I have been playing in a trio at one or two local homes for the
elderly and disabled, learning a lot from this, particularly in gaining
performance experience. To be able to play for an entirely uncritical
audience removes a lot of the pressure that creates nerves and enables
focusing on playing and communicating. Conversely, however, when you
perform it is essential to feel that an audience is responding and in a
classical environment this usually means that they sit quietly while you
play, then applaud, at least politely, when you finish. For the trio
neither of these necessarily applies and that can be disconcerting.
In these circumstances, you learn that even to evoke a small response
from a person suffering from dementia can be an indication of the effect
that music has. Quite literally it has the ability to take a fractured
personality and make it whole again. Listeners with quite advanced
stages of mental degeneration can become animated, self aware and can
remember the music we are playing that they may have heard many years
before. We've played sessions that we call 'Memory Music' to great
effect.
This experience, amongst others, was why a couple of years ago I set off
on a musical expedition to find out more about the way classical music
is appreciated. This has changed over the years, particularly in recent
times, coinciding with discoveries about how the brain responds to
music. This project became a bit of an obsession and has resulted in a
book, Ramblings About Music and the Mind, or, simply, About Music. It's an exploration of the borders between the art and science of music.
I'd like your help with the next stage: if you think you might be
interested in the content, which ranges free and wide from music and
Pythagoras in Ancient Greece to the contemporary music technologies of
today, there is a synopsis at www.billanderton.uk.
There is also a short questionnaire with the synopsis which will
provide me with some valuable feedback. I'd be grateful if you can take a
few minutes to have your say and email this to me.
