We Can All Make Music.
New research and reports
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Date noted |
Date published |
Title |
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28/8/08 |
2008 |
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6/5/08 |
2008 |
Recent highlights from the hundreds of new items added since Feb |
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21/2/08 |
February '06 |
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8/2/08 |
February '08 |
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4/12/07 |
November '07 |
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18/10/07 |
July '07 |
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18/10/07 |
January '06 |
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18/9/07 |
July '07 |
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18/9/07 |
2006 |
Making every child's music matter; Music Manifesto Report No. 2 - A consultation for action |
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7/8/07 |
April '06 |
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7/8/07 |
March '07 |
Added to 28 Aug 2008
Alice Wignall of The Guardian has written a piece about
music-making's contribution to physical health, drawing strongly on the work of
the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts
and Health.
Starting
in early May and running through to early July, Nature “the international weekly journal of science”, has published nine essays (from authors including
Cook, Huron, McDermott, Patel, Sloboda and Trainor) on Science and Music.
These
excellent articles, published in the February issue of Music Forum (mentioned below) by Davidson
and Harvey, are now available
online.
We
finally located our favourite researcher, Betty
Bailey, who has kindly sent us hardcopies of her eight papers, which, in
our opinion, form one of the best bodies of work exploring the benefits of
participatory singing. If you wish to
read the complete text of her papers, please contact
us.
Finally,
we've linked Lucy O'Grady's interview in Voices
with Jon Hawkes on the role of performance
in music-making.
Added between 21 Feb and 6 May 2008
10% expansion of our
research bibliography
Since
February 21, we've added 174 new entries to our bibliography, 40 of which are
2008 publications.
Highlights
include:
The release of the Dana Foundation's new research, Learning Arts and the Brain
A NY Times article about community
singing in the
Schon and others on 'Songs
as an aid for language acquisition'
A bunch of new fat handbooks from Oxford University
Press:
o
Companion to the
Affectice Sciences.
o
Only the first of these has been formally announced by
OUP, but authors are already announcing their chapters online.
'Abiding memories:
the community singing movement and English social life in the 1920s' -
a reminder that there's nothing new under the sun.
Added on 21 Feb 2008
50 min video of
lecture summarising current music / neuroscience research
Just
last month, ucsd.tv loaded this excellent talk by Aniruddh Patel from the Neurosciences Institute on to YouTube.
Added on 8 Feb 2008
Articles
in Feb issue of Music Forum
Two
excellent pieces in this issue are:
Jane W. Davidson
writes on “singing for self-healing, health and well-being” and
provides a comprehensive summary and analysis of the research supporting the
function of group singing as an essential aspect within the human experience:
“studies provide evidence of the physiological, cognitive, and emotional
benefits of group singing for an improved quality of life”.
Alan R. Harvey writes on “music and human
evolution” from the perspective of a Neuroscientist actively engaged in
music since childhood. His coverage of
brain research is fabulous, but even more useful is his outline of the
interpretations of music's essential functions which can be drawn from this
research. His final and most exciting
observation is of music's capacity to keep us sane.
Sadly
there's no electronic source for these articles, but you could hassle your
local library to subscribe, or even buy you own copy.
Added on 4 Dec 2007
Every
Primary School to Become a Singing School
On the 21st
November, the British government launched a national campaign to “make
our primary schools come alive with the sound of music, involving a £332
million investment in choirs, orchestras, new instruments, performance and free
music lessons”.
The Press
Notice describes the many programs (among them Sing Up), and outlines the basis on
which it was decided to take this path. There's
some useful material here in support of similar community singing campaigns
operating elsewhere in the world, and is definitely worth a read.
Added on 18 Oct 2007
The
contribution of cultural development to community wellbeing
John
Wiseman, head of the McCaughey
Centre, delivered this address at the July
2007 Expanding
Cultures: Arts and Local Governement Conference. The pdf version of the original supporting
PowerPoint presentation displays, for the first time, the results of state-wide
research into the level of active arts participation amongst Victorians. This includes a map of
Howard
Goodall appointed Britain's “National Singing Ambassador”
Howard
Goodall was appointed National Singing Ambassador by the then Secretary of
State for Education, Alan Johnson, in January 2007. Funding was ear-marked (£10m for the first
year, with the possibility of a further 3 years subject to the British
Government's comprehensive spending review) to run a national programme to make
every primary school a singing school.
