IMAGINE

    For this assignment, I watched a documentary done by the BBC in their Imagine series.  Entitled "Tales of Music and the Brain", the documentary narrated by Alan Yentob, shows the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks. In this documentary 4 individuals and their stories are featured,   Through research Dr. Sacks found a link between people with disabilities and music, Alan Yentob shows us a few of those extreme examples.
   The first person the documentary features is Matt Giardano, a twenty-five year old from upstate New York.  Matt was born with turrets syndrome and at the early age of 2 was inspired to play the drums once he heard the Moody Blues tune "Singer in a Rock n' Roll Band". There was little known about Turrets in the 1980's and the doctors had little they could do for him.  During Matt's early years, he would frequently lash out in anger towards others and eventually towards himself.  To protect Matt from causing harm to himself he went to a hospital in an attempt to help him with his condition.  After 4 years Matt returned from the hospital and went back to school.  There he continued his passion for playing the drums.  He describes a time playing the drums when he was younger, "feeling the puzzle pieces in the two hemispheres of his brain clicking and shooting an amazing feeling throughout his body."  With two full drum sets in the house, Matt uses drumming as a way to get through the day, not just as a hobby.  However, Matt Giardano is not the only person positively effected by the performance of music.
   Derek Paravicini, a 28 year old man displays one of the most unique music talents ever.  Derek, not only born 3 months prematurely and weighing 1 pound 5 ounces, he was also born blind.  At the age of 4, he was sent to a school for the blind, where he started playing the piano on his own.  Unknown to him or anyone for that matter Derek was not only teaching himself how to play he was doing it well.  Quickly, his unusual skill was noticed and he then took piano lessons to learn the proper fingerings of the piano.  However, his greatest skill was yet to be discovered.  After years of practice, Derek now can hear a recording of a song on piano played only once, and without any practice, can play the exact music back to you.  As if that weren't enough, he can even improvise and play around with this core melody and make it his own.  Doctors have noticed that since he was blind his other sense had been more developed more advanced.  A man who can't see and who can barely count to 10, plays some of the most advanced classical pieces after just one listen.  Another interesting case comes from a large family with an extended history in music.
   One of eight children born to an Irish family, Anne Barker is the Music version of color blind.  In other words, some of the most beautiful classical music such as Beethoven and Mozart sound like awful noise to her.  This not just being an opinion, but a matter of fact, to her ears that is.  Tests were done to prove that she was in fact "sound blind".  The tests proved that she was, they also showed that she could not tell any difference in pitch or key between two different versions of the same music.  This puzzled her because she had such a musical family, however this condition was not genetic. She spoke about how growing up as a kid and even today as an adult she could not dance or have much of a social life.  In good spirits she joked about how no boys ever wanted to dance with her at the local pubs. Finally, perhaps maybe the most unique story of them all is the story about how Tony Cicora became to be a composer of his own piano music.
   A wildly successful orthopedic surgeon had his life changed in one flash of lightening, literally.  Tony Cicora, after his tragic accident was said to of died, had an out of body experience and then come back to life a changed man.  After hearing doctors tell him that he may never walk again, Tony not only proved them wrong but he far exceeded expectations.  A product of the 60's and a product of the 60's in his early years, he had no desire let alone training on the piano.  However, after rehab Tony had something inside him craving to be able to play.  He taught himself to play through countless hours of intense practice; waking up at 4 am to practice before work and staying up later to practice when he got home.  This new obsession for music caused him and his wife to divorce as he pursued this new chapter in his life.  Once he mastered his skill at the piano he wrote music to be performed in a sell out crowd of 500.  The music was written to display the emotions he felt from his accident and they told his story in a sense. His show was a huge success and he says one day he may give up medicine to take on music full time.
   In all 4 cases there are similarities as well as differences. Matt, Derek and Anne all have had their conditions since birth while Tony obtained his late in life.  The one thing these people have in common as a group is that they have had an extreme experience with music. They are part of the population of people who have disabilities that found comfort, or in Anne's case, discomfort in the art of music.  Music caused each one of these people to feel something, whether it was passion, belonging, calmness or grief.  This ties in the fact that they can be view by society as people who have been touched in a specific way by music.  Music alone, simply alters their lives.
   This study of how music effects the nervous system done by Dr. Oliver Sacks has a remarkable effect on the perception of people with disabilities.  Not only does music effect these individuals in their daily lives, for the most part it helps them.  Matt Giardano is an inspiration to people who have turrets syndrome.  He is able to use music to help him focus and rid himself of ticks, as well as use it for his job and for personal performance.  The class he teaches, is full of inspired people who suffer with the same condition as him, and they come to his drumming class in hopes that is will have the same effect on them.  This is a win win for both parties involved.
   Dr. Sacks also shows us how music effects their lives in  ways such as mentally and socially.  The way these people have discovered music to be a vital point in there lives shows how people with disabilities can adapt.  There is hope for people with disabilities, their culture can be formed around not only music but other forms of art.  Another way culture falls into place here is with Tony Cicora who was not a musician of any kind before his accident.  He no is able to interact with a whole new set of people on an entirely different level.
   Through watching this documentary done by the BBC,  you can learn a great deal about not only people with special disabilities and unique stories but how music effects their lives.  All 4 of the people featured have a unique story and the effect music has on them makes them even more unique.  This leaves you to wonder, could music therapy be a major medicine in helping people cope with their disability?

Bio- BBC, Imagine, "Tales of Music and the Brain" the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks (documentary).