Why does music-thanatology use harp and voice?
The harp is portable and polyphonic. It is mostly wood and has live, vibrating strings. Those strings are allowed to ring, creating an audible sense of blossoming forth into life, followed by resonance and duration, and ending with a gentle taper towards restful silence. For music-thanatologists, the harp is eminently practical. We need to be able to play chords along with melody, harmony and counterpoint so that we have the greatest possible range of musical options to address the varied and changing circumstances presented by our patients and their families. Voice is another tool that we carry in our figurative medicine bag. Where the harp offers pure tone, the voice is a manifestation of breath and conveys an unmistakable quality of human presence. It can accompany the harp or take on the flow of a melodic or harmonic line. In addition, text may be woven into a vocal delivery as another texture, if such a thing is indicated. Some situations require a simple cycling between sound and
