The Grieg Effect – On the Contextualized Effects of Music in Music Therapy

Abstract

In this essay I examine the group Upbeat's encounter with Grieg and his music and this story is used as an exemplar to illuminate themes of broader relevance concerning the role of music in music therapy. The contextual perspective taken is situated in relation to Wittgenstein's (1953/1967) discussion of meaning as use, De Nora's (2000) discussion of how various music(s) may afford certain things through appropriation, and Stige's (2002) discussion of health musicing. After a critical excursion to the discourse on the Mozart Effect and a brief discussion of various assumptions on the role of music in music therapy, the centrepiece of the essay is developed as the story of Upbeat's encounter with Grieg. This story is interpreted in relation to the involved interplay of human protomusicality, personal and cultural history, and in the concluding section of the essay the contextual perspective taken is substantiated through a summarized description of the proposed Grieg Effect as well as through a clarification of the concept of context itself.