Lifesong is a short, intensive Voice Movement Therapy (VMT) course created and developed, about 30 years ago, by Barclay McMillan. I first met Barclay in 2013 shortly after completing my VMT experiential training. Barclay kindly invited me to audit his next Lifesong course. This began a relationship that lasted until his passing in 2019 at age 87. Barclay was a wise and generous mentor. Before his passing he officially handed me the ‘torch’ to carry his amazing work forward.
Barclay was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1932. His father was an Anglican minister, and during WWII, Barclay remembered his father inviting parishioners to their home to sing hymns as the bombs fell. Barclay recalled the encouragement and healing those people gained from singing together.
The family moved to Canada when he was a teenager. Barclay’s professional life began as a teacher. He did a short stint in the navy and then migrated to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), first as an announcer in Canada’s north, and then with the Armed Forces Network in West Germany. On his return to Canada in 1971 Barclay immersed himself in academic pursuits. After receiving degrees in arts, music, and library science, Barclay became host of the CBC’s national daily classical music show Mostly Music. (I listened to him as a child, my Mom being a big fan of classical and in particular Barclay’s program). You could say that Barclay’s status at CBC was that of a ‘rock star’, at least in the broadcasting world.
Barclay’s life changed dramatically when, in his 50’s, his marriage ended, his CBC job evaporated and he suffered a major heart attack.
After his heart attack, Barclay decided to explore toning, which he’d heard about and even participated in but had never tried, as he put it, “for real”. Although skeptical, he thought, “what’s to lose?” He started by apologizing to his heart for not taking better care of it, and then asking his heart to help him find a tone that would help. Barclay discovered that toning long vowel tones directed at his heart, with the intention of healing, had a remarkable effect: on the days he did this, he could go for his prescribed walk without suffering, and on the days he didn’t tone, he experienced the distress and pain of angina. This small but powerful observation launched Barclay’s pilgrimage into the power of sound to heal – body, mind and spirit – which eventually led him to Paul Newham’s book, The Singing Cure, and later to a short, intensive training with Newham.
It is mostly from that course with Newham that Barclay built Lifesong. Barclay later would say that facilitating Lifesong was the most important and gratifying work of his life. He called himself a voice ‘doula’ and through his company, Voice Emergent, he worked at helping people become more fully alive through their voices. He incorporated into Lifelong a vast knowledge of music, voice work from years on radio, and VMT coupled with a highly-tuned sense of compassion and spiritual devotion. He was a mentor for young artists, a champion of under-recognized talent, and a compassionate vocal supporter of many “lost causes”. It was not for nothing that his final academic degree was as Doctor of Ministry. And it was for this doctorate that he wrote his dissertation, Dancing Voice, Moving Spirit, which was inspired by his experiences facilitating Lifesong.
In practice, Lifesong is structured similarly to the first module of the Voice Movement Therapy Training that I took in South Africa in 2012/13. Only a handful of participants are accepted into each 10-week Lifesong session and immediately an atmosphere of trust is fostered – all participants agree to a covenant to keep what happens in the circle in their hearts, not to be shared with anyone outside the course. The VMT concept of The Kinesthetic Sphere helps to develop a safe and reliable space from which to move, breathe, and sound. Through experimenting with the mechanics of voice and movement, participants are gently nudged and slowly immersed in an exploration of their voice, body, and unique psyche.
Each 3-hour class begins with a check-in, followed by teaching and practice/play with various Vocal Components including Vocal Timbres (harmonic resonance); Loudness (volume); Pitch (range); Nasality; Free Air or breathiness; Articulation; Pitch Fluctuation; Glottal Engagement; Disruption; and Register. Additionally, each week the participants are given a project to complete and present, in the second half of the following class. The first two assignments involve writing versions of their life-story which are subsequently read to the group, who receive in compassionate, non-reactive silence. Subsequent assignments use songs as the container for self-exploration and expression. These assignments include: a Prayer, a Lullaby, a Journey song and a Legacy song. In between there is an assignment in radio ‘acting’ using different ‘voices’ for each of several characters in the story.
During the song presentations, the facilitator works with each individual, intuitively guiding them using the VMT principles, to bring the songs and performance more fully to life. The final class is a ‘mini-opera’, a collaboration by pairs of participants. It’s a celebration of their own lives and includes original compositions of song and spoken word in solos and duets, adding whatever props, costumes, set-design, soundtracks, and choreography that might be included if it were a ‘real’ cabaret performance – within the time constraints of a 20 – 30 minute performance, of course.
In the 7+ years that I’ve co-facilitated and currently solo facilitate Lifesong, I’ve many times witnessed the ‘magical transformation’ that Barclay raved about. People usually begin the course feeling nervous and self-conscious, and are often very obviously ‘disembodied’ from their voices. Through playful and insightful exploration in this small circle of trust, even over a relatively short time, I’ve witnessed some remarkable shifts in people. The body begins to work in conjunction with the voice (and vice-versa) and, as people shed erroneous negative assumptions about their voice and their ability to express themselves, one gets a glimpse of their true, unveiled Spirit. What replaces stiffness and reticence is, very often, JOY – the satisfaction of being able to express more fully and freely and to be heard in return. There’s even a fair bit of discovering “who I really am,” and “what do I really want to say.”
As facilitator, my work is to hold the space and foster each person’s sense of autonomy, acceptance and self-confidence, encouraging each participant to vocally emerge, take up space, be seen and heard, and to carry that out into the world. I guess I could say that, thanks to my training in VMT and to my dear mentor, Barclay McMillan, I too have become a voice doula.
A short memorial tribute of photos accompanied by audio of Barclay speaking, can be found here: https://youtu.be/xfK5wAa8pdM