1857 research outputs found
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Introduction
No full textThis introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights the diversity by which composing as a musical activity does, or conversely does not, have a part within a country's national curricula and other mandated or legislated formats. It discusses partnership projects where external composers have worked alongside classroom music teachers. The book highlights important resources commonly used within the music teaching profession of that country. It addresses relevant characteristics of music composing through the lens of their respective socio-cultural contexts highlighting the diversity of teaching methods and practices. A hierarchical view can take hold that some music is more valuable, more important, and more worthy of a place in an already crowded school curriculum. Part of the role of educators may also be to introduce students to new music and encourage students to explore a diverse range of genres with open ears
Chapter interlude I: what is composing?
No full textThis interlude looks at the many aspects and questions that arise when defining “composing” in music education. It also uncovers hidden influences in historical and cultural baggage coming from the central discourses and definitions of composing in Western music history. Finally, it shows how the meaning of the word “composing” has undergone change around the world – from being viewed as an elitist act to something that is more inclusive and can be undertaken by all young people
Investigating how composing teaching and assessment in English secondary school classrooms reinforce myths about composers and their creative practices
No full textAlthough composing has been a significant part of formal classroom music education in England for over 30 years, there still remains uncertainty about how to teach and assess composing in secondary schools. This research investigates the under-researched area of teaching and learning of composing in upper secondary schools in England whereby students (aged 14–18) may opt to study music for a national qualification. Taking a mixed methodology approach, data were collected through a survey of 182 music teachers, interviews with five prominent composer-educators, as well as research with five case study schools involving observations of teaching and interviews with teachers and students. This paper reports on three prominent beliefs about composers that seem to underpin teaching and assessment practices; firstly that composers have innate musical talents; secondly that composing is solely an individual process and finally that students must learn the ‘rules’ of composing before being creative. This article proposes that these perceptions do not reflect the diversity of composers’ creative practices and may result in reinforcing stereotypes and myths about composers that have the potential to disadvantage certain students in the examination. ***** This article is available open access at the Official URL given below. ****
Understanding the history of 1930s musical migrants to Britain through minimal computing-led digital humanities: the Hamburger-Lidka-Fuchsová Database and Datasets
No full textLíza Fuchsová, Maria Lidka, and Paul Hamburger all left Nazi-occupied Europe during the late 1930s and settled permanently in the UK. Fuchsová (1913-1977) was a Czech pianist who became an advocate for Czech musical culture as well as an important piano soloist; Hamburger (1920-2004) was an accompanist and teacher who left Vienna for London and became a senior figure in BBC radio and Guildhall professor; and Lidka (1914-2013) [Marianne Liedtke], was a violinist, orchestra leader and later Royal College of Music professor. Their careers have been underexplored, but machine-read digitised archives have opened new possibilities for finding and sorting what can seem like an overwhelming amount of performance data. This is the underpinning data for the project, the set of files are outputted from the Hamburger-Lidka-Fuchsová Database (HLFDatabase), a database compiled by Sarah K. Whitfield as part of the AHRC funded Music, Migration and Mobility project. The full working database is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ts0wXoudIToWN0r0iaSLZWIradiXLsdqx5OjoVqT4yA/edit#gid=1338942989
These supporting datasets cover six different aspects of the project:
1) Venues (This dataset contains the full details of 163 venues used in the HLFDatabase);
2) Composers (this will be useful for anyone working on chamber music or concert music in 1940s and 1950s);
3) Repertoire (this will be useful for anyone working on chamber music or concert music in 1940s and 1950s);
4) Maria Lidka (this dataset covers her performance career from 1940-1954);
5) Paul Hamburger (this dataset covers his performance career from 1940-1954);
6) Líza Fuchsová (this dataset covers her performance career from 1940-1954).
