ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a history of music therapy since antiquity that is as comprehensive as the available space, expertise and evidence permit. It focuses on the European intellectual and medical tradition, from its classical roots to the development of a music therapy profession in the decades since the Second World War. At least some comment is ventured on every major period in between, and, specifically, on every century since the end of the Middle Ages. The book describes the Judaic and Islamic traditions, so important to medieval European developments; on India; and on South-East Asia. It also presents the work across the domains of music therapy and ethnomusicology. In the process it broaches the question of continuity, which will loom large over subsequent contributions.
