2nd World Congress of Music Therapy , Buenos Aires, 1976
Dr. Gabriela Wagner, Past President of the World Federation of Music Therapy and Chair of the 12th World Congress of Music Therapy, was involved with the 2nd World Congress of Music Therapy and provided the main information for this interview. Others who were involved are included in other parts of this presentation.
Organization
Barbara Wheeler: How was the II World Congress of Music Therapy organized?
Gabriela Wagner: Please find here some report about the above mentioned event held in Buenos Aires from 13 to 18 July, 1976.
It was organized by the "Universidad del Salvador." The Organizing Committee was as follows:
- Honorary President: Lic. José Piñon
- President, Prof. Dr. Rolando Omar Benenzon, Director of the Career of Music Therapy of the USAL
- Vice-President I, Prof. Cecilia Kamen (She received a Certificate of Appreciation during the opening ceremony of the last XII World Congress of MT)
- Vice-President II, Sr. Aldo N. VizcaÃno (Nowadays, he is my husband, and the results of our creative approach to music therapy, are our four kids – Francisco MartÃn, Gabriela del Pilar, Pablo Manuel and MarÃa Clara)
- Secretary General, Prof. Dr. Naúm Pojomovsky (deceased)
Scientific Committee
- Coordinator, Mt. Roberto Reccia
Members
- Mt. Celia Antonioli
- Mt. Marta Renes de Berni
- Mt. Amelia Ferragina de Crivelli (President of the International Scientific Committee of the XII World Congress of MT)
- Mt. Maria C. Perez Notario (Director of the Music Therapy Career of the USAL)
- Mt. Maria R. Alfonsin de Surmani
- Mt. Renata Zerkowsky
- Executive Secretary, Gabriela Wagner (I was an advanced music therapy student then. Since I was already a school teacher with experience in organizing events and I spoke English, I was sort of the "working alma mater of the congress.")
I don't include all the other Organizing Committee members because they were part of the USAL staff without any special role in Argentine Music Therapy development.
B. W.: The word "alma mater" means something different in English than I gather that it does in Spanish. Can you please explain more about your role in this congress, including what it means when you say you were the "working alma mater of the congress"?
Political and Economical Circumstances
G. W.: We use the term "alma mater" for a person who collaborates and does not give up in spite of the problems. It means that I worked a lot.
Dr. Rolando Benenzon announced the World Congress to be organized in Buenos Aires when I was in the first year of the Music Therapy Program at the Medical School. Music therapy was a developing discipline concentrated in only one university with around 40 students and around 15 graduates supported by a group of professionals from different areas, interested in music therapy. ArgentinaÂ’s political and economical circumstances were not favorable for an international conference.
I would like to add that the ruling Argentine Peronist party was also called "Partido Justicialista." The word "Justice" was a reference to social justice. At this point, there were deep differences about how to achieve it. Do you remember that Che Guevara died in Bolivia in 1967? During the early seventies, Argentina had several armed guerilla groups, such as the Montoneros, Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo, and others who fought for similar ideals. General Perón thought that his government was able to deal with these youngsters, but finally, he excluded these movements from the party and they decided to become clandestine. On March 24 1976, when the military uprising won, the state of siege was immediately declared. The 2nd World Congress of Music Therapy was held while the country was in this emergency situation.
There was no way to think about organized publicity for an event to be held in two years. Thanks to my previous experience I presented a sort of a publicity project to be developed during January 1974 when I traveled with my parents and one of my sisters to the Northern part of the country. Rolando and the USALÂ’s people said OK. The idea was to contact people in each of the six provinces that we went through. Once we arrived in a city I would ask for tourist information at the hotel and get in touch with the medical associations as well as conservatories of music, newspapers etc., intending to publish information about music therapy.
We had no mailing list or anything of the kind. So what I did was the following: once we arrived to a city, I would take the phonebook in order to contact local associations, music schools, radios, newspapers. I enjoyed this work because I had a good reason to meet people in their everyday environment and culture. When I returned, both Rolando and I were very surprised about the results. Articles and comments arrived to the USAL making reference to the Music Therapy Program and the II World Congress of Music Therapy to be realized in 1976.
During the second year of college I went twice a week to answer letters. I also worked with Rolando as an assistant ad honorem (no payment). Of course the next year more students got interested in collaborating.
1975 was a very tumultuous year. Political persecutions, economical difficulties and confusion occurred after Perón’s death in 1974. His wife Isabel Perón was not prepared for governing the country, and the dirty war began. The organizing committee gave up several times. In spite of this part of the committee and the Chair of the Congress, Rolando, kept on working. There were also misunderstandings among the two music therapy associations. ASAM and AMGRA could not find any way to work together on this conference.
In the summer of 1975, I went down South and I got another OK to promote the congress. The same USAL was an important third world Catholic educational center leaded by the Jesuits. Music therapy was part of this changing world, and we thought that we would have the strength of an effective role in it. Our group was always against an open fight but some of my classmates had to leave the country in 1976. Two different visions of an ideal world (Utopias) moved our group,[1] but we could work together. In this same year the USAL decided to take the financial risk and the "home made conference" had a big turn. I was proposed by Rolando to be included as executive secretary because of my unconditional dedication. Due to my previous experience I could also begin to work, of course with supervision, in child psychiatry and geriatric patients, besides working as a music teacher.
Presenters
B. W.: Who attended besides the organizers and others from Argentina?
G. W.: Besides the Argentine music therapist, colleagues from the following countries attended the II World Congress of Music Therapy: Belgium, Brasil, France, England, West Germany, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, USA, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Austria, Panamá, Venezuela, Switzerland, and Uruguay.
