Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music...

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Windsor] On: 11 November 2014, At: 19:04 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Nordic Journal of Music Therapy Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rnjm20 Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden , Tia DeNora & Even Ruud Published online: 09 Jul 2009. To cite this article: Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden , Tia DeNora & Even Ruud (2005) Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 14:2, 120-136, DOI: 10.1080/08098130509478134 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08098130509478134 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms

Transcript of Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music...

Page 1: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

This article was downloaded by [University of Windsor]On 11 November 2014 At 1904Publisher RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number 1072954 Registeredoffice Mortimer House 37-41 Mortimer Street London W1T 3JH UK

Nordic Journal of Music TherapyPublication details including instructions for authors andsubscription informationhttpwwwtandfonlinecomloirnjm20

Music Listening and Empowermentin Health Promotion A Study of theRole and Significance of Music inEveryday Life of the Long-term IllKari Bjerke Batt-Rawden Tia DeNora amp Even RuudPublished online 09 Jul 2009

To cite this article Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden Tia DeNora amp Even Ruud (2005) Music Listeningand Empowerment in Health Promotion A Study of the Role and Significance of Music inEveryday Life of the Long-term Ill Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 142 120-136 DOI10108008098130509478134

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg10108008098130509478134

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor amp Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (theldquoContentrdquo) contained in the publications on our platform However Taylor amp Francisour agents and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoeveras to the accuracy completeness or suitability for any purpose of the Content Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of theauthors and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor amp Francis The accuracy ofthe Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any lossesactions claims proceedings demands costs expenses damages and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content

This article may be used for research teaching and private study purposes Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction redistribution reselling loan sub-licensingsystematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden Terms

amp Conditions of access and use can be found at httpwwwtandfonlinecompageterms-and-conditions

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RESEARCHARTICLES NordicJournalofMusicTherapy 14(2) 2005 pp 120-136

Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the j Long-term 111

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden Tia DeNora amp Even Ruud

Abstract

This study considers music listening and its role as a lay orfolk healing practice in the lives of men and women with long-term illnesses and diseases Twenty-two participants aged 34 to 65 with long-term illnesses and diseases from Oslo and Akershus in Norway were recruited as a strategic sample involving eight in-depth interviews stretching over a yearfrom 2004 to 2005 The research participatory and action-oriented focused on whether participants could through exposure to and exchange ofnew musical materials and practices learn to use music as a technology of health promotion and self care A novel Participatory CD design was developed involving participants reflections on and contribution to the making offour CD compilations Participants described their involvement with the project and their subsequent raised musical amsciousness as beneficial resulting in increased self-awareness and a new repertoire of musical skills relating to self care Participants considered music listening and musicking to be important tools in the process of change and self-development enhancing well-being and wellness and offering resources for recovery and quality oflife in theface ofillness

Keywords music health listening recovery well-being long-term illness

Introduction pensions in Western societies and this has placed increasing strain on the welfare state In Norway

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase roughly fifty percent of the people receiving in absence from work due to illness and disability disability pensions have been diagnosed with

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

muscular diseases closely followed by those with psychosocial p roblems ie anxiety and depression (NOU 199818) In spite of this increase in illness and disease in the population often attributed to lifestyle factors the national government still gives too little priority to preventive medicine health promotion and public health in national budgets even though several government white papers emphasize the importance of public health and health promotion (Stmeld291996-7 NOU 199818)

There is reason to believe that there is an untapped potential for improving public health by employing health-promoting natural and cultural activities (Tellnes 2003a 2003b 2004 Konlaan 2001 Karaberg Tellnes amp Karaberg 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) and further qualitative research into topics on music health and illness in different cultural or sub-cultural settings may contr ibute to evidence-based knowledge To be sure alternatives to medication should be investigated a recent Norwegian white paperonpublic health (Stmeld nr 162002-2003) for example has made connections between the rising anxiety associated with being ill and an increased emphasis on medication suggesting that the trend of treating and diagnosing both minor and major life crises as i l lness is dangerous By contrast we explore here how it is possible to develop strategies of promoting health and well-being (Tellnes 2004 Karaberg et a l 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) focusing on the salutogenetic factors that heighten heal th (Antonovsky 1987 1996)

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden is Associate Professor Depaitment of Nursing Akershus Uni versity College and PhD student at the Uni versity of Exeter England She is a sociologist with a salutogenetic approach to health and illness issues She has developed several post-graduate studies in Health Promotion and published articles on the nature-culture-health interplay She teaches students methods and strategies on how to initiate motivate and coordinate nature and cultural activities in local communities Email karibjerkebatt-rawdenhiakno

Research on the Use of Music as a Folk-healing Practice Musics ties to healing and to social bonding extend back through the millennia and modern forms of music therapy are but one version of folk healing practices from around the world (Gouk 2000) Various scholars have also recently shown how everyday musical activities and events offer the potential for enr ichment for emotion regulation and for the constitution care and stabilizationofself(DeNora2000 Ruud 1997b 2001 2005) This work has emphasized the constructed character of the body health and illness in particular how these things take meaning from being situated in and in relation to cultural social and material-technical practices Music as one such practice may serve for example as a template for thinking about extra-musical things-and as such afford modes of agency action and concerted activity (DeNora 1999 2000) Faced with the growing acceptance of the limits to conventional scientific methods Gouk (2000 p 22) argues that a focus on musical healing as a site of investigation seems particularly timely

Existing research on musicking and chronic illness is suggestive Individuals living with degenerative illness may use singing within

Tia DeNora is a Professor at the University of Exeter England She is a music sociologist with interests in the body mind emotion agency lay expertise and knowledge-based controversy and tacit cultural practice She is author of several books eg Music in Everyday Life (2000) and After Adorno Rethinking Music (2003) Her current research projects deal with the craft of music therapy and with interactions between music and science in Beethovens Vienna Email tdenoraexeteracuk

Even Ruud is a Professor at the University of Oslo Norway and Professor II in Music Therapy at the Norwegian Academy of Music Ruud is irained as a music therapist a musicologist and clinical psychologist He has published several books about music therapy music education and music and cultural studies eg Music and Health (1986) Musikk og Identitet (1997) Varme oslashyeblikk (2002) and Lydlandskap (2005) Email eveniiiudimvuiono

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

therapy as a way to defy their illness process and monitor subtle changes and as an expression of lifes breath running through the body (Magee amp Davidson 2004 p 65) Similarly Bailey and Davidson (2004) have described how group singing appears positively to influence emotional social and cognitive processes in ways that stimulate participants The choristers perceived that singing in the choir offered an opportunity to explore emotions that had been buried for many years In a study of song-making in a hospital setting Aasgaard (2004 2005) has argued that it is important for young patients to experience and look forward to occasional pleasurable and enjoyable moments and that a healthy environment is one that fosters growth and creativity Lehtonen has also described how songs may be important for psychiatric patients strongly anchoring them to meaningful life experiences

Music gives hope consolation and new ideas in the hard difficult emotionally trying situations oflife In this sense music also functions as an important means of self-healing (Lehtonen 2005 p 8)

Sloboda (2005 p 336) describes how a detailed picture has now been built up of musics effects and role for people in the real world though a much more intriguing scientific puzzle is to explain how music can mean so much to people Focused methodologies he argues

tracking the everyday use of music as it happens and probing far more explicitly into its perceived functions and psychological outcomes is the necessary next step in making progress in this area (Sloboda 2005 p 330)

In the following we will describe how listening to and talking about music may provide resources for a better quality of life and better health for the long-term ill in particular how the process of

musicking (Small 1998) affords empowerment allowing us to try out methods of behaviour which affect our social relations boundaries and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a 2001)

On the evidence of searching through different databases1 scientific journals and recent published books there seem to be very few systematic qualitative ethnographic studies particularly with a participatory action-oriented research approach on the role and significance of musicking in everyday life for the long-term ill in and through different life phases situations events issues and contexts There also seem to be few studies on how to use music in our contemporary Western culture to maintain improve or change health status administered in a non-professional setting in other words as a sort of folk-healing practice There are only a few close studies of how music is used and works as an ordering material in social life (Ruud 1997b 20022005 DeNora 2000) There also seem to be little data on how people actually put musical activity into action in particular social spaces and temporal settings as a part of the informal musical learning process in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) The relevant literature contains as far as we know apart from Ruuds work (2002 2005) no studies focusing on the use of music in everyday life as a type of behavioural immunogen and no studies focusing on music listening as a way of empowering our lives through an interactive and dialectical use of music among people with long-term illness from a lay perspective There also seem to be a lack of knowledge or methods on how potential beneficial experiences of musicking among people with long-term illnesses can be tapped and transported into health promotion settings or linked to community music therapy (Pavlicevic amp Andsdell2004)

