Overcoming adversity: Trauma in the lives of music performers and composers

Abstract

Music therapy literature describes how music is used in the facilitation of healing from psychological trauma. This theoretical article addresses the converse, namely how trauma can impact on music creation, interpretation and performance. Psychological effects of trauma include Acute Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When composers and performers suffer from these disorders, the effects may become audible in the musical result. Obstacles encountered during the translation of emotion into physical motions can be linked to the adverse influence of tension, involving overlap between the physiological similarities of the state in which trauma is encoded and the experience of Music Performance Anxiety. Examples from the lives of great musicians illustrate ways in which trauma impacts on creative expression. Interference and anxiety influence the resulting level of performance. Strategies to overcome consequences of unresolved trauma include therapeutic intervention, learning to trust the arousal cycle again, the release of frozen energy, and the creation of adequate dress rehearsal opportunities, enabling individuals to again enter the state of “flow.” It is emphasized how adverse experience can catalyze Post-Traumatic Growth and how integration can facilitate healing and optimal performance.