Musical life stories : narratives on health musicking

Abstract

Editors’ Preface - This anthology originates from one of the research initiatives of the Centre for Music and Health at the Norwegian Academy of Music. It has been a central aim of the centre, and of this project in particular, to make visible some of the ways in which music in general has become an important part of people’s everyday lives, especially with regard to how people use music to sustain or improve their sense of wellbeing and quality of life. Through this project, we tried to give voice to some of the stories we knew existed in our culture but had yet to be fully articulated or reflected upon. In formulating our project, which was first titled ‘Musical Life Stories: Music as Health Performance’, our colleague Karette Stensæth was incredibly helpful in shaping some of the research questions as well as handling our application for approval from the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD). Our gratitude likewise extends to the project participants who gave their informed consent for us to tell their stories. We also want to thank all of the anthology authors who contributed to this collection of narratives. Research originating in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Australia and the UK seems to have confirmed our suppositions and has made this anthology a truly international—and, one might add, multi-sited—research project. A distinguished group of international referees also supplied the necessary constructive resistance to these articles, ensuring both their quality and their intersubjective relevance. Our thanks, then, go to Brian Abrams, Anne Balsnes, Alf Björnberg, Thomas Bossius, Rudy Garred, Simon Gilbertson, Carolyn Kenny, Viggo Krüger, Inge Nygaard Pedersen, Odd Skårberg, Hans Petter Solli, Hans Weisethaunet and Barbara Wheeler. We are also very thankful that Gary Ansdell was willing to introduce this anthology with his foreword. In addition, many of us for whom English is a second language could not have managed these contributions without the skillful and creative editing, revising and commenting of Nils Nadeau. Last, but not least, we want to thank the Norwegian Academy of Music, which hosts and supports the Centre for Music and Health. Lars Ole Bonde, Even Ruud, Marie Strand Skånland and Gro Trondalen Oslo, June 2013