It is likely that scientific research and clinical experience will motivate the production of musical compositions which are designed for certain classes of patients. This will require much skill, craftsmanship, gift of adaptation and assimilation of established patterns as well as disciplined imagination, but the creation of such planned utilitarian works would not be possible without the continuation of music as a self sufficient art activated by its own emotional and spiritual reaction and enjoyment. No derivative may exist and progress by suppression of the source which must aliment it continuously by its own growth and through the conservation of its individual characteristics. Music as an art has its own internal laws of creation and traditional development. These laws are not casual but organic and they can not be violated without self destruction. Consequently, the beneficial effects of music can be applied for utilitarian purposes only if its integrity is safe from external intervention, even if only temporarily, and if the element of social usefulness does not influence the creative process. The criteria of artistic and practical values do not necessarily coincide. Artistic value is defined only by time, the practical value is a matter of present usefulness. Works of great artistic value may be useful, whereas facile “hits” which fall into oblivion within a brief period may prove extremely useful, and that is why the two conceptions must be differentiated. Michelangelo’s _Medici Tomb_, or a Bach _Mass_ are completely useless in the practical sense of the work, and most successful “hit-songs” are completely devoid of any artistic value or originality. Yet both kinds supply the specific wants of those who would lament the absence of either of them. This resolves itself into a question of taste, educational background, musical culture and other factors which I presume are of importance in the clinical use of music. Patients will show preferential response to the music they like regardless of the elements of mood, tempo, rhythm and pitch. But classifications are always dangerous. Good music is not necessarily useless, and useful music is not necessarily bad music. The eternal principal of _suum cuique_ is the principle of individual human taste which can be placed into approximate categories, but cannot be standardized without the artificial interference of external factors. The same principle certainly applies to music as a weapon of healing, where selection should be determined by science but at the same time we must strive to adapt the results of research of the individual preferences of normal subjects. Alexandre Tansman Los Angeles, January 1946 CONTENTS _Introduction_ ix Chapter I _History of Music in Medicine_ 1