Nathanson and Janicki from Poland were not able to come because they could not get their permissions for traveling on time. The same thing happened to the representatives of East Germany. We had the auspices of the music therapy associations of each of the mentioned countries.
Some Latin American pioneers who attended this congress:
- Isabel Reyes, Colombia
- Lyda Florez, Uruguay
- Benjumea Muñoz, Perú
- Cecilia Conde, Brasil
From the Program
B. W.: What were some of the presentations?
G. W.: Looking at the presentation program and my old papers, I would like to mention that among others, these professionals presented interesting contributions to music therapy.
- Rolando Benenzon (Argentina)
Music Therapy in Child Psychosis (conference as keynote speaker).
Photo: Rolando and Mrs. Benenzon
- Harm Willms (Germany)
Music Therapy with Psychotic Patients (conference as keynote speaker) Seminar I, II, III: Music Therapy in Psychosis; Methodological Development in Berlin His presentation was focused on group techniques in music therapy and the special role of musical structures as resources in group dynamics modification.
Photo: Harm Willms - Maria Grebe Vicuña (Chile)
The ulutum: Therapeutic Musical Rites of the Mapuche Her presentation on the role of music in the Mapuche culture was the starting point of Dr. Benenzon's further developments on Cultural Sound-Music Identity in Music Therapy. Transculturation and empathy was an issue during this congress (see further comments). - Serafina Poch Blanco (Spain)
Music Therapy in a Psychiatric Clinic for Emergencies
Photo: Serafina Poch, Angela Fenwick, and others
Photo: Spanish attendees - Lia Rejane Mendes Barcellos (Brasil)
Music Therapy in the Treatment of Behavior Disorders of Children with Cerebral Palsy - Marion Sung (USA)
Music Therapy in USA
Photo: Marian Sung, Alexander Reichman, and another person - Angela Fenwick (Great Britain)
Relationship Between improvisation and psychiatric state of mind - L. A. Milleco (Brasil)
Collective or Cultural Principles the "ISO" Principio de ISO colectivo ou cultural (in Portuguese) Collective or Cultural Iso Principle (in English) This visual impaired music therapist was Rollando Milleco's father, who presented a very interesting analysis on music evolution and collective unconscious - Ruth Friedman (Argentina)
Proto-Rhythms of the Musical and Articulated Language: Their Importance in Music Therapy - Roberto Reccia (Argentina)
Music Therapy as an Aid to the Recovery of Children with a Minimum Brain Injury He also presented, with E. A. Monticelli, on Music Therapy with the Hearing Impaired. Reccia became well-known because of his work in this field. - Susana Mordkowsky (Argentina)
Technical and Specific Aspects of Music Therapy in Adult Psychiatry in a Brief Stay in a Day Hospital
This young promising music therapist was one of the first music therapists who was included in an interdisciplinary mental health team. In November 1976 she had to leave Argentina because of political reasons. Please, remember that this 2nd World Congress of MT was held after March 24, 1976, which is five months after the beginning of the Military Government in Argentina. Since the organizer of this world congress was the Universidad del Salvador, a university founded by the Jesuit priests, the project of the 2nd World Congress of Music Therapy was widely supported. There was no need to interrupt its organization and finally it was held as it was planned. But later, Susana had to leave to Israel. The last news I had about her was that she is living somewhere in USA but she is not working as music therapist. Her seminar in 1976 was published two years later together with our presentation on MT in geriatrics (see further comments). This little book is still mentioned as a bibliographical reference in music therapy in Argentina and Brasil.
There were interesting presentations in musicmedicine, especially in heart diseases and odontology.
Further comments:
There was a special call for presentations by advanced music therapy students. Four papers were selected. One of them was the one mentioned before, presented by our team of music therapy in geriatrics.
The clinical practice was realized in the Faculty of Medicine, Buenos Aries University, Geriatric Department, and the title was: Experience of Music Therapy in a Geriatric Hospital Home (Wagner, Puntel, Testa, and others). We worked in group sessions with patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke, visual impairments, hearing loss, chronic psychosis and other medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, and others with psychosocial needs due to the lack of economical difficulties. Besides the special rehabilitation techniques, we developed others focused on cognitive, communication (including aphasia) and emotional deficits. The hypothesis of the relationship between anxiolytic medication reduction and music therapy was demonstrated and presented later at the National Psychogeriatric Congress in October, 1976.
Round tables were also presented on:
- Music Therapy Training Programs: An International Perspective
- Music and Movement in a Therapeutic Environment
- Transcultural Problems in Music Therapy
- Professional Work Problems in Music Therapy: An International Approach (this round table was coordinated by Roberto Reccia from Argentina). Venezuela, USA, Switzerland, France, Brasil, Israel and Colombia made presentations) (picture: panel at conference – label Panel)
B. W.:What music therapy associations helped to organize the congress?
G. W.: With reference to the music therapy association involved in the organization of this congress, it was AMGRA (Asociación de Musicoterapeutas Graduados de la República Argentina). It was the first professional association of music therapists in Argentina.
ASAM, the Argentine Association of Music Therapy, was founded ten years before but it was not only for music therapists. AMGRA does not exist anymore and ASAM was one of the organizing institutions of the XII World Congress of MT.
Notes
[1]The third world Roman Catholic Church and Marx inspired political movements that shared dreams about a better world with more social justice.
