What can ’ t music do ? Tia

Background: In this article we consider how the question of what music can or cannot do is linked to the kind of light cast upon musical engagement and its outcomes. Methods: We describe how a concern with flourishing, as opposed to a concern with more conventional understandings of ‘health’ versus ‘illness’, can help to illuminate some of otherwise invisible processes by which music ‘helps’. Results: We show how the processes by which music ‘helps’ can slip past modes of enquiry associated with more ‘scientific’ and ‘rigorous’ investigate modes. Conclusions: A focus on flourishing challenges more conventional imageries of what comes to count as ‘evidence’ of music’s role in relation to health and well-being.