ABSTRACT
Music, whether performed or heard, has been seen as therapeutic in the history of many cultures. How have its therapeutic properties been conceptualized and explained? Which cultures have used music therapy? What were their aims and techniques, and how much continuity is there between ancient, medieval and modern practice? These are the questions addressed by the essays in this volume. They focus on the place of music therapy in European intellectual, medical and musical traditions, from their classical roots to the development of the music therapy profession since the Second World War. Chapters covering the Judaic, Islamic, Indian and South-East Asian traditions add global, comparative perspectives. Music as Medicine is the first book to establish the whole shape of the history of music therapy in a systematic and scholarly way. It addresses the problem of defining what music therapy has meant in different cultures and periods, and sets the agenda for future research in the subject. It will appeal to a diverse readership of historians, musicologists, anthropologists, and practitioners.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|2 pages
Ancient Literate Traditions
part II|2 pages
Medieval Europe
part III|2 pages
Renaissance and Early Modern Europe
part IV|2 pages
Tarantism
chapter ELEVEN|18 pages
Ritualized Illness and Music Therapy: Views of Tarantism in the Kingdom of Naples
chapter THIRTEEN|20 pages
Tarantism in Contemporary Italy: The Tarantula's Dance Reviewed and Revived
part V|2 pages
Modern Currents