Interpretation in Music Therapy: Music and the Movement of Life

This theoretical article explores philosophical roots of the interpretive task in music therapy. Drawing from creativity practices and interpretation traditions such as philosophical hermeneutics, the author focuses on Gadamer’s concept of dialogue in the understanding of art. Distancing itself from the objective-subjective dichotomy of the scientific model, the truth of the artwork is viewed as participative, as it always requires an encounter, a form of presence. As clinicians, it encourages us to recognize and make the most of our own sensible response to music. Art therapist Shaun McNiff advocates for a temporary suspension of clinical meaning in order to expand the interpretive possibilities in creative art therapies. The patient’s creation is viewed as an Other, complex and mysterious, which whom we are invited to relate. Through a clinical example, this paper examines how we understand and respond to our client’s music. The notions of “intuition in the act” (Kimura) and “being played” (Gadamer) show that along with our conscious decisions and interventions, we also follow the movement of music itself. Therefore, its meaning tends to transcend the materiality and the personality and connects us to our human condition. It is an invitation to open our hearts, listen deeply and respond creatively to the music played in therapy.