My name is Akiko Yoshikawa and I am from Japan. I have been studying Music Therapy and Soundscape at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music as a postgraduate student since last April. I am writing in response to Diego Schapira's column "New Sounds in Culture," (http://voices.no/?q=fortnightly-columns/2002-new-sounds-culture) which we discussed in my music therapy seminar.
I was not aware of "cacerolazo" and "the march of keys during the Velvet Revolution." They are not familiar to us in Japan. I believe that each period, country, and culture has sounds of its own, and agree with Mr Schapira that we should pay attention to the cultural context of the person who is asking for help.
In my seminar, we thought about "sounds in our culture." I asked the members of the seminar what kind of sounds in Japanese culture we have in common, and they answered sounds of "wadaiko" (Japanese drum), music of "bon-odori " (Japanese folk dance), and songs of scenes of our home towns (red dragonfly, hometown, song of seashore...).
We also thought about sounds in present-day Tokyo, and then noticed that we hear unexpectedly few sounds. It doesn't mean that we actually have few sounds, but that we have a lot of choices as today's varied Tokyo culture is overflowing with sounds. While information quickly spreads out over every part of Japan, I am afraid that the sound culture in a single community is getting poorer, especially in Tokyo, the great city. The sounds that almost everyone living in Tokyo knows are the melodies of stations. They sound when trains are on the point of starting.
Some memories can surge up when we hear certain sounds, and also through other senses. For example, according to one woman in the seminar, the smell of incense sticks and the sound of the Buddhist scriptures remind her of the temple where she lived in her youth. Her senses of smell and hearing may be not independent but correlate with each other. Moreover, another woman remembers the shrine where she stayed during every summer vacation when she hears "Norito" (a prayer of Shintoism, the religion of Japan, in which nature and ancestors are worshiped). The shrine where Norito echoes through the season summer (hot weather, droning of a cicada) can be revived through the senses of her whole body.
We each have such experiences. The senses cultivated by such experiences are different individually. In music therapy sessions, it is important to pay attention to life histories of each person and to practice according to them.
Applying such ideas, we can extend the field of therapy. In Japan, for instance, "therapy with sounds of nature and sounds in life" was reported. It was practiced for clients of cerebral accident. The purpose of the therapy was arousing their interest in rehabilitation. According to the report, sounds in their memories stimulated their brains and moved their hearts beyond time and space. At last, functioning of the hands and feet of the clients improved and their lives also improved.
I wonder if therapy is practiced with sounds of nature or sounds in life in Diego Schapira's country of Argentina and/or in other countries. If readers know of people practicing such a therapy, I would appreciate knowing about them.
First of all, I am really sorry for not responding sooner. I would be happy if you could read this contribution. I am writing about "therapy with natural sounds and sounds in life" that I mentioned before.
Mr. Takashi Uchikawa, who was a PT at Shimabara-Onsen Hospital in Japan, started practicing this therapy in 1985. He named it Sound Stimulation Therapy and he practiced it with more than 30 clients who had had strokes. The important thing about Sound Stimulation Therapy is to be practiced only once with a client because it has to be stimulation. The clients who have been operated on 3 to 4 months ago are tired of their rehabilitations and most of them are giving up on their lives. It is expected to be not only effective to encourage their rehabilitations but improve their lives.
The following is what Mr. Uchikawa mentioned. He said that it should be practiced by darkening the room so that clients can use their imaginations. The clients listen to a few sound programs that he chooses for each of them from a Japanese radio program, called "Soundscape." ("Soundscape" is a 5-minute program including Japanese sounds such as the sound of flowing water, the sound of trains, and the sound of a festival). Listening to those sounds, he talks with clients about them; then their memories may emerge.
I feel great regret that Mr. Uchikawa has retired and Sound Stimulation Therapy is not practiced now. Do you think this therapy is valuable?
Akiko
Reference
Uchikawa, Takashi (2002). Soundscape and Rehabilitation. Johns 2002 Vol.18 No.6 Tokyo Medical Co. Ltd.
As I read the column "New Sounds of Culture," I found it interesting to see the effects that even the jingling of keys could have on certain people. As music therapists (or even as psychology majors) we have to pay close attention to the cultural background and history of our clients. I know that personally I have not ever thought about the consequences of such as small action as shifting keys or what instruments might trigger such memories.
As an American I can appreciate and understand that certain songs provoke certain feelings and memories such as pride and patriotism. Yet I do not often realize how those song and sound really do affect the outcome of a music therapy session. Knowing a client's background aids in choosing interments and techniques to us in each session, and can aid in a successful out come.
I do agree with Schapira, that we as therapists should pay closer attention to our actions and choices. This article reminded me to guard my actions and words, because I can never be sure how it is going to affect someone around me, whether directly or inadvertently.
As I read the article "New Sounds in Culture" by Diego Schapira, I was reminded again of the strong role music and sound can play in one's life. Although I can't remember a historical event in which I participated in that involved sound, there are certain sounds of my childhood that, when I hear them, take me back to my past as if it were a time machine. Certain pieces of music will do the same. My sister would always play "My Favorite Things" from the musical "The Sound of Music" on her trumpet, and every time that I hear that song, I think of my sister and it is almost as if she is right there again. Not all memories are good, though. There are certain sounds like the breaking of glass that will take me back into a violent era of my childhood, and it is almost as if time stops and the tears come rushing because I am so vividly reminded of my past.
