A The Paradigm: lime as a Multilevel Phenomenon in Music Therapy

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1 Music Therapy 1991, Vol. 10, No. 1, A The Paradigm: lime as a Multilevel Phenomenon in Music Therapy CLIVE ROBBINS, CO-DIRECTOR, NORDOFF-ROBBINS MUSIC THERAPY CLINIC, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MICHELE FORINASH, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, NORDOFF-ROBBINS MUSIC THERAPY CLINIC, NEW YORKUNIVERSITY Through the collaboration of Dr. Clive Robbins and the late Drs. Paul Nordoff and Herbert Geuter, a concept of time as a multilevel experience in the therapeutic context has been developed. Four levels of time experience are differentiated and discussed in this article, and the effects of these various levels are illustrated (a) in general human experience, (b) for the child in music therapy, and (c) in musical experience and performance. The interaction and interrelationship of these levels isdiscussed and the impact of the time concepts on clinical issues is addressed. The concept of time experiences in the therapeutic context is an intriguing and stimulating subject, though it has been addressed by few music therapy clinicians (Sears, 1968;Nordoff & Robbins, 1971a;Kenny, 1985; Eagle &Harsh, 1988). As clinicians, we have all known endless sessions with a client in which nothing was happening, sometimes to the point that we have wondered why we continue to see this particular client. Then unexpectedly, a change, a breakthrough, growth. Those apparent endless therapy hours where nothingwas happening now have meaning. Something was happening, but perhaps at a pace, or on a level of process of which we were unaware. Conversely, there are experiences in clinical work when therapist and client are engaged in a musical and emotional sharing in which time seems suspended. We become so involved in our music-making, so present in the moment of our emotional expression, that we lose track of time. We look at the clock and realize an hour has passed in what was felt to be only a few moments. 46

2 Time asa Multilevel Phenomenonin Music Therapy 47 There is also the very powerful clinical experience of the sudden awareness, sudden insight that occurs in an instant. It is a moment of intuition and understanding-a flood of knowing packed into a few seconds. Our experiences of time in the clinical situation are this variable. The concept of time as a multilevel experience in music therapy was first explored in 1962by Dr. Herbert Geuter, Dr. Paul Nordoff, and Dr. Clive Robbins. Dr. Geuter was the Director of Research at Sunfield Children s Homes, England, where Drs. Nordoff and Robbins had begun the development of their improvisational approach to music therapy in 1959 and1960(nordoff & Robbins, 1965).Dr. Geuter had been closely involved in the early development of this work and had provided many theoretical constructs that had served to foster creativity in the therapists and provide interpretive insights into the therapeutic processes of individualized musical engagement. In 1962, when Nordoff and Robbins were at the University of Pennsylvania setting up a project sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) entitled Music Therapy Project for Psychotic Children under 7, Dr. Geuter was engaged as a consultant and met on several occasions with Drs. Nordoff and Robbins. The discussions that took place at these meetings were audio-taped, transcribed, and filed as part of the report to the NIMH and the University of Pennsylvania. The dialogue below has been excerpted from one of these discussions in which Dr. Geuter first propounded the seminal concept of different levels of time experience in music therapy. Dr. G: We ve got to have a different concept of time. The time concept we have at the moment, which is tied to our watches, is a purely physical time. It is only that. It is related to solid bodies which are revolving around the sun. All forms of experience have a physical time factor. However, this physical time may not be the most significant level of our experience of time. Physical time is different from what we call growth time in therapy. The growth time of any human organism is unique. It is the process of the self assimilating intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects of the personality. Not previously published. Acknowledgmentsto National Institute of Mental Health applied researchgrant MHPG 982and the project schief Investigator, Bertram A. Ruttenberg.M.D.

