Soothing the Savage Beast: Information sources on Music Therapy to Improve the Environment

Music may be able to soothe the savage beast but can it direct the human will to improve the environment? Individually? Collectively? If so, how? The purpose of this discussion is to establish a framework whereby these questions may be explored. Following a brief discussion of music's impact upon our bodies, minds, and spirits, I will present a list of songs touching upon some aspect of the environment. A number of books have also been identified as resources for further study and contemplation. Some questions to consider include: Which genre of music is most effective in its positive environmental impact? and Is the music of any particular culture more influential in healing environmental problems? Specifically, it may be more appropriate to ask whether the music of one religion or another may be more effective in fostering environmental concern. Lynn White has suggested that the solution for the environmental crisis rests upon the shoulders of religion since that's where the blame for the crisis also rested and science has (as of the date of his article) been unable to cure the world's environmental ills (White 1967). Sound (music) makes a difference: physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. One physical impact, directly influencing the environment, involves music's powerful impact upon the growth of plants. These organisms grow toward some music as they grow toward light. Other music repels plants, even kills them. However, this does not suggest that music be played across the wilderness or in urban landscapes for the purpose of improving the environment. People shape the environment in significant ways; therefore, any improvement that the environment might enjoy through music will be brought about indirectly, as that music influences people. Environmentally friendly music may impact people physically as it motivates them to move in various ways. The mental and emotional impact of music works by educating its listeners. Finally, spiritual change takes place as music resonates with people, inspiring them to act. Motivate Music impacts physical states in plants, animals, and people. Some indigenous peoples around the globe also believe it affects the environment, such as through a rain dance. The impact of music upon a person's physical being is the easiest to document. However, any beneficial link between the health of an individual's body and the health of the environment is complex and a challenge to document. Music has been shown to make people speed up or slow down, but what social/environmental impact can be shown as a direct result of a person's physical response to music? Selected Resources Campbell, Don. (1992). Music and miracles. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. Cullum, Alcinda L. (1997). Effects of nature-based sounds on patient anxiety during the preoperative period. Unpublished thesis, Florida Atlantic University. Diallo, Yaya, & Mitchell Hall. (1989). The healing drum: African wisdom teachings. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books. Hall, Manly P. (1982). The therapeutic value of music including the philosophy of music. Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society Inc. Holloway, Ron. (1995). Music effects on the acquisition of a motor skill. Unpublished thesis, University of Oregon, Eugene. Lee, Mathew H. M. (Ed.). (1989). Rehabilitation, music, and human wellbeing. Saint Louis, MO: MMB Music Inc. Licht, Sidney Herman. (1946). Music in medicine. Boston: New England Conservatory of Music. Lingerman, Hal A. (1995). The healing energies of music. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House. Mazer, Susan, &d Dallas Smith. (1999). Sound choices: Using music to design the environments in which you live, work, and heal. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House. McClellan, Randall. (1991). The healing forces of music. Rockport, MA: Element Inc. Nordvall, Michael P. (1995). The influence of music on motor behavior and select physiological and psychological variables. …

. Therapeutic and industrial uses of music. New York: Columbia University Press. Van de Wall, Willem, & Clara Maria Liepmann. (1936). Music in institutions. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Weits, Amy A. (1999). The effects of preferred music listening and nature sounds on pain perception and affect in terminally ill cancer patients.
Unpublished thesis, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

Educate
Teaching young people about the importance of environmental care through song offers the most significant potential for improving the environment for the longest period of time. If parents, churches, schools (public, private, home), and museums used music to teach about the importance of the environment and our responsibility for its care, advertisers or others presenting a message of wasteful consumption or exploitation would find it much more difficult to reach this audience. Achieving environmental improvement through education in song should be more effective than using music's physical power over the body but less than its inspirational influence. However, the educational and inspirational impacts should work in concert.
Based upon Table 1 below, it is evident that environmentally friendly music is found in a wide variety of genres from diverse cultures and historical periods. What would the environment be like without the influence of these and many other songs? With its wide appeal, how can environmentally friendly music more effectively foster healthier environments on a global scale in the future? Successfully improving the condition of the global environment is not a simple matter of playing selected songs. Life is much more complex than that. For example, can learning about the plight of the rainforest through a song played in a temperate zone home, significantly improve that rainforest amid a number of competing interests?
In order for music to significantly improve the global environment, the popularity of this music would have to be high among the masses. The list of songs below suggests that most artists sing about many other topics and issues. Few popular artists sing primarily about the environment. Some of these songs may not become popular, hence influential, with a large audience since they attack people, make accusations, and use derogatory and insulting language. Additionally, these songs frequently focus on other social issues, such as economic injustice, making only minor mention of environmental factors. Carroll, Kathleen. (1990). Sing a song of science: Songs, raps, stories and images to teach science content.

Resonate
According to the ancients, the power of music was greater than that of political parties or military might. Could this power be directed toward improving the health of the environment? What sort of songs could stir a passion to preserve the land? What kind of tune would make people take seriously the need to clean up hazardous wastes or to conserve limited resources? Would each culture and language need to come up with its own original melodies or could the universal language of music convey a global message through only a handful of songs? Should this musical force be directed primarily at Western societies where the rate of consumption greatly exceeds known supplies, consequently degrading sensitive habitats worldwide?
The musical message of positive environmental change sounds like an orchestra tuning up when competing messages for economic welfare, social security, and personal convenience form one's dominant world-view. Living life out of tune with the environment suggests the need for change, perhaps radical change, especially for industrialized nations where people live life more removed from the land.
Music, which fosters an honest self-examination leading to a heightened consideration of the generations to come, may or may not be an effective tool to help the environment. Such a catalyst for change does not occur in a vacuum. Music leading to environmental improvement must be readily received by a large audience and function in concert with many other elements of life, within and across cultures.