Music and Music Therapy, Filtered Music and Pedagogy

Paper by Paul Madaule (Centre du Langage, Paris) at the 3rd International Congress of Audio-Psycho-Phonology held in Antwerp in 1973, devoted to filtered music and psycho-sensory pedagogy in children with communication disorders.

Filtered Music and Psycho-Sensory Pedagogy in Children with Communication Disorders

Music seems to be present wherever man has appeared. It seems inseparable from his life, as if it were part of his vital needs.

But what needs, then, can it meet?

If we decide to survey the immense variety of musics that exist, we are able to observe that they have a more or less powerful effect on the behaviour of the being, in the direction of tonification or, on the contrary, of a diminution of the being’s vital possibilities.

Some musics relax, others, such as military marches, stimulate; there are dance musics that set bodily movements in motion; accompaniments used, for example, in certain films, are intended to arouse all sorts of emotional reflexes that range from reverie to anguish, passing through the whole gamut of the reactions of the affective life.

We could extend this list at leisure, listing the musical genres that men have used in all ages to obtain well-defined effects on the behaviour of the being.

These observations being made, it is interesting to think that musical themes can be chosen therapeutically to help certain individuals afflicted with psychological disorders and presenting difficulties of communication with their environment.

The purpose of this presentation will be, first, to present on the one hand the genres of music that seem most appropriate to this therapeutic approach, and on the other hand to indicate the conditions under which these musics can be perceived, heard, listened to, and bodily integrated.

Secondly, we will attempt to show the effects that listening to this music can produce, under certain well-determined conditions, on certain children afflicted with communication disorders.

I — Musics of Therapeutic Value

Professor Tomatis’s vast clinical experience has allowed him to observe that, in order to have a real therapeutic value, music must be able to arouse in the individual a relaxing effect while also ensuring the energizing of the being.

Those that seem best suited to accomplish this dual function are works written for certain instruments such as the violin, for example, and presenting well-defined characteristics that are very often found in the compositions of Mozart.

a) Why works for the violin?

Professor Tomatis observed that there are two great categories of sounds: charging sounds and discharging sounds, the former stimulating the dynamism of the being, the latter considerably diminishing its potential.

He observed, among other things, that persons presenting difficulties in the auditory analysis and integration of sounds tended to be easily fatigued, depressed, even anxious, most often holding themselves in an attitude of prostration. By contrast, those benefiting from the faculties to analyse the most subtle sounds according to certain processes of integration proved to be energetic, relaxed, and presented themselves in quite another way, their spinal column in particular being very straight.

What, then, are the physiological processes that can be evoked when we speak of charging sounds and discharging sounds?

Let us first consider their action at the level of the eardrum. On the tympanic membrane is found the only cutaneous innervation of the pneumogastric nerve, that is to say the only external antenna of the principal nerve of involuntary motricity which controls a large part of the organism and which is also called the Vagus, or tenth cranial nerve.

Certain sounds will provoke the tension of the eardrum: these are the high-pitched sounds. The eardrum being tensed, the action of the pneumogastric nerve is diminished according to a process which it is impossible for me to develop here for lack of time. This partial inhibition of the action of the tenth cranial nerve leaves at rest the whole range of the organs innervated by it: larynx, heart, lungs, viscera, etc., which, during affective stresses, have imprinted phenomena of anguish.

In the reverse process, we can observe that low-pitched sounds do not allow the eardrum to tense and thus leave the pneumogastric nerve—which, as you know, has been called the nerve of anguish—to continue its dystonic action. This explains in part why the high-pitched sounds called charging sounds stimulate and open up the one who knows how to hear them, while the register of the low sounds, integrated into the discharging sounds, brings fatigue and anxiety.

At the level of the cochlear apparatus of the inner ear, the properties of charging and discharging sounds are likewise found through their actions on the cells of Corti. These cells are far more numerous on the basilar membrane at the level of the localization of the high frequencies (20,000 to 21,000 cells), so much so that the cortical transmission and the recharging in electrical potential are far denser in this zone than in the zone of the low frequencies (where there are only 3,500 to 4,000 cells). The high-pitched sounds will therefore give more nerve impulses and will have a far greater energetic recharging effect.

