Music Therapy, Song and Communication

By Andr� Brandalise

Abstract

The therapeutic relationship between therapist, client and music can also be considered as part of a communication system. Illness can seriously affect the functioning of this system in the music therapy process. The musical form song is used very often in therapeutic processes. It can be very efficient in the treatment. This article intends to make a reflection about the links between Music Therapy, Song and Communication.

Keywords: Music Therapy, Song, Communication.

Introduction

The experience I have acquired in the Psychiatric area has created contacts with many different groups of individuals with different levels of communication disorders. Within the practice, questions came up and became the main goal of this study. First I will reflect on Music Therapy. Speaking about Music Therapy implies speaking about music and therapy. I use the word therapy in the sense of a process that will have as its objective to help someone acquire a better understanding, a better connection with his/her internal issues and, as a result of that, the acquisition of a better quality of life.

And what about music? I agree with the American music therapist Barbara Hesser (1996, p. 3) when she says:

All humans are born with an innate sensitivity to tone and rhythm. Theres an innate potential in all people to make and respond to music. We all share a desire to express ourselves and communicate using rhythm, melody and harmony. All people, regardless of age or handicap can participate in the experiences of music. (...). Physiologically we are musical beings, made up of atoms and particles, all vibrating and dancing. Each person has a unique pattern of vibration which can be called their music.

I would add some of Victor Zuckerkandl´s thoughts about the relationship human being-music. This philosopher of music reconceptualizes Homo Sapiens as Homo Musicus, defined as "the being that requires music to realize itself fully" (1973, p. 2). According to him (p. 351), "music rests upon an inherent quality of existence: Musicality. Musicality is not a gift, but one of mans basic attributes; mans very nature predisposes him to music (p. 350).

Speaking about Music Therapy will also imply speaking about the use of the music as a language in the therapeutic process a language that will try to communicate and is part of the group of the analogical communication, meaning, non-verbal communication. Thinking about non-verbal communication automatically reminds me of the functioning structure of verbal communication.

In this moment, I find myself in accord with the literary theorist Roman Jakobson, who in his Theory of the Language Functions, affirms that in order to maintain, a satisfying functioning of the communication system, six critical factors are interconnected : a code, a reference, a message (selection and combination of elements of a certain code), a channel (a support on which the message is transmitted), and a transmitter (the one who sends the message) and a receiver (the one who receives the message).

When the comparison among the factors and their respective functions is made, sustaining the equipment of the two communication types (analogical and digital), we can note similarities between these categories and musical communication. A musical language will also present a code (musical), a reference (without a fixed meaning), a message (selection and combination of elements that belong to the musical code), a channel (musical instruments), a transmitter (that sends a sonourous message), and a receiver (that receives the sonorous message).

What type of relationship can we make between Jakobson's proposal and the communication relationship between client, therapist and music? This relationship contains a huge multiplicity of elements. According to my experience these internal elements are inherent in structures that alternate between verbal and non-verbal communication.

As time went by, I realized that the musical form SONG (which is composed by musical elements and text) was used a lot therapeutically as a way for the person to be present authentically, and from there on, to be able to accomplish movements towards her/his needs in the music therapy process. Communication was accomplished. This link (individual - song) began to interest me even more.

The Brazilian composer and theorist Luiz Tatit says:

The first notion that comes to the eyes is the one of efficacy. Although it presents an intersection with the mercadologic acceptance, the notion in this case is semiotics. Semiotics translates the success of a communication between the transmitter and the receiver, whose communicated object is the song itself. (1987, p. 3)

But how can such a link be used, in Music Therapy process, in the sense of helping in the production of changes?

More than once I found myself thinking over the sustaining factors of Jakobson's verbal communication. Therapist and client alternate places and functions of receiver/transmitter searching for adjustments/checkings, in order to establish the communication system. What does a person, in a music therapy process very often do? Sings. It seems so easy. But I consider it a complex action. To sing means to transmit a message. To transmit a message means to have the capability of selecting and combining elements of a certain code (in the case of the song, musical elements and text) building, in response, a message, and structuring the support (channel), so it is possible to transmit it. Therefore, intention is extremely important but not enough to adequately manifest the act of communication . Physical and psychological conditions are needed in order to execute such a task. It is necessary that both transmitter and receiver are capable of responding to their respective functions to successfully achieve the task called "communication action".