I am a first year Music Therapy student at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi. Studying about culture and music is such an important thing when practicing music therapy. I agree that it is immensely important for a music therapist to explore a client's musical history. I don't think that there can be any room for guessing or speculating what a client likes or dislikes, or what s/he has been through. We are music therapists, and as such, we should allow our client to express his own feelings and past. Are not most people's feelings made up of events that shaped their lives and line their pasts? Of course they are. A music therapist must pay attention to everything that surrounds his/her client (including history) in order to have successful therapy sessions. It is our job, after all, to serve our client's best interests, and learning his/her past musical experiences is a good way to start.
Dear Akiko:
It is very pleasing and exciting to find that, in the other half of the world, there are colleagues reading what I have wrote. It also makes me happy that the little thoughts about a local phenomenon make other people think about the sounds of their own culture. So, first of all, thank you for letting me know about this. The "cacerolazo", as we call it in this latitudes , has been a spontaneous phenomenon of non violent civil protest, which started last December regarding the burst of a social and economical crisis. Suddenly, the government decided that all the savings that people had in banks had to be attached, decided the marshal law , and simultaneously devaluated the currency to one third of its value related to the American dollar.
The response of the Buenos Aires citizens, absolutely spontaneous, was to go out to the streets challenging the marshal law and marching to the government buildings with empty cooking pots (as a symbol of hunger), which were hit with spoons. As the result of this social riot , called "cacerolazo" (which literally means " bump given with a cooking pan"), the government fell and was replaced by a transitional government until next elections. Since then, the "cacerolazos" became a sonorous symbol of social protest, and you can hear it frequently in the city streets and squares. Today, for any Argentinean , the metallic sound of any kitchen element that is being hit takes him immediately to the feeling and image of a protest.
Obviously, there are lots of sounds in our culture . Some of the musical sounds, due to the globalization and to the disco industry, go beyond boundaries, in a non - reciprocal way. The huge mass media corporations create sonorous products that different populations continuously consume in a massive way. Others also go beyond boundaries, in behalf of their artistic quality of their producers (I'm thinking, for example , in artists of the level of Keith Jarret, B. Meldauh, J. Garbarek, C. Hayden, E. Gismonti, A. Piazzolla, J. Mitchell). Although they are not as popular as others, they are also part of a global sonorous culture. But then, there are other sonorities, that are absolutely local. Some are musical, and lots of them are not. They are part of the sonorous environment from each place, and in each of those places they hold a great richness that we, music therapists, must discover. I agree with you when you say that all senses are stimulated in a particular way in each place. Tokyo surely smells different from Buenos Aires. New York has a urban sonority which is completely different to the one from Viena or Río de Janeiro. But even though we pay attention to the sonority of each place, we must consider that in every big city there are a lots of social subgroups, and, that each one of them has its own Non Verbal Communicational Modes. Part of our duty as Music therapists is get to know, decipher and impregnate with our clients Non Verbal Communicational Modes, and get to know the sonority of their global culture, of their social subgroup, and their own. From my perspective, that's an essential step for an effective therapeutic action.
I want to finish telling you about my curiosity for the "therapy with sounds of nature and sounds in life". In Argentina we have various theoretical theories in Music Therapy, but there is nothing about what you mentioned. We use occasionally , the sounds of the environment , but nobody works focusing on sounds of nature. Could it be possible for you to send me information about this?
I hope these thoughts don't lead us to a dead end, but allow us to continue exchanging opinions and points of view. It is quite enriching for me.
From the other side of the planet, with affection,
Diego.-
In a forum for world music therapists, culture will inevitably become a topic of interest and discussion. As an American music therapist interested in multicultural implications for music therapists, I am pleased to see the increased focus on this overwhelmingly important issue. In my dealings as a student, therapist, and educator, I cannot separate music and culture, and thus music therapy and culture. I make the claim that multicultural music therapy is music therapy. We need not make the distinction.
As a person from primarily Northern states, I find myself in quite a new situation, both personally and professionally, as a person and music therapist in the South. I spent my quest for multicultural learning focusing on American-born or Foreign-born Asians, Indians, and Africans. Dare I say "traditional" cultures? Now I am faced with a new cultural challenge- The Culture of the South- which includes a family of subcultures, namely Religion and Women.
I must now transition my focus to a new, and less obvious area of cross cultural music therapy practice. Songs such as "When the Spirit Says Sing" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," bring much closer relationships to religion than they did in my previous surroundings. The song "Dixie" is no longer a high-spirited song to inspire movement, but rather an anthem that reminisces back to "other" times. My own views of personal music and interactive music in an improvisational setting are now new and controversial topics.
At first I thought that this was not the multicultural music therapy I wanted to explore. This wasn't "true" multicultural music therapy! But as I read "New Sounds of Culture" (http://www.voices.no/columnist/colschapira110202.html), I realized that as a multicultural music therapist, I don't get to choose. I must embrace the new challenges that my surroundings provide me, and use the same self-evaluation process as I did with my previous clients. In fact, I must even more consistently self-reflect on my experiences because they are so closely tied to my own heritage as an American.