“There Must Be Musical Joy” An Ethnography of a Norwegian Music School Karin Th. Hauger Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Teaching and Learning Jan K. Nespor, Chair C. Vernon Burnsed John S. Husser Marilyn V. Lichtman Terry M. Wildman April 30, 1997 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Music, Education, Norway, Talent Copyright 1997, Karin Th. Hauger “There Must Be Musical Joy” An Ethnography of a Norwegian Music School Karin Th. Hauger (ABSTRACT) This study seeks to discuss issues and practices as found among three musicians, their classrooms, rehearsals and performances in a music school in Asker, Norway. The issues explored are more generally ‘Western’ than specifically Norwegian. The main topic centers on emotional dimensions in musical contexts where people actively play musical instruments and/or sing. ‘Working’ musical contexts are marked by participants who approximate each others’ developmental levels and skills, physically, cognitively and emotionally. They are characterized by people who are able and willing to tap into musical as well as human inner resources and share those with students, other musicians and audiences. Musical joy is a Norwegian expression that I borrow to describe the essential element in ‘working’ musical contexts. The nature of these emotional nuances are explored as physical movement, tension between unfocused and focused sound, and expanded consciousness. Musical phenomena observed in Norwegian contexts are discussed in terms of cognitive categorization processes that tend to confirm the social construction of musical genres, institutions, instruments and musicians. Cognitive processes as well as emotional dimensions such as musical joy and talent may be parts of innate capacities that are then constructed in social interactions throughout life. Observations at the Norwegian music school confirm that traditional conservatory practices combined with ensemble experiences are effective in enhancing instrumental and vocal skills. These practices are costly and difficult to implement as part of a ‘music for all’ philosophy in Western societies where art music is peripheral to everyday practice. I suggest that value in music be expanded to include different musical genres and levels of aesthetics. A redefinition of music to include practices other than sound may also be useful in terms of a philosophy of “music for everyone.” Neither expanded value nor a redefinition of music will prove particularly effective in terms of making music central to the public school curriculum in Norway or the U.S. Music education as aesthetic education from a process or a product perspective will remain peripheral as long as there is an imbalance in the value society ascribes to intellect and emotions. Table of Contents Table of Contents i Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Chapter 2. Translating people to text 9 Chapter 3. Access 20 Chapter 4. Music schools in Norway 32 Chapter 5. Inger skal ha glede av sangen. Enjoy singing, Inger! 44 Chapter 6. Musical joy and popular music 58 Chapter 7. A discussion of categorization of musical genres, teaching practices and musical joy 73 Chapter 8. Musical joy in ensemble rehearsals and performances 83 Chapter 9. A discussion of ‘working’ classrooms, the ‘star’ in democratic societies, and talent 100 Chapter 10. Music Education - Aesthetic Education: Process and product 109 Chapter 11. Conclusion 129 Sources 132 Vita 139 i Chapter 1. Introduction. This work is a study of music education in Norway. More specifically, it is about music education in Norwegian music schools, musikkskoler, an institution established in Norway in the 1950s with the intention of making individual and ensemble music instruction available to everyone, not just a cultural or moneyed elite. Most particularly, this is a study of three teachers at one music school, Asker Musikkskole . My preconceived notion in undertaking this study was that personal experience with music, especially singing, was more central to several aspects of Norwegian society than to American. By observing musical contexts in Norway, especially music education for children, I hoped to identify and analyze some aspects of the Norwegian experience that promoted this musical exposure, and make some recommendations that American music teachers might find useful in making their musical work more central to American culture.1 Perhaps it was a result of the ethnographic method, but what I found was different from what I expected. Music, particularly singing, may be more important in Norway than in America. I cannot say. What I learned in the three classrooms at Asker Musikkskole concerned human universals, not cultural particulars. In other words, the three Norwegian music teachers participated in musical contexts that were not characterized by ‘Norwegianness’, but by concerns and practices common to music as it is performed and taught in the Western world in general. Music aesthetics, Musical joy I found that the musicians at Asker, like many of us who have been trained at conservatories, music schools and universities in the Western world, function within certain assumptions about the field that rest on music aesthetics, and further, that those aesthetics are assumed to reside first and foremost within Western art music. I discuss aesthetics [emotions] and music as I experienced it at Asker Musikkskole as an engendered rather than an embodied phenomenon (Keil & Feld, 1994). This puts the emotional emphasis in music on the person who makes music [process, engendered] rather than in the musical composition, [product, embodied]. From this perspective, music education as aesthetic education can be understood from a framework that is ‘person’ rather than ‘composition’ oriented (Blacking, 1976; Elliot, 1994). 1 The National Standards for Arts Education (1994), for example, is an attempt to standardize what every American student should know about music. These guidelines will mean little as long as music, the way it is generally practiced and taught in educational institutions in the Western world, is peripheral to our society. 1 The understanding of music education as aesthetic education is not new (Meyer, 1956; Langer, 1957). However, the emphasis on the person who is making music rather than the musical product is a shift in perspective that requires a reevaluation of how and what we teach on all levels of music education. In this study, I look primarily at the spiritual dimension of active participation in musical contexts. I call this spirituality musical joy - musikkglede - and consider this emotional concept to be a vital part of music education as aesthetic education from a process rather than a product perspective. Developmental learning in the music classroom Based on my observations at Asker Musikkskole, I also discuss teaching and learning music [as played and sung] in private and group lessons. Although not directly applicable to instructional settings, I argue that apprenticeship practices where the learning process is based on the inseparability of knowing and doing are effective in music teaching and learning. Further, private lessons with one on one interaction seem to offer the teacher ample opportunities to gauge the developmental readiness level of the student. I discuss the interaction between the teacher and the student in musical settings as a musical ‘zone of proximal development’ (Vygotsky, 1978) where the learning process can be seen and heard. Musical joy and learning The ‘working’ musical contexts I observed combined apprenticeship-like practices with musical joy. Learning seemed to occur as a natural part of lessons, rehearsals and performances when teachers and students tapped into emotional strengths as well as musical skills. In other words, emotional resources - musical joy - were as much a part of successful musical settings as pedagogical and instrumental expertise. Social construction of musical phenomena Keeping people, rather than the musical composition, in focus further challenges traditional views of several musical phenomena, such as Western art music and talent. It is my intent to wrestle certain musical concepts away from being considered innate capacities or God-given gifts, and to talk about them as concepts and ideas that are continuously constructed and reconstructed by people during social interaction. This particular perspective renders definitions slippery and blurred and judgments of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’, ‘talented’ or ‘not talented’ largely meaningless (Becker, H., 1982; Clignet, 1985). Social construction of musical emotions There is a contradiction in this work between looking at traditional musical concepts within a framework of social construction and the way I discuss the main theme of this study, musical joy. I consider musical joy to be a spiritual resource, and as such there is no way to determine whether such a diffuse concept is innate or constructed. The capacities for musical joy and talent, in fact, may well be innate to human beings. The expression and development of both seem dependent on 2 social interaction between people. Ironically, we may construct the meaning of what may be an innate capacity in everyone to fit those who we decide are the gifted few.2 Definition of music for this study The foundation for the discussion of music in this study is based on the process of making music in terms of playing an instrument