Proceedings, Oxford, UK (2002) - World Federation of Music Therapy

on someone, and then they talk through this medium to the living, and
they give them guidance..daily guidance.’
Chartwell continued to explain how this guidance might be to do with
matters of nature, health, relationships or business matters.
Hoping to make some connections with non-spiritual conceptions of
music and music therapy, I then asked him if he was able to separate the
spiritual elements of his work in explaining the social and therapeutic
function of music, as illustrated in participation and performance of
mbira music. He replied:
‘I cant, and I tell you why..I’m like a messenger. Even now in my house
before I go out and perform, I have to kneel down in my little shrine and
ask the ancestors..I say to them “may you loosen my fingers, so that I
play the instrument properly”, and if I don’t do that it won’t be a good gig
in so many ways..but if I do that it’s like magic, some of the things that
happen when I am performing that are beyond my control. I can’t say it
belongs to me because if I say that, I would have a very big ego because
some of the things are quite magical’
I was wondering if Chartwell could explain our western thirst for music
of other cultures, especially African, as evidenced by the popularity of
festivals such as Womad, the sampling of African music in pop and ‘New
Age’ music, even in television commercials:
‘I think it’s the spiritual aspect. You know when I talk about playing
music for the whole night it sounds like we are just playing music, it’s
more than that – it’s rhythm of life. It’s the community.
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