Music, health, and well-being

Music and health as a field of research has flourished in the recent years, although the belief in a link between music and health is not new. In fact, the idea about music as salutary dates all the way back to But of course this link between people, music, and health/wellbeing is hardly new. It is a perennial knowledge that has been understood and practised in very varied ways across history*and varies still across contemporary social and cultural sites and The appreciation that music helps has been*and still is*either too obvious to mention, or else something forgotten and strange; is either central to normal cultural practice, or else marginal ; is either mostly a professional expertise, or else an everyday lay practice. (p. 4) Music, health, and well-being is a broad field that encompasses different areas, such as music therapy, music medicine, and music as self-care in everyday life (see Bonde, 2011; MacDonald, this volume; Ruud, 2008). Although some people experience music as nearly ''magical'' (Skånland, 2012), music by itself normally does very little (Ansdell, 2013; DeNora, 2000). Instead, we might understand its impact to derive from the relationship between music and the person. In other words, music is not merely a stimulus that ''acts'' on listeners; it offers certain opportunities to the people who engage with it and provides its benefits based on the ways in which these people interact with or appropriate it (Clarke, 2003; DeNora, 2000; Skånland, 2012). If we seek to understand these processes, then, we must recognize individuals' competences related to the use of music in their self-care (see Ruud, this volume). But we must also account for the research-based expertise that music therapists can offer to people with special needs (see Gilbertson, this volume; McFerran & Shoemark, this volume; Stensaeth, this volume). Ansdell (2013) suggests that we view the field of music and health as a continuum between the applications and roles of music in everyday life and those of music in ''specialist life'' (i.e., music therapy). The variety of emphases in the present issue, from the use of music as self-care in everyday life to the use of music in a range of therapeutic settings, will hopefully offer the reader some insight into this continuum. In addition, thinking in terms of a continuum can also be valuable when it comes to health, as suggested by Antonovsky (1979, 1987). Rather than framing health and …