To use music in these ways it is important to know about musics associations with biographical events phases situations contexts and issues since it is this set of associations and the individual experience of musical culture that empowers music as a force in peoples lives There

These databases were Bibsys Medline Cochrane Cinahl and Worldcat

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENQRA amp EVEN RUUD

used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

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Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

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Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

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Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

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Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

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Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

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Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

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Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 2: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

amp Conditions of access and use can be found at httpwwwtandfonlinecompageterms-and-conditions

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RESEARCHARTICLES NordicJournalofMusicTherapy 14(2) 2005 pp 120-136

Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the j Long-term 111

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden Tia DeNora amp Even Ruud

Abstract

This study considers music listening and its role as a lay orfolk healing practice in the lives of men and women with long-term illnesses and diseases Twenty-two participants aged 34 to 65 with long-term illnesses and diseases from Oslo and Akershus in Norway were recruited as a strategic sample involving eight in-depth interviews stretching over a yearfrom 2004 to 2005 The research participatory and action-oriented focused on whether participants could through exposure to and exchange ofnew musical materials and practices learn to use music as a technology of health promotion and self care A novel Participatory CD design was developed involving participants reflections on and contribution to the making offour CD compilations Participants described their involvement with the project and their subsequent raised musical amsciousness as beneficial resulting in increased self-awareness and a new repertoire of musical skills relating to self care Participants considered music listening and musicking to be important tools in the process of change and self-development enhancing well-being and wellness and offering resources for recovery and quality oflife in theface ofillness

Keywords music health listening recovery well-being long-term illness

Introduction pensions in Western societies and this has placed increasing strain on the welfare state In Norway

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase roughly fifty percent of the people receiving in absence from work due to illness and disability disability pensions have been diagnosed with

120 Nordic Journal degf Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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muscular diseases closely followed by those with psychosocial p roblems ie anxiety and depression (NOU 199818) In spite of this increase in illness and disease in the population often attributed to lifestyle factors the national government still gives too little priority to preventive medicine health promotion and public health in national budgets even though several government white papers emphasize the importance of public health and health promotion (Stmeld291996-7 NOU 199818)

There is reason to believe that there is an untapped potential for improving public health by employing health-promoting natural and cultural activities (Tellnes 2003a 2003b 2004 Konlaan 2001 Karaberg Tellnes amp Karaberg 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) and further qualitative research into topics on music health and illness in different cultural or sub-cultural settings may contr ibute to evidence-based knowledge To be sure alternatives to medication should be investigated a recent Norwegian white paperonpublic health (Stmeld nr 162002-2003) for example has made connections between the rising anxiety associated with being ill and an increased emphasis on medication suggesting that the trend of treating and diagnosing both minor and major life crises as i l lness is dangerous By contrast we explore here how it is possible to develop strategies of promoting health and well-being (Tellnes 2004 Karaberg et a l 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) focusing on the salutogenetic factors that heighten heal th (Antonovsky 1987 1996)

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden is Associate Professor Depaitment of Nursing Akershus Uni versity College and PhD student at the Uni versity of Exeter England She is a sociologist with a salutogenetic approach to health and illness issues She has developed several post-graduate studies in Health Promotion and published articles on the nature-culture-health interplay She teaches students methods and strategies on how to initiate motivate and coordinate nature and cultural activities in local communities Email karibjerkebatt-rawdenhiakno

Research on the Use of Music as a Folk-healing Practice Musics ties to healing and to social bonding extend back through the millennia and modern forms of music therapy are but one version of folk healing practices from around the world (Gouk 2000) Various scholars have also recently shown how everyday musical activities and events offer the potential for enr ichment for emotion regulation and for the constitution care and stabilizationofself(DeNora2000 Ruud 1997b 2001 2005) This work has emphasized the constructed character of the body health and illness in particular how these things take meaning from being situated in and in relation to cultural social and material-technical practices Music as one such practice may serve for example as a template for thinking about extra-musical things-and as such afford modes of agency action and concerted activity (DeNora 1999 2000) Faced with the growing acceptance of the limits to conventional scientific methods Gouk (2000 p 22) argues that a focus on musical healing as a site of investigation seems particularly timely

Existing research on musicking and chronic illness is suggestive Individuals living with degenerative illness may use singing within

Tia DeNora is a Professor at the University of Exeter England She is a music sociologist with interests in the body mind emotion agency lay expertise and knowledge-based controversy and tacit cultural practice She is author of several books eg Music in Everyday Life (2000) and After Adorno Rethinking Music (2003) Her current research projects deal with the craft of music therapy and with interactions between music and science in Beethovens Vienna Email tdenoraexeteracuk

Even Ruud is a Professor at the University of Oslo Norway and Professor II in Music Therapy at the Norwegian Academy of Music Ruud is irained as a music therapist a musicologist and clinical psychologist He has published several books about music therapy music education and music and cultural studies eg Music and Health (1986) Musikk og Identitet (1997) Varme oslashyeblikk (2002) and Lydlandskap (2005) Email eveniiiudimvuiono

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therapy as a way to defy their illness process and monitor subtle changes and as an expression of lifes breath running through the body (Magee amp Davidson 2004 p 65) Similarly Bailey and Davidson (2004) have described how group singing appears positively to influence emotional social and cognitive processes in ways that stimulate participants The choristers perceived that singing in the choir offered an opportunity to explore emotions that had been buried for many years In a study of song-making in a hospital setting Aasgaard (2004 2005) has argued that it is important for young patients to experience and look forward to occasional pleasurable and enjoyable moments and that a healthy environment is one that fosters growth and creativity Lehtonen has also described how songs may be important for psychiatric patients strongly anchoring them to meaningful life experiences

Music gives hope consolation and new ideas in the hard difficult emotionally trying situations oflife In this sense music also functions as an important means of self-healing (Lehtonen 2005 p 8)

Sloboda (2005 p 336) describes how a detailed picture has now been built up of musics effects and role for people in the real world though a much more intriguing scientific puzzle is to explain how music can mean so much to people Focused methodologies he argues

tracking the everyday use of music as it happens and probing far more explicitly into its perceived functions and psychological outcomes is the necessary next step in making progress in this area (Sloboda 2005 p 330)

In the following we will describe how listening to and talking about music may provide resources for a better quality of life and better health for the long-term ill in particular how the process of

musicking (Small 1998) affords empowerment allowing us to try out methods of behaviour which affect our social relations boundaries and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a 2001)

On the evidence of searching through different databases1 scientific journals and recent published books there seem to be very few systematic qualitative ethnographic studies particularly with a participatory action-oriented research approach on the role and significance of musicking in everyday life for the long-term ill in and through different life phases situations events issues and contexts There also seem to be few studies on how to use music in our contemporary Western culture to maintain improve or change health status administered in a non-professional setting in other words as a sort of folk-healing practice There are only a few close studies of how music is used and works as an ordering material in social life (Ruud 1997b 20022005 DeNora 2000) There also seem to be little data on how people actually put musical activity into action in particular social spaces and temporal settings as a part of the informal musical learning process in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) The relevant literature contains as far as we know apart from Ruuds work (2002 2005) no studies focusing on the use of music in everyday life as a type of behavioural immunogen and no studies focusing on music listening as a way of empowering our lives through an interactive and dialectical use of music among people with long-term illness from a lay perspective There also seem to be a lack of knowledge or methods on how potential beneficial experiences of musicking among people with long-term illnesses can be tapped and transported into health promotion settings or linked to community music therapy (Pavlicevic amp Andsdell2004)

To use music in these ways it is important to know about musics associations with biographical events phases situations contexts and issues since it is this set of associations and the individual experience of musical culture that empowers music as a force in peoples lives There

These databases were Bibsys Medline Cochrane Cinahl and Worldcat

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also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

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nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

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Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 3: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

RESEARCHARTICLES NordicJournalofMusicTherapy 14(2) 2005 pp 120-136

Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the j Long-term 111

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden Tia DeNora amp Even Ruud

Abstract

This study considers music listening and its role as a lay orfolk healing practice in the lives of men and women with long-term illnesses and diseases Twenty-two participants aged 34 to 65 with long-term illnesses and diseases from Oslo and Akershus in Norway were recruited as a strategic sample involving eight in-depth interviews stretching over a yearfrom 2004 to 2005 The research participatory and action-oriented focused on whether participants could through exposure to and exchange ofnew musical materials and practices learn to use music as a technology of health promotion and self care A novel Participatory CD design was developed involving participants reflections on and contribution to the making offour CD compilations Participants described their involvement with the project and their subsequent raised musical amsciousness as beneficial resulting in increased self-awareness and a new repertoire of musical skills relating to self care Participants considered music listening and musicking to be important tools in the process of change and self-development enhancing well-being and wellness and offering resources for recovery and quality oflife in theface ofillness

