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

nature of the music. This is bracketing in action and it may be a
significant realisation for music therapy researchers in determining the
essential elements to be explored in future investigations of the music
therapy interaction. The use of Bruscia’s IAPs (1987) to form the basis
of the Dynamic Listening resulted in mixed success. The ability of the
IAPs to guide listening to the musical properties and their interactions
with other aspects of the music was successful, however, the language
used in this version of the IAPs contained a degree of interpretation that
was counter to the aims of this research, for example controlling/
conforming, tense/calm. In contrast, the twenty-four leadership
techniques selected from Bruscia’s (1987) compilation, comprehensively
assisted the researcher in describing the musical material of the Group
Leader. This vocabulary simplified descriptions of her role and once
distilled with the other levels of listening, provided valuable information
that articulated the group leader’s decisions in the moments of music
making. Thus, a significant understanding from this research is that only
in combining and distilling all the levels of listening did the descriptions
became truly relevant to the music therapy group experience. In other
words, music therapists need to be aware of both musical and dynamic
interactions in examining our work more closely. It is not a matter or one
being superior to the other.
The separation of description from interpretation is useful and potentially
offers a myriad of information about the experience of group music
therapy improvisations. Although many possible interpretations could be
made from the descriptive data, this research focussed on the changing
group dynamics over time. In developing this study, the researcher
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