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A song of songs: A/r/tography, autoethnography, and songwriting as music education research by Daniel Lowell Bakan BA, York University, 1986 MA, University of Toronto, 1999 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Curriculum Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2014 © Daniel Bakan, 2014 ii ABSTRACT This dissertation is an a/r/tographic inquiry in which I explore how songs and stories about songwriting can serve as a means for theorizing new ways of conducting research in music education. I a/r/tographically braid music, lyrics, scholarship and research, autoethnography, and other creative analytical practices to demonstrate how songs and memories can be used as interpretive texts for understanding artistic identity and the nature of being a musician. Through a collaged and multi-modal method of inquiry, I show how music and its renderings, i.e., recordings, lyrics, videos, memories, and lived shared expressions (e.g., performance) can hold and uncover new ‘knowings’ about music making, the self, and society. Using a bricolaged métissage approach, I explore how and why the ethnographic study of autobiographical material and artistic renderings through (and about) song can broaden understandings of the lived experiences of musicians, music learners, and teachers. Supported by Pinar’s re-conceptualist theory of currere, hermeneutic epistemologies, and praxial approaches to music education, this dissertation exemplifies performative autoethnography as research through music-making. I ultimately arrive at two interwoven outcomes: 1) song may function simultaneously as the method, results, and interpretation of research; and 2) the lived experiences and ‘musicings’ of musicians may be considered as a form of artful scholarship. Digital audio and video files of six original songs are attached to this dissertation not only as data in support of the research, but also as a representation and report of findings through storied/scholarly renderings in lyric, prose, image, and music. iii PREFACE The research and artistic compositions in this dissertation are all the original work of the author. Portions of Chapters Three and Four have been previously published in a single article: Bakan, D. (2013). This is the beauty: Song as a/r/tographical exploration. UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 3(2). All songs, music, and videos are copyright of the author. All songs are registered with the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). Artistic collaborative contributions to the audio recordings and videos (e.g., videography, recording and production, musical accompaniment, supplemental singers and instrumentalists) are acknowledged within the body of the dissertation, although all lyrics, songs and video renderings are my original works. All musical arrangements are also my own work, as are the video editing and narrational elements. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................................... iv List of Digital Media................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... viii Dedication...................................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO: A review of the literature on autoethnographic method and related music education research ............................................................................................................. 6 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 6 A few thoughts on writing .............................................................................................................. 7 Music education research and the interpretive turn ...................................................................... 12 The trouble with music education research .................................................................................. 16 Praxial challenges to “aesthetic” music education ....................................................................... 21 The crisis of representation........................................................................................................... 23 Autoethnography as a storied method of lived-inquiry ................................................................ 26 Story as meta-narrative ................................................................................................................. 33 Autoethnography and currere as methods of musicing the self and social................................... 37 CHAPTER THREE: The currere of a worldly folksinger: The social and technological context of songwriting in the 21st century................................................................................ 41 My artistic currere......................................................................................................................... 41 What is this thing called song? ..................................................................................................... 42 v What is this thing called folk? ...................................................................................................... 48 My storied musical lifeline ........................................................................................................... 57 Technology meets song: The era of affordable recording ............................................................ 61 Folk 2.0: Song goes on-line .......................................................................................................... 63 Folk ‘n worldly cosmopolitans online .......................................................................................... 66 Examples from my catalogue ....................................................................................................... 67 A song of becoming...................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER FOUR: This is the beauty: A methodology for song as a/r/tographical exploration................................................................................................................................... 69 Part One: A few opening chords................................................................................................... 69 Part Two: The singer grieves, the theory sings............................................................................. 71 Part Three: If I could say it I wouldn’t have to sing it.................................................................. 74 Part Four: Resonances .................................................................................................................. 77 Part Five: A few verses on theory................................................................................................. 83 Part Six: A reflective repetition and embellishment..................................................................... 86 Part Seven: Coda........................................................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER FIVE: A song of songs............................................................................................ 90 Prelude .......................................................................................................................................... 90 Verse One: “The Year of Jubilo”.................................................................................................. 96 Chorus One: “Jubilo: The complicated conversation” ................................................................. 97 Verse Two: “Mount Elphinstone: Where will the fairies dance?” ............................................. 106 Chorus Two: “The complex reverie of song-making”................................................................ 107 Verse Three: “The Song That Everyone Should Hear”.............................................................. 113 vi Chorus Three: “Song as comfort: The artist in service to the muse, the music, and the public good”........................................................................................................................................... 114 Verse Four: “Chasing the Buck” ................................................................................................ 118 Chorus Four: “The autoethnographical exploration of professional musicianship”................... 119 Verse Five: “The Fountain Pen”................................................................................................. 127 Chorus Five: “Complicated conversations of remembrance, connection, and