Bev's blog

music care conference a huge success

2010-11-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

The Music Care conference was a huge success. With almost 300 registrants and another 35 volunteers, there was a positive buzz at Wilfrid Laurier Faculty of Music last Saturday, and the electronic buzz has continued today here in the Room 217 Foundation office.

There are a number of factors that made this conference unique and exceptional.

cross-disciplinary approach - Members of the arts, healthcare, business, education and faith communities came together around the common interest of music and care. This intersection gave an opportunity for rich and rare conversation to occur.

emphasis on both inspiration and information - People tire of an information/academic only approach at conferences. There was plenty of soul food integrated into the program - lots of wonderful personal stories and performances, by Dan Hill, Gerard Yun, the Penderecki String Quartet and Inshallah, a community choir singing global song.

expert speakers - We were blessed to have speakers who knew how to engage with people, authentically and in such a way that people left wanting more. Dan Hill, Deforia Lane and our 11 presenters were amazing.
music making - There were a number of opportunities for participants to make music i.e. drumming, singing, creativity breakouts. Inshallah concluded the conference by teaching us all a South African song.

I took some time today to peruse the evaluations - at least 50% of the participants filled in an evaluation and handed it in - that in and of itself is a strong statement that participants took some ownership in contributing to the future of Music Care. I am encouraged by the overwhelming sense of meeting and exceeding people's expectations for the conference and the constructive feedback for events to come. I'm also encouraged that folks from around Ontario go back into their neighbourhoods feeling affirmed, empowered and inspired to care through music.

nourished by music

2010-10-28T04:46:00.001-07:00

A friend sent me this link and I was moved. Alice will be 107 in November and she is the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world. In 1942, she was a concert pianist in Prague. At age 39 she and her son were deported to Theresienstadt, a Nazi concentration camp. Alice tells her story and we see how she has been nourished by the unquienchable power of music. In her own words, music was her moral support and her hope. This is a must see.

www.youtube.com/user/AliceTheFilm

peaceful presence earns 2 nominations!

2010-09-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

I learned this week that Peaceful Presence, a collection of old favorite Christian songs, recorded by Dan Warren and I (flugelhorn/piano/organ) earned two nominations for GMA's Covenant Awards to be held in Calgary October 29, 2010. Peaceful Presence is the 7th album in the Room 217 therapeutic music library.

We're excited about this recognition for Room 217. For further information check out gmacanada.ca. The awards are for instrumental album of the year and instrumental song of the year - that would be Peaceful Presence, the title song I wrote for the album. Very cool.

players bring heart and skill

2010-09-15T17:51:00.001-07:00

No exceptions - all the Room 217 players have brought their hearts and skills to the recording projects. Happened again on this recording. The sensitivity each player brings expressed their technical abilities is astonishing. Thank you Jason, Burke, Carmon and Anne. COUNTRY ROAD, a collection of timeless country songs done in Room 217 style will be for sale starting October 15, 2010.

recording new Room 217 album COUNTRY ROAD

2010-09-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

In the studio today recording our 8th album.

I'm totally pumped with this new album for a number of reasons:

the music is going to touch a lot of people, such great country songs like Always On My Mind, You Needed Me, Crazy, Take Me Home Country Road...

the players are fabulous - Jason Fowler on guitar, Burke Carroll on steel guitar and dobro and Anne Lindsay on fiddle

the sound is absolutely beautiful. I've never worked with steel guitar before and I love the breadth and resonance it provides.

stay tuned for pictures of the players tomorrow....

report on palliative care in canada

2010-06-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today, a report on Palliative Care in Canada was tabled in the Canadian Senate. Written by Senator Sharon Carstairs, the political champion of palliative care in Canada, she makes 17 recommendations for future government action. This is a must read for those of us interested in next steps for developing a culture of care for the dying and their families and the implications of an aging population.