The entire dataset is released under CC BY-NC 4.0 permission (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Book review: Denis Herlin: Claude Debussy: Portraits et Études, George Olms Verlag (Hildesheim 2021)
No full textChapter interlude IV: ways to teach composing
No full textComposing teaching in schools can look and sound very different depending on various circumstances, such as the age, ability, and interests of the students, the tradition of composing in a country's music education system and their curriculum, as well as the musical background, confidence, and experiences of the teacher, not including the infrastructure, technology, and resources available to the teacher in the classroom. Also relevant is the question of who is teaching composing, as a professional composer coming into a school and conducting a time-limited composing project might teach very differently from a generalist classroom teacher. This interlude will take a closer look at the variety of approaches, methods, and practices used to teach composition in music education and how diverse pedagogies have been developed over time
Musical migrants at Wigmore Hall in the 1940s
No full textWigmore Hall’s substantial programme collection, of concerts in which musical migrants played during the 1940s, reveals that mobility of musicians has always been a fundamental part of professional music making. **** This article is available as part of the Music, Migration and Mobility online resource at the Official URL given below. ***
Becoming the right musician for the job: versatility, connectedness, and professional identities during personalized, online music-making in hospital maternity wards
Get PDFThe beneficial potential for music in hospital contexts is well established, with research showing that music can promote patient well-being and support recovery. However, less attention has been paid to the ways in which musicians’ practices and professional identities are informed by working in hospital settings. As arts-and-health approaches continue to proliferate, it is essential to recognize the values, emotional labor, and skills associated with these approaches through understanding the experiences of practitioners. As part of an international collaboration led by Hanze University in the Netherlands, the ProMiMiC project explores the professional development of musicians and nurses through person-centered music-making in hospital settings. The current study focused on five conservatoire-trained musicians’ delivery of personalized music-making via Zoom in a hospital maternity setting in London during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of adapting to the new context, and the impacts on their personal and professional development, were explored using reflective journals, group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. The data were interpreted using the theoretical lens of vocational habitus to examine the skills and dispositions required to be the right musician for this job. Qualitative synthesis revealed the musicians’ developing musical values as they adapted to the online maternity setting, highlighting the centrality of communicative and musical versatility as well as the ability to connect and empathize through music. The findings offer insights into possible ways of supporting emerging music practitioners in healthcare settings and emphasize the imperative for higher music education to prepare and train musicians for this type of work
Modularity, technology, and geometry in compositional practice: a portfolio of original compositions
Get PDFThis project, comprising of twelve original compositions and accompanying commentary, explores several key concepts that play a significant role in my creative practice, including the deconstruction and reassembly of materials; non-linear media; geometric construction of musical patterns; interactive audience elements; technology; and probability. Discussed across four chapters, these concepts lead to the development of unique compositional techniques and processes that feature heavily in my work. Chapter one focusses on deconstruction and non-linearity, from ensemble-led modularity to large-scale prerecorded
compositions for radio. Chapter two is a study of how random elements and audience interaction can be facilitated through the use of technology, and takes examples from my generative audiovisual artworks. Chapters three and four cover geometry: introducing the mathematical concepts of perfect balance and aperiodic order, and discussing their use in my installations and compositions for orchestra. Throughout the project, a consideration of performance spaces and the audience experience is maintained, and the variety of ways a technique might be applied across different settings is explored
Addressing gender inequality in and through music composing studies
Get PDFComposing remains a male-dominated field within the domain of Western art music. Through analysis of two case studies of composing education schemes in Finland (Equity in Composing/Yhdenvertaisesti säveltäen), and England (Young Composers Project), this paper seeks to better understand how music education may play a role in addressing and alleviating gender inequality in music composing. Thematic analysis of qualitative data identified three ways in which the two educational projects addressed issues related to inequality in composing, namely by (1) challenging narrow perceptions of “The Composer”; (2) addressing the lack of diverse role models; and (3) introducing diverse pedagogical approaches in composing. The findings illustrate how music education has the potential to challenge narrow and stereotypical perceptions of what it is to become and be a composer, and provide alternative and more diverse narratives