According to Tatit (1996, p. 9), "the singer is a juggler who has the the capability of gesticulate orally. He equilibrates the melody in the text and the text in the melody".

Finally, Tatit (Andrade quoted by Tatit, 1996, p. 14) sees the song as a product of a diction.

As a bow, that bands so much in order to launch the sound faraway: the human voice vibrates either to launch the word nearby or to launch the musical sound faraway. And when the spoken word wants to reach faraway, in a scream, in a plea or in a declamation it gets similar in characteristics to the song and it goes away from its stars of oral instrument to become a musical instrument.

How can Music Therapy be helpful in this case? How can we understand the therapeutic processes in which the song is a very important element?

Verbal and Non-verbal Communication (Similarities and differences)

When one studies verbal communication (digital communication), he faces the so-called linguistics. Linguistics in the global science of the verbal structure explores all the possible problems between speech and the universe of the speech, meaning what is verbalized from this universe by a determinate speech and in what way.

The Theory of the Language Functions by Roman Jakobson, Compared to non-verbal communication (musical)

According to Elisa Celente (1994), despite being associated with the name of Roman Jakobson, the "Theory of the Language Functions" has as its predecessor the Austrian psychologist Karl Buhler. It was from his triadic model (Expressive, Descriptive and Appelative Functions) that Jakobson was able to develop the rest of the functions.

According to Samira Chalhub:

We could summarize the communication process observing that the source decodifies the signs, that is, it builds up messages, that refer to an object, and sends them to a receiver. This information/message, is done through a physical support that is the channel. (1988, p. 12)

In order to get the general ideas of the functions it is necessary to review the factors that support the verbal communication process described in the introduction. These are the factors described by Jakobson as: "inalienably involved in the verbal communication". Each one of these will originate one specific language function. All the factors that support verbal communication, except the reference (which has a fixed meaning), can be perfectly linked to the sonourous elements.

EMPHASIS IN THE FACTOR	determines	FUNCTION OF THE LANGUAGE
Referent....................................................................................Referential Function
Transmitter..................................................................................Emotive Function
Receptor....................................................................................Apellative Function
Channel......................................................................................Fatic Function
Message....................................................................................Poetic Function
Code..........................................................................................Metalinguistic Function

Referential Function

Its emphasis is on the context, that is, in the referent. Journalistic texts are an example of the Referential Function because they have an informative character, putting the emphasis on the text. Musical speech has such a function in a different way because it does not base its message on a referent with a determinate meaning but, instead, connects with the individual's sonorous-musical background (musicality).

Emotive Function

This function has its emphasis on the transmitter. In the process of communication, the element that produces the message is called transmitter (or source). It will always be an emotive sign of the one who speaks, how he speaks, being a true or false emotion. It is usually signed by the pronoun in the first person. It can come up in a speech marked by an interjection, which according to Jakobson is "a purely emotive extract of the language". It is also shown in a speech marked by adjectives, which will point to the transmitter's point of view, by the adverbs and by punctuation signs. Some examples of the Emotive Function (while a dominant function), are Brazilian country songs, where the messages talk about love losses. Also there are the soap operas where in the majority of the cases the objective is to touch the spectator through speech centered in the dramatic character of the actors. Finally, the Emotive or Expressive Function, always implies the subjectivity of the one who talks and in what way one talks or, thinking in musical terms, in the one who sings/plays or how he sings/plays.

Fatic Function

Just as Buhler proposed the tríade, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski was the mentor of the Fatic Function. The emphasis of this function is on the channel, which is material support or sensorial. It is through this channel that the message is transported from the transmitter to the receiver. In a function like this one, the words are used only in social communication since they do not necessarily provoke the listener/receiver to reflect. The Fatic Function has a dominant role in messages where there is a need to try the channel, extending, interrupting or reaffirming the communication. Musical instruments (intermediaries and integrants objects) and the phono-articulation that gives support to the vocal transmission are normally thought of as the channel representatives in Music Therapy. As a part of the Fatic Function there are noises, stutters and communication tics including "get it?", "right", "isn't it?"