Check out Senator Carstairs site by clicking here:

There is a full report, background info and important recommendations.

music in the workplace

2010-06-02T02:06:00.001-07:00

Came across this concise documentary on Music in the Workplace. CBC's Roberta Walker claims that in the knowledge ecomony of the workplace, music may help us be more creative, productive and help reduce stress. Through a variety of leading experts on music and the brain, music therapy and music education, Walker says that music is helpful in the workplace as it can modify moods, manage behaviors, improve work conditions, provide relief for mental disorders. This is a must listen to for administrators, principals, CEO's and for those who are self-employed.

To listen to the full documentary, click here:

registration for music care conference

2010-05-26T10:43:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm pretty pumped. The Music Care Conference is becoming reality. With an amazing planning team from the partnering agencies and outstanding speakers, performers and workshop presenters, this is going to be a day you don't want to miss! Mark it on your calendars now - Saturday November 6 in Waterloo, Ontario. Registration is available - click above on the register now button to find out more...

music and the virtually possible

2010-05-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

I came across this extremely cool website...a virtual choir. A project spearheaded by composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, there are more than 100 voices from all over the world who are part of a virtual choir performance. It goes something like this: the chorister records him/herself on a webcam singing Whitacre's Lux Aurumquevirtually directed by Whitacre himself. In fact Whitacre gives a 9 minute preparation for each chorister. Once they are recorded, they upload to a site and Scott Haines cuts it together. Check it out at
http://ericwhitacre.com/blog/the-virtual-choir-how-we-did-it

peaceful presence now available

2010-05-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

I'm thriled to announce that Peaceful Presence, album #7 in the Room 217 therapeutic music library is now available. We launched it at the Ontario Hospice Palliative Care Conference and also were able to take it with us to the Ontario Long Term Care Association Conference last week. Lots of good response.

One care receiver, who uses our music and got an early copy, writes:

Many thanks for the copy of your latest album, Peaceful Presence. You were right about the flugelhorn. What a compliment to your styling and the organ. I have listened thru twice and talked about it to one of my home care nurses. Congrats, another solid success for Room 217!

My hope is that people who listen to this recording will feel surrounded by a deep sense of peace, comfort and care.

almost done recording project

2010-04-06T01:14:00.000-07:00

Recording an album is quite a process. Since Dan and I recorded a couple of weeks ago, the project has undergone a number of stages. First of all, Carmon (co-producer/engineer) provided me with an edited version. He neatly seams together all of the punch-ins which smooths out the flow. Also in this project, the organ we used was 10 cents below A440 pitch. So he had to bring that up as well. Once the edit phase was approved, then we mixed. Mixing is subjective. It's about how what's been recorded melds together - what becomes foreground? background? what is the overall effect trying to be created? That's when the vibe between the artist/producer/engineer is vital because so much of it is about judgment calls and remembering objectives for the project.

Yesterday, we finished mixing and began mastering. For the 217 projects the challenge is that we record each album as one file (as opposed to 18 different files strung together): every change has huge ramifications.

We're almost there...it's really close...

Here's Carmon and I...

peaceful presence recording

2010-03-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

Had an intense 3 days recording the next Room 217 album, Peaceful Presence. Here are some pics:

peaceful presence

2010-03-14T18:06:00.001-07:00

Getting pumped - this week we have recording sessions for the next Room 217 album 7, Peaceful Presence. This one will target the 70+ age group again - it is a collection of old inspirational Christian favorites. I'm playing this album with a university friend, Dan Warren. He's playing flugelhorn - I'm playing piano and organ. Check out Dan at http://www.danielwarren.ca/. Dan brings his skill and heart to this project. Of course, it will be a wonderful to work with Carmon Barry and Emmanuel Productions again.

This album should be ready mid-April. Keep posted on our website, http://www.room217.ca/.

music at the 2010 olympics

2010-02-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

The television has been on for the last 10 days at our house. We love watching the Olympics--winter or summer. For me, the mix of sport mastery, world class competition and young men and women achieving their goals is inspirational. I've always been teary-eyed when the Canadian flag is raised at a medalling ceremony, and this year is no exception.

More than ever, music seems to have accompanied this two week odyssey, or maybe I'm paying more attention. The line up of Canadian musicians at the opening ceremony seemed like I was at the Junos. K.D. Lang's version of Alleluia was mystical and magical. The energy of the celtic fiddlers was contagious and Measha's presence brought a richness and feeling of completeness to the intersection of the art of sport and music at this global celebration.