This explains the dynamism of the one who knows how to listen to them and the depressive tendency of the one who cannot lend them his ear.

On the other hand, the nervous stimulations provoked by the high frequencies also have an action on the vestibular apparatus, the organ of balance and, in man, of vertical posture. Indeed, the vestibular nerve is present at all levels of the spinal column through its junctions with the anterior roots of the spinal cord. The nerve impulses provoked by sounds therefore participate, by way of the vestibular pathway, in the control of the balance, the movements, and the verticality of the individual.

All this leads us to think that high-pitched sounds are necessary for the tonification of the being. Now the instrument—or one of the instruments—that emits the most high harmonics is precisely the violin. This is why it has been chosen up to now to energize the being within the techniques we use and within certain very specific works.

It is true that some musicians have known, more than others, how to compose for the violin and thus introduce charging sounds into their works. But these sounds still have to be distributed in a certain way; this is why a choice must be made among the composers and their works.

b) Why was Mozart chosen?

It is not enough to make someone hear a series of charging sounds in order to relax and energize him. Indeed, a music very rich in high frequencies but whose rhythms are hammered, syncopated, risks “stressing” the listener.

Rhythms that are too violent, like those of military music, or too rapid, like those of Paganini, can bring a cortical charge without, however, having any relaxing effect. Experience has shown us that the harpsichord risked exciting and irritating certain persons, which is of course not the aim sought.

The musics best suited seem to be those that will stimulate our neuronal encodings by recalling processes developed during early childhood, at the moment when the nervous system imprints itself with all the actions of the environment.

Professor Tomatis put forward the following hypothesis concerning the effect of Mozart’s music on subjects undergoing audio-vocal techniques. He thought that this musician, who began to play and to compose around the age of 4 or 5, very early imprinted his neurons with the sonic and musical inspiration that flooded him.

And all his work, even that composed during the most difficult periods of his life, thus appears to be the musical projection of the physiological rhythms acquired during his childhood and not marked by the imprints of personality.

Listening to this music will provoke, in the one who lets himself be permeated by it, an awareness of his own initial rhythms. The dialogue between the organism and the music will arouse the entering into relation of the individual with his body and bring about a harmonization of the being.

The stresses, the traumas, the ruptures that so strongly disturb the organism will thus disappear. The musical theme proposed will thereby set off a lowering of internal conflicts, which will translate, at the level of a deconditioning, into a self-acceptance, a relaxation, and an opening.

But it is not enough to make a person listen to Mozartian works performed on the violin in order to relax and tonify the one who finds himself in a poor posture. He is precisely not in a position to really listen and to savour this music deeply, since he does not know how to tense his eardrum and open his ear to the high harmonics.

In certain cases, he will not hear these frequencies; in others, he will receive them with distortion when his analytical possibilities are not good; the violin will then seem unpleasant for him to listen to. He will be able to capture from the proposed piece only the discharging sounds and will remain fixed at the same stage of non-activation.

It is then necessary to modify his listening posture by placing him on the one hand under the Electronic Ear and by making him listen on the other hand to what we have called “filtered music.”

c) Why is the music filtered?

To direct listening toward the specific zones of cortical recharging, we use a filter that makes it possible to modify the musical supply by very appreciably attenuating the low frequencies and by polarizing the sonic energy on the high frequencies.

In other words, we raise the centre of gravity of the music; this raised, straightened, modulated, sonically sculpted music will, if we may express it thus, in some way raise the centre of gravity of the human body, straighten it, and lead the being toward its verticality so that it may be in a position to really put itself in a state of listening to its environment.

This complete reshaping of the music is very far from representing what the ear is accustomed to integrating daily; moreover, it moves considerably away from the zone of the fundamental frequencies of language, the bearer of affective charges and the vector of anguish. Far from the memories of existence, filtered music thus brings about deconditioning and relaxation.

d) Why the necessity of the Electronic Ear?

