| Brought to you this hour by |  | Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org! |
Doublereed Archive - Posting 000062.txt from 2005/12
From: "Miriam Williams" <mwquacker@-----.net>
Subj: [DR-L] asthma and wind playing -- oboe best?
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:45:35 -0500
I've often wondered if people with breathing problems such as asthma would
have better success on the oboe instead of say, clarinet or flute, since the
volume of air is not as important as the continuous pressure to support the
tone.
Dr. Dawson?
Here's an article from another list reeders may find interesting.
Miriam
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
(snippet)
"Asthma," says Dr. Joanne Loewy -- who radiates her enthusiasm for the
palpable results of her work -- "is the No. 1 admitting diagnosis for
children in hospitals. So we are currently studying the effects of wind
playing -- such as playing a flute or a horn -- in lung volume capacity and
quality of life in children and teenagers."
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
MUSIC
The Healing Power of Jazz
By NAT HENTOFF
December 29, 2005; Page D8
In 1969, Louis Armstrong told his longtime friend and associate, Phoebe
Jacobs, the grande dame of the New York jazz scene, that he wanted to start
a foundation "to give back to people some of the goodness I've had from them
all these years." Thus began the Louis Armstrong Educational Fund, of which,
Ms. Jacobs is vice president.
Among its projects, including the Louis Armstrong Public School Jazz
Outreach Program in New Orleans, the nonprofit foundation has added to his
huge role in the shaping of jazz history a significant contribution to the
history of medical music therapy in hospitals and other care centers.
Several times, Armstrong had been a patient at Beth Israel Hospital in New
York, where he became very impressed with the medical staff, and decided to
provide funds that would be devoted to music therapy for children -- a field
in which he'd had some experience, have years before, for instance, provided
recordings of a wide range of music to help create a more relaxed ambience
as children were being born in a New Orleans hospital.
For more than 10 years, at Beth Israel, the Louis and Lucille Armstrong
Music Therapy Program -- under the direction of Dr. Joanne Loewy,
internationally known for this work -- has supported research and clinical
music therapy for infants, children and families at the hospital, and for
outpatients, and patients with HIV.
The program has been enlarged to include the hospital's nationally
recognized Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, its intensive
care units and the neonatal intensive care unit -- an addition that would
have greatly pleased the large-hearted funder of these advances in the
healing power of music.
Last month there was a ribbon-cutting at Beth Israel to further expand the
founding program by Armstrong and his wife by adding the new Louis Armstrong
Center for Music and Medicine. Its focus will be on medical treatment for
children and adults with asthma and chronic pulmonary disease (COPD).
"Asthma," says Dr. Joanne Loewy -- who radiates her enthusiasm for the
palpable results of her work -- "is the No. 1 admitting diagnosis for
children in hospitals. So we are currently studying the effects of wind
playing -- such as playing a flute or a horn -- in lung volume capacity and
quality of life in children and teenagers."
On the morning of the ribbon-cutting -- before the speeches and a tribute to
hospital trustee Richard Netter, whose $1.25 million gift helped make
possible the full Music and Medicine Center -- all conversation stopped as a
joyous thunderclap of jazz resounded from a balcony near the ceiling.
There, standing alone, Jon Faddis, a trumpet player of prodigious lyrical
force, was playing "West End Blues," a Louis Armstrong recorded solo in the
1920s that electrified the burgeoning jazz community then, and ever since.
The program guide had accurately described Mr. Faddis as a "herald" of this
life-enhancing event. And there, next to him, in a wheelchair, was the other
"herald" of the morning, the ceaselessly inventive octogenarian Clark Terry,
who played another song long associated with Louis Armstrong, "What a
Wonderful World."
Sitting below, I was lifted by the two glowing trumpeters into a memory of
Louis Armstrong's exuberant pleasure in giving pleasure to his listeners,
including other musicians. Mr. Terry once recalled that when he and Dizzy
Gillespie (a mentor of Mr. Faddis) were living in Corona, Queens, they'd
walk over to Louis Armstrong's home. Welcoming them, Armstrong would say,
"Sit down, I'm gonna give you the history of jazz." On this morning, they
were witnessing to Louis's legacy of expanding the history of jazz to
illuminate its healing powers.
Ms. Jacobs, in her remarks when we came down to earth, said: "You might
think Louis Armstrong is dead. He's not. His spirit keeps on infecting us
all."
Then, looking around the room, Ms. Jacobs paused and said to the doctors and
to the past and potential patients present: "Music is more important now
that we have all these troubles in the world, and here in this country. You
don't have to be in a hospital to benefit from music therapy."
Later, I told Ms. Jacobs what Merle Haggard, whose roots are in jazz as well
as country, had said to me: "When I get really way down, and nothing lifts
me up, only music can."
Dr. Loewy and her staff at Beth Israel, sharing their research with medical
centers in this and other countries, are lifting up many bodies and spirits.
In an article in the March Medical Herald about her work at Beth Israel, she
says, for one example: "Rhythm is the first area that helps us understand
the logic of medical music therapy, because the heartbeat is the first thing
that a doctor looks at to assess the physical parameters of the body. If we
can look into the rhythm and look at the effect of rhythm in terms of
healing, that kind of work is very important, especially in diseases such as
Parkinson's where you're looking to improve gait control...
"Once I begin to use music," she continues, "people see results...Parents
see their children start to sing when they can't talk. The same thing with
stroke. We know that music combines right brain and left brain. So, we just
see the results of music therapy" there too.
Currently being planned at Beth Israel is a Music Therapy Wellness Center
for Musicians. A summary sent to me by Dr. Loewy explains that the center
would care for "musicians who suffer, from other things, depression, anxiety
and overuse syndrome. An interesting phenomenon among musicians is that
women musicians are at significantly greater risk for playing-related
injury, as are players of string instruments. Typically, people don't think
musicians are injured and this is clearly an under-recognized health
problem."
Wind and brass players, Dr. Loewy notes, have problems affecting facial
muscles, hands, wrists and arms. "The role of the Wellness Center would be
to implement musical visualization techniques and provide intervallic
synthesis breathing and physical exercises to implement breathing, thus
preventing such injuries."
"Of all people," she emphasizes, "the power of music to bring people
together was enhanced by Louis Armstrong. We would like to hallow the
Armstrong name in a tangible, living way."
There are many more choruses to come as the rhythms of Louis Armstrong keep
reverberating.
Mr. Hentoff writes about jazz for the Journal.
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113581415818933409.html
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is
for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this
material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For
non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones
Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
