What do you think?
Rate this book
Sounding the Inner Landscape: Music As Medicine
Sound has the capacity to affect us on all levelsphysical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Popular composer and musician Kay Gardnerwhose recording "A Rainbow Path" is considered a classic draws upon research into mathematics, chemistry, physics, and ancient cultures, to explain the healing effects of different instruments, keys, and musical forms. References to well-known musical works, as well as photographs, musical notations, and illustrations, enrich this transformative book.
- GenresMusicSpirituality
268 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 5, 2026
AN INFORMATIVE AND ‘PERSONAL’ VIEW OF MUSIC BY A NOTED COMPOSER
Kay Gardner (1941-2002) was a composer, musician, author, and Dianic priestess/healer who was a very influential figure in ‘Women’s Music.’
She wrote in the Preface to this 1990 book, “After more than 15 years of teaching experiential workshops on the healing properties of music---and of composing music especially designed to accompany the healing process---I felt it was time to put the information into words on the page… As a field, music therapy has concentrated heavily on behavior modification in special communities of patients and has lost itself in statistical studies. Thus, the original intent of music therapy has been diverted away from the study of how music heals, and away from its potential as medicine for physical as well as emotional and mental disease.
“I write this book as a composer and as a theorist who is intensely interested in the curative properties and healing effects of music… What I hope to offer the reader is an exploration into what music is as a healing force, and what music can be when its healing elements are understood and applied by composers, healers, and therapists. In most Native American cultures, the term ‘medicine’ is a much broader term than it is when used by modern allopathic medical practitioners. Medicine, in this broader context, is a beneficent force, the universal source of wellness, goodness, wholeness, and holiness. It is in this context that I subtitle this book ‘Music as Medicine.’”
She reports, “At dusk on August 16 [1987] and at sunrise on August 17, large groups of people met at sacred sites throughout the world… According to the ancient Mayan and Aztec calendars studied by anthropologist José Arguelles, these two days were ‘precise calibration points in a harmonic scale that marks the moment when the process of global civilization climaxes.’ Arguelles cited the Mayan prophecies… August 16 and 17 were the mark of the dawning of a new age, a time when … a future resonance and synchronicity of human consciousness, bringing peaceful co-existence among world peoples… I celebrated the Harmonic Convergence at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival… In 1987 seers were predicting that after a few years of chaos, militarism would cease, world-political structures would change drastically, and by 2012 a new post-industrial peace mobilization would bring the full attainment of human potential. With 1989’s dismantling of the Berlin Wall, rising of the Chinese students, changes in South Africa’s apartheid policies, and political restructuring of Eastern Europe, it appears that the prophets and seers were correct.” (Pg. 61)
Later, she adds, “The basic concerns of the new age are in the rebirth of individual spirituality, exploration of the religious traditions and meditational practices of all cultures, global celebration of human rights, and environmental preservation. Though no one can agree as to when the new age began or is to begin, I believe that by the year 2012, as prophesied, by the Mayans and celebrated during the Harmonic Convergence of 1987… the new age will be in full swing.” (Pg. 207)
She states, “Let’s look… at the sequence of harmonies or overtones… illustrated with the note C, as the fundamental... we’ll see that each harmonic note vibrates in sync with the fundamental note. Because of this ‘in-sync-ness,’ this naturalness, the harmonic sequence when played as a chord is sometimes called ‘Nature’s Chord.” (Pg. 107)
She asserts, “I must point out here that most modern instruments are not tuned exactly to Nature’s Chord, which is also called ‘just tuning.’ Today’s Western instruments are almost all tuned to the keyboard, which is tuned to ‘equal temperament,’ a tuning system that comes close to Nature’s Chord but doesn’t match it exactly. (‘Just tuning’ can still occur in singing and on unfretted string instruments.) Even the ‘perfect’ fifth and ‘perfect’ fourth in equal temperament are NOT perfect… I believe that music written for instruments tuned in the old tunings, those with small number-ratios, is more healing than the music written for instruments tuned in equal temperament.” (Pg. 113)