3 48 Robbins& Forinash Dr. N: Dr. G: Dr. R: Dr. G: I am fascinated by this concept of time because it is immediately clear that in clinical work the growth process-for example, Anna s increasing awareness, cooperation, responsiveness-was quite outside of the fact that the sessions were held every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00to 10:30a.m. There is also the relationship of music itself to these concepts of time, because in music you have to exist in both physical time as well as on other levels. Yes, music exists in physical time, otherwise you couldn t live in it. That is the wonderful thing about music in therapy. It is so highly therapeutic because it differentiates several time-rates, and you can work with each one. Yet you also have a time which is physical and therefore accurate. I have noticed in your playing, Paul, that when you particularly want to bring out or emphasize the life that is in a melody or a harmonic sequence, you will deliberately lift the music out of physical time so that the expressive content lives. [Applauding] That s right! That s it! I was just thinking the other day of a man I know who is a Professor of Music. He is a teacher who s gone right up the scale of professional success. He fancies himself as a Beethoven expert because there is a lot of solid stuff that he can hammer out on the keyboard, and consequently he can make a lot of noise. His technical ability is excellent. I don t think he ever misses a note in any fast passage; his timing is almost perfect-his physical time process is crisp and accurate, and it s all there. Yet something is missing-there is no rubato! He has no rubato, so asa listener you are bored stiff. It is just like hearing a clock ticking. The moment you have rubato, you put life into this structure. Every performer has his own rubato. Idefy you to standardize anyone s rubato because it comes straight out of the music, out of the melody, the sequence, the progression which is being played. You can tellstraightaway the manufactured rubato, which is a matter of fashion, from the genuine thing. For a discussionof Anna, seenordoff, P.,& Robbins,C. (1977).Creative Music Therapy,pp

4 Time asa Multilevel Phenomenonin Music Therapy 49 Dr. N: Dr. R: Dr. G: Dr. N: Dr. G: What you hear in a great musician like Casals, for instance, is that he has mastery over the physical time. It is at his will, and he can do with it as he pleases. And that is what was so wonderful about Faith3 in her sixteenth session. When you played her song after she had improvised I cleep, I I sleep ] you made a ritard at the end of that song. This wasn t predictable or foreseeable, itwas just the right ritard-or more than that, it was the ritard that you would make. But she made her own ritard, which was more drawn out than yours, out of her own will, not imitating yours. This was Faith s emotional time. Exactly! I am glad you have that concept. The moment you have rubato in your music, it begins to speak. Yes, and there are also occasions when I will repeat a harmonic sequence many, many times in therapy, not necessarily in a rhythmic pattern, though it usually takes one. In this repetition-let s say of twenty or thirty times of two chords-i am taking the music out of physical time without using rubato. I am providing a sense of duration to this musical experience which is communicated to the child who is moved or stirred by this particular sequence of consonance or dissonance. This can only take on a durational aspect through repetition. It becomes a kind of musical substance for the child. Whatever you do in musical improvisation is tied to physical time, but repetition can release it from physical time. You release it into a creative time, which is one of building and development. But if you repeat for repetition s sake without that creative intent, you induce boredom. Based on continued clinical work, teaching, and research between 1962 and 1981, Drs. Geuter, Nordoff, and Robbins further developed these initial concepts. In this subsequent development, four levels of time process came to be recognized: Physical Time, Growth Time, Emo 3 For a discussion of Faith, seenordoff, P.,& Robbins,C. (1971b).Therapyin Music forhandicappedchildren,pp ;81-86.

5 50 Robbins& Forinash tional Time, and Creative Time. These four levels are explored in the following discussion, with consideration of how they bear upon (a) general human experience, (b) the child in music therapy, and (c) musical experience and performance. It willbecome evident from this discussion that fostering a child s response to include active participation on all four levels--as individually appropriate and to the extent possiblecame to be recognized as a general and universal clinical goal. Observable therapeutic effects followed growth from level to level (and it should be noted that this growth was often not a simple step-by-step progression upward from Physical Time). Participation in creative clinical work tended of itself to stimulate a balanced participation on all levels. Although these ideas were conceived in specific reference to clinical work in music therapy with children, wider application of the concepts is evident. The reader is asked to envision the relationship of these concepts to other populations of music therapy clients and with the multiplicity of musical styles that are currently utilized in music therapy. In Human Experience Time Level 1: Physical Time In our lives, Physical Time is schedule time. This level of time originates in the physical world, in the rotation of the earth in its orbit around the sun. Our calendar, and the division of the day into hours, minutes, seconds, derives from this level of time. It is measurable, predictable, objective, dependable, and completely regular. It is in Physical Time that music therapy sessions are scheduled. For The Child in Therapy For a child, the predictability of therapy sessions in Physical Time is important. A child s sessions should occur regularly and dependablywith asfew deviations aspossible. This provides a secure framework for our work and the child s experiences-and for developments that will occur on other time levels. In Music For the musician, Physical Time is metronomic time. It is heard in the absolutely undeviating occurrence of the beat in regular time. In the extreme instance, it appears in the drum machine. The metrical organization of musical structure takes place in Physical Time. This is also the time in which the frequencies of pitch are determined, that is, A = 440

