by
SIDNEY LICHT, M.D.
Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine
NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Copyright, 1946, By
SIDNEY LICHT, M.D.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
First Edition
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
In presenting a musician’s point of view on so specific a subject as“Music in Medicine”, it seems to me necessary at the outset to clarifythe status of music as an independent aesthetic art, and its practicaladaptation for definite utilitarian purposes. We must clearly separatethe active individual process of artistic creation from the elementsof passive perception and from effects such perception may have whenapplied for different realistic reasons.
Taken aesthetically, as an art, music is a social “superstructure”,which, as far as the individual creative act is concerned, remainsan abstract manifestation of the human mind and imagination.Its existence as a creative art is possible only as long as thepractical “possibilities” and potentialities of its effects in thephase of passive perception, do not intrude into and interferewith its character as an absolute non-utilitarian phenomenon inthe processes of the creative art. Art, by its very nature is aproduct of individuality. As opposed to the anonymous craft, themain requirement of an aesthetically artistic product assuming thepresence of professional skill and knowledge is that it be the workof a human organism, which possesses acceptable qualifications ofvocation and expression. To this attribute we have given such namesas talent, genius, imagination, and many others. This phenomenon ofspecific predestination must also be accompanied by a characteristicproperty which has received such names as personality, individuality ororiginality. It is obvious that these fundamentals of artistic creationprevent any general or universal approach to the creative processeswhich, with the exception of purely technical[Pg ii] and formal elements ofcraftsmanship and common expression of specific style, exclude thepattern and definite utilitarian aims. All these factors are obviouslyconcerned only with the living moment of the musical art in the essenceand genesis of the individual creation.
Although music as a creative manifestation of the human mind does notaim at social or utilitarian function, its materialized results may yetfind wide application in the manifold use of this aspect of passiveperception. This passive perception stimulates an active participationby the listener in whom it may provoke definite emotional reactionsand mental modulations. If we think of music as the completed creationof one mind, we can understand how its perception may have a genuineinfluence on the listener’s mood and that it may be channeled intodesired directions which takes the forms of adaptation and adjustment.This, in spite of the variety of tastes and reactions, can certainly begeneralized within limits by scientific methods.
Although I do not believe that music should be written for purelyutilitarian reasons (and I am speaking not of the material advantagesit may bring the artist, but of the aesthetics of creative art) I seeno reason for not using any composition to such practical advantage