To modify the manner of hearing, it is necessary not only to shape the sounds, as we have just seen, but also to prepare the listening posture by modifying the receiver of these sounds: the auditory apparatus. The ear of the one who does not know how to put himself in a state of listening will not be able to integrate filtered music of itself. To obtain the effects we are seeking, it will necessarily be necessary to open the doors that must lead into the sacred zones of the inner ear where the sheaf of high harmonics is found.

These doors will open to the extent that the muscles of the middle ear play their role of regulation and adaptation. It is then indispensable to have recourse to the Electronic Ear in order to obtain this auditory gymnastics which allows a correct analysis of the charging sounds. Only under these conditions shall we obtain the effects sought.

Through the conditioning it brings about, the Electronic Ear will allow the subject to put himself, at any moment and in an automatic manner, into a state of listening to the high harmonics of any sound source.

Thanks to the process that trains the tympanic membrane to know how to tense itself, the subject will become master of the counter-reactions of the pneumogastric nerve and will thus remain relaxed.

Knowing perfectly how to open itself to the charging sounds, his ear will prove to be not only an apparatus intended for listening, but will also behave permanently as a dynamo of the cortex; for such is its primary function, the one whose aim is to energize the being and to ensure its motricity.

But before reaching this stage, the subject will have to pass through a certain number of stages that will mark out his education, his psycho-sensory progression. We shall now observe how these stages are experienced by the subject and how they act on his behaviour. In order to limit our subject, we shall speak only of the effects of filtered music on children afflicted with language disorders and having difficulties of family and school integration.

II — The Effects of Filtered Music on Children with Communication Difficulties

The sessions of filtered music are situated, within the educational approach, between the period of memorization of intra-uterine life and the stage of the acquisition of language. This transitional stage is equivalent to the pre-linguistic period of the young child.

Social language is perceived by the child who approaches it as an unknown element, a stranger who presents himself to him and who, under the pretext of an alleged evolution, will oblige him to leave the kingdom of childhood to approach the world of grown-ups, which is not always a good bargain.

After the period of listening to the filtered maternal voice, the child is certainly filled with the desire to open up and to communicate with the outside, but he is still very vulnerable, and the sessions of repeating words and texts risk tiring him, irritating him, shocking him, and perhaps even making him regress.

This is why the programming provides for sessions of filtered music in certain circumstances after the maternal voice, or in any case for sessions of filtered music alternated with those of language acquisition. This music must provide the child with the dynamism and the relaxation necessary to allow him to dominate the aggression of the semantics heard and repeated. It will in some way play the role of a catalyst.

While listening to filtered music, the child will find himself very soothed, freed of anguish, and he will moreover draw from it the energy necessary to break the resistances, the barriers that still separate him from his becoming. We very often notice that children await the filtered-music sessions with impatience.

The evolution of the child during the period of psycho-sensory education, and in particular during the filtered-music sessions, is very expressive when one observes it from the angle of pictorial production.

At the start, the child has no desire to draw or to paint. When he begins, his execution remains very blurred; blacks and browns often cover the other tones, as if to eclipse them. During the listening to the filtered maternal voice and the sonic birth, the drawings and paintings show themselves to be heavily charged with symbols and memories. These drawings, often tortured and very rich in meaning, are most of the time mixed with others, more impersonal ones.

From the very first filtered-music sessions, we observe that the drawing changes appreciably; it loses its affective intensity, its unconscious charge. It becomes clearer, lighter, sometimes decorative. Flowers, butterflies, and birds are the most frequently observed themes among children who draw figurative elements. Those who choose abstraction execute coloured undulations or harmonious sequences of strokes.

The child has no precise idea of what he is in the process of creating. His freed hand lets itself be guided by the musical rhythms perceived.

It is worth noting in passing the happy influence of filtered music on psycho-motricity. The child becomes, indeed, faster and more skilful in his movements. We witness a true liberation of the hand and, on account of this, the handwriting improves.

