Music As "healing" In The West

Music has been together with human beings’growth and development since the day theywere born. From the Primitive Tribe to Modern Times，humans have been engaged in avariety of music activities，trying to explore the mysteries and essence of music. The fact thatmusic has the effect of therapy can be proven in the following examples——according to Thebible，David once healed King Saul from uneasy with harps，today music therapy has grownto be a discipline category and get great achievements on clinical practice. This paper is basedon the historical development of western music，and analyzes the different way of musictherapy in different periods，trying to seek the profound connotation and social value of westmusic in different periods.The paper consists of three parts. The first part is the prolegomena，including Labor，Imitation，Emotional Expression and Religion，trying to prove that music therapy is rightthere no matter which kind of theory it derives from.The second part is the therapy of religious music. In the first quarter，the author describesthe origin of religious music therapy in the west——first analyzes the “polytheisticworship” in ancient Greek，and carries on the conclusion of music having therapy effect. Thesecond quarter mainly analyzes the different forms of Christian music in different periods，including music therapy in the bible；the solemn music in Middle Ages；Mass in the15th-16thcentury，religious music in the17th-18th century，personalized religious music presentationin the19th-20th century.The third part is the evolution of music as a therapy in western medicine. The firstquarter analyzes the evolution from ancient Greek to the20th century in the perspective ofscience，medicine and musicology，including the germination period in ancient Greek andRoman；the basis of renewal effect in Renaissance；the mature period in the17th-19th centuryand the formal establish of Music therapy as a discipline. The second quarter mainlyintroduces the modern development of music therapy，including two parts：the moderndevelopment of music therapy in the West and the modern development of music therapy inChina.