6 Time as a Multilevel Phenomenon in Music Therapy 51 cycles per second. The second is a fixed temporal standard. Therefore, the pitches of tones are standardized on the basis of Physical Time. The rhythmic element of music in this time is totally predictable and inflexible. It can tend toward being mechanical and repetitive, yet it offers stability and dependability. Physical Time provides a foundation for rhythmic structure and for all the activities and experiences rhythmic structure supports. In Human Experience Time Level 2: Growth Time Growth Time is perceived in the process of growth or development of any living organism as it occurs over a period of time. Given constant conditionssuch as temperature and moisture, nature of the soilplants will mature fairly predictably; but with variable conditions, the Growth Time will vary and not be as predictable. The more highly complex an organism, the more subject it is to the influence of a greater range of conditions, hence the greater the variations in Growth Time. The personality growth of the human being is the most individualized and variable. During Growth Time, personal ideas develop, reconciliation is effected, understanding is gained, and maturation is attained. For TheChild in Therapy Growth Time in an active music therapy relationship is the time a child needs to assimilate and stabilize new developments or changes. It is the time a child (and/or therapist) might need in order to adjust to new challenges or to work through conflictual problems. It is in Growth Time that skills (perceptual and expressive) are built on skills, awareness grows out of awareness, and sensitivity sharpens to perception and recognition. In Growth Time the content of memory becomes enriched and supports the development of understanding, ability, and confidence. Growth Time in music is the time flow in which musical ideas (or themes) appear, repeat, develop. It is the time in which the content of a piece of music takes its form; in which ideas become extended, elaborated, juxtaposed, more richly orchestrated; in which the fullness of a musical experience is achieved. In the classical repertoire, consider the difference in Growth Time between a Chopin prelude and Wag-

7 52 Robbins & Forinash nerian opera; how differently paced are the elaborations of rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, and formal elements. The same kind of comparison holds true in the contemporary field between a popular single and a dramatically developed Broadway musical. Each piece of music can be recognized to possessits own Growth Time. One can also be aware of the Growth Time in the evolution of a body of shared musical experience through a succession of music therapy sessions. Growth Time further manifests in the development of idiomatic or thematic material from session to session, Time Level 3: Emotional Time Emotional Time is a fluctuating time; it is impulsive and variable, highly subjective, and often unstable. It is the personal time of feeling: the quickness of time in excitement, intense interest, ardent pleasure, enraptured absorption; the slowness of time in boredom, displeasure, suffering, waiting. It is operative in the speed of our movements as we express our emotional state. It also appears in the timing and expressive formation of our speech as we communicate our ideas, feelings, agreement, disagreement, and hopes. Emotional Time is immediately related to intensity in our feeling life. For The Child in Therapy For children in therapy it can be very important to live meaningfully-and purposefully-in Emotional Time in music. The stimulation and pleasure of being actively involved in Emotional Time experiences in music heightens perception and concentration, expands feeling awareness, and lessens fixity of emotional tendencies. It brings to the child-therapist relationship a potential--or actual--closeness or mutuality. It is equally important that the therapist ascertain a child s needs with regard to Emotional Time, such as a personal need for a clinically effective handling of Emotional Time as he or she achieves expression of feelings; or another child s need to lessen excessive variability in response and so bring stability and control into his or her disordered Emotional Time. The engaging statement of musical ideas or the musical expression of feeling states lives primarily in Emotional Time. Emotional Time frees

