Music Therapy

A thought-provoking collection of essays, lectures, and notes on music therapy by Karl König

Music therapy helps to support the mental and emotional lives of individuals through therapeutic exercises that utilize a variety of musical elements. Drawing on the work of Rudolf Steiner, Karl König—a pioneer of various forms of therapy within the Camphill movement—developed the basics of anthroposophic music therapy, focusing on the fundamentals of music and how they connect to human beings.

This fascinating book gathers König's lectures, essays, and notes on music therapy, most never before published. Here he explores areas such as studies on hearing, the nature of musical experience, and the role of music in Camphill and music therapy for those with impaired hearing.

Along with the original writings, the book includes an in-depth introduction by music therapist Katarina Seeherr that explores the evolution of Karl König's ideas as they relate to music and music therapy and how he inspired many musicians and therapists to develop this form of therapy.

THE PATH TO MUSIC THERAPY
[from the book]

Music played an important part in the building up of the Camphill movement. König often played the piano and conducted a small Camphill orchestra. For instance, we know that in 1944, during the memorial event for a child who had died, he played parts of Lohengrin and Parzifal, and that he also often played piano for four hands together with Susanne Lissau (later Müller-Wiedemann). In his diary entry of July 15, 1953, he wrote:

"The Hebrides Overture resounds in ancient beauty as do Schubert’s Unfinished and his immortal Quintet. It is good to be allowed to live with these sounds and harmonies again."

In those first few years, König invited several musicians to Camphill to make music with the children, among them were Hans Schauder and Ferdinand Rauter.

Hans Schauder met König when Schauder was still a medical student. Through school friends Rudi Lissau and Alex Baum he joined the Youth Group that had formed around König after the latter had left Germany in 1936 and settled again in Vienna. Together with König, Schauder became part of the group of Camphill founders in Scotland in 1939. Schauder was unable to complete his medical studies in Vienna, but he found an opportunity to finish them in Basel where he wrote his dissertation on music therapy and the healing effect of art, a subject that was especially close to his heart.

It was important to Schauder to approach his patients like an artist. He began with the premise that music possesses a particular affinity with the human being, and he wrote about how the inner structure of music is linked to the inner spiritual structure of the human soul. Although Schauder did not have an opportunity to put his ideas into practice, his thesis supervisor nevertheless found his new art-therapy approach worthy of support. He claimed that it ‘finally created a basis for music therapy’ and subsequently praised it to the university faculty.

This dissertation is in fact one of the first on the theme of healing through music, and König considered Schauder to be one of his most successful students.