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- Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
International Journal of Community Music - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
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Practice, ritual and community music: doing as identity
By Helen PhelanAs a specialist in ritual theory and performance, with some professional experience of communtiy music, I have always been struck by the robust resistance to clear-cut definitions or identities, by both ritual and community music. This article takes as its point of departure the proposal of ritual scholar Catherine Bell, that we abandon the quest for conceptual identity and more fruitfully turn our attention to the potential of practice to generate its own identity. Drawing on a post-modern interpretation of practice theory, she explores four ways in which practices generate meaning: through strategic behaviour, situationality, the necessary misrecognition of its own enterprise, and its potential for redemptive hegemony in its discourse with power. The paper concludes with an example from my own work with the refugee and asylum seeking community in Limerick, and an interrogation of Bell's proposal, with reference to this experience of music-making.
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PickleHerring and Marlsite projects: an interdisciplinary approach to junk music-making
By Matt SmithThis project report describes the way PickleHerring Theatre approaches community music-making with junk materials. The report has an emphasis on the group experience, the participants' creativity, and their play. In conclusion a case is presented for the efficacy of junk music-making as a dynamic form of community music.
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Music transmission in an Auckland Tongan community youth band
More LessThis article reports on findings from a 2006 ethnographic study of a Tongan community youth band in Auckland, New Zealand. To begin, the study's rationale is discussed in relation to previous research, followed by a description of the band's repertoire and rehearsal strategies, instrumentation and uniforms, notational practices and institutional context. The youth band's role in the Tongan community of Auckland is then considered in relation to previous descriptions of community music. The band's significance in terms of musical identity and its socio-economic context are also examined, followed by a discussion of this study's implications for community music workers in other settings. The findings suggest that community ensembles rooted in musical hybridity may generate innovative models of music learning and play a unique role in cultural preservation.
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The musical culture of an Inuk teenager
More LessThis article uses music as a point of entry into the understanding of Inuit culture. I demonstrate how the analysis of the song repertoire of an Inuk teenager reveals some functions and meanings that her song choices have for her in the particular Inuit culture of Arviat, Nunavut. I present four informally learned songs from my informant Gara Mamgark and explore issues about her musical aesthetics and values in relation to her physical and social environment.
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Questions arising from the views of some members of four amateur classical music organizations
By Roger PalmerThis article describes some features and questions raised by my study of four amateur classical music groups two choirs, an orchestra and an instrument-oriented organization in Wellington, New Zealand. The study paid particular attention to the musicians, our discussions of their musical life, the values they ascribe to their music-making and their organizations. In the small body of scholarly literature regarding amateur musicians few studies have been concerned with the singers' and instrumentalists' perspectives. This exploratory study used qualitative methods, including focus groups, and found that the participants join music organizations primarily for the satisfaction of making music that they value. Concerts provide a raison d'tre for the organizations and a motivating factor for their members to work to their highest attainable standards. The participants indicated that they generally regard the social significance of belonging to a music organization as less important than their music-making. Although the four organizations do not perform classical music exclusively, the study's participants base their aesthetics and the negotiation of their relationships in their music organizations on the conventions of the classical music practices they learned initially in their youth.
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Closing the gap: does music-making have to stop upon graduation?
Authors: Roger Mantie and Lynn TuckerThis paper discusses research examining the perceptions of people who continue to be musically active beyond their formal schooling years. These are individuals who are neither professional musicians nor university music majors; all pursue music avocationally. Through interviews and focus groups with members of three community ensembles (directed by the researchers), we sought to better understand how these avocational musicians viewed their own reasons for participating in music-making, and what, if any, connection they perceived between their school music experience and their present experience.
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Toward a definition of a community choir
By Cindy L BellCommunity choirs in America furnish the primary musical setting for adult amateur singers wishing to continue their choral experiences after formal public schooling or college. Nearly 1400 community choral organizations or those meeting the established parameters were catalogued by ACDA for its 2007 National Registry of Community Choirs. A 2003 Chorus America report stated that one in ten Americans sing weekly in a community-based choir. But what is a community choir in 2007? What factors determine that a choir is representative of its immediate community? Are community choirs in the twenty-first century providing for the musical needs of the adult amateur singer?
This paper will contend that many community choirs are either facing a declining membership and ageing singers, or have evolved into semi-elite performance machines that are no longer characteristic of the community. It will discuss the concepts of democracy, volunteerism and community, and compare early twentieth century philosophical and social arguments on community music with current issues confronting community choral organizations. Part research, part philosophical, and part the author's personal observations of community choirs, it will contend that, in their quest for choral performance perfection, some choirs actually marginalize adult amateur singers. Furthermore, it will discuss the pivotal role of the choral conductor, who, in establishing a democratic tone for the group, can embrace and develop the true spirit of amateur singing, and provide an opportunity for lifelong musical learning and participation.
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Lifelong learners in music; research into musicians' biographical learning
More LessThis article considers four learning biographies from professional musicians. Each musician holds a different portfolio career and is from a different age category. The key questions I ask are: How does one learn as a musician?, What knowledge, attitudes, values and artistic skills are necessary to function effectively and creatively as a contemporary musician?, and What is the necessary framework of lifelong learning in music education? My findings are analysed in the light of lifelong learning for musicians with a focus toward teaching and learning.
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Intergenerational learning in a high school environment
More LessActive living and continuing learning are important to the well-being of seniors. As the generation of so-called baby boomers approach retirement, the same public schools built to accommodate their compulsory schooling are now being considered as sites for intergenerational learning. This article explores one such project where seniors learning alongside adolescents work together in music performance, creating new types of relationships and learning practices.
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Identity formation through participation in the Rochester New Horizons Band programme
More LessResults of this qualitative study suggest that membership in the Rochester New Horizons Band programme provides an important vehicle for identity construction and revision in later life. Identities emerge from and are shaped by the social interactions among members in the ensemble setting. Players form new musical identities, reclaim identities that were important in their youth, or revise existing identities by taking up new, social instruments. These musical identities are distinguished not merely by the acquisition of musical skills, but also by the adoption of roles as valuable contributors to a larger musical ensemble. The approval and encouragement of significant others appears to confirm and reinforce musical identity, regardless of whether those others are themselves musicians. Members also use social interaction to negotiate identities as healthy, productive older people. Communal engagement provides structure for time and a new sense of purpose, and it contributes to physical, mental and spiritual health.
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