This book has been written for the musicians who wish to learn how they may work with physicians for patients. Technical terminology has been reduced to simple terms wherever possible for a better understanding, but co-operation can be secured only if the musician is willing to forget his preconceived ideas and abide by the decisions of the physician, who may not be too familiar with music but is familiar with hospitals and patients.
The unemotional approach to this subject is of recent origin. Little has been written in that vein, and this book will lay no claim to originality or perfection. It is hoped that it will act as a guide to further study and an aid to those who wish to engage in this as yet uncharted venture.
Realizing that few sources of information are available in this field to musicians, and that some musicians may one day feel the urge or experience the need to participate in such work, the New England Conservatory of Music invited the author to give a series of lectures to its students on this subject. At the conclusion of the course they decided to offer this outline to those who might later wish to refer to its contents.
In preparing this work the author had the good fortune of personal interviews with some of the leading musicians, musicologists and musical psychologists in the country. Although no statements which appear in this volume are to be construed as the opinions of any of them, an expression of thanks is offered to the following for their willingness to exchange ideas with the author: Dr. Serge Koussevitsky, Mr. Igor Stravinsky, Dr. Harold Spivacke, Dr. James Mursell, and Dr. Carroll Pratt.
The author wishes to express his thanks to Mrs. Margaret E. Gurney and Miss Ida Evans for their assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.
The author wishes to express his deep gratitude to Mr. Clifton Joseph Furness, Director of Academic Subjects at the New England Conservatory of Music for his supervision in the editing of this book.
S. L.
FOOTNOTES:
[I.] Pythagoras passed a black-smith shop one day and was struck with the beauty of the two sounds he heard coming from it. He entered the shop, studied the sounds closely and found that the two notes were an octave apart. This observation stimulated him to a detailed study of music which led to his musical philosophy. He believed that all nature and knowledge were contained in harmonic numbers, and that the world had been made in a musical harmonic accord. He invented a sacred quartenary of harmonic numbers to explain the phenomena of life. But Roussier believed that Pythagoras adapted his system from the Chinese.[70]