Music and Healing

The following article appeared on Yahoo today.

NEW YORK - Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music.

Sacks, the best-selling author of "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," was to share the church stage Saturday with the famed gospel choir as part of the inaugural World Science Festival, a five-day celebration of science taking place in New York this week.

"It should be an exciting and unusual event," Sacks said in an interview this week. "I will talk about the therapeutic and beneficent power of music as a physician, and then their wonderful choir will perform. ... And the audience will make what they can of it."

I'm sure Dr. Sacks will make fascinating observations. What I would really like to see, however, is the unusual audience that will result from combining the World Science Festival with the Abyssinian Baptist gospel choir!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080531/ap_on_re_us/music_s_healing_power

I recalled this article about music this evening, as we watched a movie called "The Land of Women." The soundtrack was full of beautiful piano music. Because most movies have complete musical soundtracks these days, we get the benefit of two hours of musical healing every time we watch a film. (Of course, not all music is healing, but that's a question I'll have to raise with Dr. Sacks some day.)