As Kate loses more of her memory and experiences more confusion, I am happy to say that music continues to be uplifting for her and, of course, for me. I enjoy both the music and seeing her derive so much pleasure. It has led me to experiment a little more. As I mentioned in a previous post, I replaced a DVD of Sound of Music when she didn’t put down her iPad to watch. I wondered if she would respond differently to Les Miserables, her (and my) favorite musical. She responded immediately by putting down the iPad and watching intently. Last night, I picked up where we left off the previous night. Once again, she was quickly engaged. Periodically, she audibly expressed her pleasure. At one point she said, “I know we’ve seen this before, but I’m enjoying it just as much as this time.” That was the first time I recall her indicating that she had seen it before. I didn’t tell her it was the seventh time in the past seven or eight weeks.
Incidentally, I believe it is more than the music itself that causes Les Miserables to have such an impact on her. That musical is sometimes referred to as one of the most operatic of Broadway musicals. That is because virtually all the dialogue is sung the way it is in operas. That is especially true in the concert version that we have been watching. The production moves continuously from one song to another. That way she doesn’t get lost in the plot. All the other musicals we have are traditional in that there is a lot of dialogue in between songs. She can’t follow those. Thus, she can’t appreciate that part. Les Miserables allows her to simply enjoy the music without worrying about the plot at all.
In the past week, I have applied music to two other situations. The first is in the morning about 15-20 minutes before I would like her to get up. I’ve played a Joshua Bell album of very soft, melodic music. Yesterday, I asked if it bothered her. She said, “No, I love it.” It also seems to have the effect of gently waking her. I make sure that the volume is not too low, or she might sleep even longer.
That leads to my second experiment. I’ve always liked playing music at bedtime, but she has usually asked me to turn it off. The past few nights I have played an album of Russian sacred music. I had the volume turned down very low, but she noticed. She said, “That’s beautiful music. I like it.” It is ideal music for meditation, and I am hoping she finds it a relaxing way to drift off to sleep.
I have always told Kate that if I ever had a stroke I wanted her to make sure to play music for me. I went so far as to say that I was going to write down types of music and specific albums to play at different times of the day. I’ve never actually done that, but the advent of the iPod gave me the idea of storing my entire music library on one and creating the appropriate playlists. Now that technology has evolved even more, I do have my entire library on my phone. The funny thing is that with streaming there is little need for that. I still haven’t created those playlists, but I’m a lot closer to getting there. I never guessed that I would be playing music for Kate rather than her playing for me.
Much has been written about the power of music with people with dementia. I don’t need any formal studies to prove it to me. It has been great therapy for both of us.