While the whole world has felt the tragic losses of several families throughout the Olympics, none has touched me more deeply than Therese Rochette's sudden death. That may be because I'm a skating mom but I found the most touching testimonial to the power of music in an article I read about Joanie and Therese from CBC's Vancouver Now. A certain 1948 Edith Piaf song sustained Therese as a young woman through her own tragic loss. And years later, the same song resonates comfort and courage for Joanie as she faces unforseen and unimaginable circumstances in her Olympic journey. Click this link for the full article: http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/figureskating/story/2010/02/21/spo-thereserochette.html

music connects us with people

2010-01-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

Music has a wonderful capacity to connect people, whether it’s two people or two thousand and two. Bonds are made between people as we share music together. This can happen through:

a shared event where a connection is made, like a wedding or concert or dance

a shared feeling where we resonate around an emotion like joy or grief or love

a shared idea where the music becomes symbolic like the hook of a jingle or a protest

I remember several years ago how one song made me feel connected to millions of other people around the world. As Sir Elton John sang Candle in the Wind, his words encapsulated a world mourning the life of Diana Princess of Wales. Perhaps it was the connection to human suffering and tragedy, but that song brought us together in our common journey and expressed our common grief.

Music played an important role in my connection with my grandmother, Nanny Gross. As a child, she would come and straighten my shoulders as I practiced. Somehow, this was her way of cheering me on. When I was a music student, she would come to my recitals and be interested in what I was studying and learning. Music was a natural part of our relationship, something that joined us together. Often when I went to see her at the nursing home, I’d wheel her to the piano and play some tunes. During the last five years of her life, Nanny suffered from dementia and music was the means we connected.

Has music connected you with someone in a special way?

Copyright 2010, Bev Foster

lament for haiti

2010-01-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

The earthquake in Haiti last week is a catastrophe of epic proportion. The more I read and see, the more my heart feels the loss and sorrow of the people. As I write, two friends, a doctor and a leader in a Haitian mission, have gone to help. They say it is desperate. I feel deep grief: for mothers, grandmothers, orphans, cousins, survivors in Haiti and Haitian Canadian friends who have lost loved ones and the meagre existence they had.

In the past few days, I have received 2 laments for Haiti. A lament is an audible expression of grief and mourning and can be sung. In lament, the hard questions may be posed: like "how long God?" "remember us God" or "where are you Lord?". It may also express the need for healing or mercy, like "In Your mercy, hear our prayer." Laments have been used for centuries as part of mourning rituals and are found in spirituals, tragic opera, gospel songs, blues, ballads, hymns, folk, cinematic music.

The first lament I received is a setting of a Kyrie set to a traditional Haitian tune, arranged and adapted by Andy Donaldson. You can get it at seraph@pathcom.com. The other is a text set to a hymn tune written by a Swiss woman, Kristine Greenaway.

In Haiti there is anguish that seems too much to bear;
A land so used to sorrow now knows even more despair.
From city streets, the cries of grief rise up to hills above;
In all the sorrow, pain and death, where are you, God of love?

A woman sifts through rubble, a man has lost his home,
A hungry, orphaned toddler sobs, for she is now alone.
Where are you, Lord, when thousands die—the rich, the poorest poor?
Were you the very first to cry for all that is no more?

O God, you love your children; you hear each lifted prayer!
May all who suffer in that land know you are present there.
In moments of compassion shown, in simple acts of grace,
May those in pain find healing balm, and know your love’s embrace.

Where are you in the anguish? Lord, may we hear anew
That anywhere your world cries out, you’re there-- and suffering, too.
And may we see, in others’ pain, the cross we’re called to bear;
Send out your church in Jesus’ name to pray, to serve, to share.

The collective traumatic grief may be so paralyzing in Haiti that I wonder if our brothers and sisters are able to sing? So we will sing lamentations joining Haitian brothers and sisters in their suffering, knowing that in some profound way, music has the power to act cathartically, and hoping that one day this nation will rise again to find its voice and sing its song.

