A Silver Lining for the Silver Generation
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of distress to many around the world, especially for the seniors in our community. Being one of the most vulnerable age groups susceptible to COVID-19, seniors were forced to stay indoors in quarantine, where some were even living on their own in isolation. Visitation was also not allowed for seniors living in residential homes. As socialization was not possible during this time, it has definitely impacted the wellbeing of the elderly. They were deprived of having face-to-face social networks, which were crucial in improving their quality of life by building up interpersonal relationships and emotional support.
How can the role of music help this silver generation see a silver lining during this pandemic?
As a Singaporean living in The Netherlands, it has been very interesting to see how the two countries that I hold very close to my heart have been using music help the seniors tide through this pandemic. Because each country has its own movement restrictions, the nature of the music initiative had to be adapted to fit into the situation. I will now discuss about 2 music initiatives that has been done in The Netherlands and Singapore, and how it has played a part in impacting the seniors’ lives in the time of COVID-19.
As part of one of my electives at the Koninklijk Conservatorium, we partnered with other musicians from De Haagse Muziekcentrale to conduct “Music and Dementia” workshops at the WoonZorgcentra Haaglanden (WZH) Residential Care Home for Dementia Patients in The Hague. The workshops were still ongoing at WZH Waterhof until COVID-19 came along and we were unable to continue with our sessions with the residents. However, that did not stop the music-making for the residents at WZH Waterhof. Flautists Mirjam Teepe, Tineke van Geuns and accordionist Sofie de Klerk continued to put up garden concerts for the residents. The residents were brought to the garden outside the home and were treated to music that were familiar tunes to their ears such as folk songs, popular songs by Annie M.G Schmidt (songs from a popular Dutch TV show in the late 1960s, Ja zuster, nee zuster, ‘Yes Nurse, No Nurse’) and songs from musicals like ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Sound of Music’. These well-known tunes evoked a sense of reminiscence of the past and even got some of the seniors up on their feet, dancing away and singing along to these popular songs. Though separated in distance (due to the compulsory 1.5m social distancing) from the residents, the musicians still connected with them through playing music that they liked, and Tineke even led some of the sing-alongs to the music, which made the seniors feel part of the performance. This garden concert was so successful that WZH agreed to allow Mirjam, Tineke and Sofie to continue to spread this joy of music to the residents of five other residential care homes for dementia patients, giving more seniors a chance to indulge in a blast from their past and perhaps at that moment, forgetting what was happening in the world.
About 10,000 kilometers away, Singapore was also facing the crisis of COVID-19. The government announced that the country would be going through a “Circuit Breaker” period, where residents were not allowed to leave the house or have any social gatherings except for essential needs like buying groceries or to take-away food from eateries.
The seniors in Singapore are usually quite active where they always enjoy attending senior activities at community centres nearby, or simply chatting with their friends at a coffeeshop (in Singapore, a coffeeshop is an outdoor eatery that serves beverages like coffee and also has food stalls as well). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their leisure options have now been limited to only television and radio, or chatting with their friends on the phone at home. With more than half of the Singapore residents aged 65 and above living either alone or with their spouses, and with the physical world slowly moving to the Web, this pandemic has caused the seniors to feel displaced. Interviewed by the Channel News Asia, senior have expressed being “bored until I am going crazy!” and experiencing a sense of loneliness of not having anyone to talk to.
3Pumpkins, a non-profit arts company in Singapore saw the need to use arts to engage the seniors during this pandemic. Instead of live performances, they curated大声D茶室 / Warung Cakap Apa (What did You Say Teahouse), a series of programmes that range from radio plays, storytelling to talk shows in various Chinese dialects, Mandarin and Malay (Singapore is a multi-racial society, hence the need for programmes in different languages) was brought online. To make this programme available to the seniors who lacked access to technology, 3Pumpkins partnered with social service agencies such as Lion Befrienders and Project Audible Cheer to provide 6000 MP3 players loaded with the programme’s content to the vulnerable seniors such as those living alone or those who are frail. The programmes are also available on YouTube and accompanied by captions and English translation as well.
The content of these programmes were very well received by the seniors. For example, in the storytelling segment, theater practitioner Oliver Chong retold the story of a famous classic Chinese novel titled 西游记, ‘Journey to the West’, with original music written by musician Phang Kok Jun and recorded by Ding Yi Music Company, Chinese-Western fusion music ensemble. This storytelling brought the novel to life and allowed the elderly to view this novel again in a new light. In addition, a Cantonese talk show “Super Fan Club” takes the seniors through classic Chinese cinema and TV series from the 1930s to 1990s such as 神探智破艳尸案, ‘The Detective’ from the 1960s. They even played the theme song from each series, such as 情花开, ‘Love Blossoms’ from ‘The Detective’. When my grandma heard this song on their talk show, she let out a huge smile and immediately broke out into a go-go dance and started singing along. She was hit with a wave of nostalgia and told me that it really brought back memories of the past and that made her very happy. These programmes definitely gave the elderly something to look forward to and to participate in. Instead of focusing on the negatives of being cooped up at home, they could joyfully reminisce about the past.
Even in these two very different countries, music was used as a common tool to impact the wellbeing of the seniors during this COVID-19 pandemic. Despite not being able to conduct community music-making activities physically, we can see that as musicians and artists, different music initiatives can still be organized to continue to spread the joy of music to the wider community, and in particular, the silver generation. By listening and reacting to music from the past, the seniors are transported back to those days, which for them, is the silver lining in this storm that the whole world is experiencing right now.