Keywords music health listening recovery well-being long-term illness

Introduction pensions in Western societies and this has placed increasing strain on the welfare state In Norway

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase roughly fifty percent of the people receiving in absence from work due to illness and disability disability pensions have been diagnosed with

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muscular diseases closely followed by those with psychosocial p roblems ie anxiety and depression (NOU 199818) In spite of this increase in illness and disease in the population often attributed to lifestyle factors the national government still gives too little priority to preventive medicine health promotion and public health in national budgets even though several government white papers emphasize the importance of public health and health promotion (Stmeld291996-7 NOU 199818)

There is reason to believe that there is an untapped potential for improving public health by employing health-promoting natural and cultural activities (Tellnes 2003a 2003b 2004 Konlaan 2001 Karaberg Tellnes amp Karaberg 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) and further qualitative research into topics on music health and illness in different cultural or sub-cultural settings may contr ibute to evidence-based knowledge To be sure alternatives to medication should be investigated a recent Norwegian white paperonpublic health (Stmeld nr 162002-2003) for example has made connections between the rising anxiety associated with being ill and an increased emphasis on medication suggesting that the trend of treating and diagnosing both minor and major life crises as i l lness is dangerous By contrast we explore here how it is possible to develop strategies of promoting health and well-being (Tellnes 2004 Karaberg et a l 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) focusing on the salutogenetic factors that heighten heal th (Antonovsky 1987 1996)

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden is Associate Professor Depaitment of Nursing Akershus Uni versity College and PhD student at the Uni versity of Exeter England She is a sociologist with a salutogenetic approach to health and illness issues She has developed several post-graduate studies in Health Promotion and published articles on the nature-culture-health interplay She teaches students methods and strategies on how to initiate motivate and coordinate nature and cultural activities in local communities Email karibjerkebatt-rawdenhiakno

Research on the Use of Music as a Folk-healing Practice Musics ties to healing and to social bonding extend back through the millennia and modern forms of music therapy are but one version of folk healing practices from around the world (Gouk 2000) Various scholars have also recently shown how everyday musical activities and events offer the potential for enr ichment for emotion regulation and for the constitution care and stabilizationofself(DeNora2000 Ruud 1997b 2001 2005) This work has emphasized the constructed character of the body health and illness in particular how these things take meaning from being situated in and in relation to cultural social and material-technical practices Music as one such practice may serve for example as a template for thinking about extra-musical things-and as such afford modes of agency action and concerted activity (DeNora 1999 2000) Faced with the growing acceptance of the limits to conventional scientific methods Gouk (2000 p 22) argues that a focus on musical healing as a site of investigation seems particularly timely

Existing research on musicking and chronic illness is suggestive Individuals living with degenerative illness may use singing within

Tia DeNora is a Professor at the University of Exeter England She is a music sociologist with interests in the body mind emotion agency lay expertise and knowledge-based controversy and tacit cultural practice She is author of several books eg Music in Everyday Life (2000) and After Adorno Rethinking Music (2003) Her current research projects deal with the craft of music therapy and with interactions between music and science in Beethovens Vienna Email tdenoraexeteracuk

Even Ruud is a Professor at the University of Oslo Norway and Professor II in Music Therapy at the Norwegian Academy of Music Ruud is irained as a music therapist a musicologist and clinical psychologist He has published several books about music therapy music education and music and cultural studies eg Music and Health (1986) Musikk og Identitet (1997) Varme oslashyeblikk (2002) and Lydlandskap (2005) Email eveniiiudimvuiono

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

therapy as a way to defy their illness process and monitor subtle changes and as an expression of lifes breath running through the body (Magee amp Davidson 2004 p 65) Similarly Bailey and Davidson (2004) have described how group singing appears positively to influence emotional social and cognitive processes in ways that stimulate participants The choristers perceived that singing in the choir offered an opportunity to explore emotions that had been buried for many years In a study of song-making in a hospital setting Aasgaard (2004 2005) has argued that it is important for young patients to experience and look forward to occasional pleasurable and enjoyable moments and that a healthy environment is one that fosters growth and creativity Lehtonen has also described how songs may be important for psychiatric patients strongly anchoring them to meaningful life experiences

Music gives hope consolation and new ideas in the hard difficult emotionally trying situations oflife In this sense music also functions as an important means of self-healing (Lehtonen 2005 p 8)

Sloboda (2005 p 336) describes how a detailed picture has now been built up of musics effects and role for people in the real world though a much more intriguing scientific puzzle is to explain how music can mean so much to people Focused methodologies he argues

tracking the everyday use of music as it happens and probing far more explicitly into its perceived functions and psychological outcomes is the necessary next step in making progress in this area (Sloboda 2005 p 330)

In the following we will describe how listening to and talking about music may provide resources for a better quality of life and better health for the long-term ill in particular how the process of

musicking (Small 1998) affords empowerment allowing us to try out methods of behaviour which affect our social relations boundaries and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a 2001)

On the evidence of searching through different databases1 scientific journals and recent published books there seem to be very few systematic qualitative ethnographic studies particularly with a participatory action-oriented research approach on the role and significance of musicking in everyday life for the long-term ill in and through different life phases situations events issues and contexts There also seem to be few studies on how to use music in our contemporary Western culture to maintain improve or change health status administered in a non-professional setting in other words as a sort of folk-healing practice There are only a few close studies of how music is used and works as an ordering material in social life (Ruud 1997b 20022005 DeNora 2000) There also seem to be little data on how people actually put musical activity into action in particular social spaces and temporal settings as a part of the informal musical learning process in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) The relevant literature contains as far as we know apart from Ruuds work (2002 2005) no studies focusing on the use of music in everyday life as a type of behavioural immunogen and no studies focusing on music listening as a way of empowering our lives through an interactive and dialectical use of music among people with long-term illness from a lay perspective There also seem to be a lack of knowledge or methods on how potential beneficial experiences of musicking among people with long-term illnesses can be tapped and transported into health promotion settings or linked to community music therapy (Pavlicevic amp Andsdell2004)

To use music in these ways it is important to know about musics associations with biographical events phases situations contexts and issues since it is this set of associations and the individual experience of musical culture that empowers music as a force in peoples lives There

These databases were Bibsys Medline Cochrane Cinahl and Worldcat

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENQRA amp EVEN RUUD

used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 4: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

muscular diseases closely followed by those with psychosocial p roblems ie anxiety and depression (NOU 199818) In spite of this increase in illness and disease in the population often attributed to lifestyle factors the national government still gives too little priority to preventive medicine health promotion and public health in national budgets even though several government white papers emphasize the importance of public health and health promotion (Stmeld291996-7 NOU 199818)

There is reason to believe that there is an untapped potential for improving public health by employing health-promoting natural and cultural activities (Tellnes 2003a 2003b 2004 Konlaan 2001 Karaberg Tellnes amp Karaberg 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) and further qualitative research into topics on music health and illness in different cultural or sub-cultural settings may contr ibute to evidence-based knowledge To be sure alternatives to medication should be investigated a recent Norwegian white paperonpublic health (Stmeld nr 162002-2003) for example has made connections between the rising anxiety associated with being ill and an increased emphasis on medication suggesting that the trend of treating and diagnosing both minor and major life crises as i l lness is dangerous By contrast we explore here how it is possible to develop strategies of promoting health and well-being (Tellnes 2004 Karaberg et a l 2004 Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005b) focusing on the salutogenetic factors that heighten heal th (Antonovsky 1987 1996)

Kari Bjerke Batt-Rawden is Associate Professor Depaitment of Nursing Akershus Uni versity College and PhD student at the Uni versity of Exeter England She is a sociologist with a salutogenetic approach to health and illness issues She has developed several post-graduate studies in Health Promotion and published articles on the nature-culture-health interplay She teaches students methods and strategies on how to initiate motivate and coordinate nature and cultural activities in local communities Email karibjerkebatt-rawdenhiakno

Research on the Use of Music as a Folk-healing Practice Musics ties to healing and to social bonding extend back through the millennia and modern forms of music therapy are but one version of folk healing practices from around the world (Gouk 2000) Various scholars have also recently shown how everyday musical activities and events offer the potential for enr ichment for emotion regulation and for the constitution care and stabilizationofself(DeNora2000 Ruud 1997b 2001 2005) This work has emphasized the constructed character of the body health and illness in particular how these things take meaning from being situated in and in relation to cultural social and material-technical practices Music as one such practice may serve for example as a template for thinking about extra-musical things-and as such afford modes of agency action and concerted activity (DeNora 1999 2000) Faced with the growing acceptance of the limits to conventional scientific methods Gouk (2000 p 22) argues that a focus on musical healing as a site of investigation seems particularly timely

Existing research on musicking and chronic illness is suggestive Individuals living with degenerative illness may use singing within

