Is there empirical evidence that demonstrates the efficacy of music therapy?
Musical response has always been looked upon as notoriously difficult to describe, much less to quantify and evaluate empirically. Thus the preponderance of evidence for the efficacy of music therapy is anecdotal. That is, the testimony of clients, parents, guardians and the staff and administrators of the many institutions that employ music therapists – not to speak of music therapists themselves, who document and present their cases meticulously – is that music therapy is an effective intervention in an ever-growing variety of circumstances. As the field grows in scope and stature, research is becoming more and more of a priority. This is evident in two areas. First, in the creation of scholarly journals which contain the results of empirical research studies undertaken by music therapists, such as the Journal of Music Therapy, published by the American Association for Music Therapy. Studies published are generally small in scale but significant in their results. Second, in the growt
