Music, Medicine and Therapy in Vienna (c. 1820-1960)

The aim of this project is to investigate the historical evolution and precursors of music therapy in Vienna from c. 1820 to 1960. The projects content is divided into two parts and corresponding time periods: The first part is concerned with the interrelationship between music, medicine, and psychiatry in the 19th century, during which time the medical interest in music therapy in Vienna appears to have peaked in the 1840s. This part will comprise examinations of aspects such as the socio-cultural context (the emergence of modern psychiatry, political reforms of the welfare system under Joseph II, the establishment of institutions exclusively for the mentally ill, etc.), the early pioneers of the use of music in Viennese psychiatric institutions, as well as the medical and music-aesthetic discourse as specifically depicted in 19th-century Viennese dissertations in Latin and German on music and medicine (this will be the first scholarly analysis of these writings). This part of the project will become the main body of my habilitation thesis Music, Medicine, and Psychiatry in 19th-Century Vienna. The second part examines the period from c. 1900 to 1960, focusing on several cultural movements that emerged in the first half of the 20th century and inspired the progenitors of modern music therapy in Vienna, thereby paving the way for the inception of this unique therapeutic modality in 1958. Among these movements were the curative rhythm movement, anthroposophy and harmonics, as well as psychotherapy and progressive music-educational concepts. The research exploring these preconditions for the founding of the modern Vienna school of music therapy in 1958/59 will be presented in selected peer-reviewed articles. Additionally, I will organize an international conference on Music, Medicine, and Therapy in Historical Contexts (c. 18001960) to be held at the University of Vienna. In summary, this project endeavors to provide the hitherto missing historical description, contextualization, and analysis of the medical and therapeutic use of music in Vienna. The anticipated results of my work will be essential for any further historical investigation of the connection between music, medicine, and therapy in Western history.

The goal of the project was to provide the missing historical description, contextualization, and analysis of the use of music in medicine, psychiatry, and therapy in Vienna from c. 1800-1960. For that purpose I conducted extensive research in Viennese archives (biographical and medical records, clinic reports, site plans, pictures, etc.) and evaluated more than 1000 primary sources (historical books, medical articles, newspaper reports, sheet music, etc.) as well as secondary literature written on the topic. The main focus was placed on the habilitation theses "Music in Viennese medicine and psychiatry (c. 1780-1850)" completed in 2023, which comprises 680 pages. This monograph describes for the first time the emergence of music therapeutic concepts in Vienna at the end of the 18th century that were initially influenced by the medieval concept of dietetics ("res non naturales"), in which music was regarded as a means of preservation and restoration of the "harmony of the soul". Thus, Viennese physicians, who were oftentimes talented musicians, recommended music as a wholesome adjuvant, particularly in the phase of the patient's recovery. At the beginning of the 19th century, the physician Bruno Goergen (1777-1842) attempted to integrate music for the first time into Viennese psychiatry, initially by engaging patients of the Viennese "k. k. Lunatic-Asylum" with music. In 1819, Goergen founded the first "Private-Sanatorium for mentally ill" in Gumpendorf, which he relocated to Ober-Döbling in 1931. In 19th-century Viennese psychiatry music was not considered as a form of self-expression of the patient's emotions, but was primarily regarded as a means of useful occupation, distraction from morbid thoughts and "fixed ideas," as a means of "moral" education and entertainment (e.g. asylum concerts and chamber music). Strikingly, music was usually reserved for "upper class" patients, who were able to afford the costs of a private mental institution. The Biedermeier salon culture and domestic music of bourgeois and noble patients built the basis for musical activities in mental institutions. Patients from non-privileged "social classes," however, were usually excluded from musical activities. Within the project all 19th-century Viennese (Latin and German) medical monographs on music were evaluated in detail, offering new insights into various medical theories on music's effect on the body and soul and practical recommendations for the "musical doctor." The study provides a depiction of all music-related case histories and diagnoses, which were traced back to the original writings and historical contexts. Two articles shed light on the institutionalization of modern music therapy in Vienna around 1958, which was not only inspired by international music therapy movements (particularly in the US), but also by several reform movements, such as the curative rhythm and dance movement, anthroposophy, as well as psychotherapy and music-educational concepts.