is particularly susceptible to constant, time-evolving auditory stimuli, but that normal pacing can be restored quickly upon stimulus withdrawal. These kinds of sensory distractions should thus be carefully considered in studies of pedestrian ambulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Beethoven had the highest regard for Handel, claiming on more than one occasion "he was the greatest composer who ever lived." Beethoven's knowledge of the earlier composer's music was considerable. In addition to the direct influence from Handel's music that may be traced with Beethoven's variations on one of his themes, direct transcriptions of his fugues, or the general evocation of Handel's style in Beethoven's choral fugues, this article proposes that Beethoven may have borrowed specific musical ideas from Handel's Messiah and reworked them for use in his own Missa Solemnis. The method by which Beethoven may have adapted materials from Handel's music includes the use of composite melodies, whereby a single melodic line is presented by different voices and in different registers. Sketches for the Gloria of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis indicate that Beethoven considered using this type of voice-leading technique in adapting the opening melody from Handel's chorus "And the Glory of the Lord." Analytical examples illustrate how these composite statements of the borrowed melody could have been incorporated in the Missa Solemnis, and further, how the fugal theme of Beethoven's Gloria may consist of a "composed out" version of Handel's theme. Beethoven's music plays on the original imitative relationships found in Handel's "Glory" chorus and extends them, in an abstract sense, by creating counterpoint from the borrowed melody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the effects of music-induced mood changes on different components of visual attention. Affective valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (high vs. low) were manipulated by having participants listen to one of four versions of a Mozart Sonata that varied in mode (major or minor) and tempo (fast or slow). Attention was measured in three domains—alerting, orienting, and executive control. Affective valence and arousal had an effect on executive control, but not on alerting or orienting. Individuals who experienced positive valence had less efficient control over their responses than those who experienced negative valence, but only when arousal levels were high. Positive and negative valence did not influence executive control measures when arousal levels were low. These findings demonstrate that affective valence and arousal interact with one another to influence the processing of items in visual attention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article develops a dynamic account of rhythm as 'order-in-movement' that opposes static accounts of rhythm as abstract time, as essentially a pattern of possibly unstressed sounds and silences. This dynamic account is humanistic: it focuses on music as a humanly-produced, sonorous phenomenon, privileging the human as opposed to the abstract, or the organic or mechanical. It defends the claim that movement is the most fundamental conceptualization of music-the basic category in terms of which it is experienced-and suggests, against Scruton, that music literally and not merely metaphorically moves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]