Rethinking ‘musical creativity’ and the notion of multiple creativities in music

This chapter highlights some patterns in the development of music therapy research mirroring some of the shifts in the social and cultural context. It explores how listening to different kinds of stimulating and relaxing music influenced changes in such areas as respiration, heart rate, electrical resistance of the skin and muscle tone contributed greatly to the early acceptance of music therapy, particularly in the United States. The chapter also explores the continuum of the private boundaried therapy space to more community-based and less boundaried contexts has implications for further dialogue and collaborative research with, among others, sociologists, musicologists, social psychologists and anthropologists. It charts some of the current range of music therapy practice. The chapter argues that there is a potential danger of the profession's isolation if music therapy continues to concentrate on medical, biological and psychological models of care and practice without addressing the wider social, political, organizational, musical and cultural processes within which the work is embedded.