Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

(Creswell 1995; Robson 2002; Strauss & Corbin 1995); and (2) narrative hermeneutic
investigation (Ricoeur 1984; see section 3.2.2). Following the principles of
hermeneutic investigation the imagery was analysed for the occurrence of a)
metaphors of the Self, b) configuration of metaphors into narrative episodes
('emplotment') and c) eventual occurrence of complete narratives. The results of this
analysis are presented in section 6.2 and in the case studies of chapter 7.
An overview of the music used in the sessions was made (app. 8.1), enabling the
researcher to identify which pieces had been used when and with which participants.
The music selections were categorized in three clinical categories, constructed in the
analysis: supportive, challenging and mixed. In order to reveal the nature and
properties of these constructs the researcher made a personal construct self inquiry,
using the RepGrid computer program (Shaw & Gaines 1993, see also Aldridge 1996
and Abrams 2002). This program enables the researcher to identify the properties of
certain contrasting experiences, in this case ‘supportive’ versus ‘ challenging’ music.
Two pieces of music and the imagery of all six participants’ to this music were
selected for a close description and analysis of the interrelationship of music and
imagery (subquestion 7). Selection criteria were that imagery of all participants was
documented, and that the two pieces represented two different categories of music.
First the music was analysed separately in order to investigate its relevant musical
properties and image potential. An eclectic method was developed for this purpose,
including phenomenological description, heuristic music analysis, intensity 50 profiles
and Grocke's Structural Model of Music Analysis (SMMA). A thorough description
of the method and its rationale is given in section 8.2, based on an extensive, specific
literature review in 8.1. The analyses are included as appendix 8.10.
50 ‘Intensity’ is used in this text as a composite phenomenological concept,
synonymous with the subjective experience of the music’s ‘power’. This definition is
not identical with the intensity definition of natural science (c: “the energy flow per
unit area per second through a given surface, and is measured in watts per square
metre”; New Grove). It is not identical with loudness, even if loudness as a basic
perceptual attribute of sound “affects the power, the intensity of the sound and finally
our subjective impression of the loudness”. (Bunt 1994, s. 50) Se also section 9.4.2.1
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