Dear Mr. Rilke: An arts-informed contemplation

This writing—a contemplation of the poem, An die Musik, by Rainer Maria Rilke—emerged during analysis of a qualitative inquiry about the meaning of a music therapy support group for adult cancer patients. It is literary writing intended to be accessible to a wide readership. The convention of discursive research representation is disrupted for the purpose of expanding the realm of searching, re-searching, asking, telling, knowing and showing. More than an artistic product, this process of creative writing serves as a way of uncovering meaning and a means through which knowing evolves during research analysis. Research results, however, are not fully detailed here. Reported here are memories, reflections, speculations and reflexive insights posed to Mr. Rilke about poetry and phenomenological writing, translation, phenomenological engagement, embodiment, theorizing about musicology, music therapy, relationships to music and the lived experience of music, cancer, death and existentialism. He doesn’t answer. We are left to draw our own conclusions.