Copyright 2010, Bev Foster

music and memory

2010-01-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

As a musician, I'm interested in memory because memorizing has been a large part of my craft: large works like sonatas and concerti. I analyze the music into sections and remember it according to numbers or letters. According to neuroscientists, the process I've used is called "chunking", a process of tying together units of information into groups and remembering the group as a whole rather than in individual pieces. I'm also interested in music and memory because my grandmother had dementia and I've observed as a caregiver music brought her some meausre of quality of life in those lonely and uncharted years.

Here are 6 cool facts about music and memory.

1) Music becomes cross-coded with the events of our lives. That is why music is linked to the events in our personal history. One theory suggests that it may be due to the location of where our feelings our processed in proximity to where our memories are tagged for storage in the brain. Music is often a part life events and passage that are lived with emotions - joy, sorrow, excitement, anxiety - and therefore linked to a memory i.e. weddings, school dances, parades, sporting events. No wonder when I hear Sunshine on My Shoulders, I think about a particular time and place with Rob...

2) Music triggers associations through melodic traces and is filtered through schema, the brain's processing framework. Schemas are developed through acculturation and experience as are musical schemas so that when we hear a new musical idiom, our brains try to make an association and contextualize the new sounds creating memory links between a particular set of notes, a particular time and set of events. That explains why East Indian music doesn't come naturally to me. I'm developing schema and trying to process it through a Western musician's ears.

3) Remembering is the process of recruiting the same group of neurons used in perception of an image and pulling them together again. Barriers to memory retrieval may not be about storage, but about the cues to get at the memory. The implications may be that music is a powerful cue to "re-member" neuron groupings. According to another study, music recognition may be spared in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. I totally see that at the nursing home when I'm doing music with residents - especially with Christmas music.

4) Music may act as a trigger for procedural behaviors. Lullabies may cue babies or young children to sleep. Music with a steady beat may cue exercises like in Pilates or Yoga. Teachers may use music to reinforce behavioral routines such as quiet time, clean up time, circle time. I've used this when I taught in a classroom and with my own children at bedtime. It is fabulous for creating nurturing structures.

5)Music activates areas in both brain hemispheres and this reason alone makes it a viable therapeutic option.Music may be encoded in multiple sites in the brain as well. Reading music may be encoded in semantic memory while automated responses like toe tapping in reflexive memory. General music listening may be stored in our episodic memory. This was new to me, but makes sense with ADRD folks I know where they can't remember what they had for lunch, but can remember 4 verses of a song.

6) Earworms are short musical phrases or segments that get played over and over again in our minds. An earworm is a neural circuit that gets stuck in short term memory and happens mostly with hooks of jingles and simple melodies, and sometimes with tones or words. Such a clever device for musicians to use...

music is accessible and affordable

2009-12-18T10:55:00.001-08:00

Great news! Our Music Care Conference idea made it to the Aviva Fund Competition's Final Round. Thank you to all our supporters for their daily votes over 30 days. Aviva will announce the winners of their generous funding on January 25, 2010. Be sure to check here for results.

Two really obvious reasons why music is an effective means of care is that it is both accesible and affordable. Because of technological advancements like recording, broadcasting, film making and now digital downloading, the way we produce music and distribute it is radically changed. As soon as music is recorded it is instantly available. Music care may be something we can offer without having to wait for specialist appointments, drug patent testing or insurance plans.

I'm not cheapening the training for specialized therapists who use music i.e. music therapists, expressive arts therapists in their practise. They are necessary and provide specialized services. I would suggest that with Canada's growing aging population, health care institutions need to more intentionally invest and make a budget line for a "music person" and hire certified music or expressive arts therapists to provide best practise care.

With some basic understanding of music's therapeutic capacity and some contextualized approaches, music as care becomes even more accessible to volunteer and family caregivers, nurses and spiritual care providers.

music care conference idea moves to aviva semi-finals

2009-12-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Room 217 Foundation submitted an idea to the Aviva Community Fund contest called THE MUSIC CARE CONFERENCE, a project already underway for November 6, 2010. The Aviva grant would be a great help to get this idea off the ground in a significant way.

