Tanmoy Deb

Music
John Denver once said, “Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter the language we speak, what colour we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves we are the same.” So, music is a crucial element of our everyday life and plays a pivotal role in all cultures, races and ethnic groups. Music is not simply for entertainment but can influence physical and mental well-being. We have all seen that a mother’s lullaby puts a restless infant to sound sleep. This is a classic case of music therapy. The use of music therapy for healing dates back to ancient Greece. The earliest reference to music therapy appeared in 1789 in an article titled Music Physically Considered, published in a Columbian magazine. Edwin Atlee (1804) and Samuel Mathews (1806) wrote on the therapeutic values of music in two independent medical dissertations. By the mid-1940s, music therapy curricula were established at Michigan State College in 1944, the University of Kansas in 1964, the College of Pacific in 1947, and the Chicago Musical College & Alvares College in 1948. Currently, music therapy is used in more than 40 countries around the world. According to the American Music Therapy Association, “Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individual goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy programme.” …read more on NOPR