Music Preferences of the Elderly: Repertoire, Vocal

Joumal of Music Therapy. XXIX (4), 1992, 236-252 S) 1992 by the National Association for Music Therapy, Ihc,

Music Preferences of the Elderly: Repertoire, Vocal Ranges, Tempos, and Accompaniments for Singing Randall S. Moore Myra J. Staum Melissa Brotons The University of Oregon Willamette University Three studies investigated musical preferences of elderly persons for song repertoire, vocal range, tempo, and background accompaniment of live and recorded songs. Data were collected from 514 persons over 65 years old with various physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, as well as higher functioning individuals in independent living settings. Results indicate that (a) patriotic and popular songs and hymns are preferred over folksongs, (b) vocal ranges average 19 semitones or F¡ to Cs for women and nearly an octave lower for men, (c) slower and moderate tempos are preferred to faster tempos, and (d) live and recorded chordal accompaniments are preferred to recorded melodic line or synthesized accompaniments. Guidelines for clinical applications include the following: (a) use music that geriatric populations enjoy since they clearly discriminate preferences, (b) possess a broad repertoire of songs, and (c) be able to accompany songs on a chordal instrument using suitable ranges for older voices and moderate tempos.

Research on the use of music with geriatric individuals is limited. Exhaustive searches of the published material on this topic are available and indicate that, although interest in the area of gerontology is increasing, much research is still necessary (Galloway, 1975; Prickett, 1988). Music programs have been surveyed in several nursing homes Randall S. Moore, Ph.D., is Professor of Musie Education at The University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. Myra Staum, Ph.D., RMT-BC, is Director of Music Therapy and Associate Professor of Musie at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Melissa Brotons, M.M., RMT-BC, is Clinical Supervisor of Music Therapy in the Department of Music at Willamette University.

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indicating that singing and listening are activities most frequently preferred by the geriatric population, since they account for the higher percentages of resident participation (Gilbert & Beal, 1982; Hylton, 1983). Music preferences for listening have indicated that the style most listened to by older individuals was popular, specifically the popular music of their young adult years (Bartlett, 1980; Gibbons, 1977; Lathom, Petersen, & Havlicek, 1982; McCullough, 1981). Singing may be structured for many different purposes in therapy and leisure programs. Some of the more common are stimulation, education, socialization, exercise, discussion, composition, and choral activities. In using singing with elderly people, problems may arise concerning vocal capabilities. It has been difficult for the music therapist or educator to determine such pertinent factors as practical singing range and comfortable keys. These areas must be investigated to ensure that singing activities will benefit older people therapeutically as well as educationally. Vocal characteristics and range have been widely studied with children (Miller, 1982) and adolescents (Huff-Gackle, 1985); however, no recent study has been made on vocal ranges of geriatric populations. Earlier, Greenwald and Salzberg (1979) noted the decrease and limited vocal range of this population. Aronson (1980) traced vocal mutations from birth to death and found that women's singing range descends and diminishes with age. Men's vocal range diminishes over time, descends generally to age 70, then reverses directions. Another musical element that occurs in singing and needs further investigation in the gerontology field is tempo. Generally, experimental research dealing with musical tempo has focused on three main areas: perception/discrimination, performance (Kuhn 1974), and preference (LeBlanc & McGrary, 1983). Research relating tempo to preference has been conducted with children and young adults, specifically from kindergarten to college age undergraduates. A strong positive correlation seems to exist across these age groups between increases of tempo and higher preference ratings (Geringer & Madsen, 1987; LeBlanc, 1981; LeBlanc, Coleman, McCrary, Sherrill, & Malin, 1988; LeBlanc & Cote, 1983; LeBlanc & McCrary, 1983; Sims, 1987; Wapnick, 1980; Yarbrough, 1987).