8 Time asa Multilevel Phenomenonin Music Therapy 53 music from metronomic necessity. The playing or singing of any sensitive artist has Emotional Time. A particular note or phrase is not played or sung in the moment specified by metronomic time, but occurs in the time required by the inherent nature of the music as it comes to expression. The fermata, rubato, ritardando, and accelerando are agents of Emotional Time. Time Level 4: Creative Time Creative Time-or Now Time-is the moment of intuition, of perception, of sudden insight or understanding. It takes place in the creative instant. It is felt in the moment of recognition, of knowing with certainty how to proceed with what we are doing, saying, or thinking. A realization happens in Now Time-which is different in essence from other levels of time process, yet such a realization is a response to what is in process on other levels of time and takes effect in them. BecauseCreative Time, or Now Time, occurs in a state of action, it becomes instantly expressed in that action. It is in being active in Now Time that we feel most alive and personally "whole." This fourth level of time process both balances and fulfills the multitime nature of human experience. For The Child in Therapy A handicapped child stimulated to the level of Now Time can come to unique and vital experiences of selfhood, of personal identity. Therapists know from experience how very natural it is for children to live in the immediacy of the moment; and how, out of this interactive involvement in the immediate-in the nowness of the happeningcome the creative discoveries, the self-expressions, together with the individual contents and forms these self-expressions realize. As children thus live actively in the multitime nature of music in their therapy sessions, they find in the animating and ordering of the multitime aspects of their personalities, new meanings to life, new capabilities, and new experiences of creative human contact. Individually, they feel the joy and sense of self-certainty that is generated as-in Now Time-each lives dynamically in his or her own self-actualizing process. In Music Now Time in music is experienced in the moment of inspiration-in the immediacy of musical perception through which a musical idea from

9 54 Robbins& Forinash no time enters the multitime world of creative music-making. Whether improvising or interpreting a composed piece, performers living consciously in music as it is produced become simultaneously active on all four levels of time, and in performance the interrelationship between the four levels becomes dynamic. Physical Time is the temporal basis in which the music happens; musicians live in the Growth Time of the music as its form is realized; and in giving expression to the music s emotional content, they live in Emotional Time. In Now Time the performers creative intelligence is operative, integrating the different time levels. From moment to moment, as the music is realized, each musician lives in Now Time-as both executant and channel-artistically overseeing the shape of the multitime body of the music as it is played. The particular balance of time elements the musician creates will be determined by how he or she perceives the music, and so will be an authentic expression of musical individuality. Discussion There is a fundamental polarity inherent in this multilevel concept of time that encompasses the diversity and complexity of the phenomena of any creative approach to music therapy. This polarity is clearly evident in the contrast between the outer components of Physical Time and Now Time (Creative Time). The character of Physical Time is that of fixity, sameness, repetitiveness, measurability, and predictability, whereas spontaneity, creativity, uniqueness, originality, and newness originate in Now Time. Between Physical Time and Now Time, the two inner components of Growth Time and Emotional Time mediate. They do so in a relationship that is in itself both convergent and divergent. The character of Growth Time embodies stability, dependability, orderliness, balance, and progressive development, while the character of Emotional Time is of impulsiveness, mobility, variability, and changeability. It is significant that through differentiating and categorizing distinct aspects of human temporal experience, a paradigm is produced that is intimately connected to the nature of music as WCexperience it, while it interrelates many of the contradictions and contrasts that make up the richness of everyday life. This, in itself, suggests that in the study of time experiences are to be found more of the correspondences that enrich our understanding of the relationship between the human being and music-and which may yield clearer insight into the deeper processes of music therapy.