In June 2007, Hansard
records a question concerning how the funds have been applied. The answer claimed that “plans are
being made to allocate the funding to major national initiatives to achieve the
widest possible impact. This will include the production of a major song
resource to be made available to every school and every child and the training
of vocal leaders for schools”.
Added on 18 Sep 2007
Why Music
Education? 2007 (USA
A
summary of research-supported reasons why music in schools is essential,
produced by the staff of MENC (The National Association for Music Education)
Making
every child's music matter; Music Manifesto Report No. 2 - A consultation for
action (UK)
The
Music Manifesto is a campaign for improving music education. Established by the UK Government in 2004, it
aims to provide greater opportunities for children and young people to develop
their personal and creative potential through music over a five-year period.
As
quoted in the report’s executive summary:
”Music has the power to transform lives.
As this report makes clear, everyone involved in music education
passionately believes in the benefits of music and music making, yet hundreds
of thousands of children and young people are missing out.
Our aim
is to give every child the chance to make music and enjoy the immense benefits
it brings. As we have discovered through
putting this report together, brilliant work is being done to do precisely
that, but it is being hamstrung by a lack of coordination and focus,
particularly at a local level.
The central
recommendation of this report is that everyone involved in music education
should work together to provide the framework and focus needed to deliver a
universal music education offer to all children, from early years onwards,
where they can take an active part in high-quality music making.”
Added on 7 Aug 2007
The
Creativity and Aging Study (USA)
The
Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults
Final
report (April 2006) of a study begun in 2001 which included a seniors chorale
in
The following summary text is quoted from The
Creativity and Aging Study (link above):
“The
Levine School of Music in
Findings from the choral stream:
Overall Health: After a year, those participating in the cultural
program reported an increase in overall health, while those in the control
group reported a decline. After two
years, those in the cultural program essentially reported stabilization in
overall health, while those in the control group reported a decline.
Doctor Visits: Those in the control group reported a greater increase
in the number of doctor visits than those in the cultural program.
Prescription Medication Usage: Those in the control group reported a greater increase
in the number of prescription medications utilized than those in the cultural
program.
Over-The-Counter Medication Usage: Those in the control group reported a greater increase
in the number of over-the-counter medications utilized than those in the
cultural program.
Falls: Those participating in the cultural program reported a
decrease in falls, while those in the control group reported an increase.
Morale: Participation in the cultural programs had a more
positive impact on morale than being a part of the control group.
Depression: Over a two-year period, those in the cultural programs
improved on the depression assessment, while those in the control group did
less well.
Loneliness: Data on participants in both the cultural program and
the control group revealed a trend toward improvement.
Over a two-year
period those participating in the cultural program reported an increase in the
total number of activities they were involved with, while those in the control
group reported a reduction.
Conclusions From Results:
What is
remarkable in this study is that after just a year into the study the cultural
groups, in contrast to the control groups, were showing areas of actual
stabilization and improvement apart from decline - despite an average age which
is greater than life expectancy. This
pattern then continued throughout year two of the study. These results point to powerful positive
intervention effects of these community-based art programs run by professional
artists. They point to true health
promotion and disease prevention effects.
In that they also show stabilization and actual increase in
community-based activities in general among those in the cultural programs,
they reveal a positive impact on maintaining independence and on reducing
dependency. This latter point
demonstrates that these community-based cultural programs for older adults
appear to be reducing risk factors that drive the need for long-term
care.”
Report
of the Review of Arts and Health Working Group(UK)
Released
in March 2007, this report documents the findings and recommendations of the
Review of Arts and Health Working Group which was set up by Harry Cayton, the
National Director for Patient and the Public, to support him in advising the
Department of Health on its role in relation to arts and health.
Its key
findings are:
arts and health
are, and should be firmly recognised as being, integral to health, healthcare
provision and healthcare environments, including supporting staff.
arts and health
initiatives are delivering real and measurable benefits across a wide range of
priority areas for health, and can enable the Department and NHS to contribute
to key Government initiatives of a wider scope.
there is a
wealth of documented “best practices” regarding the use of art to
promote health and well-being, and a substantial evidence base is also
available.
the Department
of Health has an important leadership role to play in creating an environment
in which arts and health can prosper by promoting, developing and supporting
arts and health.
the Department
of Health should make a clear statement on the value of arts and health, build
partnerships and publish a prospectus for arts in health, in collaboration with
other key contributors.
CMV - making a
sound world together.
©
Community Music Victoria Inc.