Companionship
Authors: Tsiris Giorgos 
Published: September 2024

This issue marks the 15th anniversary of Approaches. Since the publication of its first issue in 2009, Approaches has developed and expanded in several directions as a peer-reviewed, bilingual journal (Tsiris, 2022; Tsiris & Carr, 2015). Issues of accessibility, power and translation have been at the heart of our ethos as an open access journal as well as our commitment to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogue in music therapy. Such dialogue has been possible thanks to the companionship and dedicated work of all authors, reviewers, and editorial team members who have contributed to date. As we honour this anniversary, I warmly thank all and each of them, as well as all those who strive to deepen our understanding of music and its role in human life and wellbeing.
I would like to pay particular tribute to the Professor Colwyn Trevarthen who died on 1st July 2024 at the age of 93. A true pioneer in interdisciplinary thinking, Colwyn made an immense contribution to our understanding of early childhood demonstrating how a newborn human being has an innate capacity to initiate and build dialogic relationships. His research shed a light on how an infant seeks companionship – including a sense of playfulness – and the vital role of musicality and rhythm in early communication (Trevarthen, 1999, 2012). Colwyn’s work has been hugely influential within the field of music therapy (Stensæth & Trondalen, 2012; Trondalen, 2019). In late 1980’s, Colwyn served as supervisor of the first female doctoral researcher in music therapy in the UK. That researcher was the late Professor Mercédès Pavlicevic who in turn influenced the music therapy field internationally – from her early theory of Dynamic Form (Pavlicevic, 1991) to her later contribution to the development of Community Music Therapy (Pavlicevic & Ansdell, 2004, 2009).
In 2009, the landmark publication of Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, co-edited by Colwyn and his close colleague Stephen Malloch, explicated the highly interdisciplinary reach of Colwyn’s work including his contribution to understanding the origins and psychobiology of musicality, its role in healing, childhood learning as well as in performance. Colwyn had close links to the Greek community too, and served as Honorary Doctor of Psychology at the University of Crete. In 2016, a Greek collective volume (Kugiumutzakis, 2016) regarding the psychology of foetuses, infants and young children was published, paying tribute to Colwyn and making an important contribution to the development of Greek literature regarding intersubjectivity, and mother-infant communication. Colwyn continued sharing his knowledge and passion throughout his life, and I, alongside colleagues and students at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, were fortunate to enjoy his annual input to the MSc Music Therapy programme.
In the opening article of this issue, Vasiliki Reraki draws on Trevarthen’s work to explore the role of repetition and variation in human interaction. She investigates the meanings of the repetition-variation schema in parent-infant communication and searches for analogies in therapeutic improvisation and collaborative music performance. The issue continues with Taru-Anneli Koivisto’s exploration of healthcare musicians and musico-emotional work in end-of-life care, while Naomi Thompson and Helen Odell-Miller focus on an audit of music therapy in acute health service settings for people with dementia in the UK, including adaptations made due to Covid-19. Responding to an ongoing dialogue around terminology in music therapy (Rizkallah, 2021; Sundararaj, 2021), Marianne Rizkallah’s article explores how the terms we use to describe the person participating in therapy (e.g., patient, client, companion) can fundamentally affect how the therapeutic relationship is viewed, and she defends the use of the term “patient,” regardless of clinical presentation.
Jana Halmo writes about music therapy in Slovakia, its roots and current situation in the country. Pui-Sze Cheung and Tríona McCaffrey bring international perspectives regarding the use of customised playlists to support childbirth at public maternity hospitals in Ireland and Hong Kong. Drawing on their research in Sweden, Katarina Lindblad and Ulrik Volgsten explore how music listening can support older men’s sense of wellbeing and identity, and the role of affect attunement.
The issue also includes a number of reviews engaging critically with recent book publications within and around the field of music therapy. Such reviews have become a key feature of Approaches promoting critical engagement with new emerging knowledge and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. Our editorial team seeks to identify reviewers who bring their own practice and research expertise and who are often juxtaposed – disciplinary, professionally and/or culturally – with the focus of each book aiming to surface. A similar ethos underpins the conference reports, generating reflective accounts of professional events that foster the sharing of knowledge and build a sense of companionship among colleagues in the field. The motto of the 2022 European music therapy conference – music therapy in progress: please disturb (see Stella Hadjineophytou’s conference report in this issue) -- seems a fitting reminder not only of the ever-changing landscape of the field but also of the need to radically engage with issues of social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion across disciplinary boundaries. I warmly encourage you to keep this motto in mind as you peruse the contents of this issue, and perhaps revisit some of the journal’s publications from the last 15 years.
References
Derrington, P., Tsiris, G., Annesley, L., & Flower, C. (2022). Guest editorial by the emtc2022 chairs. British Journal of Music Therapy, Online Special Edition, 4-5.
Kugiumutzakis, G. (Ed.). (2016). ​«Το συν- της συγκίνησης: Ψυχολογία εμβρύων, βρεφών και νηπίων [in Greek]. Crete University Press.
Malloch, S., & Trevarthen, C. (Eds.). (2009). Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship. Oxford University Press.
Pavlicevic, M. (1991). Music in communication: Improvisation in music therapy. [Doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh]. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/20099
Pavlicevic, M., & Ansdell, G. (Eds.). (2004). Community music therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Pavlicevic, M., & Ansdell, G. (2009) Between communicative musicality and collaborative musicing: A perspective from community music therapy. In S. Malloch & C. Trevarthen (Eds.), Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship (pp. 357-376). Oxford University Press.
Rizkallah, M. (2021). Integrative health through music therapy: Accompanying the journey from illness to wellness (Hanser). Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 13(2), 284-286. https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2021.148
Stensæth, K., & Trondalen, G. (2012). Dialogue on intersubjectivity: Interview with Stein Bråten and Colwyn Trevarthen. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v12i3.682
Sundararaj, M. (2021). Response to Rizkallah’s review of the book ‘Integrative health through music therapy: Accompanying the journey from illness to wellness’. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 13(2), 298-299. https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2021.152
Trevarthen, C. (1999). Musicality and the intrinsic motive pulse: Evidence from human psychobiology and infant communication. Musicae scientiae, 3(1_suppl), 155-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/10298649000030S109
Trevarthen, C. (2012). Communicative musicality: The human impulse to create and share music. In D. Hargreaves, D. Miell & R. MacDonald (Eds.), Musical imaginations: Multidisciplinary perspectives on creativity, performance, and perception (pp. 259-284). Oxford University Press.
Trondalen, G. (2019). Musical intersubjectivity. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2019.101589.
Tsiris, G. (2022). Expanding the scope of open access journals: The ‘Approaches PLUS’ initiative. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 14(2), 186-187. https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2022.103
Tsiris, G., & Carr, C. (2015). Key changes and developments. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 7(2), 194-196. https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2015.358