Healing the Hurting Through Music

Music has long been understood to have power to comfort distress, to deliver us from the solitude of our sufferings. In the Old Testament, David the shepherd boy was brought before King Saul to play the harp, thereby relieving the king from his depression. Three thousand years later, we have CD players and radios. In whatever form it is delivered, the simple beauty of music is a therapeutic wonder.

To the hurting soul every bitter moment is an eternity. As the music unfolds, we are comforted.

Who can understand it, this miracle that music brings? For many at life’s end, whether ill or simply bed-ridden, time slows to a crawl. In fact, with little to look forward to, there really is nothing but time. The hours stand still, especially when magnified by pain. Time is impossibly slow for those who hurt or grieve.

One musician who understands music’s power is Henry Wiens, a Midwest pianist, Yamaha recording artist and founder of Quiet Heart Music. After years of receiving letters and calls from grateful listeners coping with grief, chronic pain, and stress, Wiens recognized that his music had significant healing potential and began to distribute his CDs to nursing homes, hospices and hospitals across the nation.

My wife and I first met Henry and his wife Lisa when we all lived in the Twin Cities back in the early eighties. Both are sensitive, thoughtful people with good hearts.

Earlier this year I asked Henry why music has such power. He replied as follows:

Music is like beauty for the ears and mind. The answer to why people are moved by beauty is rooted in what it means to be human. For me, creating and listening to music is linked to expressing love for everything that is beautiful about life. As a listener, I respond to what I "read between the lines"; as a composer-performer, I try to express that love & beauty to others. Any power that music may have to touch others is rooted in the authenticity and depth of the artist's expression.

As people experience music throughout their lives, they build up associations with that music which reinforce each other. Hearing a familiar melody will bring past experiences to life. For example, hearing a song that you danced to when you were 18 and in love will probably elicit some of those good feelings even decades later. Hearing a song that was sung in church while you were held on your mother's lap may bring comfort the rest of your life.

This summer, Quiet Heart Music was featured The Director magazine, a publication for NADONA, the National Association Directors Of Nursing Administration. You can read The Power of Music to Comfort and Heal here.