Music to the Patient’s Ear? Comparative Reflections on Therapies in Medieval Hospitals

DIMECRES, 4 DE JULIOL DE 2012 - A LES ONZE HORES DEL MATÍ

Saló d’Actes de la Delegació del CSIC a Catalunya

Carrer de les Egipcíaques 15 – 08001 Barcelona

CSIC - INSTITUCIÓ MILÀ I FONTANALS, BARCELONA

Acció transversal “Repensant les alteritats”

SEMINARIS “PRÀCTIQUES CULTURALS, SABERS I PATRIMONI: MÚSICA, CIÈNCIA, MEDICINA”

Music to the Patient’s Ear?

Comparative Reflections on Therapies in Medieval Hospitals

Peregrine Horden

Royal Holloway College, University of London

In this paper I shall return to a subject on which I have written before, revisiting it in the light of several recent publications, most notably Christopher Page’s monumental The Christian West and its Singers (2010). The subject is the place of music, both religious and recreational, within a broader range of therapies characteristically practised in the hospitals of Christian Europe, Byzantium and Islam. Where and when was there music therapy in medieval hospitals? How significant was it –and how effective?