"Here we are, we've come to call
With pipes and flutes and fiddles and all,
In case of death we've even brought a keener!"

(Sorry, just one of my favorite Chieftains songs).

There's a huge movement in both music for healing and what's called "music thanatology" (thanatos=death, I think), and it's even becoming a profession--you can become a CMP, or "certified music practitioner". It's becoming very common, especially among harpists, but singers are a wonderful addition too. Laurie Riley, one of the gurus of the Celtic harp, has written several books on the subject, including one about how to start a music therapy program in your area if there isn't one already. Stella Benson has also written several books on the subject and has two "Healer's Way" CDs out as well.

I too have an extremely personal experience with this. About ten years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer in her early eighties, and because of her age it moved fast. WIthin six months she was pretty close to the edge, living at my parents' house in Ashland, Oregon. Annah was like a second mother to me, and one of the most shining presences I'd ever known, and the thought of losing her drove me just about out of my head.

I came home for Christmas break (I was in college in Eugene) and was lent a small harp by a friend of my mother's, who had heard I was conceiving a passion for the instrument but had never had the chance to really play one. I spent two or three days noodling around on it, immediately realizing that this was the instrument for me--my fingers seemed almost to know what to do without being told. I experimented with a few melodies and some singing, and one night I went and sat down at my grandmother's bedside and just spontaneously played and sang for her for about an hour. I still don't know for sure if she could hear me--she was more or less comatose at this point--but she had always loved to hear me sing and had sung to me when I was a child ("Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls, of all things...sort of a weird lullaby, but I loved it. ;)) Anyway, she died the next morning, the day before Christmas Eve.

I'd like to think that in some way I helped ease her transition, but there's no way to really know and I don't want to be presumptuous or pretentious. All I know is that it's always been incredibly special to me that I was able to do that, and it just confirmed that the harp was the instrument I was meant to play.

I've played at hospices several times and sung at a funeral or two, and there's no question that the music helps--whether it's the dying or those who are still living. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast--it's not just a saying.

Good luck!

Molly