Små Komponister. At mærke at være sammen/ Small Composers. To sence togetherness

Abstract: Master Thesis – Small Composers. To sense togetherness
Mette Tjagvad (201308994)
Peter Bruun (19871926)

The present survey is a case study of FIGURA Ensemble’s teaching course Small Composers. In a classroom setting under the guidance of a teacher, a professional composer and a musician collaborate with pupils (1st through 5th year) on composing pieces of music in groups. At the end of the project the participants perform the pieces together in a concert setting. The compositional process relies on an open approach to music, inspired by contemporary classical music. With our survey we hope to contribute to the development of knowledge that can be the basis of a pedagogical practice, where composition in the classroom is an integrated part of the general music curriculum, and contribute to communicate between the professional art world and the public school.
The key question of the survey was: Which significance can composition in the class room have for children’s musical learning and general musical development (Bildung). Our survey had two connected perspectives: The pedagogic perspective and the perspective of music creation. We considered the two perspectives seperately, but we also paid particular attention to a field of tension between pedagogy and music creation.
In the production of data we applied several different qualitative methods: Interview, participant observation, video and stimulated recall.
We reviewed our data in order to discover new meanings and understandings of the field: Composition in the classroom. Our survey design was primarily based upon the phenomenological study strategy “Forbløffende Praksisser” (“astonishing practices”) (Fink-Jensen 2002) with inspiration from Giorgi (1997). Our analyzes were condensations of meaning emerging from the data. Interpretation of meaning related to key theoretical concepts by which we framed our survey: musical meaning and comprehension, musical learning and musical development (Bildung), and music creation. The theoretical basis had its background in former experience from practical and academical work within composition in the classroom. Though it was not our aim with this survey to test scientific theory. The survey was theory supported and not theory guided. In our analyzes we were also inspired by Van Manen’s existentia and narrative approach (Van Manen 1990). We entered the field with seperate perspectives: Mette is a public school music teacher and Peter is a composer. Those two different points of view opened for a mutual dynamic in the way we accessed the field. We validated our finding through triangulation methodically, theoretically and personally.
Composition in the classroom is a complex field of study. A number of preunderstandings, intentions, emotions and individual ambitions are at stake. The theoretical concept Brideling (Dahlberg 2006) was a way to understand, how as a researcher one could act in such a complex field.
Our analyzes of the data is presented in three sections: The pedagogic process, music creation, and reflection and remembrance. The pedagogic process deals with the communication of musical learning. In the section about music creation we look closer into one of the childrens’ pieces of music. In reflection and remembrance we deal with the experiences from video stimulated recall.
Our key findings are the following:
The pedagogic perspective: The teachers legitimacy as the creator of trust and confidence has a core value in the process. The children learn through musicing. They sense their togetherness in the musical field of meaning. They understand and experience, that musical companionship can create musical expression that further opens itself into a broader life context of meaning, where it may even have an existential significance. They experience what it means to create a piece of music and thus they learn what a piece of music is. The process from confidence through knowledge to ownership results in a categorical opening (Klafki) (the opening between the educational content and the learner): The children have been introduced to what they are to do. They bring things with them from their homes which they can use as musical instruments. In the pedagogic frame the children engage and connect with the music, and in the end they perceive the music as their own. Music creation becomes significant for the childrens’ musical development (Bildung) as they here experience that they can share personal experience. Music offers a particular way of being together, that breaks down prevailing social hierarchies and roles.
The perspective of music creation: Musical meaning emerges among the participants through musicing. Musicing is immediately meaningful, because it happens in lived and living space, where you can sense yourself and each other – sense togetherness. The piece of music is living, dynamic structure; an accumulated field of energy in a musical energy flow. The piece of music in remembrance can become a cultural agent: an artefact which as a re-lived experience turns into new musicing, and hence assumes a deeper meaning than the sheer recollection.
Perhaps the most interesting finding from the survey was how brideling, originally introduced as an epistemological concept, might have a further meaning: Brideling might be the pedagocial token. More than being a concept for scientific interpretation, it may also be a way in which as a practicing professional music teacher one can navigate and act in the field of tension between pedagogical and artistic intentions.