ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the presentation of a music and health framework that provides an overall picture of the main factors involved. Scholars in psychology, neuroscience, psychoneuroendocrinology, and public health have taken a serious interest in investigating cultural activities such as music as a source of health, healing, and wellbeing. The major contextual dimension in musical healing differentiates the professional/clinical use of music in therapy and medicine from the potentially self-therapeutic engagement with music in everyday life. In explaining the linkage of music to health, the elaboration of the specific musical characteristics involved is of particular importance for understanding the special nature of music as a health resource, compared to other resources. The chapter discusses the individual level of musical healing, focuses on the different elements that broadly constitute healing within an individual. Another major area of the health-relevance of music involves social interaction. The impact of music on cognitive and motor behavior forms yet another major healing-relevant area.
