ABSTRACT
The ambiguity of both deluding and charming exactly captures the mechanism of seduction at work in Purcell’s song, “Music for a While,” one of a small number of early English art songs commonly programed on vocal recitals. The musician’s power to heal has been recognized across centuries and throughout cultures and documented by science. In the context of so much suffering, there is a significant opportunity for the support and holistic integration of music throughout the context of healing. The field of arts in health often supports and intersects with the therapeutic scope of practice of the creative arts therapies. There is extraordinary work going on in the field of arts in health in the United Kingdom, Europe, and South America. There are many music cultures in which healing and music making are impossible to separate, where musicians are widely and regularly employed on the frontlines of enhancing and promoting health.
