Special Section: In Memory of Clive Robbins 1927-2011

Clive Robbins – A Global Perspective

By Denise Grocke

I first met Clive in 1974 when he and Paul Nordoff toured several cities of Australia, including Sydney and Melbourne. They gave a demonstration workshop at what was then the Janefield Training Centre for multiply disabled children and adults in Melbourne. I remember thinking it was a courageous initiative to work in a foreign county with groups of children and adults who were not known to you. However, once the music began, the children were fully engaged while being observed by a large audience. The whole experience was inspirational. I also remember Clive greeting me with great warmth and a beaming smile; he was genuinely pleased that I had trained in the US within the humanistic model!

The 1974 visit was pivotal to the establishment of Nordoff-Robbins in Australia as it was then that Paul and Clive inspired Enid Rowe and others to train in the UK. Much later in the 1980s, Clive and Carol Robbins came to live and work at the Nordoff-Robbins Australia Centre in Dural, New South Wales, a particularly beautiful part of Australia in the Blue Mountains. They contributed a great deal to the development of music therapy in Australia. They attended annual conferences, and were Keynote Speakers at the 1987 conference in Adelaide, with the theme “Music Therapy: An agent for change.” Both Clive and Carol also contributed to the Education and Registration Committees of AMTA (Australia) and their wise counsel was highly respected.

The last occasion at which I met Clive was his trip to Australia to commemorate Carol’s service to music therapy. He spoke lovingly about Carol’s wonderful musicianship, her beautiful voice and great skill in engaging clients of all ages. In between these visits I met Clive in New York, and at numerous music therapy conferences, and congresses in different parts of the world.

To speak of Clive’s contribution from a global perspective is relatively easy when one considers the extent of influence Nordoff-Robbins music therapy has made on the world. From the beginnings in the UK, where training commenced in 1974 and in Germany (training was established at Herdecke in 1982), Nordoff-Robbins music therapy spread throughout the world. Training in New York commenced 1990 and in Pretoria South Africa in 1998, and then to Australia (training established 2001). Nordoff-Robbins centres exist in all these countries and it is also widely practiced in Norway, New Zealand, and in Asia, particularly in Japan. The ripple effect of this model of music therapy is extensive and is sustained by hundreds of N-R trained therapists throughout the world who continue “the work” (one of Clive’s favourite phrases).

Heralded at the World Congress of Music Therapy in Washington USA, as one of the five traditions of music therapy, Nordoff-Robbins music therapy met all the criteria for having a philosophy, method, training curriculum, demonstrable research and publications. NR therapists contributed to all the panel discussions. One of the early publications—Creative Music Therapy published in 1977—inspired thousands of music therapists, and the often-quoted case study of Edward heard by thousands of audiences world-wide captured the essence of what music therapy is about: that seemingly chaotic sounds can form the basis of creative improvisation and communication when in the hands of attentive therapists who are superb musicians and who engage with sensitivity and love. Clive Robbins had all of these qualities and more.

A major contribution to the field were the two rating scales: The Child-Therapist Relationship in Musical Activity, and Musical Communicativeness scales, published in Creative Music Therapy (1977)1 at a time when music therapy (in the US) was predominantly based in the behavioural philosophy. The scales were the first to capture the interaction of therapist and client within the music and for many years these scales were the only evaluation tools indigenous to music therapy. Other scales used in music therapy clinical practice and research at the time were borrowed from psychology or the social sciences, but the Nordoff-Robbins scales belonged to music therapy. The descriptors within the scales attest to the qualitative and humanistic minds of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins, and are as relevant today as they were back in 1977.

What stands out to me (even as I type these words) was the beautiful sonority of Clive’s speaking voice. As music therapists we know the importance of an aesthetically beautiful singing voice, but Clive’s speaking voice had a rich deep tone, that immediately conveyed warmth, love and positive regard. He was a tall man, yet never intimidated children he worked with, partly because of his broad, warm smile, and sonorous voice welcoming the child into the music experience.

I remember Clive too for his knowledge of the Sufi masters, and their writings. Clive loved to tell Sufi stories, particularly those of Jalal Al-Din Rumi. Clive prided himself on having the full collection of Rumi’s writings and would often recall a story from memory, taking delight in the core message of the story at its end. He was an expert storyteller; it was easy to stay focused on his lyrical voice as the story unfolded and to share the enjoyment of the story with him.

He will be remembered as a gentle man, who walked the earth with sincerity and dignity; a man who was at ease with every living soul, and whose voice brought joy and calm whether spoken or sung. While we will miss him, his legacy will remain vibrantly alive through the thousands of Nordoff-Robbins therapists, and those who were not trained in N-R, but nevertheless had great admiration and respect for him.