It’s a lovely idea, but
There’s an NPR story here about music being used as a therapy to aid chronic pain sufferers or the dying. Anecdotal reports are good, but there are no scientific, double-blind, replicable studies yet to back it up. I have my own concern about the practice. I like listening to music, but I hate opera and the operatic style of singing (meaning I writhe when I hear opera singers try to sing popular songs operatically). I imagine that, if I were dying or in great distress, hearing that irritating voice would increase my sufferings. Of course, if Ella Fitzgerald could be resurrected to come to my bedside, that would be another story.
