23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

the great masses of the poor was balanced by an
emphasis on rational thought. Major scientific findings
were made by Repler, Galileo, Newton, Descartes and
others. There was also intense religious devotion
among the people as well as a general love for musicmaking.
Bach's music reflects the period's love of
ornamentation combined with well-proportioned, wellordered
living. It is music of order and reason. Listeners
to Baroque music are infused with, and respond to, the
concepts of the period.
Group members were very interested in why I had
chosen that piece, said they like it and that it had kept
them awake. Many commented that it was the first time
they had not heard the sound of the heavy traffic on the
street only a few feet outside!
I chose this piece because, for the entire eight minutes
of this movement, there is continuing interaction
between the harpsichord and the chamber orchestra,
with no cessation of movement. The actions in sound
624
keep the listener on the hook until the final notes. One
has the sense that all has been said that needs to be
said, and something is finished. All of the interactions,
however, are safely contained within a defined
structure, with the predictability of repeated passages
and . a clarity which allows all instruments to be heard.
That session affirmed for me that the highest and best
in everyone responds to the highest and best in music.
Music and the imagery that it inspires provide stretching
and expanding experiences that open addicts to parts
of themselves they may have never known. Through
music, they can leave the egocentrism of the addict's
world and embrace a larger vision of humanity
unencumbered by a limiting dependency on drugs.
As a system of a highly-functioning order, music
permeates the human mind, body and spirit with its
nature. In a polyphonic composition, individual themes
are stated clearly and definitively. At times they bend to