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Another aspeet of singing activities which is important in structuring competent activities is background accompaniment. Literature relating specifically to this variable is nonexistent, as is literature related to performance quality. However, preferences for specific intensity levels (loudness) as well as amount of vibrato have been studied with children and young adults. These variables may be related to background accompaniment since they are an aspect of either the accompaniment or the vocal characteristics of singing activities. Wapnick (1980) found that a brighter timbre was preferred for piano music. LeBlanc and Sherrill's (1986) results indicated that less vocal vibrato was preferred. Smith's (1988) research with geriatric populations showed that enhanced higher frequeneies were not preferred significantly more than normally recorded frequencies. Fewer findings are available concerning the preference of certain variables in the music itself such as style, rhythm, and background accompaniment that may enhance older adults' enjoyment of singing activities. The purpose of these studies, then, was to determine musieal preference for song repertoire, vocal range, tempo, and background accompaniment for singing, so that those working with elderly persons would have a better knowledge of how singing activities should be conducted. Subjects The pool of subjects for this study consisted of 514 verbal, ambulatory and nonnambulatory adults between the ages of 60 and 110 years. They were randomly selected from nursing homes, retirement communities, and independent living environments in small communities in the Northwest and Southern United States. Among the disabilities included were Alzheimer's disease and other senile dementias, Parkinsonism, strokes, arthritis, and hearing losses. Experiment 1: Preferences for Song Styles and Vocal Range Method, To determine song style preferences, each of the 135 subjects in this experiment was presented with a verbal explanation of the study. In all, 118 songs representative of folk, patriotic, popular, and religious music were included in a survey. Criteria for seleeting songs were based on recommendations of elderly groups who had been singing together for over

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10 years, as well as by an extensive review of published songbooks for use with geriatric persons. The song titles were written in alphabetical order, each having four response options: (a) like very much, (b) like okay, (c) dislike, and (d) unknown. Most subjects participated in groups of five to ten people. Each participant was given a survey and a pencil. The survey contained the following instructions, which were also read aloud by the experimenter to make sure that the subject understood the task: "If you had a songbook, what songs would you like to have included? Please check how much you like the songs listed below." In order to minimize memory problems, the experimenter either sang a capella or played the first three phrases of each song on the piano to help subjects identify it. Approximately 10 seconds followed each selection to allow subjects to mark their preference. The survey usually took 45 minutes to complete. For vocal range, 155 subjects (115 females and 40 males) were tested individually or in small groups and were instructed to match each note played on the piano by humming until reaching the point at which they could no longer sing comfortably. Following a method from previous research, i.e., the Vocal Range Check Form (Kuhn, Wachhaus, Moore, & Pantle, 1979), vocalization began at E4 and proceeded downwards by descending chromatic steps through the lowest pitch each subject could match easily, and upwards by ascending chromatic tones until each individual reached his or her highest comfortable pitch. Results and discussion. Responses from the song survey were tabulated to determine preferences of elderly subjects for 118 songs in four styles. Total scores in four categories (like very much, like okay, dislike, and unknown) were talfied. Because the number of responses varied across the 118 songs, a mean weighted score was created to compare song ratings and was calculated in order to compare elderly persons' preference for song styles by using the Friedman Two-Way Analysis of Variance. No significant differences were found among the song styles (x^ = 5.88, df = 3, p = .12); however, the four means indicated some order of preference, with higher values equivalent to greater preference. The mean weighted score for pa-

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triotic style (n = 5) was 1.50; the mean for religious hymns (n = 11) was 1.27; the average for popular style (n = 79) was 1.10; and the average weighted preference score for folk style (n = 22) was .81. These weighted scores indicate that patriotic songs, hymns, and popular songs were rated higher than folksongs. This order of preference suggests that most patriotic songs and hymns are widely accepted by geriatric groups, and popular and folk styles need to be selected carefully to foster acceptance. Some caution should be noted in this comparison of preference for song styles, since the two most preferred categories had fewer titles listed on the survey than did the popular and folk song categories. The mean weighted scores were also useful in selecting the most and least preferred individual songs. The ten most preferred songs with highest scores included five popular songs, three patriotic songs and two hymns. These findings replicate those of Bartlett (1980) and Gibbons (1977), who noted that elderly persons prefer popular music of their young adult years. Table 1 lists the ten most and least preferred songs, their styles, total preference ratings, and mean weighted scores. The ten least preferred titles included six folksongs and four popular tunes. Low scores were most often due to not knowing the songs or titles rather than disliking them. In general, preference scores of these subjects were more positive than negative, with several people exclaiming, "What a good list of songs! I like them all!" In the last part of Experiment 1, vocal ranges were calculated from the Vocal Range Check Forms. High and low comfortable singing limits were inspected for men and women across four decade groups. For the 40 men ages 60 to 90 years old, the average highest comfortable singing limit was D4, one step above middle C, and the average lowest singing limit was G#2, on the bottom line of the bass clef. For the 115 women ages 60 to 99 years old, the average highest comfortable singing limit was C5, an octave above middle C, and the average lowest singing limit was F3, three ledger lines below the treble clef. Data indicate that these elderly subjects have the range of 18 semitones with a standard deviation of 6.5 semitones. While average singing range and age of subjects in this study was similar (women being 75.7 and men 72.9 years old), age groups showed a clear decline in singing ranges across the de-

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