Abstract / About the project

The potential power of music and the expressive arts to participate in and transform the discourse of health and medicine is greater now than ever before. Most important is how music lives in and transforms our experiences of health, illness, disease and healing. At times, music is supportive, at other times, music is a direct intervention or treatment. Music and sound can likewise create dysfunction and contribute to illness and disease. Yet at all times, music can be healing and contribute to human health and wellbeing. This chapter offers a new paradigm from my research and practice in medical ethnomusicology and presents a holistic model for research and applied practice.

The article is published in: In Music, Health and Wellbeing: Exploring Music for Health Equity and Social Justice. ed. Sunderland, Naomi, Dan Bendrups and Natalie Lewandowski. Hamshire: Palgrave Macmillan (247-268).