Tia DeNora is a Professor at the University of Exeter England She is a music sociologist with interests in the body mind emotion agency lay expertise and knowledge-based controversy and tacit cultural practice She is author of several books eg Music in Everyday Life (2000) and After Adorno Rethinking Music (2003) Her current research projects deal with the craft of music therapy and with interactions between music and science in Beethovens Vienna Email tdenoraexeteracuk

Even Ruud is a Professor at the University of Oslo Norway and Professor II in Music Therapy at the Norwegian Academy of Music Ruud is irained as a music therapist a musicologist and clinical psychologist He has published several books about music therapy music education and music and cultural studies eg Music and Health (1986) Musikk og Identitet (1997) Varme oslashyeblikk (2002) and Lydlandskap (2005) Email eveniiiudimvuiono

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

therapy as a way to defy their illness process and monitor subtle changes and as an expression of lifes breath running through the body (Magee amp Davidson 2004 p 65) Similarly Bailey and Davidson (2004) have described how group singing appears positively to influence emotional social and cognitive processes in ways that stimulate participants The choristers perceived that singing in the choir offered an opportunity to explore emotions that had been buried for many years In a study of song-making in a hospital setting Aasgaard (2004 2005) has argued that it is important for young patients to experience and look forward to occasional pleasurable and enjoyable moments and that a healthy environment is one that fosters growth and creativity Lehtonen has also described how songs may be important for psychiatric patients strongly anchoring them to meaningful life experiences

Music gives hope consolation and new ideas in the hard difficult emotionally trying situations oflife In this sense music also functions as an important means of self-healing (Lehtonen 2005 p 8)

Sloboda (2005 p 336) describes how a detailed picture has now been built up of musics effects and role for people in the real world though a much more intriguing scientific puzzle is to explain how music can mean so much to people Focused methodologies he argues

tracking the everyday use of music as it happens and probing far more explicitly into its perceived functions and psychological outcomes is the necessary next step in making progress in this area (Sloboda 2005 p 330)

In the following we will describe how listening to and talking about music may provide resources for a better quality of life and better health for the long-term ill in particular how the process of

musicking (Small 1998) affords empowerment allowing us to try out methods of behaviour which affect our social relations boundaries and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a 2001)

On the evidence of searching through different databases1 scientific journals and recent published books there seem to be very few systematic qualitative ethnographic studies particularly with a participatory action-oriented research approach on the role and significance of musicking in everyday life for the long-term ill in and through different life phases situations events issues and contexts There also seem to be few studies on how to use music in our contemporary Western culture to maintain improve or change health status administered in a non-professional setting in other words as a sort of folk-healing practice There are only a few close studies of how music is used and works as an ordering material in social life (Ruud 1997b 20022005 DeNora 2000) There also seem to be little data on how people actually put musical activity into action in particular social spaces and temporal settings as a part of the informal musical learning process in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) The relevant literature contains as far as we know apart from Ruuds work (2002 2005) no studies focusing on the use of music in everyday life as a type of behavioural immunogen and no studies focusing on music listening as a way of empowering our lives through an interactive and dialectical use of music among people with long-term illness from a lay perspective There also seem to be a lack of knowledge or methods on how potential beneficial experiences of musicking among people with long-term illnesses can be tapped and transported into health promotion settings or linked to community music therapy (Pavlicevic amp Andsdell2004)

To use music in these ways it is important to know about musics associations with biographical events phases situations contexts and issues since it is this set of associations and the individual experience of musical culture that empowers music as a force in peoples lives There

These databases were Bibsys Medline Cochrane Cinahl and Worldcat

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENQRA amp EVEN RUUD

used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

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Page 5: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

therapy as a way to defy their illness process and monitor subtle changes and as an expression of lifes breath running through the body (Magee amp Davidson 2004 p 65) Similarly Bailey and Davidson (2004) have described how group singing appears positively to influence emotional social and cognitive processes in ways that stimulate participants The choristers perceived that singing in the choir offered an opportunity to explore emotions that had been buried for many years In a study of song-making in a hospital setting Aasgaard (2004 2005) has argued that it is important for young patients to experience and look forward to occasional pleasurable and enjoyable moments and that a healthy environment is one that fosters growth and creativity Lehtonen has also described how songs may be important for psychiatric patients strongly anchoring them to meaningful life experiences

Music gives hope consolation and new ideas in the hard difficult emotionally trying situations oflife In this sense music also functions as an important means of self-healing (Lehtonen 2005 p 8)

Sloboda (2005 p 336) describes how a detailed picture has now been built up of musics effects and role for people in the real world though a much more intriguing scientific puzzle is to explain how music can mean so much to people Focused methodologies he argues

tracking the everyday use of music as it happens and probing far more explicitly into its perceived functions and psychological outcomes is the necessary next step in making progress in this area (Sloboda 2005 p 330)

In the following we will describe how listening to and talking about music may provide resources for a better quality of life and better health for the long-term ill in particular how the process of

musicking (Small 1998) affords empowerment allowing us to try out methods of behaviour which affect our social relations boundaries and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a 2001)

On the evidence of searching through different databases1 scientific journals and recent published books there seem to be very few systematic qualitative ethnographic studies particularly with a participatory action-oriented research approach on the role and significance of musicking in everyday life for the long-term ill in and through different life phases situations events issues and contexts There also seem to be few studies on how to use music in our contemporary Western culture to maintain improve or change health status administered in a non-professional setting in other words as a sort of folk-healing practice There are only a few close studies of how music is used and works as an ordering material in social life (Ruud 1997b 20022005 DeNora 2000) There also seem to be little data on how people actually put musical activity into action in particular social spaces and temporal settings as a part of the informal musical learning process in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) The relevant literature contains as far as we know apart from Ruuds work (2002 2005) no studies focusing on the use of music in everyday life as a type of behavioural immunogen and no studies focusing on music listening as a way of empowering our lives through an interactive and dialectical use of music among people with long-term illness from a lay perspective There also seem to be a lack of knowledge or methods on how potential beneficial experiences of musicking among people with long-term illnesses can be tapped and transported into health promotion settings or linked to community music therapy (Pavlicevic amp Andsdell2004)

To use music in these ways it is important to know about musics associations with biographical events phases situations contexts and issues since it is this set of associations and the individual experience of musical culture that empowers music as a force in peoples lives There

These databases were Bibsys Medline Cochrane Cinahl and Worldcat

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENQRA amp EVEN RUUD

used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 6: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

also seem to be few empirical studies that make use of musics capacity to induce a range of moods or that examine social influence in interpersonal settings rather than in preferences for consumer products (Crozier 1997)Withthese gaps in mind the study addressed in this paper has two key objectives

1 To explore the role and significance of music in the life of men and women with long-term illnesses in or through different life phases situations events issues and contexts

2 To increase knowledge on how participants through exposure to and exchange of new musical materials and practices may learn to use music as a technology of self in relation to health and healing and to do this via a method based around the participatory design of music CDs

To address these objectives in what follows we focus on how the participants used or could learn to use music as a technology of health and a means of coping with difficult life situations and circumstances We also describe the process by which participants came to produce for themselves modes of conscious awareness of musics powers and skills of musical use over the course of the year-long project phase in particular how they activated resources for self-construction self-care and self-monitoring so enhancing their sense of well-being and strengthening their sense of self Finally we discuss how and why a participatory CD design can be a useful and relevant contribution to health promotion and community music therapy

Methodological Approach

The study design sought to elicit participants life stories and stories of being well and being ill through the prism of music by using a qualitative research stance consisting of a pragmatic synthesis of elements of action-research ethnography and grounded theory The project drew upon action research to the extent that it sought to encourage participantinformants to

bring to the level of conscious activity their various uses of music for the care of self and to instigate such practice and reflection The project was ethnographic insofar as it sought to document and understand participants own meanings derived from and applied to music and to set these meanings in the contexts of participants lived experience The project took inspiration from grounded theorys focus on obtaining themes as they emerged from the investigative process

Bearing in mind that it is difficult to elicit data about a complex topic such as illness experience in just one interview (Charmaz 1999) the study made use of repeat interviews Over a period of one year eight interviews with each participant focused on past musical experiences musical narratives and musical metaphors and taking inspiration from earlier studies of illness and self-maintenance (Charmaz 2003) sought to discover the practices by which participants created and maintained meaningful worlds through dialectical processes (Audio-taped open-ended interviews were conducted by the first author and transcribed verbatim between each interview) The interview process was also one that facilitated dialogue between researcher and participant and especially at the early phase of the study the researcher presented participants with information and music about the researchers own experience in a sense modelling for participants how they too might tap music for the care of self Through the interaction between the researcher and project participants the data (how participants reported on how they learned to use music as a technology of health and self care) was constructed That data in other words was the collaborative result of researcher-participant dialogues

