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Welcome
Bev Foster, Executive Director, Room 217 Foundation
...Music expresses the emotional life. Music can help us voice feelings of joy, sadness, longing, anticipation, love. Music’s capacity to shape melody that matches our mood, or create rhythm that evokes response is unparalleled. The articles you read in DOORWAY 16 support this notion...
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Chords of Disquiet: Did psychiatric illness help or hinder the creativity of some of history’s most celebrated composers?
By 2011 Music Care Conference Keynote Speaker Dr.Richard Kogan
This article has been reprinted with permission from Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Volume 81, Number 2; Spring 2008
Sergei Rachmaninoff dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 2 to an unlikely muse: his psychiatrist. The Russian composer had suffered from a debilitating depression since the disastrous premiere of his Symphony No. 1 three years earlier, and the illness had robbed him of his ability to compose music… The relationship between Rachmaninoff’s illness and his music intrigues me, for I’m a psychiatrist by day and a concert pianist by night. Ten years ago, the American Psychiatric Association asked me to give a presentation on the connection between creativity and mental illness. Until that time, my careers had progressed on parallel tracks. But that experience helped me appreciate the synergy between the two domains. My psychiatric training enabled me to identify patterns of illness in the life stories of the great composers, and this understanding gave me insight into the creative process.
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Letting Go: The Paradox of Cultural Competence in End-of-Life Care
By 2011 Music Care Conference Keynote Speaker Therese Schroeder-Sheker, The Chalice of Repose Project
A version of Letting Go was originally published by Elsevier in EXPLORE Vol. 3, No. 2 March-April 2007. The author retains copyright of this work and is delighted to provide written permission to Ms. Bev Foster, Executive Director of room 217 Foundation, to make this essay available for publication in DOORWAY TO ROOM 217, Volume 16, September 2011. It is not available for other uses without advance written permission from the author and her publisher, St. Dunstan’s Press.
Music-thanatology is a contemplative practice with clinical applications, and yet also a palliative medical modality and an evidenced-based practice. The work of music-thanatology is entirely devoted to the loving care of the physical and spiritual needs of the dying with prescriptive music. With harp and voice, musician-clinicians who have completed a rigorous three year graduate level educational program serve the needs of the dying at the very bed-side of the dying patient.
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HealthRHYTHMS- a drumming protocol for health and well-being
by 2010 Music Care Conference participant Rufus Glassco
Group Empowerment Drumming harnesses many elements of wellness in one activity that anyone can enjoy. According to Karl Bruhn, Father of the Music-Making and Wellness Movement, "without the obstacle of a challenging learning curve, group drumming is an enjoyable, accessible and fulfilling activity from the start for young and old alike. From exercise, nurturing and social support, to intellectual stimulation, spirituality and stress reduction, group drumming stimulates creative expression that unites our minds, bodies and spirits!"
The HealthRHYTHMS protocol was composed of many familiar elements that I'd used since 2005 as a drumming circle facilitator. But it also had elements I'd only heard of and never tried, like guided imagery, and Inspirational Beats”, which seemed to work like magic.
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Book Review: Improvising in Styles: A Workbook for Music Therapists, Educators and Musicians
Colin Andrew Lee and Marc Houde 2011, Barcelona Publishers, Bilsum NH ISBN: 1-891-278-58-4, 431 pages, Audio CD 35 tracks
Improvising in music typically can be defined as the practice of creating and singing or playing music simultaneously; a spontaneous and fresh expression of one’s immediate ideas and feelings. Often a mystery to those who are bound to the score, improvisation can both inspire and confound the listener, depending on the perceptive skills of both the performer and the audience. While currently primarily practiced within the jazz idiom, improvisation is present in virtually all styles and cultures of music practice.
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Anorexia and Cachexia at End of Life
By Katherine Murray, BSN, MA, CHPCN(C) and Joshua Shadd MD CCFP
...Anorexia at end of life is defined as the decreased interest in food and eating. Cachexia is defined as involuntary weight loss (more than 5% of baseline) with a greater loss of muscle than fat. Cachexia is common in advanced cancer and some other severe progressive illnesses...
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Rooms Around the World
Profiles hospices, hospitals, long term care facilities and people using or beginning to use music in therapeutic ways.
If your organization would like to be featured in Rooms Around the World send us a picture and share a unique aspect of it with our readers.
This issue:
Music Memorials – Dominic Crawford Collins - Ireland
MaryMac Missions - Supporting Life experience - Boston, MA
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Music Note
Music Note tells the story behind the songs of Room 217.
The Swan (Saint-Saëns) (Gentle Waters)
Le Cygne, or the Swan, is the most famous movement of Le Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of the Animals), a musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village when he composed the work in February 1886.
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Dancing in the Kitchen
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Music Care: Musical Approaches in Caring Communities
This practical resource guide will give you contextualized ideas and suggestions for implementing music care in your community. New this Fall from Room 217 Foundation.
Click here to order
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Room 217 Music Care Conference - Saturday October 22, 2011 in Waterloo ON - Breaking News - Steven Page to speak and perform at MCC
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Arts Health Network Canada & Arts Health Network Canada – a new organization with a comprehensive Canadian vision
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About VON Caregivers’ Connect
An online service for caregivers everywhere who provide hands-on care, assistance and emotional support to family members or friends who need them.
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Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics, or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: we are all the same.
– John Denver
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