The Honor of Sharing Our History
I find myself involved in searching for information on several aspects of our music therapy past. I feel honored to be able to learn about important people and events, sometimes in ways that are not easily accessible, and to share this information with others. I am fascinated by much of what I am learning about people and events and would like to share some of my experiences.
One of the ways in which I have been doing this is through the interview series on the World Congresses of Music Therapy (introduced at World Congresses of Music Therapy – An Introduction, with a number of later entries). These interviews are easily available in Voices, and I hope that many people are reading and enjoying them. Other interviews in Voices are allowing us to learn about important people in the history of Canadian music therapy (see Introduction to the Series of Interviews about Music Music Therapy in Canada and later entries) and Texas music therapy (see Introduction to "Texas" series of interviews and later entries), as well as other important music therapists. All of the interviews that have been done are useful in this way, whether they are of “historical” figures or people who may eventually be considered historical.
A related experience occurred this summer when I was asked to revise the entry for Paul Nordoff in the Grove Dictionary of New American Music, 2nd Edition, and to develop a new entry for Clive Robbins. I was honored to be asked to write about these two important music therapists and also anxious to be sure that what I wrote was accurate and respectful. All of this had to be done with a very small number of words. I worked with Clive Robbins and Colin Lee to learn more about Paul Nordoff’s life and work. One of the things about the revisions to Paul’s entry that I am proud of is that I believe that I was able to correct (with the help of Clive and Colin and the archivists/librarians at Juilliard and The University of the Arts - University Libraries & Archives, where records from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music are now housed) some inaccurate information on his compositions and education that had occurred in the earlier entry. I also feel that Paul’s important music therapy work is represented better in this revision than in the earlier version. I am also pleased with what will appear about Clive Robbins; of course, it was nice to have Clive’s assistance with this. My communications with the archivist were a type of detective work – looking for evidence of Paul’s degrees and with whom he studied when these were not laid out clearly. I was grateful for the archivist’s assistance in deciding what was accurate – and fascinated by the process of finding old documents, such as graduation records and newspaper articles, to provide the information that we were looking for.
Finally, I have been working with a colleague, Jenny Krider, to gather information on Kentucky’s history. We have gathered a lot of information and are in the final stages of organizing it. It will be housed in the University of Louisville archives, where it will be kept safe and will be available to others who want to study or examine it. William Davis, AMTA’s archivist, has helped us to understand this process. In this work, I am grateful to have been able to procure many historical materials and appreciate those who have allowed us access to them. I hope that we will leave them in a way that others can benefit from them. This work with the Kentucky historical material is reminiscent of my first work with historical materials when I gathered information on the history of the Mid-Atlantic Region of NAMT. Sandra Golden and I later wrote about some of this history in an article that was published in Music Therapy Perspectives (Wheeler & Golden, 1987).
All of these experiences are giving me a better understanding of what has gone into music therapy as we know it today. I have known many of the people who have been involved in these developments, although a number of them are no longer living. Of course, many other music therapists who are active today did not know these people, many of whom were active a number of years ago. I think that it is important to write down this history so that we do not lose it. I know that I and others have written about this in earlier issues of Voices (see On History by Michele Forinash; The Loss of Friends by Carolyn Kenny; “In Memory of a Mentor: Josée Préfontaine” by Guylaine Vaillancourt. I suspect that there are others that I am not including).
I would like to say again that it is important and meaningful to know and acknowledge those who went before us. I urge other music therapists to participate in these efforts by searching for historical information and interviewing people who are and have been important in the development and history of music therapy. Please consider publishing these interviews in Voices – we welcome interviews!! I also encourage others to work to gather and save the things that make up our history. They are also part of this history.
Reference
Wheeler, B. L., & Golden. S. (1987). NAMT and Its Mid-Atlantic Region: Changing Together. Music Therapy Perspectives, 4, 56-63.
How to cite this page
Wheeler, Barbara (2009). The Honor of Sharing Our History. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 08, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=colwheeler281209
About Barbara Wheeler
Biography
BARBARA WHEELER, PhD, MT-BC has been Professor and Director of Music Therapy at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, since 2000. She came to that position after 25 years on the faculty of Montclair State University in New Jersey. Her clinical work has been with children and adults with a variety of problems; she currently works on a hospital oncology unit. She edited the books Music Therapy Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives and Music Therapy Research, 2nd Edition, coauthored Clinical Training Guide for the Student Music Therapist, and has written a number of articles and chapters. Wheeler is President of the American Music Therapy Association. She is Interview Co-Editor for Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Barbara frequently speaks and consults about music therapy both in the U.S. and abroad.