Analysis Following principles of grounded theory the study took a qualitative approach to data analysis based on inductive procedures for obtaining emergent themes (Charmaz 2003 Smith 2003 Ritchie amp Lewis 2003) To analyse patterns and tendencies different colours for significant concepts key words and important phrases were

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used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

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Page 7: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENQRA amp EVEN RUUD

used Further analysis of data was carried out as follows overview analyses to develop theoretical sensitivity and line-by-line coding for identifying concepts and verifying conceptual relationships between concepts The line-by-line coding procedure started with open coding in order to identify descriptions of thoughts and ideas related to the interview questions and then broken down into segments reflecting the substance of the data Concepts with similar content were grouped together to form more abstract categories Concepts reflecting the substance of the data were identified and given names Line-by-line coding helped to review the data in a new light What is going on What are the participants doing What is the person saying What do these actions and statements mean (Charmaz 2003) How does the research participant(s) think feel and act while involved in this process When if why and how they decide for example to use music as a way to recover or sustain quality of life

In the focused or axial coding process connections between categories were sought and the central phenomena and the core categories were systematically identified To generate categories through focused2 coding comparisons were made between data incidents contexts and concepts The focused or axial coding showed how participants seemed to regain restore or sustain health or well-being through playing singing or listening to music while experiencing crises divorce or being 01 They often described how music worked using terms such as relief relaxation feeling good energy power strength wholeness in bodymind calmness vitality sense of being alive joy hope and comfort Taken collectively these descriptions led to the core category regaining health and well-being through music which guided subsequent analysis Through the interactive and dialectical use of the CDs the analysis also showed how choice of music such as my mood or significance for me were linked to events or situations such as being in love or being well In other words participants

musical choices were often linked to their current life situations

Further focused analysis showed how the participants responded reacted reflected and reasoned when they listened to the CDs In part the research sought to encourage participants to reflect upon their descriptions of how they would sit down and listen listen actively take time to stop and listen create space get hold of emotions use the whole CD find time for being on my own or realize how music is important to me This was the action research component encouraging through the research process the participants to convert routine and often tacit practices (operations) into conscious activities The focus on these emerging terms as subcategories which activated music as a technology of self came to be seen as types of musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self

Memo-writing was used as an important and necessary step between coding and completed analysis thus linked with empirical reality This memo-writing consisted of breaking categories into components to define a category and its characteristics for example the term bad periods (when I am feeling bad) condenses a whole sense of implicit meanings and assumptions By bringing verbatim material from different sources into memo-writing it was possible to make more precise comparisons eg how and why they used music in bad periods or why a piece of music was of significance in relation to life phases situations events contexts or issues In a longitudinal study it is also important to compare participants experience or situation at one point in time with another point in time thus linking these findings to context situation or meaning

The named key themes induced from the analysis and presented here-Sense of regaining health through music Choice of music reflecting different life phases and situations and Creating a musical ritual awareness and readjustment of self -have been integrated into theoretical concepts presented in the discussion These theoretical concepts Musicking as a self-

2 Focused coding is sometimes referred to as axial coding

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MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 8: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

MUSICLISTENINGANDEMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

healing practice Empowering rituals Music is personal and Lay music expertise and community music therapy illuminate an emerging theory one that highlights the importance of music as a vital factor in health and well-being and thus a significant area of focus in public health music therapy community music therapy and health promotion

Sample The study involved eight in-depth ethnographic interviews and open narratives1 of nine men and thirteen women aged 35-65 years old using a topic guide two single CDs and four double compilations The sample was constructed according to the following terms

Participants are or have been long-term ill due to different illnesses or diseases The type of illnesses or diseases these men and women have or have had in the past are or have been diagnosed as follows Two men and three women with muscular disease one woman with neurological disease four men and six women with anxiety or depression three men and two women with chronic fatigue and burnt-out syndrome and one woman with breast cancer Several had relational problems and life complications These illnesses represent the major categories of illness in modern Western societies and are the major contributors to the rising proportion of chronically disabled or long-term certified sick (Tellnes 2003b Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Most of the participants were musically active prior to the start of the study whether in private situations involving music listening or playing music for self or family or public situations such as choir folk-singing or playing in a band Twelve participants sang actively or played instruments like guitar piano accordion flute whistle African drums or keyboard some also as professionals orsemi-professionals Ten participants were either members of a folk club choir or band or they were active listeners that go regularly to concerts

or music festivals The sample was recruited through four organizations and institutions in Norway The Nature-Culture and Health Centre (NaCuHeal) in Asker the Akershus University Hospital Department of Health Promotion an art society in the county of Akershus and a folk-music club in Oslo Two participants were recruited through otherparticipants ie snowball effect This sample represents a typical modern Scandinavian Western culture in 2005 The participants were located around the major populated area in the south of Norway thus reflecting a population with diverse socio-economic background and characteristics eg low to high socio-economic status The participants were initially asked where they would Iike the interviews to be performed Some of the participants insisted on having the interviews in their homes saying they would feel most comfortable being in a known environment

All participants received information verbally eg through information meetings about the project and in written form at the onset of the fieldwork It was stressed that participation was voluntary Before the interviews all participants were informed about full confidentiality and about their right to break off participation at any time The participants were asked to sign a written consent4

Participatory CD Design The study developed a novel research and health promotion procedure through an action-oriented participatory musical procedure named Participatory CD design The aim drawing upon participatory principles (Smith Dennis amp Johnson 1997 Reason amp Bradbury 2001 Whyte 1991) was to respect users regardless of status thereby remaining sensitive to forms of lay expertise and to participants situated values and aims in short to use consultative dialogue in order to learn roslashm users and to understand their skill in users terms perhaps also helping to bring to the level of

A total of 176 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and two hours 1 The Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter England approved this research before the start of fieldwork A proposal written to a specific template was submitted along with all associated forms (eg infonned consent forms) prior to the start of the research This was considered by an interdisciplinary committee of academics and health researchers who granted permission to proceed with the research

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

128 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 9: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

consciousness forms of expert practice that may otherwise occur tacitly In the terms of action research the aim was to help participants convert non-reflective operations into conscious activities of in this case musical health promotion

For this dialogue music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a prompt for further narratives a means for sharing experience and a medium for representing participants past and present states of healthwell-being During the year each participant received at bi-monthly intervals four double CDs and two single CDs These served multiple purposes methodologically They were intended as gifts or keepsakes from this project-a means of showing gratitude to the participants an important component of fieldwork (Spradley 1976 Whyte 1984) They were also intended as a means of instigating participants narratives and eliciting talk about how music could be used for health so as to convert participants musicking from operation to activity to encourage them to become retlective about how to use music for self-care In other words music CDs were conceived as an interactive and dialectical tool a medium against which participants might be able to react In this sense encouraging participants to react to music served two purposes simultaneously First it was a tool for eliciting data from participants about their life stories and musical practices Second it served as a means for encouraging participants to identify resources for coping The idea here was that through their reference to CD listening participants might be able to piece together narratives about how music helped them and could help them thereby increasing their levels of awareness and consciousness about how to promote their own health

The first CD compilation themed Keepsakes and Memories was musically chosen and compiled by the researcher in the spirit of reflexive research to provide points of departure for musical sharing and thus perhaps sympathetic entry into the participants social-musical worlds The CD broke the ice and facilitated narrative accounting thus providing a pretext for further talk show-and-tell and discussion of participants

126 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

interests opinions and values at a very early stage From then on CDs 2 3 4 and 5 evolved during the process of data collection analysis and interpretation based on recurrent themes that emerged Through their personal chosen pieces of music the participants started to draw connections between musical materials and situations of health or illness often narrating how a piece of music was used in difficult times as ways of coping or how they had learned to use music to regulate their mood and well-being in bad periods ie as a technology of self towards health

The recurrent themes naturally created the themed names of the four double CD compilations Music and its Significance for Me (CD 2) My Mood (CD 3) Feeling at My Best (CD 4) and All Time Best (CD 5) which was related to their personal experiences mood life situations or implications The participants had homework during the intervals between the meetings the act of choosing their own music to go on the four double CDs and the act of listening to these CDs The researcher chose personally on average two tracks on each of the double CDs following the same selection procedure as the participants in other words apart from CD l and 6 the CDs were made by the participants and are their unique product By requiring the participants to choose their own music one gets closer to the participants biography and life stories and ones own musical biography and self-reflexivity (Ruud 1997a)

Altogether 139 tracks were collected and compiled by the researcher The participants were also invited to a social-musical gathering after the yearlong project period The purpose of this was to give them an opportunity to form their own group or subgroup(s) if they wished