Poetic Function

It is the dominant Function of the art of the language and it is centered in ones own message. It corresponds approximately to the aesthetic function of the sign. Ambiguity is one of the main characteristics of the message with a function that is predominantly poetic. Selecting and combining are the two fundamental ways of presenting arrangements in linguistic activity and also in musical activity. The Poetic Function can execute an important but secondary role in messages when the dominant function is one of the other five functions.

Metalinguistic Function

The emphasis of this function is on the code, which can be specified as a system of symbols with a fixed meaning, conventional to represent and transmit the organization of its signs in the message, circulating through the channel between the transmission and the reception. The elements will be manipulated to constitute the language and will meet in a code. In the musical language the code will not have a fixed meaning. The cultural background of the receptor will be in charge of fixing a meaning to the messages sent by the transmitter. The Metalinguistic Function happens when the transmitter and/or the receiver have the need to verify if both are using the same code, as it is in the case of: "What do you want to say with that? "

According to Samira Chalhub:

Metalanguage refers to everything from the man, who is a symbolic animal, to the being who speaks. It is a system of signs of a same group where the references indicate to themselves and also allows to structure with an explanation the description of an object. (1988, p. 12)

Appelative Function

The emphasis of this function is on the receptor. The Appelative Function is grammar wise marked by the presence of the imperative and vocative element and by the second person of the tense (singular and plural). Once there is an attempt to convince the receptor of something, the Appelative Function shows features of argumentation, or even of persuasion. These features also mark the transmitter of the message. The receiver is vital because it unveils the object. Recently there has been a discourse (in the Theory of Literature) about a modern way of using the Appelative Function. The reader/receiver is seduced, meaning that s/he is possessed by his/her own message, as if it were a direct invitation. This way, more importance is given to it in the act of reading/reception. Therefore it is convenient to point out that there is a certain hierarchy between the functions purposed by Jakobson, because a message may present more than one function although one of them will always be dominant. Everything will be structured in function of the factor to which the message will be inclined.

Proposal of the visual outline of Jakobson's Theory

Previously I referred to the similarities and not to the identity between the two forms of communication (analogical and digital). The main difference between them is the fact that the analogical communication has a reference with its respective, more flexible Referential Function, that is, without a meaning previously fixed. Therefore, speaking about the Music Therapy process implies speaking of a process that through specific techniques and theories, employs music as the most important element concerning the promotion of the communication between therapist-client.

Proposal of relationship between the visual outline of the "Theory of the Language Functions" and the visual outline of the Music Therapy dynamics (illustrated by the "Triangle of Carpente & Brandalise"13)

In order to obtain success in the Music Therapy process it is critical that the elements shown above function in a satisfactory way. For this to happen the perception/ knowledge of the musicalities involved are required. As I stated in the introduction to this work, in many moments, in the relationship established between the sonorous worlds (musicalities of the therapist and of the group/client) there is a musical form: the Song. And, as Tatit (1987, p. 6) says, "it is unavoidable. Whoever listens to a song, listens to someone saying something in a certain way".

Each person, being or not a holder of some kind of deficit, will have a specific way of communicating something. This way is part of someone´s musicality. The search for a connection with musicalities, previously described is of extreme importance. It will happen from what I will call: Encounter (of musicalities).

I stop once again to reflect. In order for the musicalities to be connected, there must be organizational communication. Any intermediation in the elements or equipment, once we are all endowed with a potential to do such action in a direct way with our interlocutor, is necessary. Is it not? I answer my own questions: Because of the impossibility of organizing the factors causing organic and/or psychological deficits, and the possibility of introducing new organizing conditions as influential in the communication system, I suggest the introduction of song. Song has the possibility of establishing a healthy communication system.

