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Welcome
Bev Foster B.Mus, B.Ed, A.R.C.T., A.Mus
Recently, I attended the first Music and the Brain Symposium presented by the Cleveland Clinic Arts and Medicine Institute in cooperation with the Neurological Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. The brainchild of Drs. Kamal Chémali and Neil Cherian, the day was designed to focus on the importance of music and its effects on and interaction with the brain. During the past two decades, the neuroscientific community has experienced an unprecedented awakening to music. There is interest in how the brain processes musical functions and how using music as a means of study gives knowledge to brain functioning in the areas of perception and cognition, language, temporality, talent and emotion. This symposium was targeted towards neurologists, physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and musicians.
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When the Brain Plays Music: Auditory - Motor Interactions in Music Perception and Production
Robert J. Zatorre, Joyce L. Chen and Virginia B. Penhune
This article has been reprinted in full with the kind permission of Robert Zatorre, PhD, and Macmillan Publishers Ltd: (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, copyright 2007) Music performance is both a natural human activity, present in all societies, and one of the most complex and demanding cognitive challenges that the human mind can undertake. Unlike most other sensory–motor activities, music performance requires precise timing of several hierarchically organized actions, as well as precise control over pitch interval production, implemented through diverse effectors according to the instrument involved. We review the cognitive neuroscience literature of both motor and auditory domains, highlighting the value of studying interactions between these systems in a musical context, and propose some ideas concerning the role of the premotor cortex in integration of higher order features of music with appropriately timed and organized actions.
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Research in the Creative Arts: Raising Awareness about Aging, Mental Health and Autonomy Through Ethnodrama
Cheryl McLean, MA, Founder, Independent Publisher, The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Instructor, University of Western Ontario, Therapist/Researcher, Writer and Performing Artist
In this article I will share with readers some of the stories behind my research ethnodrama “Remember Me for Birds”, the solo dramatic performance I wrote based on my graduate work and experiences working as a researcher and therapist with older persons in government supported foster homes in Montreal, Quebec. Acting solo in six roles, I performed this research for academics, professionals and healthcare practitioners at universities, health organizations and medicals schools in Canada and the U.S. The goal in creating this ethnodrama was to raise awareness about issues in aging, mental health and autonomy and the process proved to be a privileged form of transparency and intimate discovery that included real life exchanges, dramatic embodiment, survivor stories and much wisdom.
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Rediscovering My Voice: A Music Teacher’s Journey from Dysphonia to Vocal Health
Jane Schultz-Janzen, BChMus, BA (Hon), BEd, ARCT, Department Head, Teacher, Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of meaning. Maya Angelou “There is a large polyp located on your left vocal fold…“began the voice specialist confidently “…indicating that you have experienced a vocal hemorrhage.” My heart skipped a beat as I waited for more information. It had been well over a year since a virus attacked my body and 5 months since I had left my high school music position after my voice completely stopped functioning while touring with my high school band and choir students. After many challenging months of determining who I should see, I finally arrived on the doorstep of a vocal surgeon at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital Vocal Disorder’s Clinic. She remarked, “Will you speak properly again? Yes! Will you sing again? Most probably, but only if you have vocal surgery and strictly follow the post-operative rules.” Tears welled up as I heard the relatively positive news. It had been over a year since I had begun this vocal journey and I was beginning to think that there was no hope for me.
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Book Review: Music Therapy at the End of Life
Edited by Cheryl Dileo and Joanne V. Loewy, Jeffrey Books, 2005, 303pp
The strength of music lies in its ability to capture the past and gently move us into the present. Music Therapy at the End of Life is a timely book edited by Cheryl Dileo and Joanne Lowey that presents various philosophies, orientations and music therapy methods with diverse populations in palliative care. The book begins with a forward by Russell Portenoy, MD, Director of Pain Management and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, who not only reiterates the strength of music, but the role of the music therapist.
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Hospice Palliative Care in Sub-Saharan Africa
Part 2 - East Africa
Margaret Van Dyck, RN, BScN, CHPCN
In part 1 of my article reviewing hospice palliative care in Africa, I focused on an overview of palliative care issues in southern sub-Saharan Africa. Although the southern part of the African continent, and South Africa in particular, has seen major advances in the volume and quality of hospice care. There have also been positive changes in East Africa – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This region faces challenges in some ways more daunting than does South Africa, but each hospice has a unique history and impact in its community that is remarkable, especially given East Africa’s relative poverty.
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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: Figurenotes: Special Music Centre Resonaari, Helsinki, Finland
Friendly Phone & ePal Visit Program for Seniors: Baycrest, Toronto
Hospice Twining: Wisconson & South Africa
Music Therapy in a Palliative Setting: North Perth Community Hospice
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Music Note
Music Note tells the story behind the songs on Room 217.
Nearer, My God to Thee (Spirit Wings) – Sarah Flower Adams (1802-1848), Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Nearer, My God, to Thee is a 19th century hymn written by Sarah Flower Adams, an accomplished British actor and writer who died in 1848 at the age of forty-three. It is based on the Biblical account of Jacob’s dream from Genesis 28:10-22 where he took a stone, laid his head on it and dreamed about a ladder reaching to heaven where God’s angels were ascending and descending it. There have been a number of tunes used with the text, but Bethany, by Lowell Mason, is the most widely used.
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Home to Newfoundland
Power of Song and Presence
Our Rituals, Our Music
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Room 217 Box Set of therapeutic music resources provides variety, convenience and easy storage. 
Click here to order.
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About In Motion
The In Motion Older Adult strategy is to improve and maintain the health of older adults living in the community through support, education, research, partnerships and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The primary goals of the in motion Older Adult strategy focuses on physical activity and healthy eating to improve and maintain health by increasing access to community based opportunities for older adults.
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About SHRTN Library Service
The Seniors Health Research Transfer Network is the “place to go” in Ontario. Their Library Service provides current, evidence-based information to caregivers in long-term care and community care access to current best practice information.
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About the IAHPC World Cancer Declaration Every week more than one million people die with chronic and progressive
conditions without any palliative care and pain treatment. Several organizations have joined together and developed a Joint Declaration and Statement of Commitment for the recognition of palliative care and pain treatment as a human right and is inviting signatures to bring attention to the United Nations bodies and governments. 
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Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent. Henry David Thoreau
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