Methodological Considerations and Limitations Qualitative studies often face the challenge of recruiting appropriate participants (Bertaux 1981 Schensul Schensul amp LeCompte 1999 Smith 2003) In this project using CDs as a data elicitation strategy and also as a medium for instigating self-care may have contributed to the high level of

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

motivation and to participants continuation with the project (there were no drop-outs) Certainly participants described how they keenly looked forward to each socio-musical meeting (interviews) thus finding it worthwhile to participate The methodological advantages of using music as a research tool will be discussed in future articles (see also Batt-Rawden amp Tellnes 2005a)

Results

Overview The participants often described music that made them feel ill angry annoyed or unwell These experiences seemed to occur when music did not correspond with their current mood self-perceived bodily rhythms personal affinities previous life experiences or associations Musical high points were occasions participants described as feelings of togetherness and were linked to concrete episodes moments or events in their lives retained as happy memories The participants seemed to make every effort to experience a sense of wholeness - mentally bodily and spiritually - and used music as a means for achieving this wholeness and for positioning them on the road to recovery

Another general theme that emerged from the interviews centred on the importance of optimism and sensual pleasure in everyday activities and situations and the comfort that could be derived from musical pleasure This is shown through participants engagement with the Participatory CD design a method for involving participants in the production of the CD series This method in turn provided a means for instigating participants reflections upon and adoption of health promoting musical rituals and activities CD I Keepsakes and Memories elicited many biographical associations and opened up many matters for discussion such as the type of music that had been of greatest significance to participants over their lives and how these memories came to be woven into their current status and situation as they coped with long-term illnesses In the next three sections we describe

three key themes that emerged from the interviews with participants their sense of regaining health through music their alignment of music with key life phases and situations and the ways that participants created musical healing rituals that in turn were linked to their heightened awareness and readjustment of self

A Sense of Regaining Health through Music A male participant chose a song called So Far Down by female artist Briege Murphy (CD 2b) because it had been and still was at the time of the interview reflecting his life situation of being ill This piece of music had comforted him in this period of his life He had also been inspired to learn the song himself and tells how he sensed a regaining in health through playing his guitar while he was ill He continues

So luckily the music has been alive even though I have not been in such good state Sometimes it has been quite painful Music is a strong anchorage when I have been very ill at times Sometimes my fingers have been so stiffened that I was not able to play guitar either but I have forced myself to do so because when I touch the strings with my finger tips I feel that this touch I get from the guitar strings to my finger tips makes me feel good almost a sense of regaining health through this but also going to a musical session you know when all the strings hit the air something happens and it also gives me energy and power (Male age 48 recovered from chronic fatigue during fieldwork Iong-term certified sick for one year)

Music - the literal being-in-touch with the guitar in this case - is associated with vitality and with expression perhaps literally a hold on the world of well-being In real time contact with music is to reconfigure body and self in relation to materials and ways of being and doing that point away from illness In this way by focusing on the healthy part of the individual life makes sense

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and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIADENORA amp EVEN RUUD

and meaning in a woiid that has been disrupted by illness and disease (Aldridge 2002 Yardely 1997) Handling the guitar as this participant describes simultaneously realigns self and being in a (temporally and spatially) situated state of well-being It highlights to self and others potentials and capacities for that well-being and for an orientation away from illness

This theme is elaborated by another participant for whom the Theme from Brave Heart (Celtic Circle) on CDs 1 2 and 3 (chosen repeatedly by three participants) was quite familiar She had used this piece of music as therapy and a way of coping with her life situation working out her grief due to a marriage break-up She was in the middle of the divorce process at the time of the interview and described how she would have had trouble coping without the use of music which then gave her a sense of relief and relaxation

In a way music is therapy for me and I can work through my grief it gives me relaxation and relief and it has helped a lot If it hadnt been for the music I would have had trouble with coping with my life situation so far but I am in themiddleof itrightnow working out my grief (Female age43 muscular disease long-term certified sick for about a year unemployed Refers to Theme from Brave Heart)

Choice of Music Reflecting Different Life Phases and Situations Through questions about listening practices and musical habits a common theme was that musics effects vary according to different moods situations and life phases and according to how it was used by participants in social situations Several participants seemed to prefer to play or sing themselves instead of listening to music when they felt down or depressed or felt happy ie playing and singing related to their mood For example

I play when I am sad I start playing sad things but if I am happy I will start playing happy things It is very

connected to your mood but often to play sad things for people when they are grieving helps them and it helps sharing and that there are other people there with youyou put things into retrospective and work through it because if you sit with it inside it can sit and rot and kill you (Male age 53 recovered from depression)

One female participant had chosen a piece of music to go on CD 3 that reflected her improved health status and life phases in different ways she had become Iess depressed more energetic more spiritual and had also found a new friend Describing her musical choice this new piece of music represented her present life situation ie being a bit in love Together with a need for predictability which calmed her down she also pointed out that her musical taste had changed according to her present life situation

I also like the intro (Refers to Torunn Eriksen FeverSkin on CD 3a) I feel I am a bit in love you know and I think it has to do with how I am right now with this love affair and feeling soft because this music is very soft At the same time this music is steady and predictive and I feel that I need this steadiness and prediction in my life because when I am down and have anxiety things float so this music is quality and gives me calmness It is wonderful Perhaps it is because I am a bit occupied with sex at the moment and this is erotic and sensual music She appeals to this erotic side in me mmmm so it is not quite by coincidence that I Iike this kind of music Because if you would have asked me again I would not have chosen Erik Satie (laughs) even though I was so hooked on him I hardly play that now (Refers to her choice on CD 2) (Female age 52 on rehabilitation from depression)

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nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Rectangle
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Page 12: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

nother participant was quite ill when he joined e project but has now recovered and returned work This is mirrored in his choice of music to ) on CD 4 Feeling at my best feeling that )dy mind and spirit became a whole The sense being reborn is followed by a strong sense of y being alive and he thought the St John ission by Bach could visualize this

It stimulates and gives me a sense of harmony and something very unique it gives a feeling of being alive feeling that body and mind and also the spirit become a whole and its this connection to the spirit this unearthly condition that this music gives me I feel a recognition in my heart and soul and it relates to my biography and my age and where I am right now (Male age 48 has just returned to work was long-term certified sick for about a year)

reating a Musical Ritual Awareness and eadjustment of Self y focusing on exposure to and exchange of new lusical materials and practices the participants emed to learn how to use music as a technology f self towards health and healing It was possible ver the year-long study to observe how articipants discovered new music which they jded to the list of music that makes them feel ood hits them goes straight through or jierces [the] mind body and soul There is from loment to moment a constant dialogic process hich requires the negotiation of meaning In 3me situations the individual may make a Dnscious choice to engage in a dialogue with ew and unfamiliar music that requires a adjustment of the self In other words ldividuals may choose to extend themselves to grow in a biographical sense by allowing lemsel ves to get into new and unfamiliar music IUS its negotiability illustrates that the meaning 1 music originates ultimately with the individual

A female participant described her contribution

to CD 5a as a type of music that relieved her emotional pain and how she experienced the close connection between body and mind achieving a clearer insight to its connection with music reflecting an emotional awareness

It appeals to my soul It just goes straight through and also that I can hum to it but since it is new I have not had time to use this in the same way (She refers to how she has used the music by Tord Gustavsson Deep as Love her choice on CD 2a) I have never heard of them before It is definitely something I will use and when I feel this emotional pain I fall in with the music so then I heal myself musically I robe myself with music enter another place Sometimes I feel that emotional pain gets physical and music is there to give me a relief I think there is a very strong connection between the mental and the physical more than we think I have started to see what music does much clearer now I have started to think about myself what does music do for me or for you what opens up what shuts what is pain or grief what is longing (Her choice Streif Brudesangfra Soloslashr3) (Female age 50 long-term certified sick for a year now on rehabilitation after being burnt-out)

Through weaving questions around the practical task of listening one can see clearly how their musical homework has engaged them and stimulated their curiosity regarding music A female participant describes how she now actively sits down and listens and tries to get hold of her emotions thus engaging herself in a self-monitoring ritual

When I first got them (CDs 1 and 2) I just played them through once just to listen because I was so curious for

A traditional Wedding March from Oslashsterdalen Norway

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example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 13: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

example the first CD I was very curious about that as wellis it something I know from before I wonder what the others (participants) have chosen but the second time I put them on I sat down to actively listen to that and then tried to get hold of why I reacted or responded in one way or another it is not simple and I think it is a great challenge but it is very useful (Female age 60 breast cancer on rehabilitation)

A female participant also explained how the method of listening actually forced her to sit down and make time to listen be relaxed and to create space for herself which she believed in itself promoted her health The chosen piece of music could also represent major changes in the participants life situation since the previous interviews which highlighted that music is temporal and intertwined with life itself Afemale participant chose All l Want by Joni Mitchell as her choice to go on CD 5b and describes due to a crucial change in her life her increased self-awareness of the beneficial factors of singing and playing and this illustrates how music has become an important aspect in her life

