Music and Social Health

Former German minister of the interior Otto Schily highlighted: “Anyone who closes music schools jeopardizes inner security.” In his large study at primary schools in Berlin at the end of the 1990th, Hans Günter Bastian found out that common music practice and extended music education can lead to more social competence.

In my lecture, I will give three examples of how music making cannot only avoid violence and criminality, but can also contribute to well-being among like-minded people.

1) The movie The Choir (les choristes) is a perfect demonstration, how common singing is able to weld together an initial heterogenous group of difficult educable children living in institutions of care

2) El Sistema is a famous programme for children in Venezuela financed by the state with the main objective that “music has to be recognised as an agent of social development” as José Antonio Abreu, its initiator highlights.

3) In my last year’s lecture, I presented my mail choir with an age average beyond 70 years. Recently I published a study on interviews conducted with the choristers to find out their views of social well-being."