Betty Starobinsky

The book Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks was a great
read the describes the magic of music and the human mind. While there are many
interesting stories that the author shares with us regarding musical phenomenons, one
thing is clear the impact of music.

Many of the people described in the chapters had no interest in music of very
little exposure to music as a child. Whether they were part of a traumatic accident or
undergoing a surgery, music seemed to have a great impact on their lives. Some were
haunting experiences, while others were practically miracles. Even after the publication
of his book, Olive Sacks received a number of letters from people who were in their 40s,
50s and 80s, who have found themselves with sudden or unexpected creative gifts or
passions (either musical or artistic).

I think the most influential section of the book was Speech and Song: Aphasia
and Music Therapy. After his stroke, Samuel developed severe expressive aphasia in
his late sixties. Despite his two years of speech therapy, he was unable to speak a word.
One day, the music therapist heard him trying to sing Ol Man River, but only two or
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three words were able to escape his mouth. The therapist, Connie Tomaino thought that
music therapy would deb a great opportunity for Samuel and began meeting with him in
half hour increments three times a week. They would sing together, or she would
accompany him on the accordion, and soon enough he was able towing the entire song,
as well as other songs from his adolescent years. As he was able to accomplish these
feats, he started to show the beginnings of speech. Within two months, he was able to
respond to questions, with short but appropriate responses (Sacks, 232.)

The inability to communicate verbally must be very frustrating, especially to those

suffering from aphasia. Much of this can change after the discovery that such patients
can sing. It becomes as if the patient can now conquer their disability, and communicate
with others. Speech has inflections, intonations, tempo, rhythm and melody. Even with
these overlaps, there are some differences in the representation of speech and song in
the brain.

The book references a music therapy called melodic intonation therapy. This
form of therapy is a question and answer song. The musical elements, such as the
melody is slowly removed from the answer, until the person is able to produce words.
For example, the sixty year old patient who was suffering aphasia for eighteen months,
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who could only produce grunts, was able to produce words two days after melodic
intonation therapy. By two weeks, he had a vocabulary of a hundred words, and at six
weeks he could carry out short, meaningful conversations (Sacks, 239).

How is this relevant to our everyday teaching and what impact will this book have
for music education? Teaching for the Department of Education, there are many types of
students that we will encounter with many known and unknown disabilities. Some of
them include students with speech disabilities. Knowing that music can almost serve as
a cure to those with aphasia gives hope to students with speech disabilities, selective
mutism, stuttering, and other speech disorders.

Sacks deeply warm and sympathetic study is about pathologies of musical

response and what they might teach us about music. It helps us to learn more about the
anatomy of the brain. Sacks tells some very moving stories about those with terrifyingly
profound amnesia, or Alzheimers disease, for whom music can restore them to
themselves (Sacks, 132)

Although I am not a licensed music therapist, I do service some of the students

with these disabilities. For example, in my case study of Daniel, I am planning to meet
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with the speech therapist in order to discuss what can be done to help him use different
types of voices. I dont expect the speech therapist to have a lot of ideas, because
technically it is outside of her field. However, I think being more knowledgable about
these disabilities, the impact of music and music therapy would be beneficial for music
educators to know. After all, how many music therapists do you know who are employed
by the Department of Education? That means that unless a parent or doctor feels that it
is medically necessary to meet with a music therapist, that perhaps this child will never
get a treatment that might work. We take one so many roles as educators, that it almost
seems silly to not do the research and try and make a difference. After all, that is why
we are here to make a difference in the lives of our students.

Another important part of music is the emotion that can be evoked. The author
brings up, Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant. He barely spoke and showed very
little emotion, however was able to produce extraordinary artwork. His personality easily
transformed when it came to listening to music. The author recalls a time that music was
played and Stephen has an incredible reaction to it. Even though he normally show very
little emotion, he showed great enthusiasm, while singing and dancing and almost
instantaneously as the song ended, he returned to his normal self. The author
mentioned that it was like the music took over his body (Sacks, 337-338)
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Another familiar story dealing with an ultraconservative police offer who suffers a
debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing
lessons comes to my mind while researching music and the brain. The movie is titled
Flawless and the chief actors involved are Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour
Hoffman. The reluctant police officer who was not inclined to singing was not motivated
at all to be helped to overcome his stroke and his inability to speak well. He was
fortunate to have a man next door who was a singer and was wiling to assist Robert De
Niro in singing lessons to help his brain to recover and assist his speech. Throughout
the movie, I watched how the music reached De Niros brain, gave him a boost and
helped his speech tremendously. This is an excellent recap to some of the
phenomenons in Musicophilia.

The final story that I will share with you was about children in a blind school who
showed exceptional musical abilities, without any formal teaching. The absence of their
sight and not having a visual world played a large role in stimulating their musical
abilities. With these students,it was common that they were able to have absolute pitch,
even when musical training is started late. Through the reorganization in the cerebral

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cortex, other inputs, especially hearing and touch became specialized and helped
processing (Sacks, 174).

There are incredible stories of music and the impact it can have on its patients.
all the students in our school system need our help. Not only can music help the
students who are depressed or emotionally disturbed, but also those with disabilities.
Music can impact he students with visual impairments and speech disorders. All of this
research is vital to know. If we as educators are having trouble reaching our audience, it
is not because a child is unreachable. It is because of lack of effort. It is from lack of
research. It is an educator not reaching their full potential and doing everything in their
power to reach their students.

References:
Sacks, O. (2008). Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain (Rev. and expanded, 1st
Vintage Books ed.). New York: Vintage Books.

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