It is recommended to offer children sheets for graphic work during the music sessions; more particularly to those who are in the process of lateralizing to the right and to those who have micro-motricity disorders of the dysgraphia type.

The evolution of the choice of colours during the music sessions is also very remarkable to observe. The tones quickly brighten; the child mixes the paints less and less and no longer superimposes them on the sheet. The drawings are pure, harmonious, and cheerful.

It seems that when there is an awakening of one sensory perception there is simultaneously an animation of the others. We have here the case of the opening of visual perception resulting from that of listening.

Studies carried out in different directions have shown that listening to filtered music increased the creativity of the being; this is all the more true if the music is prepared and emitted as we have described it. Through the action it has on the zone of the basilar membrane that is richest in sensory fibres, it increases cortical energy, improves general perception, and harmonizes the body image. Under these conditions the being can thus express more easily the thought that runs through him, under various forms of creativity.

How are we to explain this phenomenon, observed so many times in children? The music will make the individual aware of the riches of which he is the holder. Enclosed within the merry-go-round of his conditionings, he could not open himself to the outside world in a soothing manner. The relaxing effect of such sonic nourishment will relax the child sufficiently for him to apprehend these new horizons with less anguish. Freed from his inhibitions, made euphoric by the recently acquired energy, he will be strong enough to cross the barrier of his ego and to express himself freely.

After the filtered-music sessions, we often observe that the child makes important decisions: to read aloud, to become first in his class, to choose his future profession, etc. The continuation of the education, by increasing his self-controls, will allow him to carry his decisions through to their conclusion.

Certain children, the youngest in general, like to talk, to tell themselves stories during the filtered-music sessions. We then connect the microphone so that there can be an audio-vocal counter-reaction. Children who are often characterized by their mutism suddenly take pleasure in listening to themselves talk, and this pleasure seems to be the sole aim of their monologue. The music, partly thanks to its lack of semantic value, seems to trigger in the child the memorization of the pre-linguistic stage.

On the other hand, the parents point out to us that the child talks more at home, and sometimes too much for their taste. Little by little, the reactions of opposition to the mother observed during the period of intra-uterine memorization fade and disappear, giving way to a more relaxed and affectionate relationship.

There appears simultaneously in the child an increasingly marked tendency to manifest his independence with respect to the family framework. The parents are astonished no longer to have to ask him to work. Having himself become aware of his body, of his self-controls, of the role he has to play in the home, he at last glimpses his becoming; he now knows how to take charge of himself.

The child acquires, in the space of a few weeks, one or several years of maturity, and all the parents are sensitive to this phenomenon; but they still have to accept it. This stage is often difficult to experience for the mother, who sees her “little one” moving away from her, and then for the father, who must now assume his role of educator and guide.

To help the parents, and especially the mother, to better bear the regression, and then the evolution of the child, we propose that they concurrently follow sessions of filtered music. If they do not accept, we make them understand that their resistances can seriously compromise the smooth running of their child’s education.

After the filtered-music sessions, when the subject’s voice is sufficiently tonified, controlled, given timbre, and modulated, it is the voice that will become the musical instrument intended to energize and relax him. Between the sessions of words, texts, reading, and filtered music, he will listen to and repeat Gregorian chant. These melodies, as you know, are very rich in high harmonics, and their rhythm helps to obtain a certain deconditioning.

Music therapy thus opens wide the door to the psycho-pedagogy of the future. But its present efficacy must not make us forget that it is still in its first stammerings.

The specialists who wish to set out on this path must keep constantly present in mind the idea that the link between music and man is above all the ear.

We now know the importance of the ear in the control of the act of speech, and we cannot forget the primacy of language in the elaboration of thought.

When it knows how to be listened to, at the level of the ear and of the whole body thus concerned, music can considerably help the human being to make his way toward conscious thought, the highest stage of his humanization.

Source: Paul Madaule, “Music and Music Therapy, Filtered Music and Pedagogy,” paper at the 3rd International Congress of Audio-Psycho-Phonology, Antwerp, 1973. Transcription from the facsimile (digital restoration by Francis Besson, 2012).