She explains, “As a feminist composer, when I learned that both the Lesbian (Mixolydian) and Lydian modes’ invention had been attributed to women or matriarchal cultures, I began to improvise and compose almost exclusively in those modes… After a few years I decided to combine the two modes into my own scale, a ‘mixed mode.’ By raising the fourth (as in the Lydian mode) and flattening the seventh (as in the lesbian mode), I had a very interesting and beautiful and interesting new scale to play with… and for three years I improvised in it to my great satisfaction.” (Pg. 143)
She summarizes, “I have written this book as a feminist with a strong belief in the strength of Woman as healer, bringer of balance and wholeness. For centuries, because of male dominance, the balance of the world has been awry. With imbalance comes dis-ease. As women become equal partners in world affairs… balance will be restored and true global healing will take place. I believe that the subtle yet powerful elements of music and sound, as described in this book, will be of great importance in the healing process of Earth and humanity.” (Pg. 226)
She reports in an Appendix, of Hildegard of Bingen’s ‘illumination’ at 42 years of age: “After the vision, she got out of bed with new strength and began writing. From then on she considered herself a prophet and a healer, and through her writings and glorious music… she illumined the darkness for generations to come. My own personal experience: In 1971 I was in a very vulnerable state. After eleven years of marriage and two children, I found I was in love with [Eleanor] my best friend! It was entirely impossible for me to speak about this with her. As she was married and the mother of three children, I thought she’d loathe me if I told her… I felt that I was the only person in the world with this ‘problem.’ … I went to the local mental health clinic. I told the psychologist that I was in love with my best friend and as a result was suicidal. He prescribed Thorazine…” (Pg. 238-239)
She continues, “I took the medication for one month while continuing my work at the local university and in the city’s symphony orchestra… When the Thorazine ran out I did not renew the prescription. Instead I began to smoke cigarettes… When [Eleanor’s] husband had to cancel out on a weekend workshop studying sensory awareness with [bodywork teacher] Charlotte Selver … I was asked to go in his place. Of course I accepted… Charlotte had us do a very simple exercise. We sat… with our feet flat on the ground… We were asked merely to feel our feet’s connection with the earth beneath us. All of a sudden… a feeling of such joy came over me that other workshop participants noticed it…” (Pg. 239)
She goes on, “After the session, I went out on the grounds and sat under a tree, still radiating the bliss… I became the sky. And then I became the sun… and I was gloriously happy… beyond any words… It was Love in me, around me, through me, of me. I WAS Divine Love, and Divine Love was me… I [later] learned that I had experienced a spontaneous rising of Kundalini… that evening I told Elanor how I felt about her, and she … was flattered and loving. My life changed radically…. Months later, after therapy, I decided to go back to college for the music degree I’d never finished. I also decided that I would never hide my lesbianism, because it was my own true self.” (Pg. 239-240)
She reveals, “What happened as a result of the Kundalini’s rising? I began to hear music as I’d never heard it before… I felt I had complete understanding of whatever music I played, as if I were the one who composed it! Also, I started to create my own music… I was now… hearing … entire symphonies in waterfalls and in the ocean surf. I’ve never since had a similar ‘whoosh’ of rising Kundalini. When I’m open and trusting… I can feel it glow in me at certain times when I teach or play concerts… I feel it was a great gift to me, although it took years to process it… and to celebrate it. I find it hard to share this part of my life with others… who have not experienced it yet… I’m not sure that the rise of Kundalini is such a unique experience…” (Pg. 240)
She concludes, “If this is so, then enlightened people have attained their own divine nature---called by some, ‘Christ consciousness.’ If Christ consciousness is the enlightenment that results from the rise of Kundalini, then it is available to all who strive for it and prepare for it. According to Gopi Krishna, Kundalini is the next natural step of human evolution.” (Pg. 241)
This very ‘personal’ book will be of great interest to those studying healing music, women’s music, and contemporary spiritual music.
