Cultural
Diversity in Music Education with an introduction by Patricia Shehan Campbell and Huib Schippers Editors: Patricia Shehan Campbell , John Drummond, Peter Dunbar-Hall, Keith Howard , Huib Schippers, Trevor Wiggins Over the past decade, cultural diversity in music education has come of age, both in terms of content and approach. The world of music education is now widely considered to be culturally diverse by definition. Within this environment, appropriate strategies for learning and teaching are being reconsidered. Many scholars and practitioners have abandoned rigid conceptions of context and authenticity, or naive perceptions of music as a universal language that appeals to all. In four sections, this volume offers contemporary views from scholars, educationalists, classroom practitioners and experts in specific disciplines. From this diversity of perspectives, the challenges posed by music travelling through time, place and contexts are being addressed for what they are: fascinating studies in the dynamic life of music, education and culture. In this way, Cultural diversity in music education chronicles the latest insights into a field that has convincingly moved from the sidelines to centre stage in both the practice and theory of music education. |
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INTRODUCTION
TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN MUSIC EDUCATION In terms of content and approach, we can see that the field has come of age. Many practices of cultural diversity in music education have shed dogmatic approaches from 19th century music education and 1960s ethnomusicology. At least in some areas, we can witness a receding emphasis on notation and analytical teaching methods in the way material is being presented to learners of all backgrounds and levels. Issues such as context and authenticity are increasingly approached from their delightfully confusing contemporary realities. The challenges posed by music travelling through time, place and contexts are being addressed for what they are: fascinating studies in the dynamic life of music, education and culture. Although a number of promising projects have sizzled out over the years, underlining the vulnerability of young initiatives to institutional constraints and their dependency on passionate and visionary individuals, other projects and initiatives signalled 10 years ago have come to further fruition. The total immersion programs piloted by the Malmö Academy (University of Lund) have set the standard for programs to introduce future music educators to learning and teaching world music by making them live a different musical culture. Dutch initiatives of world music schools and the world music department of the Rotterdam Conservatoire (CODArts) are merging into a 12 million euro, custom-built World Music and Dance Centre in Rotterdam. A number of tertiary-level programs worldwide now prepare performers, teachers and composers for their professional work through a core of academic and applied courses that offer considerable depth of experience in some of the world’s musical cultures. And introductory courses on ‘world music’ are gaining popularity with a generation of students for whom cultural diversity in music is almost as common as cultural diversity in food for the previous generation. At the same time, there have been worrying developments. The movements against tolerance that we have witnessed in the United States from the late 1990s have now found resonance in many European countries. Xenophobia has struck in even the most tolerant environments, and the fear-driven desire to return to an idyllicised monocultural past is a force to be reckoned with in maintaining established projects and developing new initiatives. Yet as the doors and windows of many nations were newly opened to the world only a generation ago, the masses of newly arrived peoples have required solutions to the hard-pressed questions of accommodating differences in societies that recognise the beauty and logic of intercultural communities of this age. We have time on our side. Even with borders closing, societies are getting increasingly diverse, and the tastes of music lovers across the world are getting more eclectic. A young African may listen to Ghanaian highlife, reggae and Bach; a Turkish teenager to traditional saz, arabesk and hiphop; and an Australian of Greek descent to gamelan, jazz and klezmer. The direct links between ethnicity and musical tastes are weakening, but the interest in diversity in music is increasing. At the same time, musical identities are holding in the ways that a Navajo retains the monophonic melody of traditional vocables above the full texture of his country band, and an Irish sean nos singer continues her melodic embellishment for international audiences despite the fact that they may understand neither the Gaelic language nor the complexities of the improvisational style. All of this makes for a complex and demanding, but at the same time rewardingly fertile field of activity. The richness of the past 10 years of harvesting is evident in this volume. While the emphasis in the 1990s was much on handing down ‘pure’ traditions from (mostly Asian) Hochkulturen, and on collecting and reworking material for use in schools and theoretical courses, we are now witnessing the rise of community music activities and African music as major sources of learning and inspiration. Indigenous music of a nation, and national heritage musical styles, have emerged as important curricular and programmatic inclusions in primary and secondary schools, and in university programs in music education. Where there was once an over-emphasis on performing ‘authentic’ music ‘authentically’, there is a growing understanding that no music is frozen in time. Individual differences do occur from performer to performer, and from one performance to the next. A hesitation to perform or even participate in music ‘outside one’s own culture’ has given way to a more sensible and sensitive approach to performing world music, taking into account the origin of the tradition and its new circumstances in each musical event. This is leading to a deeper awareness that many types of music transform in new times and places. With that, appropriate
strategies for learning and teaching are being reconsidered as well.
This was initially brought on by the very obvious challenges of teaching
forms of world music outside their cultures of origin. However, at
the forefront of the debate, this now does not only concern music traditions
from non-western cultures transplanted into western settings, but also
western music. Successful strategies from other cultures have made
us question preconceptions we have about learning and teaching music
in western mainstream traditions and institutions. In that way, our
musical culture has almost come full circle: from exotism to tolerance
to acceptance to inclusion. It is safe to say that the world of music
education is now intrinsically culturally diverse, and so are its challenges
and potential. .In Section Two,
Marsh speaks of fieldwork to change preconceptions in tertiary students,
and Laycock pleads for a greater use of musical vernaculars in composition.
Omolo-Ongati provides an African perspective on learning and teaching,
while Smith takes Irish music in workshop format as a starting point.
Finally, Louhivuori, Salminen and Lebaka take an intercontinental choral
perspective from Africa to Europe. Culture specific
approaches are highlighted in Section Four. Dunbar-Hall, Howard and
Hamill present Asian perspectives based on practices from Bali, Korea
and India respectively. Joseph, Klopper and Robinson represent African
approaches. To conclude, Hartwig and Dillon and Chapman add views and
experiences from Australia. |