Because I am pregnant and life has been very chaotic lately I feel I know much more what I want to do with my life now and do you remember at one of the first interviews I told you I wanted to sing and play more well now I have taken up my guitar again and I am so dedicated and much more conscious and I sing a lot because I think it is like healing to sing I also sing when 1 walk in the forest It has been quite stormy in my life since summer so the music has been extremely important to me life is so strange it does not always end up the way you intended alas (Female age 36 bumt-out)

Participants were generally eager to make their

personal comments on the different kinds of music and pinpointing how some music triggered memories and associations Some new music aroused interest for further digging into a new type of music Some of the tracks evoke strong positive or negative emotions and some tracks became a favourite they played regularly or even learned At this point one can already observe how new music creates new rituals and triggers a srowing self-awareness

First time I put the CD on I put it on high volume and I was in the kitchen and I thought to myself oh here comes one lovely tune after one another so when my friend came visiting I just had to put it on again and then we sat and listened to it a lot that weekend and I think that is great fun it was very alright with the variety so to me it was good to listen to and you have made a compilation of some very nice songs I have listened to all of it several times I have listened to it when I had a bath when I was plugged into my earphones well then I used to jump over the classical bits I also liked it because it was a good deal of old stuff there lovely tunes from days gone by and it made me remember those times I can actually use the whole CD when I sit there or walk around in my house and do small enjoyable cosy things like being on my own that is what I like best when I listen to music (Female age 52 disability pension muscular disease referring to CD 1)

The growing awareness that music matters in relation to her health inspired one participant to make her own CD compilation from all the CDs and she divided this into two topics 1 The music she likes but which does not move her emotionally and 2 The music that really does her good Sometimes she feels imprisoned in her own body but experiences that this Health Music is a contrast to hopelessness and

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

resignation She explains that at times when she is lacking energy and motivation to search out music that makes her feel good she needs this beneficial music that she has collected

I have made a compilation of all the tracks that really make me feel good because when I need music that really makes me feel good I cant have one here and one there you know I need to have them all in order because very often I dont have motivation or energy to go out and buy new music so I have made a list and compilation of the music I like and the music that really does something for me emotionally for example open the door to my imprisoned self and body It is very rare I am so ill that I cant listen to music so this health music fills me it becomes a contrast to hopelessness and resignation (Female age 52 neurological disease)

This participatory CD design does not only shows how these participants experiences in music enhanced their already established patterns and practices but how these established musical practices could be modified through the introduction of new and different type of music The results show that there seems to be a close link between use of music and life events or implications All participants talked about the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music which may indicate how their strong musical experiences were linked to their personal likes and dislikes well-being or illness in multiple ways

bdquo Discussion

Musicking as a Self-healing Practice In folk-medical practice health is often associated with a state of balance and well-being Music provides a resource both for living and telling about what one can do and thus for profiling ones capabilities and progress The telling to self via music-as-resource in turn provides new

resources for becoming well experiencing well-being and coping (DeNora 2000) it places an interpretive frame around events and life circumstances and can be done in constructive positive ways that help to deflect anxiety Charmaz (1999 p 379) has described this process suggesting that reliving and retelling significant events can lead to experiencing present emotions through the images judgements and appraisals of self-implied past events Retelling the event becomes a means of sorting defining and clarifying old sentiments that constitute the self Sorting what the event means and the correct feelings to hold about it shapes self-images and self-worth An ill person may do considerable emotion-work to understand present feelings and music may be a strong link into a past self

As we saw in the narratives for one of the participants merely touching the strings of his guitar made him feel good This event provides an example of how music may provide resources for reconfiguring oneself temporally and spatially into a subjective state of well-being Music works according to participants as a refresher or pick-me-up a way of coping It provides in the words of several participants relaxation and relief a sense of regaining health through playing or steadiness and predictability also helping participants to reflect and rethink their life situations Well-being in other words is symbolic it is meaningful and this meaning can be obtained through musical experience (Ruud 2001 2005) When the participants listened to the music that they contributed to the CDs they described how they often felt sure that this was their right choice even though they had come to like or even fallen in love with a new or different kind of music We think this is because their original musical choices provided a kind of bedrock of certainty and more specifically aesthetic belonging part of the process of achieving and maintaining ontological security as described by Antonovsky (1987) Participants abilities to shape the aesthetic in this case sonic features of ones social world their empowerment and participation in this meaning-making process was central to their sense of and ability to generate a sense of (aesthetic) belonging and thus well-being

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In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

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Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

136 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORAamp EVEN RUUD

In short music is a workspace for constituting ontological security (Giddens 1991) and a means for helping participants learn how to produce such security which often gets disrupted in chronic illness by being cut off from normal life Sometimes a difficult life situation increases a need for predictability and stability (Williams 2003 Radley 1994 Williams Gabe amp Calnan 2000) As a means of meeting this need music may be specially suited it seems to provide a realm in which such control may be established For example a male participant (age 50) reflects on these issues He had been ill for about two years due to severe depression and burn-out but has since recovered and is now studying music at a university college He mentioned how he used music as self-therapy after he joined this project I have thought damn it I dont want to be feeling down so let me listen to music And then it functioned as a medium or tool I have taught myself to use it as a medium These social actions often referred to as homework forced participants to listen to different kinds of music changing their musical habits for a while thus allowing time to contemplate and reflect on growing consciousness

Empowering Rituals In this study participants were serious about their homework When they got the new CDs they sat down and listened to them or they listened at home in the car viewing this work as both serious but also enjoyable Then they could start to skip tracks they disliked or hop around to find a favourite or repeat the track(s) they liked or that made them feel good and gave them meaning (Robinson 1997) Becker (2004) has described how musical ritual processes are associated with and bring forth realities in which certain actions are expected and appropriate and in which the reality brought forth by all is enacted thus the knowing is embodied in the doing Here listening to music offered participants the opportunity to be temporarily another kind of person than ones ordinary everyday self (Becker 2004) their musical listening thus may have offered the opportunity of experiencing relief from otherwise routine presentation of self in daily life (Goffman

1959) allowing participants to try on or try out alternate forms of self-presentation (DeNora 2000)

As we saw in the interviews one of the participants stated how the method of listening forced her to sit down and make time to listen to relax and create a space for herself One might say that one of the main features of this approach to health promotion has to do with developing a ritual a special context in which to perform a bodily practice or a self-imaging process which leads towards control over ones life and control over the situation of being in ill-health Health may in this context be defined as having as little illness as possible while having the energy to cope with the tasks and challenges of everyday life (Tellnes 2004) Similarly Radley (1994) focuses on how the maintenance of health and the successful alleviation of suffering require that practitioners understand how these things are woven together in the lives of the people concerned Aldridge (1996 p283) describes how absence of symptoms coupled with a zest for living appear to play a significant role in the subjective assessment of health Music has a vast potential for pleasure and a little bit of fun is a powerful medicine

Music is Personal Although music is culturally produced and distributed and therefore framed in ways that may constrain its interpretation music consumption is nonetheless highly personal It became quite clear how strong a personal relationship one has to music and how important it is to be careful not to design standard music in the belief that this will make everybody feel better In this perspective it is not the music itself that causes anything though it is part of a system of practices and meaningful associations that the participants need to make for themselves thus facilitating the development of meaning making and remembering Music is a medium that can be used for self-care which is potentially transformative or affords transcendence By choosing music as part of this care of self participants are engaged in self-conscious articulation work thinking ahead about the music that might work for them

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

136 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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Page 16: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

Lay Music Expertise and Community Music Therapy In recent years the World Health Organization has shifted the definition of health promotion away from the notion of specific diseases or the detection of risk groups towards the health and well-being of whole populations (WHO 1997 2001) Instead of experts and professionals diagnosing problems the people themselves define health issues of relevance to them in their local community (Naidoo amp Wills 2000) Such a bottom-up strategy calls for different skills from the health promoter (Kendall 1998) The health promoter becomes a facilitator or mediator whose role is to act as a catalyst getting things going and then withdrawing from the situation In this respect Stige has described music in therapeutic contexts as health musicking that is the shared and performed establishment of health-promoting relationships He proposes the following notion of health to be relevant for community music therapy

Health is a quality of mutual care in human co-existence and a set of developing personal qualifications for participation As such health is a process of building resources for the individual the community and the relationship between the individual and the community (Stige 2003 p 207)

This links health promotion music sociology and community music therapy to a participatory action design as a useful bridge-building method Gillies has argued that health promoters need to be involved in helping to repair the social fabric of society by building social capital

Communities with a high level of social capital are characterised by high levels of trust positive social norms and many overlapping and diverse horizontal networks for communication and exchange of information ideas and practical help (Gillies 1997 p 15)