Kay Gardner (1941-2002) was a composer, musician, author, and Dianic priestess/healer who was a very influential figure in ‘Women’s Music.’
She wrote in the Preface to this 1990 book, “After more than 15 years of teaching experiential workshops on the healing properties of music---and of composing music especially designed to accompany the healing process---I felt it was time to put the information into words on the page… As a field, music therapy has concentrated heavily on behavior modification in special communities of patients and has lost itself in statistical studies. Thus, the original intent of music therapy has been diverted away from the study of how music heals, and away from its potential as medicine for physical as well as emotional and mental disease.
“I write this book as a composer and as a theorist who is intensely interested in the curative properties and healing effects of music… What I hope to offer the reader is an exploration into what music is as a healing force, and what music can be when its healing elements are understood and applied by composers, healers, and therapists. In most Native American cultures, the term ‘medicine’ is a much broader term than it is when used by modern allopathic medical practitioners. Medicine, in this broader context, is a beneficent force, the universal source of wellness, goodness, wholeness, and holiness. It is in this context that I subtitle this book ‘Music as Medicine.’”
She reports, “At dusk on August 16 [1987] and at sunrise on August 17, large groups of people met at sacred sites throughout the world… According to the ancient Mayan and Aztec calendars studied by anthropologist José Arguelles, these two days were ‘precise calibration points in a harmonic scale that marks the moment when the process of global civilization climaxes.’ Arguelles cited the Mayan prophecies… August 16 and 17 were the mark of the dawning of a new age, a time when … a future resonance and synchronicity of human consciousness, bringing peaceful co-existence among world peoples… I celebrated the Harmonic Convergence at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival… In 1987 seers were predicting that after a few years of chaos, militarism would cease, world-political structures would change drastically, and by 2012 a new post-industrial peace mobilization would bring the full attainment of human potential. With 1989’s dismantling of the Berlin Wall, rising of the Chinese students, changes in South Africa’s apartheid policies, and political restructuring of Eastern Europe, it appears that the prophets and seers were correct.” (Pg. 61)
Later, she adds, “The basic concerns of the new age are in the rebirth of individual spirituality, exploration of the religious traditions and meditational practices of all cultures, global celebration of human rights, and environmental preservation. Though no one can agree as to when the new age began or is to begin, I believe that by the year 2012, as prophesied, by the Mayans and celebrated during the Harmonic Convergence of 1987… the new age will be in full swing.” (Pg. 207)
She states, “Let’s look… at the sequence of harmonies or overtones… illustrated with the note C, as the fundamental... we’ll see that each harmonic note vibrates in sync with the fundamental note. Because of this ‘in-sync-ness,’ this naturalness, the harmonic sequence when played as a chord is sometimes called ‘Nature’s Chord.” (Pg. 107)
She asserts, “I must point out here that most modern instruments are not tuned exactly to Nature’s Chord, which is also called ‘just tuning.’ Today’s Western instruments are almost all tuned to the keyboard, which is tuned to ‘equal temperament,’ a tuning system that comes close to Nature’s Chord but doesn’t match it exactly. (‘Just tuning’ can still occur in singing and on unfretted string instruments.) Even the ‘perfect’ fifth and ‘perfect’ fourth in equal temperament are NOT perfect… I believe that music written for instruments tuned in the old tunings, those with small number-ratios, is more healing than the music written for instruments tuned in equal temperament.” (Pg. 113)
She explains, “As a feminist composer, when I learned that both the Lesbian (Mixolydian) and Lydian modes’ invention had been attributed to women or matriarchal cultures, I began to improvise and compose almost exclusively in those modes… After a few years I decided to combine the two modes into my own scale, a ‘mixed mode.’ By raising the fourth (as in the Lydian mode) and flattening the seventh (as in the lesbian mode), I had a very interesting and beautiful and interesting new scale to play with… and for three years I improvised in it to my great satisfaction.” (Pg. 143)