10 Time asamultilevel Phenomenon in Music Therapy 55 The clinical dynamics of the paradigm become evident in considering how the characteristics of the time levels interact and influence each other. Spontaneity, NOW TIME Creativity, Newness EMOTIONALTIME Impulsiveness, Mobility, Variability GROWTH TIME Stability, Dependability, Progressive Development PHYSICAL TIME Sameness, Fixity, Predictability Take, for example, Growth Time and Emotional Time: Forms that build up in Growth Time are enlivened by Emotional Time, yet an emotionally expressive impulse requires the musical structures generated in Growth Time on which to act if its action is to take on some permanence and coherence. Furthermore, an emotionally expressive act will of itself-especially when it creatively induces Now Timegenerate new forms, which then become directly embodied in Growth Time. Conversely, an overactive hyper-emotional expression, left to itself, can result in instability and fragmentation, and so can need the stabilizing order of Growth Time experience; this is true of the initial responses of many hyperactive or emotionally disturbed children. It is typical of music played mostly in Growth Time that it is securely predictable. But to the extent that this Growth Time experience is overdominated by the character of its neighboring Physical Time, the music tends to become repetitive to the point of becoming perseverative and expressively empty. Bringing in the influence of Emotional Time injects expressive consciousness into Growth Time experience-in effect, Emotional Time lifts music in Growth Time out of a too-dominant connection to Physical Time.

11 56 Robbins& Forinash Conclusion Experience demonstrates that for clinicians practicing an approach to music therapy that is livingly interactive and intercommunicative, it is vitally important to develop concepts that pertain accurately and comprehensively to the dynamics of creativity and its therapeutic effects. A clinician can gain security from asupportive conceptual perspective, one that provides a realistic framework for the artistic processes with which he or she ispersonally familiar through practical musicianship-and one that can differentiate and elucidate the ongoing phenomena of creative music therapy. With such understandings, a therapist gains a deeperand inspiring-perception of his or her place and role in an evolving clinical process. Much as someone engaged in an outwardly active artistic activity, such as a dancer, gains a spatial orientation directly through visual perception, a therapist engaged in processes that are not visible must gain an equivalent temporal orientation to the field in which he or she is actively involved. The multilevel concept of time is of direct value both in understanding different modes of time-process in therapy and in knowing practically when one is moving with a child from one level of time experience to another. It is a valuable component in articulating clinical events and in the construction of a practical philosophy of creative music therapy. The authors goal in writing this article is to present theoretical ideas and concepts about the phenomenon of time in the experience of music therapy. These concepts are complex and at times enigmatic; consequently, this exploration is only a first step. It is hoped that readers will participate in the application of these ideas by utilizing them in both in clinical practice and research. REFERENCES Eagle, CT., & Harsh, J.M. (1988).Elements of pain and music: The aio connection. Music Therapy, 7(1), Kenny, C.B. (1985).Music: A whale systems approach. Music Therapy,5(l), Nordoff, P., & Robbins, C. (1965). Music therapy for handicapped childrenblauvelt, NY: Rudolf Steiner Publications. Nordoff. P. & Robbins. C. (1971.a).Music therapy in special education. St. Louis. MO: MagnaMusic-Baton: Nordoff, P.,& Robbins, C. (1971b).Therapyin music for handicapped childrenlondon: Victor Golancz, Ltd. Nordoff, P., & Robbins, C. (1977). Creative musictherapy. New York John Day Company. Sears,W.W. (1968).Princessesin music therapy. In E.T. Gaston (Ed ), Music in Therapy(pp ) New York: MacMillian.

12 Time as a Multilevel Phenomenon in Music Therapy 57 Clive Robbins, DMM, DHL, CMT/RMT-BC, is Co-Director of the Nordoff- Robbins Music Therapy Clinic at New York University, where he holds the position of ResearchScientist. He began his work in music therapy with variously disabled children, in teamwork with the late Dr. Paul Nordoff, in Through his clinical work, writings, and teaching with Paul Nordoff, and since 1975,with his wife, Carol, he has become internationally known for his commitment to higher standards of creativity and musicianship in music therapy. With Paul Nordoff, he authored: Music Therapy forhandicappedchildren;therapyin Music forhandicapped Children; Music Therapyin SpecialEducation;Creative Music Therapy:and many books of musical activities for children. With Carol Robbins, he has co-authored Musicfor thehearingimpaired--andotherspecialgroups. Michele Forinash, DA, CMT, served as ResearchDirector of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic, New York University, during the writing of this article. She has since moved to Boston, where she has assumed the position of music therapist for the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged. She also maintains a supervision practice.