As we know from several studies social isolation

often resulting from illness is in itself one of the major threats to health (Putnam 2000) Projects such as the one presented here can also focus on music as a health promoting factor among individuals that have not been conscious of using music previously or how music works for them in different circumstances In this way this method can even give participants a new perspective and renew their understanding and reflection relating to their musical activities and practices which in itself is a learning process Through listening to music they become aware of their current state or health of the day - where they are right now on the scale of recovery

Thinking about community music therapy and its connection to public health and health promotion reintroduces cultural and social dimensions into an interdisciplinary field of music and health It also places emphasis on the creation of situated moments of transcendence and togetherness Musics ongoing parameters such as resources and opportunities for expressive action in real time and over time as stylistic habits and as opportunities for being-together-in-time makes this novel participatory CD design a possible useful tool to study music and informal learning in everyday life (Batt-Rawden amp DeNora 2005) In this perspective music may be a medium forthe construction of knowledge ie musicking as a technology of self towards health and healing (DeNora 1999 Ruud 2002)

Who has not heard about the important aspects of eating five fruits or vegetables per day or more precisely 750 g per day (Stmeldnr 16 2002-2003 36) or being physically active for 30-40 minutes per day (Karlsen amp Ommundsen 1997) By that logic why not also focus on five pieces of music daily ie two songs two tunes to play and a favourite piece of music to listen to in between the strains and burdens of everyday Iife To this could be added some regular choir practices and concert experiences during the week (Bailey amp Davidson 2003 Konlaan 2001) Music plays a role in our lives much like other behaviours or habits prescribed by health authorities and media in order to regulate our lives towards improved health In what ways then might it be possible to consider music as a form of cultural

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immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

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Page 17: Music Listening and Empowerment in Health Promotion: A Study of the Role and Significance of Music in Everyday Life of the Long-term Ill

KARIBJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

immunogen along with other behavioural immunogens like the use of safety belts physical exercise or nutrition (Ruud 2002 2005) It is hoped that this study will inspire further research on the topic of lay and folk musicking as a technology of health promotion

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Akershus University College Norway Akershus University Hospital Norway Nature-Culture-Health Centre in Akershus Norway and University of Exeter England We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and highly constructive criticisms of earlier versions

References

Aasgaard T (2004) A Pied Piper among White Coats and Infusion Pumps In Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aasgaard T (2005) Song Creations by Children with Cancer- Process and Meaning In Aldridge D (Ed) Case Study Designs in Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (1996) Music Therapy Research and Practices in Medicine From out of the Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Aldridge D (2002) Spirituality Healing and Medicine Return to Silence London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Antonovsky A (1987) Unravelling the Mystery ofHealth San Francisco Jossey-Bass

Antonovsky A (1996) The Salutogenetic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion Health Promotion International 11 11-18

Bailey B A amp Davidson J W (2003) Amateur Group Singing as a Therapeutic Instrument Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy 2(1) pp

18-32 Batt-Rawden K B amp DeNora T (2005) Music

and Informal Learning in Everyday Life Music Education Research 7(3) 289-304

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005a) Music and Health Promotion A Case Study In Tellnes G (Ed) Urbanization and Health New Challenges in Health Promotion and Prevention Oslo Unipub

Batt-Rawden K B amp Tellnes G (2005b) Nature-Culture-Health Activities as a Method of Rehabilitation An Evaluation of Participants Health Quality of Life and Function International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 28(2)

Becker J (2004) Deep Listeners Music Emotion and Trancing Bloomington Indiana University Press

Bertaux D (1981) Biography and Society The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences London Sage Publications

Charmaz K (1999) Stories of Suffering Subjective Tales and Research Narratives in Qualitative Health Research 9(3) 362-382

Charmaz K (2003) GroundedTheory In Smith J A (Ed) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Crozier R (1997) Music and Social Influence In Hargreaves D J amp North A C (Eds) The Social Psychology ofMusic Oxford Oxford University Press

DeNora T (1999) Music as aTechnology of the Self Poetics 27 31-56

DeNora T (2000) Music in Everyday Life Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity Cambridge Polity Press

Gillies P (1997) Social Capital Recognizing the Value of Society Healthlines 45 15-16

Goffman I (1959) The Presentation ofSelfin Everyday Life New York Doubleday

Gouk P (2000) Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts Aldershot Ashgate

Karaberg D Tellnes G amp Karaberg A (2004) NaCuHeal Information Design in Public Health Synthetic Research Models of the Nature-Culture-Health Interplay Michael 1

1 IA Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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Uni

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or]

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11

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embe

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

136 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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MUSIC LISTENING AND EMPOWERMENTIN HEALTH PROMOTION

247-51 Karlsen K B amp Ommundsen Y (1997)

Problemer med aring vaeligre fysisk aktiv [Problems of Being Physically Active] Tidsskrift Norsk Laeliggeforening 117 2790-4

Kendall S (1998) Health andEmpowerment London Arnold

Konlaan B B (2001) Cultural Experience and Health The Coherence of Health and Leisure Time Activities Umearing University Medical Dissertation

Lehtonen K (2005) Music as a Possibility of Chance - Healing Metaphors in Music [online] Music Therapy Today 6(3) 356-374 Retrieved from http wwwMusicTherapyWorldnet

Magee W L amp Davidson J W (2004) Singing in Therapy British Journal of Music Therapy 18(2) 65-77

Naidoo J amp Wills J (2000) Health Promotion London BailliereTindall

NOU 1998 18 Deterhrukforalle [Thereis Room for All] Norway Government White Paper

Pavlicevic M amp Ansdell G (Eds) (2004) Community Music Therapy London Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Putnam R D (2000) Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York Simon and Schuster

Radley A (1994) Making Sense oflllness London Sage Publications

Reason P amp Bradbury H (Eds) (2001) Handhook of Action Research London Sage Publications

Ritchie J amp Lewis J (2003) Qualitative Research Practice A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers London Sage Publications

Robinson J (1997) Music and Meaning London Cornell University Press

Ruud E (1997a) Musikk og ldentitet [Music and Identity] Oslo Universitetsforlaget

Ruud E (1997b) Music and Quality of Life [online] Nordic Journal ofMusic Therapy Retrieved from wwwhisfnonjmt selectruud97html

Ruud E (2001) Varme oslashyeblikk [Hot

Moments] Oslo Unipub Ruud E (2002) Music as a Cultural Immunogen

- Three Narratives on the Use of Music as a Technology of Health In Hanken et al (Eds) Research in andfor Higher Music Education Festschrift for Harald Joslashrgensen Oslo NMH-Publications 2

Schensul S Schensul J J amp LeCompte M D (1999) Essential Ethnographic Methods London Altamira Press

Sloboda J (2005) Exploring the Musical Mind Oxford University Press

Small C (1998) Musicking The Meanings of Performing and Listening London Welsyan Press

Smith J A (2003) Qualitative Psychology A Practical Guide to Research Methods London Sage Publications

Smith S E Dennis G W amp Johnson N A (1997) Nurtured hy Knowledge Learning How to Do Participatoiy Action-Research New York The Apex Press

Spradley J P (1979) The Ethnographic Interview London Holt Rinehart and Winston

Stige B (2003) Elaborations towards a Notion of Community Music Therapy Faculty of Arts University of Oslo

St meld Nr 16 (2002-2003) Reseptforet Sunnere Norge [A Recipe for a Healthier Norway] Government White Paper Norway

Stmeld 29 (1996-7) Utfordringeri helsefremmende og forebyggende arbeid (Challenges in Public Health and Health Promotion) Government White Paper Norway

Tellnes G (2003a) Public Health and the Way Forward In Kirch W (Ed) Public Health in Europe New York Springer-Verlag

Tellnes G (2003b) Samspillet Natur-Kultur-Helse [The Nature-Culture-Health Interplay] Oslo Unipub

Tellnes G (2004) The Community Approach to Public Health Michael 1206-11

Whyte W F (1984) Learningfrom the Field London Sage Publications

Whyte W F (1991) Participatory Action Research London Sage Publications

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

136 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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KARI BJERKE BATT-RAWDEN TIA DENORA amp EVEN RUUD

Williams S J (2003) Medicine and the Body Health for Economic Development Geneva London Sage Publications WHO

Williams S J Gabe J amp Calnan M (Eds) World Health Organization (1997) The Jakarta (2000) Health Medicine and Society Key Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Theories Future Agendas London Routledge Century Jakarta The 4th International

World Health Organization (2001) Commission Conference on Health Promotion 1997 on Macroeconomics and Health Yardely L (Ed) (1997) Material Discourses of Macroeconomics and Health Investing in Health and Illness London Routledge

136 Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 2005 14(2)

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