New-York tribune., 1922-10-18
Music Cure Is Giuen a Test
For Insane on Wards Island
Miss Ethel Tanlininga Sings
Program Of Soothing Mel
odies 10 Keen Delight Of
600 Mental Detectives

Six hundred lunatics sat back in the
auditorium Of the Manhattan State In
stitute for the Insane on Wards ISL
and yesterday to listen to the lyric
soprano of Miss Ethel Tamminga, who
was chosen by the state to sing the
inmates cut Of their depression.
The concert was the first of a series
TO test tina value of musical thera-'
peutics, the technical name for curing
the insane by music. Miss Tamminga,
who was selected as the first sofoist,
has sung in Illinois fer the inmates
Of Joliet prison and for the Hinsdale
Sanatoriun1. Her voice is said to pos
sess the soothing quality required to
calm the overwrought mind.
Only the more rational of the in
mates attended yesterdays concert.
They applauded eagerly at the end of
each number, and seemed to enjoy the
musicale rs much as their doctors and
keepers did. There were a few who
listened with more than normal en-
thusiasm to the program-a woman of
forty, with black ribbon tied in her
hair; young girl with a profusion of
gold teeth and with q paper rose be-
hind her ear, and an elderly man, who
tapped his foot or whistled with each
song.
Miss Tamminga's program consisted
lar songs. "The Little Gray Home in
the West" was greeted with applause
when it was announced. The others
were an aria from "Madama Butterfly"
an Irish love song, lifting spring song
called wake Up" and q sentimental
piece, "Give Me All of You.' Two or
three numbers were played by the in
mates orchestra.
Flashlight photographs which were
taken after the concert provided al
most as much entertainment as the
music itself.
The purpose of the concert, as ex-
planned by DR.. Marcus B. Hyman, su-
perintendent of the hospital is Incl
dentally rather than directly curative.
While music could not be solely de-
pended upon to relieve lunacy, it pro-
vides temporary relief for maniac de-
pressives, melancholic group who
must be diverted from their periods
of dependence, he said.
The sufferers react to various pitches
Of music. To some the soprano voice
is the most beautiful, usually those
who are afflicted with acute melancholia,
while others can be soothed only by
contraltos. DR.. Hyman pointed out
tnas doSS respond TO certain voices In
the same way. The insane mind is keen
ly sensitive to vibrations in music.
The keepers in charge of the groups
that attended yesterdays concert will
meet to-day to report on the effects
of the music on their charges. Reac-
tions to the program and the extent
of the individuals power Of retention
will be commented on, as means of
determining how much actual good has
been accomplished.
DR.. Hyman admitted that the theory
of musical therapeutics was still in it's
infancy, although it has proved suc-
cessful in Germany for many years.
He seemed inclined to doubt that the
insane could be entirely cured through
music alone, but he valued it as
means for making them temporarily
forget their cbsessions.
Other officials appeared not to have
much faith in the experiment, for they
replied with a shrug when asked
whether concert would be given
again, and when.