Music for the dying: a personal account of the new field of music-thanatology--history, theories, and clinical narratives.

Music-thanatology is a palliative medical modality employing prescriptive music to tend the complex physical and spiritual needs of the dying. "Infirmary music" was an intimate expression of French monastic medicine in 11th-century Cluny and anticipated the holism of both the hospice and palliative medical movements by almost 800 years. Although no longer an expression of any institutional religious identity, music-thanatology is nevertheless concerned with the possibility of a blessed death and the gift that conscious dying can bring to the fullness of life. Music-thanatology interns seek to integrate and model these contemplative and clinical values in daily practice: 18 interns deliver prescriptive music in bedside vigils serving the dying in home, hospital, and hospice settings with great effectiveness in oncology, respiratory illnesses, the slow degenerative diseases, and AIDS. This article is submitted to nurses to serve as an introduction to the field of music-thanatology, providing readers with a brief history, meaningful clinical narratives, some of the musical theories involved, research concerns (archival and medical), and milestones to be addressed for the future implementation of music-thanatology in hospitals and hospices and communities across the nation.