She summarizes, “I have written this book as a feminist with a strong belief in the strength of Woman as healer, bringer of balance and wholeness. For centuries, because of male dominance, the balance of the world has been awry. With imbalance comes dis-ease. As women become equal partners in world affairs… balance will be restored and true global healing will take place. I believe that the subtle yet powerful elements of music and sound, as described in this book, will be of great importance in the healing process of Earth and humanity.” (Pg. 226)
She reports in an Appendix, of Hildegard of Bingen’s ‘illumination’ at 42 years of age: “After the vision, she got out of bed with new strength and began writing. From then on she considered herself a prophet and a healer, and through her writings and glorious music… she illumined the darkness for generations to come. My own personal experience: In 1971 I was in a very vulnerable state. After eleven years of marriage and two children, I found I was in love with [Eleanor] my best friend! It was entirely impossible for me to speak about this with her. As she was married and the mother of three children, I thought she’d loathe me if I told her… I felt that I was the only person in the world with this ‘problem.’ … I went to the local mental health clinic. I told the psychologist that I was in love with my best friend and as a result was suicidal. He prescribed Thorazine…” (Pg. 238-239)
She continues, “I took the medication for one month while continuing my work at the local university and in the city’s symphony orchestra… When the Thorazine ran out I did not renew the prescription. Instead I began to smoke cigarettes… When [Eleanor’s] husband had to cancel out on a weekend workshop studying sensory awareness with [bodywork teacher] Charlotte Selver … I was asked to go in his place. Of course I accepted… Charlotte had us do a very simple exercise. We sat… with our feet flat on the ground… We were asked merely to feel our feet’s connection with the earth beneath us. All of a sudden… a feeling of such joy came over me that other workshop participants noticed it…” (Pg. 239)
She goes on, “After the session, I went out on the grounds and sat under a tree, still radiating the bliss… I became the sky. And then I became the sun… and I was gloriously happy… beyond any words… It was Love in me, around me, through me, of me. I WAS Divine Love, and Divine Love was me… I [later] learned that I had experienced a spontaneous rising of Kundalini… that evening I told Elanor how I felt about her, and she … was flattered and loving. My life changed radically…. Months later, after therapy, I decided to go back to college for the music degree I’d never finished. I also decided that I would never hide my lesbianism, because it was my own true self.” (Pg. 239-240)
She reveals, “What happened as a result of the Kundalini’s rising? I began to hear music as I’d never heard it before… I felt I had complete understanding of whatever music I played, as if I were the one who composed it! Also, I started to create my own music… I was now… hearing … entire symphonies in waterfalls and in the ocean surf. I’ve never since had a similar ‘whoosh’ of rising Kundalini. When I’m open and trusting… I can feel it glow in me at certain times when I teach or play concerts… I feel it was a great gift to me, although it took years to process it… and to celebrate it. I find it hard to share this part of my life with others… who have not experienced it yet… I’m not sure that the rise of Kundalini is such a unique experience…” (Pg. 240)
She concludes, “If this is so, then enlightened people have attained their own divine nature---called by some, ‘Christ consciousness.’ If Christ consciousness is the enlightenment that results from the rise of Kundalini, then it is available to all who strive for it and prepare for it. According to Gopi Krishna, Kundalini is the next natural step of human evolution.” (Pg. 241)
This very ‘personal’ book will be of great interest to those studying healing music, women’s music, and contemporary spiritual music.
July 31, 2019
Enjoyed reading this book. I am interested in music as a healing medium. I relate to her perspectives and she does go into detail that is helpful to understand the bodies energy systems. This lays a good foundation for understanding how music heals.
April 15, 2020
Hands down, my favourite overview on music and healing.
September 17, 2009
I read this as part of my research for my music therapy project. Very interesting. I think she has a couple far out ideas (she's a feminist for the 70's) but it was a very mind broadening book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews