Music Has Charms

 

[On 3 March 2024, I posted “The Arts & Health” on Rick On Theater.  It comprised two reposted transcripts from PBS NewsHour, both dealing with the convergence of the performing arts and matters of health.  The first report of the pair was “Opera legend Renée Fleming teams up with Dr. Francis Collins to study how music can improve health,” which aired on the NewsHour on 22 February 2024. 

[The topic of that report was the work of Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health, and opera singer Renée Fleming on the effect of music on people’s mental health.  My original intention was to combine that transcript with some other material on the same topic, but I came across an entirely different report on another issue of health and the performing arts, so I set aside my plan and paired those two pieces.

[I anticipated returning to the subject of music and mental health at a later time and pick up the articles I kept in reserve.  Then I heard a report on WCBS news about another application of music therapy on people’s mental wellbeing, namely its effect on patients with dementia.  I decided to post that report with the remaining pieces on the NIH program.  Here is the result.]

“BROOKLYN MUSIC THERAPIST HELPS DEMENTIA PATIENTS
BRIDGE THE PAST TO THE PRESENT”
by Steve Overmyer
 

[This report was originally aired on 8 March 2024 on CBS 2 New York (WCBS, Channel 2 in New York City) on CBS 2 News at 5PM; it was updated online on 9 March (Brooklyn music therapist helps dementia patients bridge the past to the present - CBS New York (cbsnews.com)).]

NEW YORK – More than 6 million Americans are living with dementia, and while there is no cure, patients can be helped by music.

In this Snapshot New York, Steve Overmyer learns how melodies help bridge the past to the present.

In a place where the days unfold with a predictable rhythm, a symphony of kindness is being composed.

Rafe Stepto is a credentialed music therapist in the music therapy department at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

In the hallways of the memory care unit of the Watermark Senior Living Home [Brooklyn Heights], filled with a lifetime of stories, Stepto has brought a revolution – not with grand gestures, but with the gentle strum of a guitar.

“We happen to have a kind of maximum recall for songs. For example, from when we were 13 to 21 or so, sometimes people call it the reminiscence bump. And so we leverage that quirk to get people’s best-remembered songs out so that they can be in the lucidity of those intact memories even in the midst of advanced dementia,” Stepto said.

Dementia attacks a particular part of our memory dealing with people, places and things. It doesn’t attack procedural memory, the act of doing things, which is why you can see those in memory care join in harmony and come alive.

“Music and memory – it’s a powerful, powerful engine,” Stepto said.

Music is more than entertainment. It can be a beacon that guides them back to a moment of clarity, the joy of youth or the warmth of love. In these moments, the true power of music therapy reveals itself. It’s the key to unlocking buried memories.

“Their memory of listening to a song, dancing to a song, courting to songs, socializing to a song – all of that is in the procedural memory, which remains intact longer into advanced dementia,” Stepto said.

The truth is we’ve all been touched by the transformative power of music. We do it almost every day.

After the class, Stepto has a private moment with a resident who struggles to find his voice, but music unlocks that door. Time stands still as they hold each other’s gaze, reaching out across the divide of forgetfulness and forging a bridge of validation.

“The moment between two people . . . . There’s nothing more important,” Stepto said.

Together, they’re rewriting the narrative of dementia – not as a journey into silence but a celebration, where every day brings the promise of a new song, a new memory, a new connection.

We all use music to help alter our mood, but music therapists are using this clinically and intentionally, they say with reliable results.

[Steve Overmyer joined CBS 2 in February of 2011 as a sports anchor and reporter. He hosts Sports Update every weekend on CBS 2 and WLNY 10/55 (Long Island, New York; owned by CBS).] 

*  *  *  *
“IS MUSIC REALLY THE MEDICINE OF THE SOUL?
AN INTERVIEW WITH RENÉE FLEMING AND FRANCIS COLLINS”
by Joanna Cross, NIMH 

[This article is from The NIH Catalyst 27.4 (July-August 2019), updated on 4 April 2022.  The NIH Catalyst showcases the scientific research conducted at the National Institutes of Health and contains feature stories, essays, profiles, and other news on NIH research, Scientific Interest Groups (SIG’s), new scientific methods, NIH history, the Clinical Center, and more.]

What happens when you get a world-renowned scientist and a famous opera singer in the same room? A spontaneous rendition of “The Times They Are a-Changin’” and the establishment of an important collaboration. NIH Director Francis Collins [b. 1950; director of the NIH, 2009-21] and Renée Fleming [b. 1959], who met a few years ago at a dinner party, realized that they both were curious about how music affects our minds. And so the “Sound Health: Music and the Mind” initiative, an NIH–Kennedy Center partnership in association with the National Endowment for the Arts, was born.

Fleming visited NIH on May 13, 2019, as the featured guest at the annual J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture, named for the former deputy director for intramural research. She and Collins discussed the creative process, the intersection of music and science, and the Sound Health initiative, which aims to expand our understanding of the connections between music and wellness. 

Music has been part of our lives for millennia and may well predate speech. The earliest known surviving instrument is a bone flute from about 40,000 years ago, and our vocal mechanisms have hardly changed throughout the years. “Can you imagine a Neanderthal opera?” Fleming joked. Because music has been part of our society for so long, it follows that it must have an identifiable impact. Indeed, it has been shown that exposing children to music can enhance reading proficiency and tends to lead to higher rates of career success.

Plato remarked that “Music is the medicine of the soul.” But why is it so beneficial? We can all understand how a piece of music can influence our emotions, but one study showed that rhythm may also be important in our development. Fleming showed a video of a study that demonstrated that when a stranger bounced in time with a baby, the infant was more likely to help the stranger complete a task afterwards than if the bouncing was out of sync. This study showed that even from an early age, music can bring us together, but to find“” out what happens in the brain, we need to be able to observe neuronal activity.

Bring in the magnetic-resolution-imaging (MRI) scanner. In 2017, Fleming experienced the feeling of being in such a scanner for herself. [This episode can be seen on the video of the recent PBS NewsHour report related to this topic (Opera legend Renee Fleming teams up with Dr. Francis Collins to study how music can improve health | PBS NewsHour.) The transcript is posted on this blog in “The Arts & Health,” 3 March 2024.] She chose the song “The Water Is Wide,” and her brain activity was measured as she spoke, sang, and imagined singing the words. Interestingly, imagining the words produced the most striking brain activity, but she put this down to the fact that singing is natural to her; imagining the words was the hardest.

MRI studies have revealed the fascinating influence of music. Fleming described an experiment in which neuroscientist Charles Limb asked jazz piano prodigy Matthew Whitaker [b. 2001] to undergo two tasks while in the scanner. First, Whitaker had to listen to a boring lecture and, unsurprisingly, very few areas of his brain showed activity. However, when he listened to his favorite band, his brain lit up like a Christmas tree. Although Whitaker is blind, even his visual cortex responded, indicating that music could have very potent therapeutic benefits.

One striking example, said Fleming, is the case of Forrest Allen [b. 1993], who was left in an almost lifeless state after a snowboarding accident in 2011 that caused a traumatic brain injury. Allen’s recovery was long and tough, surgeries to repair his skull catapulted him into comas, and he couldn’t speak for two years. His childhood music teacher noticed a tiny movement in Allen’s pinkie finger when music was playing, as if he was tapping along with the rhythm. As part of Allen’s rehab, the music teacher began using rhythm and melody to help his brain heal. Thanks to his doctors, surgeons, and physical therapists, Allen slowly recovered. Thanks to music therapy, he eventually learned to talk again. Today, Allen is a college student at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia).

Given that music can affect us to such a degree, Collins asked Fleming how she manages singing professionally during emotional moments. She recollected two particularly emotional moments—singing “Danny Boy” at Senator John McCain’s funeral in Washington, D.C., in 2018, and performing “Amazing Grace” at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City in 2013. She said that it was all about mental preparation before the events. She had to keep reminding herself that the she was singing for everyone else and not just for herself: The singing had to be right. Despite being raised in a musical family, it was not an easy road to becoming a famous singer. Nevertheless, she had the drive to be successful and became fascinated by the skill and practice of singing, observing that “The voice is like a horse: You never know when it will betray you and be off!”

Regarding her dreams for the Sound Health program, she hopes music therapy will become more widely covered by insurance and that the arts will be increasingly involved in our general well-being. She concluded by saying that she had been privileged to work with so many amazing people and takes great delight in performing in all sorts of ways. At this, Collins picked up his guitar and they wrapped up this unique event in an unforgettable way. They joined their voices in harmony to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and the spiritual song “How Can I Keep from Singing?” The audience sat spellbound as the music echoed around the room.

[Joanna Cross is a postdoctoral fellow in the National Institute of Mental Health.] 

*  *  *  *
“FOR SCIENTISTS ABOUT TO ROCK (WE SALUTE YOU)”
by Michele C. Hollow

[This article was posted on Next Avenue, a nonprofit, digital publication produced by Twin Cities PBS for older adults, on 27 February 2019 (NIH Director Francis Collins and His Band (nextavenue.org)).]

