scholarly journals Classical Music and the Subject of Modernity1

Author(s):  
JOHN BUTT

This lecture presents the text of the speech about classical music and modernity delivered by the author at the 2007 Aspects of Art Lecture held at the British Academy. It discusses the development of notation and the tonal system and suggests they seldom engaged with western classical music. The lecture also explores the works of Lloyd Webber and the views of Tina Redford about music education and teaching methods.

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562199123
Author(s):  
Simon Schaerlaeken ◽  
Donald Glowinski ◽  
Didier Grandjean

Musical meaning is often described in terms of emotions and metaphors. While many theories encapsulate one or the other, very little empirical data is available to test a possible link between the two. In this article, we examined the metaphorical and emotional contents of Western classical music using the answers of 162 participants. We calculated generalized linear mixed-effects models, correlations, and multidimensional scaling to connect emotions and metaphors. It resulted in each metaphor being associated with different specific emotions, subjective levels of entrainment, and acoustic and perceptual characteristics. How these constructs relate to one another could be based on the embodied knowledge and the perception of movement in space. For instance, metaphors that rely on movement are related to emotions associated with movement. In addition, measures in this study could also be represented by underlying dimensions such as valence and arousal. Musical writing and music education could benefit greatly from these results. Finally, we suggest that music researchers consider musical metaphors in their work as we provide an empirical method for it.


Author(s):  
Jerneja Žnidaršič

The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether an experimental programme, based on interdisciplinary interactions between music education and history and the implementation of arts and cultural education objectives, could influence pupils’ interest in Western classical music of the 20th century. The programme was designed on the basis of collaborating with music education and history teachers at two Slovenian primary schools and a Slovenian composer. Classes of pupils, aged fourteen and fifteen, were divided into an experimental and a control group. According to the outcome, the pupils in the experimental group showed a higher level of interest in contemporary classical music after the experiment than their peers in the control group. Furthermore, the pupils in the experimental group reported having listened on their initiative, to more classical compositions after the experiment than the pupils in the control group had.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-369
Author(s):  
Margarita Lorenzo de Reizabal ◽  
Manuel Benito Gómez

In the field of higher music education conservatories, and more specifically in the so-called ‘classical music’, the first steps towards research regarding entrepreneurship are being taken, although the main obstacles to overcome are still at a conceptual level (to define what is entrepreneurship in this field, what the profile of a musician entrepreneur is, what exactly is understood when we talk about an entrepreneurial identity referred to Western classical music) and on a referential level (research is scarce on the professional identity of classical musicians, on motivation that leads to professional success, on employability of a musician in the 21st century). At the same time, thought and analysis are lacking on how music education addresses entrepreneurial spirit and how conservatories for higher education in Western classical music could provide their students with the necessary capacities to become professional entrepreneurial musicians. This article aims to explore the state of entrepreneurship of classical musicians and analyse what challenges and barriers are found in particular in this subfield. In order to clarify the key concepts, the most relevant and recent literature in entrepreneurship education has been reviewed. Searching for avenues for entrepreneurship education in music conservatories, theory and practice have been merged by applying the literature findings to some practical considerations raised at the International Conference on Music Entrepreneurship recently held in The Hague, together with the personal experience in the specific context of higher music education conservatories.


Author(s):  
Eric Shieh

In recent years, Venezuela’s anti-poverty El Sistema program (officially named the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar) has roared onto the international music scene, offering a rare, large-scale example of the participation of music education in social policy. Yet El Sistema’s socioeconomic effects are neither assured nor fully understood, much less easily adaptable abroad. Reading El Sistema’s complex engagements with an eye to how it works as a social program, the author examines in particular its decentralization and capacity to function as a space of care, its discourse and structures around creating a space of “rescue” for youth, and its curricular focus of Western classical music. While these areas raise several cautions, including charges of deficit thinking and cultural colonialism, the program’s own tensions and negotiations also suggest paths for strategic implementation. In this, El Sistema offers music educators and policymakers some possibilities for entering critically into oftentimes familiar practices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-131
Author(s):  
Carl Holmgren

Research has indicated that one-to-one teaching in higher music education in Western classical music typically favours technical over interpretive aspects of musicianship, and imitation of the teacher’s rather than the student’s explorative interpretation. The aim of the present study is to investigate students’ and teachers’ understandings of how musical interpretation of Western classical music is learned in this context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with six piano students and four teachers in Sweden were conducted and hermeneutically analysed using haiku poems and poetical condensations. The analysis found that the conditions for learning musical interpretation centred upon students achieving a high level of autonomy, as affected by three key aspects of teaching and learning: (1) the student’s and the teacher’s understandings of what musical interpretation is, (2) the student’s experience of freedom of interpretation as acknowledged by the teacher, and (3) (expectations of) the student’s explorative approach. As none of these aspects were reported as being explicitly addressed during lessons, there might be a need for both teachers and students to verbalise them more clearly to support piano students’ development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107780042110268
Author(s):  
Diane Daly

What does it take to become an elite professional performer in the culture of Western Classical music? Successful performers often begin lessons at an extremely early age, and many hours of childhood are given over to practice. The research reveals how an autoethnographic exploration through music, improvisation, composition, and somatic movement enabled the documentation and creation of a new work of artistic expression. This article presents how the research model provided the artist with a range of insights and discoveries that would have otherwise remained uncovered, highlighting the impact and value of autoethnography in producing new knowledge in the field of classical music education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Koopal ◽  
Vlieghe ◽  
de Baets

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
V.V. Gavrilov ◽  

This article states the need to change the approach, as well as the forms and methods of teaching in the process of developing students' speech within the subject "The Russian language and Culture of speech". The purpose of the study is to describe the ways of active teaching methods application in order to improve students' speech culture. The author notes that modern teaching methods have ceased to respond to the needs of society and do not contribute to successful socialization of university graduates. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author proposes that the work on a text (in the broad sense of the term) should become the main one in the teaching process. . The author proposes an updated process model of trainingenumerates those teaching forms and methods that contribute to the successful implementation of the model, describes the conditions of using these methods in the educational process. According to the author, the modeling of problem-based situations, the use of active teaching forms and methods reveal new opportunities to the teacher, help to develop students' communicative competence, and will largely determine further successful socialization of graduates.


Author(s):  
Robert O. Gjerdingen

The original music conservatories were orphanages. Through innovative teaching methods the masters of these old institutions were able to transform poor and often illiterate castoffs into elite musicians, many of whom became famous in the history of classical music. The book tells the story of how this was done. It shows what the lessons were like, what a typical day was like for an orphan, and how children progressed from simple lessons to ones more advanced than any seen today in colleges and universities. Recent rediscoveries of thousands of the old lessons have allowed us to understand how children’s minds were systematically developed to be able to “think” in music. That is, the lessons slowly built up the mental ability to imagine the interplay of two or more voices or instruments. Today we think of Mozart as having a miraculous ability to imagine musical works in his head, but in truth many of the conservatory graduates of that era had attained a similar level of controlled musical imagination. They could improvise for hours at the keyboard, and they could quickly compose whole works for ensembles. The book is accompanied by 100 YouTube videos so that readers can hear what the lessons sounded like.


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