ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on artistic creativity, emotional creativity and creativity in music therapy, as a prelude to a fuller discussion on forming processes in music therapy. In Western thinking, music’s established and secure place in the world of the arts has proved difficult for music therapists, for whom music exists in the world of healing. In Western musical tradition, the creative act usually culminates in a musical composition, and a long and rich tradition of thought presents with highly developed understandings and descriptions of music’s aesthetic value. In music therapy, the act of improvising music with the therapist enables the person to hear and experience themselves through sound. J. R. Bjorkvold’s angle on musical/emotional form is useful for clarifying the fusion or interface between music and emotion alluded to earlier. In music therapy, the person organises and experiences the elements of pulse, rhythm, metre, melody, harmony, dynamic and timbre as a statement of themselves-in-the-world.
