"We are all musical:
The Importance and Potential of Music"

Between 22nd and 24th May 2006, jazz musician and psychologist Raymond MacDonald visited the Isle of Lewis, Orkney and Inverness to talk about the importance and potential of music in a series of three lectures.

The talks, entitled “We are all musical” (which can be downloaded from the foot of this page) were part of the UHI Millennium Institute public lecture series, organised in partnership with HI-Arts, the arts development agency for the Highlands and Islands.

Raymond MacDonald’s lectures surveyed world-wide research on how music is a fundamental channel of communication.  In the lectures, he considers how people are all musical, and the diverse ways in which music can be experienced.

Research projects considered in the lectures include the work of an Indonesian Gamelan band for individuals with special needs; the fundamental importance of improvisation within musical development; how music can be used for pain and anxiety relief in hospitals; the possible evolutionary functions of music and how musical tastes and preferences are crucial indicators of who people are.  Recent thinking in relation to music and brain function is also presented.

A reader in psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, Dr MacDonald is also artistic director of Sounds of Progress, working with individuals who have special needs, as well as being a saxophonist and composer who performs internationally. He has recorded many CDs.

His connections with the Highlands and Islands include mentoring Easter Ross-based fiddler Sarah Munro, a fellow at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, on her research into the therapeutic effects of musical scales, and collaborating on a major commission for An Tobar Arts Centre in Tobermory.

His own PhD investigated the educational and therapeutic effects of music workshops for individuals with special needs.  He is co-editor of two books, Musical Identities and Musical Communication, and is the head of the Glasgow Caledonian Music Research Group.

HI-Arts director, Robert Livingston, said “The importance of music both to individuals and to human society is a topic of immediate relevance, from debates about the role of music in the school curriculum to the investigations of neurologists into the make-up of the brain. Music plays a crucial and distinctive role in the culture of the Highlands and Islands, past and present.

“As both an acclaimed performer and an academic working on cutting-edge research, Raymond MacDonald is especially well-qualified to consider the assertion that we are all musical.  At HI~Arts we are delighted to be able to work with UHI Millennium Institute on this ongoing programme of lectures on such key cultural themes.”

Related links:

• UHI's Public Lecture Series
• Raymond MacDonald Interview 2005