This paper draws on music therapeutic, neuroscientific, and
philosophical literature to posit three aspects of musical engagement
that qualify music as an unusually accessible stimulus: 1) audition as
a means of self-orientation 2) music’s instigation of self-referential
thought, and 3) the lower threshold required for processing musical
meaning compared to linguistic meaning. This accessibility renders
music a promising therapeutic stimulus for people living with a
disorder of consciousness or other cognitive disorders, as clinical
studies suggest. Moreover, this paper argues that culturally sensitive
music theory and cognition can help maximize music’s therapeutic
potential by clarifying the variables that influence the accessibility
of musical stimuli. Specifically, by complicating the research
findings from participant cohorts dominated by members of Western,
Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies,
music theory and cognition can illuminate how cultural context impacts
the manner and extent to which listeners derive therapeutic benefit
from musical structures. This suggests that there is fertile ground
for future collaborative work between music therapists, cognitivists,
and theorists.
