Preti, Costanza; (2007) Music in hospitals: Defining an emerging activity. In: Schubert, Emery and Buckley, Kym and Eliott, Rosemary and Koboroff, Brooke and Chen, Johnson and Stevens, Catherine J and Western Sydney University and MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, (eds.) Proceedings of the Inaugural International Conference on Music Communication Science. (pp. pp. 79-82). Australia ARC Research Network in Human Communication Science (HCSNet): Sydney, Australia.

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Abstract

The paper focuses on the nature of ‘music in hospitals’ and its defining characteristics. The main source of evidence presented here is a study undertaken as part of a research on the dynamics of musical communication in a paediatric hospital setting, its emergent features and their relationships to each other. The study is a web-based search that was conducted in order to draw an initial map of the organizations involved in providing musical activities in hospitals. The main aims were to gather a general perspective on: (a) existing musical activities across selected hospitals; (b) the nature of a sample of associations involved in providing music in hospitals activities. Thirty-nine organizations were reviewed. Hospital programs were analysed according to: 1) Nature of the program; 2) Frequency of the musical intervention; 3) Kind of musicians employed; 4) Variety of music(s) and instruments employed in the programme; 5) Definition of the service as presented on the web page. Associations were analysed according to: 1) Their stated aims; 2) Activities offered; 3) Selection criteria to employ musicians; 4) Structure of their training. The study suggests that music in hospitals is a structured activity that is increasing in a number of hospitals across the US and Europe, shifting from a voluntary engagement by both charities and musicians to one that is more formalized. As an activity, it tends to comprise four sets of interventions: bedside music; regular concerts in common spaces; special musical events and artist-in-residence programs. The nature of the activity, as stated in the aims of charities and associations involved in the provision of music in hospitals, is described as therapeutic, educational and sometimes cultural.

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