Well Tempered Therapy
Reprinted from Lilipoh Magazine Summer 2001

Last spring a concerned fourth grade class teacher spoke to me about three boys who seemed unable to sing with the rest. She wondered if anything could be done: their apparent monotone singing attempts were unsettling to the class. Convinced that every human being is fundamentally musical, I immediately arranged to work with the boys; certain that once the true cause was revealed, steps could be taken to assist them in discovering their inner tone and the relationship to outer pitch. Not surprisingly I found that, although the effect was the same, the cause of the problem was different for each boy. 

The first child was very phlegmatic and easy going, an adopted, only child with a bit of a lazy streak, and although sweet, used to being the center of attention. It became clear right away that he was able to match pitches when he had generated enough interest to actually listen to them first. Stimulating interest in the singing activity itself, as well as interest in the social exercise of engaging with his classmates in singing proved to be all this child needed to not only solve his "pitch problems" but, over time, to become a more integrated member of his class. 

I learned that the second boy, new to our school, had lost his mother to cancer just the previous summer. In working with him, I was not surprised to find that his choice of pitch was deliberate-it was simply too painful for him to sing in the higher register where he used to sing with his mother. Moved with compassion, I sensed that he was clearly an inwardly sensitive child by nature, and he responded immediately when I asked him to listen within, and then to sing whatever tone he heard inside, which I then matched with my voice and lyre. He loved this exercise of my confirmation of the tone that he had sounded, and over time I was able to coax the register up in increments until, gradually, feeling more confidence in himself, he was able to expand the range in which he was comfortable singing. It was truly a healing work for this child. One day, after several months of this, he gave me a remarkable insight: I had asked him, as usual, to quiet himself and to listen within, and then to hum whatever tone was sounding in him. He listened for longer than usual and then, furrowing his brow, informed me that he was having a hard time hearing his tone that day. Determined, he listened again. Suddenly, out of the silence, he opened his eyes wide and exclaimed, "I know what the problem is! I've been playing a lot with my new Nintendo, and every time I listen today, I'm hearing the sound of that Nintendo, which is covering up the sound of my own tone!" 

I wonder how many children in our time have lost the ability to hear that difference and, on a subtle level and without knowing why, feel cut off from an essential part of their being. In her book "Man, Music and Cosmos," concert pianist Anny von Lange, who dedicated herself to researching Rudolf Steiner's indications about music in the mid-1900's wrote: "There are no truly unmusical people. In so far as we are a microcosm we must indeed reflect the proportions and laws of the Universe. These are musical in an all- embracing sense. So, if a person is branded as unmusical and is prevented from taking part in the making of music, he is as if cut off from the resounding origin of his own being. It is not surprising that in almost all such cases, inferiority complexes and illnesses arise in the course of development" 

The third child was the only one of the three who hears distinctly different tonal relationships than we are accustomed to here in the West. Once again, Anny von Lange provided an insight, which allowed me to work with this boy in a different way: 

"What we call absolute pitch today is tuning according the Western tonal system. It took over from the so-called true intonation which was in use up to the time of Bach. But what has happened? Depending on its function as inferred from a given key note, every note changes its pitch slightly, according to the interval. As the 
medieval tonal system developed into the uniformity of the major/minor system, there were seven or more 
different scales; afterwards only two basic forms were recognized and were transposed. The notes had to develop 
a stable relationship with one another; so an average of all the differences was taken and the octave was divided into twelve equal semitones. This was known as 'well-tempering': 

In reality, all intervals except the octave became slightly out of tune. What is today referred to as absolute pitch is incorrect by name. When children and adults have difficulty singing in tune in the tempered sense, this is due in many cases to a subtle musical sense, which agrees, in a free and uninhibited way, with an inner absolute pitch. When we meet such children or adults we often find they are more musical more free and uninhibited in inner regions of absolute pitch. They mostly have a fluctuating soul-nature and need more time to find their way into arbitrary musical relationships rooted in intellectuality. But, on the other hand, these are people who have a deep, intense, qualitative experience of music.

In reality, all intervals except the octave became slightly out of tune. What is today referred to as absolute pitch is incorrect by name. When children and adults have difficulty singing in tune in the tempered sense, this is due in many cases to a subtle musical sense, which agrees, in a free and uninhibited way, with an inner absolute pitch. When we meet such children or adults we often find they are more musical more free and uninhibited in inner regions of absolute pitch. They mostly have a fluctuating soul-nature and need more time to find their way into arbitrary musical relationships rooted in intellectuality. But, on the other hand, these are people who have a deep, intense, qualitative experience of music. As children they cannot understand why their companions do not appreciate their singing, and through all too harsh rebuffs and prohibitions they often receive a shock, which affects the whole of their lives. For in the deepest recesses of their being they are truly musical people. Time and loving guidance enable them to waken unconstrainedly into the tempered sounds.

And indeed, that was the case with this child. These various insights have been enormous gifts which have :moved me to understand more deeply the nature of hearing, the relationship between inner and outer tone and the critical need to foster and nurture such a healing relationship in the children of our time.. 

Sheila Johns is a pianist and lyricist who teaches music at the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda, MD (301)681-6546. 


Copyright 2001. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be used or reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.