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- Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022
International Journal of Community Music - Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022
Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022
- Editorial
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Inclusion for all; all for inclusion
By Roger MantieThe title of this editorial speaks to the aspirational goal of inclusion for proponents and practitioners of community music. Inspired by feminist care ethics, Janelize Morelli’s article connects care with love, compassion and Lee Higgins’s oft-cited concept of hospitality. Seán Doherty’s article provides a personalized insight into a composer’s struggles to reconcile conservatory-trained musical thinking with the participatory goal of promoting social inclusion for asylum seekers in Ireland. Lotte Latukefu and Irina Verenikina’s article extends the dialogue on street music by describing the informal learning efforts by the Australian organizers of HONK! Oz. The articles ‘The CI Music Hour’ and ’Exploring approaches to community music delivery by practitioners with and without additional support needs’ address inclusion more directly – the former through a study of the experiences of those with cochlear implants, the latter by interrogating the possibilities of including those with additional support needs as leaders, not just as followers. Finally, Karl Gunther’s article considers the historical practice of auditions for community choirs.
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- Articles
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(Un)caring: A framework for understanding care in community music(k)ing1
More LessIn this article, I provide a conceptual analysis of care in community music. Despite growing interest in the belief that an ethic of care should inform our community music practices, truly considering what caring means may be challenging. Caring through musicking is further complicated by the inherent power imbalances in interventionist forms of community music. I refer to this conundrum using the term (un)caring. The topographic decision to write (un)caring using a bracketed qualifier is meant to reflect the dialogic nature between caring and uncaring. This concept analysis proposes that (un)caring is informed by negotiation of the following critical attributes: (1) (un)attentiveness, (2) (un)responsiveness and (3) (in)competence. This concept analysis contributes to the continual development of community music theory by providing an evaluative and theoretical lens through which community music practitioners could engage in critical discussions concerning the ethics of community music practice and research.
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‘I am because you are’: A critical reflection on composing choral music to promote social inclusion for asylum seekers in Ireland
By Seán DohertyThis article presents a critical reflection from a composer embedded in a national community-music project centred around asylum seekers. This reflection-on-action is contextualized within wider scholarly discourse in community music, including the notion of ‘hospitality’ and the generic features of participatory performance. An account is given of the research and analysis that informed the composer’s process for the choral work, the Song Seeking Songbook (2019). This collection of six pieces is tailored to the specific context of the project, which aimed to provide a stimulating basis for musical engagement in order to promote social inclusion. The effective pre-existing repertoire is explored to identify the key musical features that helped articulate the core principles of composition. A selection of the newly composed songs is discussed to demonstrate how these principles were deployed in the final composition.
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A street music festival: Informal learning perspectives
Authors: Lotte Latukefu and Irina VerenikinaCommunity music forges relationships and interactions between people and the location they live. Previous research into community music and learning demonstrate that these social interactions can in turn lead to informal life-long learning. This article reports on learning perspectives of festival participants and organizers, of the HONK! Oz Street Music Festival. The data revealed that many participants noted an increase in their understanding and ability to improvise, play tunes in genres outside of their previous experience and play their instruments more freely due to the nature of mobile street music. Specifically, they talked about how the pre-festival workshops, which were an innovative feature of these festivals, helped them to meet and interact with other musicians at the festival and helped them to improve their understanding of how to play street music.
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The CI Music Hour: Building community and promoting well-being through music appreciation
Authors: Chrysa Kovach, Julianne Papadopoulos, Beatriz Ilari and Ray GoldsworthyThe Cochlear Implant (CI) Music Hour is a weekly music appreciation session hosted by a major university in the United States. Led by researchers in music and audiology, the CI Music Hour combines research and community engagement. This study primarily examined the relationship between involvement in the CI Music Hour, musicianship and general well-being of its participants during its two years of existence. A second aim was to uncover resources, learning environments and relationships that our community members found meaningful in the CI Music Hour. In this mixed methods study, we collected qualitative data from weekly CI Music Hour observations and in-depth interviews, and quantitative data in the form of a self-report on musicianship from sixteen community members. Findings were analysed using Martin Seligman’s five categories of well-being, along with an additional category for negative emotions from the PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment)-profiler. Our findings suggest that although experiences and levels of musicianship varied, instances of negative emotions were counterbalanced with positive experiences identified in Seligman’s well-being theory. Many of these experiences were the direct result of music making within a group setting and building connections with fellow CI users, thus indicating a benefit to participating in the CI Music Hour.
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Exploring approaches to community music delivery by practitioners with and without additional support needs: A qualitative study
Previous community music research indicates a diverse field with many forms of practice. Understanding the views of community music practitioners about their approaches offers an important way to understand their professional identities and strategies they employ. A qualitative study interviewed five community music practitioners from the same company to investigate their approaches. Two had 30 years of experience and were training three practitioners in workshop leading; one trainee (Joseph) has additional support needs (ASN). Two lay researchers with ASN contributed to thematic analysis. Two themes were identified: pedagogical identities accentuated personalization and enacting inclusivity as key dimensions of being a workshop leader; interpersonal processes demonstrated the crucial nature of individualized communication, humour and building relationships. Although Joseph’s interview shared these themes, he also identified confidence, adaptability and creativity as key qualities for himself to develop and expressed a strong personal identification with participants’ development of self-efficacy. While interviewees had varied musical backgrounds and skills, common principles may offer a basis for the translatable beneficial impacts of community music across the highly diverse facilitators and settings that characterize this field. Appreciating pedagogical contributions of practitioners with ASN can help in envisaging new identities and ways of being creative and inclusive in community music practice.
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Inclusion, auditions and American community choirs: A historical inquiry
By Karl GuntherThis article brings a historical perspective to the study of inclusion and exclusion in American community music ensembles. Focusing specifically on community choirs and using Miami, Florida, as a case study, it traces the history of audition practices in the city’s community choirs, beginning at Miami’s founding in 1896 and ending at the present day. It shows that auditions have been a common, although not universal, practice among Miami’s community choirs and it identifies a trend in recent decades away from holding auditions. By offering a detailed historical account of community choirs’ various exclusive and inclusive practices, it prompts present-day community music scholars, facilitators and participants to reflect on the complex and multi-faceted nature of inclusion in community music.
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