Messiaen: A love song, thus described by the composer: “The two lovers are immersed in the
sleep of love. A landscape has emanated from them. This garden is full of light and shade, of plants
and new flowers, of brightly coloured and melodious birds. Time flows on, forgotten, the lovers are
outside time, let us not wake them.” The music is the sixth movement of Messiaen’s Turangalîla Sym-
phony. Its recurring theme is closely related to the love theme of Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde.
Tavener: An immobile drone of deep strings maintains a dark mood. A solo clarinet plays a
plaintive melody, enhanced by a nimbus of high strings and the fragile sound of handbells. The mu-
sic is the first of two laments from Tavener’s The Repentant Thief, referring to one of the thieves cru-
cified alongside Jesus on Golgatha.
Pärt: Human voices emerge in a four-part setting of a prayer: “Give peace, O Lord, in our
time, because there is no one else who will fight for us if not You, our God.” A transparent musical
space embraces light and darkness, freedom and breath, hope and devotion, intensity and centering.
Tormis: A quiet lullaby sung by women on a background of humming voices. The looping
repetitions could apparently continue forever. The song is inspired by folklore of the Livonian people
in the Baltic region.
5.2.1. Dissemination of the new GIM program
At the 9th European GIM Conference in Spain in September 2010, ET and EC presented the re-
search project in a poster, which included mandalas drawn in the initial test GIM sessions. In Janu-
ary 2011, ET and EC introduced Present Moments in a seminar on receptive music therapy in Den-
mark. Subsequently, a number of GIM therapists have reported their experience of the program in
clinical settings and training courses.^8 A workshop on the program is planned for the GIM conference
in Sweden, September 2012.
Julie Exner (Denmark) points out that Present Moments invites the client to endure the presence in a
quiet space, as an alternative to GIM programs which imply direction and progression.
Denise Grocke (Australia) reports from a GIM training workshop that the participants in general con-
sidered Present Moments to be a working program for use with experienced travelers.
Florence Holligan (Australia) has noted the potential holding quality of the program.
Kenneth Bruscia (USA) hears an existential choice in the alternation between winds and other instru-
ments in the first two pieces: “Do I want to reflect upon things, or do I want to live in the moment?”
5.3. Present Moments: Criteria for inclusion and exclusion of music
Positive criteria
In order to uncover the common features of the music selections, EC carried out further listenings
of the new program in July and August 2010, and consulted the score of each piece of music. In ac-
cordance with recommendations by Bruscia (2001) and Abrams (2002:328-335), he listened to the
program;
- in a guided GIM session in an altered state of consciousness, focusing on the music.^9
- in an alert state, focusing on the imagery potential of the music.
- in an alert state, listening for the mood, structure, and prominent features of the music.^10
8 Personal communication to ET.
9 An unpublished manuscript in Danish reports EC’s verbal description of the music during the session 18 July 2010,
transcribed from the audio recording. The guide was GIM trainee Lene Ravn.
10 A detailed phenomenological description of Bartok: An Evening in the Village is reported in appendix 2.02, p. 172.