The Song

The Music Therapist Joanne Loewy (quoted by Bradway, p. 7) states that "songs are expressive of thematic material for the person who chooses them -- the lyrics, the key, the intervals, the story, the artist, or even the situation in which the song was heard for the very first time". According to the Brazilian Music Therapists Maria Regina Esmeraldo Brandão and Ronaldo Pomponet Millecco (1992, p. 8) "since very early, human organization has been using the song and, in general, vocal expression, creating new universes and expanding its communication". Also according to the authors (1992, p. 18), "it was a task of the man to create his song and represent him/herself in it". That is, the songs start receiving from those who emit them vocally, very singular meanings. According to Tatit (1987, p. 3), the song necessarily implies a speaker subject -- "Somebody who sings". He defines the speaker or determiner as being a grammatical position of the song, and the listener as being the receiver. In this work the speaker has been called transmitter and the determiner has been called receiver, relating some of Tatit's thoughts to Jakobson's classifications.

I remember that the Fatic Function has its emphasis on the channel. We used to think of the channel representatives, in Music Therapy, as only the musical instruments and the phono-articulation give support to the vocal transmission. Now, I would also like to think of musical forms as channels for the message to be supported. In the case of this article I am considering song itself as channel clinically used for support of the message. In doing so, songs are therapeutically applied and create potential for the efficacy of the treatment, helping to establish a healthy communication system.

Brandão and Millecco (1992, p. 10) also state:

"So the words helped him to develop the communication and to defend himself from nature -- the music, which was pleasure and enchantement but intelectually incomprehensible. Then, the man instinctively linked the music and the word, pleasure and intellect, integrating the vocal sounds. Since then, the song has been present in the most varied cultures, and its social function has been transformed together with history".

Finally Kate Richards (1997, p. 13) asserts that "song choice may reveal a persons current developmental stage and/or unconscious coping strategies." During a hospital day, children typically regress and song choice can direct me toward the developmental stage at which they are operating.

Proposal of relationship between the visual outline of the "Theory of the Language Functions" and the visual outline of the Music Therapy process using the song as a musical form functioning as a channel which supports the message between client-therapist-music

Conclusion

"Music is not peripheral to the therapy but is the therapy" (Aigen quoted by Richards, 1997, p.6). Music Therapy dynamics also can be seen, among other things, as a therapeutic development of a communication system that functions as a continent, increasing the search for better states of health.

I strongly believe in the statement quoted above, I believe in the power of the musical form song as a therapeutic element into the Music Therapy room. Song is considered, in this article, as the channel used to support the musical message that is built up by the relationship between client and therapist in the communication system.

Very little is known about the link between human being-song. The theme is very complex and we need to investigate universes that are extremely big: song, communication and human musical being.

Notes

[1]This article is based on part of my unpublished thesis entitled: THE "CARTA DE CANÇÕES" HAS THEORY AND TECHNIQUE: collects, develops and analyzes in the treatment of individuals with communication disorder ("BRANDALISE" METHOD OF MUSIC THERAPY), submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of the Arts in the School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions. New York University, Fall 1997.

[2]André Brandalise is Bachelor of Music (UFRGS), Specialist of Music Therapy (CBM-RJ) and Master of Music Therapy (NYU-EUA). He is the founder and director of Centro Gaúcho de Musicoterapia (CGM), in the city of Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil) where he has been working as clinician, professor and supervisor. He is also one of the founders of AGAMUSI (one of the Music Therapy Associations from southern Brazil) and he is its vice-president at the present time. He is the author of the books "Musicoterapia Músico-centrada" (Music-centered Music Therapy, 2001: Apontamentos, SP) and "1ª Jornada Brasileira sobre Musicoterapia Músico-centrada" (1st Brazilian Conference on Music-centered Music Therapy, 2003: Apontamentos, SP), this one as editor and one of the writers. Brandalise has been invited to present his work in several states of Brazil, in the United States, Argentina, Uruguai, Chile, England, Norway, Colombia and Mexico. Brandalise was admitted for the PhD Program in Music Therapy (Temple University) and will initiate it on Fall 2009.

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