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

SARAH LÓPEZ
The effectiveness of a lullaby or playsong depends on a
particular sequential structure of events both musical
and empathic, resulting in a quiescent or stimulated
bonded state of the participants. Most people intuit the
process of a lullaby. The experiential effects prove to be
quite powerful in adults and children alike. However only
a few researchers have explored the possible musical
and emotional correlations of the effects of lullabies and
playsongs empirically with newborn infants, from a
musical point of view (López, 1991). This paper
presents a preliminary discussion of the musicalemotional
nature of lullabies and playsongs, through
comparative analysis of the songs and developmental
literature. Results from an exploratory testing of the
effects of sung lullabies and playsongs on seventeen
newborn infants are given elsewhere (López,1.991).
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The musical analysis from which this paper draws,
consisted of traditional, statistical, semiotic, spectral
and graphic analysis of the music and texts of fortyseven
lullabies from the Western Hemisphere, Japan,
Africa and Rusia and forty-seven playsongs from the
same cultures. This analysis provided the basis for a
theoretical definition of these types of songs. Extensive
review of developmental and psychological literature
provided the basis for comparison of musical and
empathic interaction with newborns and their parents.
La efectividad de una nana o de una canción infantil
depende de una particular estructura secuencial de
acontecimientos, tanto musicales como por empatía, y
tiene como consecuencia un estado de unión tranquilo
o estimulado por parte de los participantes. La mayoría
de la gente intuye el proceso de una nana. Los efectos