When not overseeing the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins is jamming with his colleagues

Science and music are closely connected. Says Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): “Whether you’re working with another person or a whole team of people who have different skills, different dreams and different aspirations and you put them together, you create something magical. Science does that and so does music.”

Collins, a physician-geneticist, is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993 to 2008. He was appointed the 16 NIH director by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the Senate in 2009.

When Collins came to the NIH, he was concerned that his passion for music would take a backseat to science. He soon learned about The Directors, a band consisting of former NIH senior staff. The name changed to the Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act (ARRA) and everyone at the NIH is welcome to join.

The name’s not political. It stems from being affordable, “since we don’t get paid for performing,” Collins said.

Making Music 

Collins grew up in a musical household. His father, Fletcher Collins, was trained as a classical violinist and worked for President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt’s New Deal project collecting folk songs from coal miners in Virginia. About 200 of those songs are in the American Folk Life Collection at the Library of Congress.

Collins’ mom, Margaret, sang, and musicians gathered at the family’s farmhouse to jam. Collins remembers a sullen young man with a scratchy voice celebrating his 18[th] birthday at his house. He didn’t think the singer would go far. It was Bob Dylan [b. 1941].

In order not to be left out, Collins taught himself how to play the pump organ at age five. He also wrote songs and picked up the guitar around the same time. “My family didn’t own a television,” he explained. “Music was our entertainment of choice.”

Collins played in high school and joined a bluegrass band at the University of Virginia. Throughout high school and college, he aspired to be a chemist, but music remained an important part of his life.

All NIH Scientists Are Welcome

Crystal “Crys” Young, lead singer and post baccalaureate grad from Washington University’s class of 2017, has been working at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of NIH, and has played music “all my life,” she said. She’s a classically trained pianist who started practicing at age four. 

“I was excited to be accepted into the program and at the same time was worried I wouldn’t have an outlet to do music,” she said. “Playing in ARRA is so much fun. I was really nervous going into it because I’m performing with the top people in their fields. Music brings us together.”

The number of musicians changes depending on the workload. Currently, there are a dozen regulars. They rehearse at Dr. John O’Shea’s house. Chief of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, O’Shea plays guitar and mandolin. Occasionally, depending on the music and who’s in the group, he has also performed on violin, bass guitar and drums. O’Shea is self-taught and picked up the guitar at age eight. He enjoys old-time and Irish music.

The music ARRA plays is geared towards its audience. When the group plays for scientists, Collins has been known to take a “Weird Al” Yankovic approach by changing the words of a song. For instance, Del Shannon’s hit “Runaway” was changed to “Amazing DNA.” He performed this at the NIH’s National Heart, Lunch, and Blood Institute.

“In my perspective, the best rock ‘n roll is from the last century,” Collins said. “We also play The Black Eyed Peas and songs from Bruno Mars when the audience is younger. We often meet at John’s (O’Shea’s) house for good food, conversation, and of course, to rehearse.”

Rehearsals can be one or two times a week if they’re getting ready for a performance. Otherwise, they’re less frequent. ARRA performances can be year-round, with more during the holidays and summer. They’ve performed for the National Association of Science Writers, at the Building Museum, the Library of Congress and numerous science and medical conferences.

“Francis is supportive of the extraordinary talent here at the NIH,” O’Shea said. “All of us love playing. I like rehearsals more than performances because we get together, have dinner, talk and have fun playing together.”

“Francis also has a yearly music party at his house where he invites a whole bunch of people over. Audience members call out a song and we play. The venues vary, too. Francis would say — and I’ve always felt this way, too — that music creates a sense of community,” added O’Shea.

Collins has had the pleasure of performing with YoYo Ma, Jackson Browne, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Whoopi Goldberg. “One of the most heartwarming things is being with these stars and their roadies backstage,” Collins said. “It’s exciting for us and they respect what we do.”

Researching the Links Between Music and Science

He and Renee Fleming sang together as part of an interview on NPR [National Public Radio]. Now, they’re working together on an initiative between the NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts called Sound Health: Music and the Mind, to expand on the links between music and mental health. It explores how listening to, performing or creating music involves brain circuitry that can be harnessed to improve health and well-being.

For Collins and the members of ARRA, life rocks when you combine music and science.

[Michele C. Hollow is a freelance writer, editor, and ghostwriter specializing in health, climate, social justice, pets, and travel.]