E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Sutton, Julie; Beyond the Ordinairy
objective and subjective, external and internal reality. In practice it
is a complex business." 23
Following on from this I would like to return to Jerry and continue with his
story about the big bomb. If I now add some of his own history you will hear
the following excerpt (the concluding part of the first example) knowing
that Jerry's Dad was in the army and that Jerry was used to checking under
his father's car "for lunchboxes" 24 . In addition, just before Jerry began music
therapy the huge bomb in Enniskillen had exploded, killing and injuring
many who had been attending the Remembrance Day parade.
e.g. "Big Bomb 2"
AUDIO 1b - OHP
Following increasingly aggressive outbursts at school, Jerry had begun his
therapy with explosive drumming that was frequently fragmented and
chaotic. He presented a continuous, sounded musical narrative that either
blocked out or left little space for anything else. This "wall of sound" is
strikingly similar to the music of a number of children my colleagues in
Mostar are working with. From the Bosnian perspective the therapists
sometimes describe how they make links with their clients' music and the
constant mortar attack that families in Mostar experienced while taking
refuge in their cellars.
Back in Belfast one of the ways that the community coped with the violent
events taking place was to keep silent. Silence was a major coping
mechanism during the seventies and eighties. Associated and inextricably
linked with the silence was denial, yet now these mechanisms have to be
seen in the changed context of increased information exchange and
23 Garland, C. (1998) as before, pp23
24 "Lunchboxes" = car bombs
230