The Music Care Conference idea made it to the semi-final round where it will be one of 62 ideas. The top 25 ideas are then entered into the finals by popular vote. We need your help! Here's how you can do it.

1. Register and then vote once a day at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2679.

2. Semi-final voting dates: December 2-16

3. For this contest, votes are tabulated by email address, not by person. If you have more than one email address, please register them all and vote using each address! You just need to sign out from one address and sign in with the other address (top right). Then click on "My Supported Ideas" (top right) and click on the Music Care Conference idea box which brings up "Cast Your Vote" page.

4. Pass our information along to friends, colleagues who may be interested in helping. Post it on your facebook. We will post daily updates on the Room 217 Foundation facebook page.

Thank you in advance for your donation of time in helping us push the Music Care conference idea into the Finals.

music expresses both identity and diversity

2009-11-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

Music helps form individual identity and identity among groups of people. As an expressive means, music help us express what we're feeling, what we believe and value, what we are protesting, our hopes and our longings. Among groups of people, music can support national identity through:

nationalist classical or folk music

national anthems

musical ambassadors

Music may express the interests of subcultures within a nation through:

community musical expression (choirs, bands)

collective conscience (Live Aid)

common religious identity (songs, hymns, canticles)

adolescent and teenage identity conjoined with clothes, colors, symbols (goth, rap, hiphop)

While the phrase music is a universal language may be widely accepted, not everyone can appreciate how it bypasses cultural barriers. It also expresses our diversity. Music may express differences of:

meaning (interpretation, aesthetic values)

cultural pratice (musical elements, context)

generations (styles, associations)

preferences (familiarity, personal choice)

In respectful music care, we need to know that music has this dual expressive function: expressing connectedness and expressing uniqueness.

music an intricate part of life passage and human experience

2009-11-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was at a football game at the Rogers Centre and paid attention to the ways in which music was part of the event that gathered close to 30,000 people together. Upon arrival, there was a one act sousaphone plyaer by the entrance on the east side. A little further along there was music pumping from large speakers in a number of concession stands. Right by our entrance at gate 11 there was a live heavy metal band that played us in. Once we were inside the stadium there was music coming from the ads on the Jumbotron. Tere was music when the players entered the field. The game began with O Canada played by a Salvatin Army brass band. And at the half time show, there were some local dance troupes that used music. The cheerleaders used music to perform their routines to. As the game progressed, there were several bands moving around the stadium hallways playing short cheers.

The point? Music is an intricate part of life passage and human experience. Every ritual we share calls for its own music. Some of the rituals include:

birth

birthdays

marriage

anniversaries

death

mourning

planting and harvesting

changing of the season

fertility

suffering

wellness

honoring leaders

sports events

entertainment

romantic dinners

graduation

religious/spiritual ceremonies

Music accompanies us on life's journey and helps us express the human feelings we all share.

why the interest in music and care?

2009-11-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

Today, we found that the Room 217 Foundation's idea of a Music Care conference was among the 20 most popular ideas in the Aviva Community Fund Contest. Over 1400 ideas have been submitted.

Why the interest in music and care? Here are at least 10 reasons why...

Music is an intricate part of life passage and human experience.
Music is an expression of both identity and diversity.
Music is an accessible and affordable means of care.
Music is associative and is connected to our memories.
Music connects us to people and is integral to caring relationships.
Sound/music has been used as a healing agent for centuries.
Music reaches into all domains when someone is sick or suffering.
Music is transformative.
Music is a great pain distractor.
Music enhances quality of life.

music care conference

2009-11-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

I have entered my "big idea", Room 217's MUSIC CARE CONFERENCE into the Aviva Community Fund, a competition that you may have seen advertised on TV. If our idea receives enough votes, it wil have a chance at sharing in $500,000 to bring it to life. I would really appreciate your help in pushing our idea to the finals.

Please vote for our idea at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2679.

The cool thing is you can vote once a day per email address. Can I get your help? Time is of he essence-we have 13 days left!

