“David Plays the Harp for Saul” by Nikolai Mikhailovich Plyusnin, 1873. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The therapeutic uses of music date back to ancient times. While the Hebrew shepherd David used harp music to calm King Saul’s restlessness, the Sumerians and Egyptians had been using music in their healing rituals for thousands of years. Even in the age of high-tech medicine, music remains a universally recognized therapy for a variety of common ailments. A growing body of research shows that music therapy can treat a range of conditions, from anxiety and depression to pain to aphasia. It has even led to improved mobility in people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
So why don’t health insurance companies cover music therapy?
That’s what opera singer Renee Fleming wants to know. She believed in the healing power of music, but she understood that before insurance companies would cover any new treatment, they needed to see clinical evidence that it could save them money, just as acupuncture did decades ago. So Fleming has curated for Penguin Random House a collection of essays by renowned scientists, musicians, writers, artists, educators, therapists, and health care providers that explore the science behind music’s impact on human well-being. The book is expected to be released on April 9.
In Music and the Mind: Using the Arts to Promote Health and Wellness, Fleming examines not only the therapeutic effects of music, but also human evolution, brain function, child development, and technology. Recent advances in brain imaging have sparked widespread public interest in the arts and health fields and provided new ways to study the effects of music on human health.
Fleming has collaborated with leading researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to speak on this topic in cities across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
The most imaginable endorsement of Fleming’s book comes from Bessel van der Kolk, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score, as follows:
This lyrical book opens our minds to the vast potential of the creative arts—music, dance, and synchronized movement—to soothe, comfort, and connect with one another to promote health and well-being. Written by some of the most brilliant musicians, dancers, doctors, and neuroscientists of our time, they are all engaging and sometimes magical writers. This book inspires us all to immerse ourselves in the vast potential of music and other creative arts to heal our wounds, sharpen our minds, enliven our bodies, and restore our broken connections.
But among musicians, Sting is the one we most want to hear about the subject of Fleming’s book:
At a time when the bonds of our common humanity are being stretched to the limit, while the pressure on our individual well-being is increasing, Renee’s book is a timely reminder that music is the metalanguage that connects all individuals and spans diverse domains. All cultures, religions and races. Music has never been more important.
“Music and the Mind: Using the Arts to Promote Health”
Edited by Renee Fleming
Hardcover: $36.00
April 9, 2024 | ISBN 9780593653197
Fleming will appear at Tanglewood on Sunday, July 7 at 2:30 p.m. for an all-Strauss program.
