Representation, Radicalism, and Music “After Sound”

A Composer’s Perspective on the Music of the Future in Music Therapy

Authors

  • Aaron Moorehouse Bath Spa University, United Kingdom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v21i2.3143

Keywords:

Radicalism, Avantgardism, Dematerialisation and Decentering, Composition, Diversity, Representation

Abstract

This commentary presents an experimental-composer’s perspective on contemporary music therapy practice. I begin by offering my impressions of the field, gathered through interviews with practising music therapists, and an examination of the relevant literature. Then, the commentary first draws upon G. Douglas Barrett’s radical post-sonic theorisation of music to question the future of existing music in therapy, before instrumentalising avant-garde aesthetics to imagine what music may become in music therapy. This exploration will pay particular attention to the impacts of the dematerialisation of the art object in contemporary art, and the potential benefits a similar decentering of sound in contemporary music practices may provoke—specifically, the creation of theoretical frameworks that further suppress the authority of canonical forms, and increased contributions from previously-marginalised groups. Next, the commentary presents an analysis of two recent musical compositions that determinedly decenter sound, before examining the appropriateness of this aesthetic to therapeutic contexts. Finally, the commentary signposts a number of historical antecedents that illustrate music therapy’s potential for rigorous (and radical) selfexamination, and examines how these efforts may be expanded.

Author Biography

Aaron Moorehouse, Bath Spa University, United Kingdom

Aaron Moorehouse is a PhD composer studying at Bath Spa University’s Open Scores Lab—a research group exploring novel approaches to scoring and new modes of musicmaking. His thesis investigates how music therapy frameworks may be used to draw attention to the psychosocial impacts of non-therapeutic music practices—subsequently illustrating that these impacts are present in any musical act, and encouraging composers to develop a vocabulary with which to address the psychosocial implications of their creative practices. Similarly, his own creative practice problematises the methods by which academic institutions draw distinctions between ethical and unethical creative practices (as well as the situations in which such distinctions are deemed necessary), and he often deliberately provokes hesitancy in order to uncover where these boundaries lie. Aaron’s work repeatedly manipulates and subverts various framing devices, and also makes frequent use of a multitude of other postmodern and postconceptual techniques—including fictocriticism and dematerialisation.

Photo of author Aaron Moorehouse

Published

2021-06-28

How to Cite

Moorehouse, A. (2021). Representation, Radicalism, and Music “After Sound”: A Composer’s Perspective on the Music of the Future in Music Therapy. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 21(2). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v21i2.3143

Issue

Section

Commentary