Please pass this information along to otherswho may be able to help us.

sounds and silence

2009-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Silence is as integral to music as sound is. In musical terms, silence is called a "rest". Rests are used for punctuation, (dramatic) effect, syncopation, inflection, taking a breath. Sounds of silence in music can be used effectively. I especially like experimenting with durations of silence in longer works, like sonatas or dramatic pieces. It helps punctuate sections and gives listeners structural reference points. I also find silence helpful in transitions where the mood of the music changes. As a performer, silence helps me breathe into the next section.

Silence or pauses are used just as effectively in music care. While music creates a space for distraction, stimulation, sedation or transcendence, silence may be effective for:

reflecting
remembering
breathing
centring
connecting
containing

We may be afraid of silence because it forces us to listen to ourselves. Our own inner sounds of unresolved conflict, unmet longings or needs, pain of loss, voices of the past, present or future may interfere with the beautiful auditory sanctuary silence provides. Alan Alda said that listening means being able to be changed by what you hear. It may be that in allowing the silences we have a greater possibility for growth and healing.

somewhere over rainbows in Kansas

2009-10-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Didn't see a rainbow, a tornado, or Oz for that matter but enjoyed my first trip to Kansas this week. Wichita was the site of the statewide Parish Nursing Conference and I was among them as a guest presenter. Being there made me think about Judy Garland's signature song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and how after 70 years (Garland recorded it in 1938) it's ranked as the #1 song of the century, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Google it - see how many renditions there are. Think of how many times it's been performed and recorded. What's the appeal? There are three draws that hook me in.

cross generational appeal - Songs that find their original context in family settings seem to pull on the heartstrings of all ages and especially mine. A young girl facing loss of family, the unknown, new friends and danger, albeit fictional, is a story we are drawn into. The song comes at a time when the theme gives us hope for her plight and we have been endeared to her and the other Oz characters.

resonant truth - Songs that stand the test of time are great stories with timeless themes that cross contexts and ring true. Whose world hasn't been in a hopeless jumble at one point or another? I can relate to that. Who hasn't experienced rainy, down days where there's doesn't seem to be horizon beyond the window? Taking us to the possibility of another place apart from our current bleak circumstance - transcendence - may be a resonant truth we share. All of us can relate to this song. Tragedy and transcendence -human themes.

musical shape - Songs that have melodic hooks grab our attention and I like to analyze why. Harold Arlen, the composer opens the melody of the chorus with an octave span. This sure fits the story: Dorothy on the ground pondering what's beyond - what's up high beyond the tornado. He creates the happy bluebird feeling with repeated third patterns in the bridge. This almost sounds like a bird call.

Some reflections from Wichita. Oh yes, the other cool thing about Wichita is it is the home of Pizza Hut (I saw the original hut on the campus of University of Wichita) and Coleman camping equipment, a staple on our family vacations for more than twenty years.

what inspires me to write music?

2009-10-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last night, I received an email from the Covenant Awards to submit a 30 second Youtube clip expressing my personal response to several questions about art and creativity and why I do what I do. The question that caught my attention was What inspires me to write music?

For me, writing is a means of expressing what I'm seeing, feeling, hearing. The lyrics may be deeply personal and become cathartic in my "working through" thoughts, emotions, questions. The first song I wrote years ago Living Sacrifice was a love song with a painful twist written after splitting with my boyfriend. My song Pictures in My Heart helped me work through the grief of my grandmother's dementia.

Other times, my songs are more like commentaries on experiences. Recently I wrote a song called Mannequin Woman which began from processing betrayal in a relationship I was in and then grew into something that became more philosophical.

When I write spiritual songs, they come from an inner place of surrender and openness. If they are based on someone else's text, I let the natural inflections of the poetry take me to melodic possiblities like Our Father a setting of the Lord's Prayer. Intuitively, I hear melody and harmony together. If the lyrics for my spiritual songs are original then it's almost always come from a place of digging deep into an experience for meaning like my personal favorite Father of My Spirit.

