The analysis of therapeutic improvisatory music with people living with the virus HIV and AIDS
This project is concerned with the musical and therapeutic processes involved in therapeutic improvisation.(1) Previous studies in music therapy have, in the main, focused their attention on avenues of outcome, attempting to validate through strict psychological designs and statistical data_ This thesis argues that the musical and therapeutic processes are integral yet independent aspects of the overall concept of therapeutic improvisation and the efficacy contained therein. In terms of valid enquiry it is proposed that the unity and division of both musical and therapeutic avenues will afford music therapists a greater clue to the understanding of the music therapy process itself. In terms of analytical and methodological framework, this project attempts to discover a formula for viewing the therapeutic improvisation at both macro and micro levels. Three clients, living with the virus HIV and AIDS were chosen and worked with collaboratively throughout the whole of the data collection_ The investigations were initiated through a four-stage analytical format ; from the complete therapeutic framework through to the indepth evaluations of two small sections of one complete improvisation. The four stages were subsequently evaluated in drawing possible connections between the macro and micro levels. Further to this data, the client and three outside validators added information with regard to the single improvisation, in validating the questions raised. The analysis and subsequent results highlight the merits and problems of such an analytical procedure. The conclusion and results of this thesis would seem to suggest that further process-orientated research in musictherapy needs to be undertaken to complement and contrast the issues of outcome research. 1. For the purposes of this project the term Therapeutic Improvisation has been chosen to identify the improvisational aspects of music therapy.
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