Healing Energies of Music

As another reviewer (Darren) noted, this book does have its biases. The author admits that he usually doesn't find popular music to be particularly healing or therapeutic. That's his experience, and it's OK as long as you're not expecting something different. Books about music therapy vary enormously in their approach. If you are looking into the therapeutic value of classical/new age music, this book gives the topic a unique treatment. There is somewhat of a guidebook format to the book (e.g. 'Music for Better Health and Well Being' and 'Music of Nature' are chapter titles). Within these are sections about music that is useful for, among other things, 'airing out anger' or for 'clear thinking'. Music is also listed according to the composers near the end of the book. His analysis of composers and their personalities is interesting. In some cases I had never considered how much personality gets communicated through music. I use this book more as a reference guide to classical and new age music than anything else. The only parts where the author began to lose me was where he discusses the composer's astrological birth signs. Other than that, the content is quite accessible.

THE HEALING ENERGIES OF MUSIC. By Hal A. Lingerman. 292 pp. Second Edition. Wheaton, Il.: Quest Books (The Theosophical Publishing House), 1995. ISBN 0-8356-0722-4 (pbk.)The title of this book might lead one to expect the sort of deep exploration plus practical treatment of music and sound that is found, for example, in the books of Jonathan Goldman, Don G. Campbell, and Katharin Le Mee. These are important books that bring us astounding knowledge about the nature of sound and the powerful and important effects it has on us, knowledge that will be complete news to most. The present book, in contrast, is rather superficial, and does not really tell us anything about sound and music that we don't already know. In fact, this book is little more than a catalogue, and one with a powerful Christian agenda. Each of its twelve chapters follows the same pattern - general (and occasionally gushing) comment followed by a discography. The twelve chapters are as follows : 1. Music and you - A Closer Relationship; 2. Music for Better Health and Well-Being; 3. Finding Your Music; 4. Music for Daily Life; 5. Music for Home and Family; 6. The Music of Nature; 7. Angelic Music; 8. Music and Global Spirituality; 9. Gallery of Great Composers : Composer Keynotes; 10. The Deeper Mysteries of Music; 11. Music for the Future; 12. Women Composers. The book is rounded out with three Appendices, and with a Bibliography in which I note the striking absence of Katharine Le Mee's extremely important book on Gregorian Chant.Although personally I haven't found the slightest use for this book at all, I can see how it might be of some value to people looking for advice about what to listen to. Its intended audience would seem to be the Christian who either has extremely deep pockets or access to an enormous library collection of recordings. My biggest problem with this book, however, is that it assumes a totally passive audience, an audience that simply wants to listen while waves of beautiful sound wash over them. Not that there's anything wrong with this as such, but nothing at all is said about our own power to create music by using the finest instrument that is available to anyone - her or his own God-given voice. Few of us have the ability to sing well. But all of us can learn how to tone, to produce single notes of amazing power and beauty. And I wonder whether the production of such a note, simple and modest as it may seem, may not be doing as much or more for us than a mere passive listening to even the most ravishing symphony or concerto.The modern world is filled to overflowing with experts, whose main effect seems to have been to convince everyone that everything is best left to them. This, however, may not be altogether true, and may have helped to destroy a great deal of individual initiative and creativity. We all have a voice and the innate power of producing marvelous sounds. If, after reading Lingerman and enjoying some of the very f