For me the process of writing music is like the process of making music - you have to live it. The great jazzer, Charlie Parker said it: Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

© 2009, Bev Foster

wedding music

2009-09-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I'm playing a wedding for a friend of the family. I've played a lot of weddings and I enjoy it for a number of reasons.

Music sets the stage for the celebration. Tomorrow, the bride wants some folk music played as a prelude. The crowd will mix people of central Ontario and Quebec city. She thought that would help people relax about the language difference and set a more casual atmosphere. Sometimes I've played where the bride wants classical music to set an elegant mood. Other times, I get a list of favorite songs, sometimes popular songs, sometimes spiritual songs that creates a more sentimental atmosphere.

There are never two weddings the same even if the same music is chosen. The effects of the music always has a context dependent on a number of variables. The music itself may be played on different instruments - take Purcell's Trumpet in D+ a favorite bridal processional. The effects of each of these instrumentations will be different: organ and trumpet, organ only, piano and trumpet, piano only, playing a recording, playing on a digital piano . The effects of the music will also be different depending on the choreography of the bridal party: middle aisle presentation, side aisle presentation, single file presentation, couple presentation. Other variables that determine musical effects are size of bridal party, style of dress, speed of music, pacing of music.

Who selects the music? For the most part, it is the bride who engages me and talks details. Sometimes the groom "leaves it to her" to make all the decisions. Sometimes the couple has chosen the musical selections together. Often, a bride comes not having any idea about what she/they want and are looking for advice. On several occasions, I have had brides who are really clear about what they want and why. I think it's important to take the time to uniquely select music for each wedding as music can accomodate preferences and/or cultural differences and has the ability to set the mood.
I get to be a part of two families' celebration. For the most part, weddings are happy occasions and a celebration of two families. I enjoy going to the rehearsal and meeting the "players" and being inside their world for a while.

Inevitably, I learn new music. And perhaps this is one of the things I enjoy the most. For tomorrow's wedding, the bride has requested to walk into the theme song from Tuck Everlasting. The music is not available in print form, so I've lifted it from You Tube and arranged it for piano and oboe. Now that beautiful tune is in my repertoire.

All the best Emma and Phil - enjoy your day!

Bev

the prismic power of music

2009-09-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Although I'm not a die hard Bono fan, many of my friends are. A bunch of them were among the 120,000 U2 pilgrims who journeyed to the Rogers Center mecca in Toronto this week to hear them live. From all I've heard on media and from personal accounts, the concert was fabulous. One thing that I respect about Bono is the way he uses music around social justice issues to bring awareness, protest and challenge governments, offer opportunities for solutions and live aid and generally mobilize millions of people to action.

Music has that kind of prismic power in our lives. It can impact us profoundly and reach into our intellect, make our bodies move, connect us through shared events, feelings, ideas, alter our moods and touch us in the deepest places of our soul.

For me as a musician, I know that music and care are intertwined. And so did the great cellist, Pablo Cassals. He said, "the capacity to care is the thing that gives life its deepest meaning and significance." This is the philosophy behind the Room 217 Foundation: caring for the whole person with music. Music as a simple gesture of care or a means of therapeutic intervention is cost effective and can be done by professional, family and volunteer caregivers. It sounds simple enough and even obvious. But how do you introduce music into a care situation?

The starting place of using music in care is openness and compassion. But there are other practical considerations:

1. Be prepared

how will the music be delivered, live or recorded?
if recorded, is there a player in the room?
if there is hearing loss, is there an amplification device available?

2. Assess who and what is in the room

who are the people in the room and how are they related to one another?
are there life events of the care receiver that may determine the kind of music used?
are there favorite stories or movies that music could support?

3. Consider musical choices

what is the desired effect?
what is the person's preference?
are there perceptual issues?
is there previous musical exposure?
does person have a particular religious background?
what is age of the person?

4. Offer the music

use questions like "Do you feel like some music today?" or "Here is some music that might help you relax or sleep"
you may want to engage the person in response like humming or singing along
you may want to gently stroke, massage or hold a person's hand while listening

5. Measure the response

has the music made a change in the person?
has the person's condition improved?

Room 217 Foundation link