UK charity records original music for people with dementia | health
On a stage headed by Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Renée Fleming, people with dementia record songs of their own composition.
With the Glyndebourne Opera House’s microphones picking up every note, their voices soar and intertwine. They do not repeat old, familiar tunes, but rather compose completely new pieces that express their feelings, hopes and fears – feelings that, when the music stops, their brains can no longer convey with mere words.
“The general perception of people with dementia is that everything is over,” said Hazel Gaydon, events manager at the centre. Raise your voice charity. “But what lies behind our enthusiasm is the fact that we have found that musical creativity can lead to original lyrics and melodies based on current and future thinking.”
With support from Glyndebourne, the Royal Academy of Music, the Alzheimer’s Society and Arts Council England, the charity has spent the past year helping people with dementia and their carers compose new original music for a nine-track CD. nag.
It’s the first time any of them have written songs – and the process has unleashed feelings and memories that everyday life can no longer access, as music picks up the remaining threads that connect them to the world around them.
Weekly workshops, supported by trained musicians, artists and facilitators, motivate participants to express and share their inner worlds as inspiration for composition.
Eighty-year-old Colin, who is in the late stages of the disease, answered the question: “What are you looking forward to?” With the answer – contained in one song – “I dream of going up in a hot air balloon.”
The main question for another session, “What does music mean to you?”, prompted Barbara, also in her eighties and in the final stages of the disease, to come up with a verse that also became a lyric: “It reminds me there’s a world outside my door.”
These reactions make it worth it, Gaydon said: “For someone who feels increasingly closed off due to dementia, and then suddenly understands that there is still a world outside, it is a moment of beautiful clarity.”
Emily Barden, a professional choral conductor, said the work the charity is doing is “unprecedented”. “Creating a song with those with dementia has never been done before,” she said. “It is an absolutely amazing experience: the participants completely amazed me with their creative engagement and willingness to participate.”
The charity’s work has caught the attention of neurological experts. Chris Bird, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Sussex’s School of Psychology and director of the Sussex Center for Neuroscience, is exploring ways to work with it.
“This project is cool and unique: it combines the things we know about music with the new angle of putting it into song and collaboration,” he said.
“Through the sessions, we saw that participants’ residual capacity for memory and conversation that did not previously exist was unlocked through the invigorating experience of actively creating music,” he said. “And we saw that this effect persisted long after the music ended.”
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The charity does not want to expand, but wants to help others learn from its success. She now creates online tutorials to help others create similar groups.
She also hopes to draw the attention of dementia researchers to what they believe is an overlooked form of cognitive and emotional support.
Phil Dover, co-founder of the charity, said: “Our work provides tangible evidence that creative collaboration can provide meaningful cognitive and emotional stimulation.”
“Music stands as proof that dementia does not erase the ability to create. And that the act of making—listening, remembering, composing—can forge new paths of expression and communication long after memory begins to fade.”
Jane Houghton, the charity’s artistic lead and a former singer at the Royal Opera House, said the project revealed a “surprising gift of dementia”.
“It seems really strange to say something about someone with dementia,” she said. “But the joy and hope that making music together brings is positive and hopeful.
“If people can capture a little bit of the joy we have in our sessions and bottle it, it will help so many families in our country facing such a sad diagnosis.”