Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

For the five of the six participants who experienced spontaneous music imagery
throughout the music selection the analysis shows that
• The imagery was always influenced by the music. Other explanations of the
changes and transformations of the imagery were not identified through this
analysis.
• The relationship between music and imagery was influenced by the ‘travel
style’ of the client.
• The more the client reported the clearer the relationship between music and
imagery was seen.
• If the client reports very little and/or entered into a state of deep relaxation or
meditation it is not possible to document the role of the music with the
methodology used here (video recording to monitor facial expressions and
bodily activity, and/or physiological measures would be required).
• If the music includes challenging elements – i.e. contrasting sequences from a
musical point of view – this is reflected clearly and immediately in the
imagery: the client reacts with a delay of a few seconds. Music introducing
higher intensity and tension is reflected in the imagery in many ways: a
change of perspective, manifest action, emotional outlets, sudden insight
(“messages“), a new direction to the imagery etc. (Chapter 7 investigated this
from the theoretical perspective of ‘narrative emplotment’).
• The clearer the narrative structure of the music, the clearer this will be
reflected in the imagery.
• Some modalities lend themselves more easily to metaphorical and narrative
imagery than others: visual/auditory (/gustatory/olfactory)/memory modalities
are more closely connected to metaphoric and narrative sequences than
sensory-kinaesthetic and emotional imagery.
• It is possible to identify a “logical structure“ in the relationship between music
and imagery. On one level the material analyzed confirms Goldberg’s Field
Theory: The ongoing sequence of Music->Image->Emotion. On another level
the ‘production grammar’ of BMGIM seems to be that if the basic mood of the
music is matching the client’s needs and energy level (ISO principle, see
section 3.7) the imagery will develop with the music. Any change in the levels
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