Public Research Seminar: Music as Medicine
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Workshop 2
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
Free booking required
Seminars are in RBC Workshop 2 and can also be accessed online via Zoom.
A link to view the seminar via Zoom will be emailed ahead of the session.
Real and virtual doors will open around 3.25pm, the seminar begins at 3.30pm and discussion will conclude around 4.55pm.
Wheelchair users are entitled to a complimentary companion seat.
You can book a free companion ticket by selecting the seat next to yours on the seating plan.
Or, for unreserved seating plans, add a second ticket to your basket.
If you wish to discuss your accessibility needs with a member of our team, please call 0121 331 5909.
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Music as medicine in the 17th century: the case of the hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia
Naomi Barker (Open University)
The absence of disciplinary boundaries in the early modern period affords a broad understanding of the therapeutic power of music that encompasses religious belief and medical practice. This seminar will present a range of evidence demonstrating how music was integrated into the care regime of the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, exploring how music may have been understood as a cure for body and soul.
Naomi Barker is a Senior Lecturer in Music and Head of the Music Department at The Open University. The focus of her research is late-sixteenth and seventeenth-century Italian music and the social and cultural environments in which it was created and performed. Her book, Music, Medicine and Religion at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito, Rome was published by Boydell in 2024.
* If you wish to join us online, please register and you shall be sent Zoom codes by email shortly before the seminar. It is not necessary to register in advance for in-person attendance.
Running time approx. 90 minutes