Appendix 3.08 Music in music therapy dissertations 2002- 2008
MT 3. Trygve Aasgaard (2002) Song creation with children with cancer. Process and
meaning.
Trygve Aasgaard describes the creation, development and use of 19 songs in music therapy with
children suffering from leukemia or other types of cancer. The aim was to improve the children’s
qualitiy of life by expressing and communicating their life stories.
The children created the texts.
The investigator created 14 songs, one together with patient, one together with patient’s father.
Four songs were pre-composed, one a traditional children’s song.
Notations of the songs and texts are provided in Appendix 2, pp. 256-274.
All 19 songs were in major/minor tonality.
Some songs adopted a specific popular style:
Heavy rock, blues, rock, quasi reggae, swinging, cha-cha, disco style.
MT 4. Christian Gold (2003) Effectiveness of individual music therapy with mentally ill
children and adolescents: A controlled study.
Christian Gold summarizes types of music reported by music therapy researchers (pp. 50-51):
Free or structured improvisations, permitting supportive, stimulating, or challenging
interventions.
Well-known songs, which establish secure frameworks, and permit the expression of moods and
feeling. Play songs, which can help children to mirror themselves and focus their play.
Structured musical activities used to improve coordination or concentration.
Furthermore, Gold points out particular kinds of music described in various studies:
Very loud and shifting rhythms (p. 51).
Music used to express aggressive sounds and to experiment with the voice (p. 53).
Games and body movement together with musical activities (p. 55).
Rock music (p. 245) Mozart (p. 247)
Appendix 3.08 Music in music therapy dissertations 2002- 2008MT 5. Hanne Mette Ochsner Ridder (2003) Singing dialogue. Music therapy with persons in
advanced stages of dementia.Hanne Mette Ochsner Ridder has used a large repertory of familiar songs as a means of entering
dialogue with persons suffering from dementia.
The investigator sings with the participants, and often includes improvisations in the musical
communication. The songs focus attention, and provide structure and stability. Songs are also
used to regulate the arousal of the participant as a preparation for the dialogue.A complete list of songs used in regulation and dialogue is provided in Appendix B, pp. 307-312.
Ridder lists 206 songs and 32 improvisations. The songs are all in major/minor tonality. 200 songs
are in Danish, two in Danish Jutlandic dialect, three in English, one in Swedish.
The repertory consists of Danish community songs, folk songs, popular songs, psalms, children’s
songs, and songs from revues and movies.Six songs are structure- songs used as cues to indicate the course of the session:
beginning, middle and end.
Four structure songs are traditional, in major/minor tonality (Appendix A, pp. 303-306).
Two structure songs are African. One is rhythmic, pentatonic, allegro, the other one melodic,
adagio, with calling phrases (p. 98).MT 6. Felicity Baker (2004) The effects of song singing on improvements in affective
intonation of people with traumatic brain injury.Felicity Baker reports her work with four persons suffering from traumatic brain injury. She
employed a song-singing program in 15 music therapy sessions with the purpose of improving the
affective intonation of the clients’ monotonal speaking voices. With each client, Baker worked with
three client-preferred songs in pitch-matching tasks:Subject B (p. 151) I heard it through the grapevine (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Comfortably numb (Pink Floyd)
Under the bridge (The Red Hot Chili Peppers)Subject C (p. 172) Heavy heart (You Am I)
You’re the voice (John Farnham)
Waltzing Matilda (Traditional Australian song)Subject D (p. 190) Layla (Eric Clapton)
Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (U2)Subject E (p. 210) Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel)
Knockin’ on heaven’s door (Guns n’ Roses)
Better man (Pearl Jam)