Music therapy as multiplicity: Implications for music therapy philosophy and theory

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The field of music therapy is diverse and complex. Authors have navigated such complexity in myriad ways, often to locate the field’s unique values and purposes. Ensuing orientations and models have been valuable, but do not encompass the entirety of current and future practices/practitioners. I introduce the multiplicity concept to highlight intricacies and promote opportunities.

Method

I re-envision Bruscia’s construction of music therapy as a multiplicity – an interactive relationship between art, science, and humanity – through the rigor of Gilles Deleuze’s multiplicity concept: (a) difference between and within, (b) the extensive and intensive, and (c) the actual and virtual through a range of examples and illustrations. I also note how the multiplicity of music engages with context (client, therapist, and environment), seeking to illustrate the potential for multiplicity to address our uniqueness in a more nuanced and dynamic fashion than is commonly presented.

Results

In order to show resonance and variation, I dialogue with historical and current concepts and perspectives employed in music therapy. A resultant conceptual edifice includes: processes that are multiple, outcomes that multiply, and options that allow one to decenter and pivot as needed in context. The unique dynamism of multiplicity allows us to engage in between the components of creativity, organization, and human relationship in new ways.

Discussion

The ideas I present here are not entirely new, but have rarely if ever been highlighted in this fashion. This re-envisioning of Bruscia’s multiplicity offers a unique, dynamic metatheoretical frame for the field to (re)consider current perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Philosophy
• theory
• Deleuze
• multiplicity
• music therapy

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest.

Notes

¹ Credit to Nancy Hadsell as the origin of this simple paraphrasing.

² Ethos can be understood as the beliefs, aspirations, character formation, and practices of a community.

³ While the second edition (1989) mentions interpersonal process, the third edition mentions humanity. These two terms become intertwined in Bruscia’s elaborations.

⁴ Examples include Duns Scotus, Bergson, Nietszche, Kant, and Spinoza.

⁵ Metamodernism is a relatively new arena in philosophy and literature that oscillates between aspects of modernism and postmodernism; it promotes simultaneous engagement with philosophy, politics, art, and culture through shifting technological practices.

⁶ Examples of related concepts include rhizome, becoming, assemblage, and deterritorialization/reterritorialization

⁷ Instead of seeking a Hegelian synthesis between the opposing “one and many, ” Deleuze noted that there exist constantly changing “ones” and “manys.”

⁸ This consideration of multiplicity and affect (agencement) has its lineage in Baruch Spinoza, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and more recently Manuel DeLanda and Brian Massumi.

⁹ The three common tumbadores in Cuban ensembles are quinto, conga, and tumba; they are differentiated largely by pitch.

¹⁰ Doubled in the sense that they are two aspects of the same thing.

¹¹ While details to this effect are beyond the scope of this paper, further study of the doctrine of symbolism, the doctrine of ethos, and the evolution of aesthetics provide a point of entry.

¹² Credit to Dos Santos (2018) as secondary source for this quote.

¹³ The more recent edition of Defining Music Therapy (Bruscia, 2014) does not include this wording, but the historical significance of the second edition warrants its discussion.

¹⁴ Small’s assertions in this sense appear to hold greater parallel to Fichte, Schelling, or Hegel than to Deleuze. These German Idealists noted that things are postulations of our own consciousness (the I).

¹⁵ Deleuze’s constructivism was about human creation, but strongly related to individual engagement with the world. This definition largely parallels that of Michael Crotty (1998).

¹⁶ Gregory Bateson strongly influenced Small’s conceptualization of relationships and events. Deleuze and Guattari reference Gregory Bateson in their work, both in terms of exemplifying their concepts and offering critique in his implementation.

¹⁷ Jacques Derrida was a peer of Deleuze’s, although he focused more on language and its deconstruction.

¹⁸ James Gibson (1979) makes this point clear.

¹⁹ Latour (2005) provides direct reference to Deleuze and Guattari’s work as aligned with his own in many regards.

²⁰ For those interested, the work of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, Ray Brassier, and Graham Harman may be worth exploring. Many of their critiques have also been addressed by Deleuze proteges such as Manuel DeLanda, John Protevi, and Antonio Negri among others. There also exist feminist critiques and feminist supporters (e.g. Braidotti, 2012) of Deleuze’s work.

²¹ E.g. Heraclitus, Hegel, Small, Whitehead, Deleuze.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this study.

Notes on contributors

William Matney

William Matney is an assistant professor at the University of Kansas. His published and presented work has included study of philosophical and theoretical problems within music therapy, as related to research, clinical practice, and training.