A.-P.-P. Inter-Centre Bulletin No. 11 (December 1977)

Bulletin of the International Association of Audio-Psycho-Phonology (A.I.A.P.P.), No. 11, December 1977. The cover bears the printed heading “Association Internationale d’Audio-Psycho-Phonologie” and the title “Bulletin A.-P.-P. Inter Centres” (referred to in the text by the acronym B.I.C.); it serves as a link between the centres practising the method and also relays the activity of the French association (A.F.A.P.P.).

This issue opens with the report of a day at the National Congress of Music Therapy held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris (the week of 21 to 25 November 1977), devoted to foetal hearing. The bulletin recounts, in a deliberately lively tone, the confrontation between Professor Tomatis and a physician defending the thesis of the pre-eminence of the paternal voice and of the low frequencies alone: Tomatis reaffirms the essential role of the maternal voice and of intra-uterine listening, which favours the high frequencies, the foundation of the sound montages used in his method. A simplified report of Tomatis’s presentation on foetal hearing and a bibliographical study of scientific references on the subject round out this section.

The bulletin continues with several news columns about the association: a communication concerning Social Security and A.P.P., an international press review (articles published in Canada and France evoking the role of the ear, the Tomatis Laws, the Listening Test and the Electronic Ear), information on A.P.P. training and its forthcoming sessions, a column titled “Studies and A.P.P.”, an essay entitled “Why Mozart?”, a notebook of travels and lectures, as well as a French-English glossary of the usual terms of audio-psycho-phonology intended to harmonise translations between centres. A final technical section deals with the filtering of maternal voices and gives the lists of the English and Italian tapes. The persons cited appear in their professional or associative capacity, with no sensitive personal data.

Historical context — At the end of 1977, Alfred Tomatis’s audio-psycho-phonology method was disseminated by an international network of centres federated within the A.I.A.P.P. and relayed in France by the A.F.A.P.P. This issue bears witness to the public dissemination of the method (presence at the National Congress of Music Therapy, debates on foetal hearing, press review) and to the effort to structure the network internally: recognition by Social Security, training of practitioners, standardisation of vocabulary and of sound tapes between countries.