Module 4-1

In the video made available in module 4 called, "The landfill Harmonic Orchestra", insight was given into the musical lives of the citizens of Cateura, Paraguay .  In general, the statements and overall impact of the video send a clear message concerning the value of music in people's lives.  Right away you can see the impoverished situation that the citizens live in. Their society is built on top of a landfill where one man states that a violin is more valuable than the homes. Upon finding the shell of a violin in the trash, one man was inspired to use the trash to construct musical instruments. One young girl even states that her life would me worthless without music.  My interpretation of her statement is not that she felt she would not have value without music, but rather that her life has been given direction and clarity because of her opportunity to experience music.  This sentiment is echoed throughout the video by each young person who spoke and performed.  Furthermore, one could see that the young children were having successful aesthetic experiences.  This can be realized through statements such as, "I get butterflies in my stomach when I hear the violin."


Because of the many blessings that Americans have each and everyday, it can be challenging to communicate the ways in which music can enrich human life.  However, it doesn't mean that it is impossible.  It just becomes the responsibility of the music advocate to creatively find ways to relay the message.  One such option could be to have an open mic night with a twist.  This could be easily held at school.  The event should be planned in a way that is both entertaining and informative.  Each student performer would select a piece to perform and write an excerpt about how music has affected their life.  After each selection, the student would take a moment to address the audience on the importance of music to them.  The show could end with a finale number that supported this theme such as, "Seasons of Love". Another option would be to have parents participate in a choir rehearsal.  A great time for this would be during the second semester Open House Night.  This is usually the time that parents come in with their children, review their new school schedule and have a chance to speak with teachers.  Instead of telling them what happens in class, the students could lead their parents in a revised daily schedule of the class complete with singing! Lastly, arranging a unique line up of repertoire for community performances could double as a chance to promote the value of music in everyday life.  For example, at my school students are constantly invited to perform at nursing homes, restaurants, and businesses that partner with our school through their financial support.  One great selection that could be performed is, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" by Bill Backer, Billy Davis, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway.  Students could also be asked to compose a creative writing excerpt for ways that music has changed their life and how it can change the lives of others.  A few select writings could be integrated in the performance. I have used this in a spring concert before and it was very memorable for the audience and for the students.  Such creative options could offer meaningful and informative experiences for all who are involved.

Module 3-1

Module three introduces the concept of aesthetic experiences.  The text describes these experiences as having and involving five components: (1) Little or no practical value, (2) Feelings, (3) Intellect, (4) Focus on attention, (5) Experience. Personally, I have had several aesthetic experiences, as I would assume most music educators have, and the affect of those experiences have shaped my personal life and career.

It was the Spring of 2010.  I was a sophomore at Georgia State University and a member of the University Singers under the direction of Dr. Allen Raines.  There were many pieces I enjoyed learning and performing during my year in the choir, but one in particular grasped my attention right away. "Amor De Mi Alma" by Z. Randall Stroope took me on a sonic adventure from the first rehearsal! The lyrics were beautifully penned and the song's form and chord structure was a perfect bed for them. Although one could say that the piece was taught with the purpose of educating or performing, the idea of music having a practical purpose is a harder case to establish according to the text.

The most memorable aesthetic experience I have with this particular piece is a performance at a high school.  I had just ended a two year relationship with my very first boyfriend. Despite the fact that it was a peaceable separation, the fond emotions of the relationship were still present.  As with each of my performances I focused on expressing the text.  I knew from the moment the first few notes were sung that I would have a hard time keeping my composure. I felt completely vulnerable to the text. I focused on the lyrics and translation as written by Garcilaso de la Vega.  They can be found below along with a link (click on the song title) to a recording of the piece: 

Amor de mi alma

Yo no naci sino para quereros;

Mi alma os ha cortado a su dedida;

Por hábito del alma misma os quiero.

Escrito está en mi alma vuestro gesto;

Yo lo leo tan solo que aun de vos

Me guardo enesto.

Quanto tengo confiesso yo deveros;

Por vos naci, por vos tengo la vida,

Y por vos é de morir y por vos muero.

I was born to love only you;

My soul has formed you to its measure;

I want you as a garment for my soul.

Your very image is written on my soul;

 Such indescribable intimacy

I hide even from you.

All that I have, I owe to you;

For you I was born, for you I live,

For you I must die, and for you

I give my last breath.

This experience was very meaningful.  My personal experience connected with the aesthetics of the music and step by step the points of aesthetic experiences began to take form, tears began to roll, and my perspective on performance and the impact that it can have on the performer was forever changed. 

Module 3-2

One of the ways that music educators can utilize the aesthetic experience is by creating moments for their students to have these type of experiences.  These experiences can in turn introduce them to various styles of music and serve as a launching pad for further musical studies. The caution, however,  for the music educator is to not treat aesthetic experiences as moments for teaching music history and/or music theory.  The moment should be used exclusively to invoke feelings and connectivity to the piece. 

In a lesson for middle school music appreciation students, the following lesson could be used.

Objective: Students will understand how specific types of music can invoke feelings. Students will understand how music can be used to create ideas and pictures in a listener’s mind. 

Materials:  Computer; recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, 2nd movement; class PA system; class set of pencils; class set of blank paper.

Lesson Steps: 

1. As an introduction, Beethoven's Symphony No.6 will be played for students.
2. Students will discuss their feeling associated with the piece.  The teacher will have them imagine what may have been going on in the piece.
3. The teacher will distribute one paper and one pencil to each student.
4. The teacher will have the students write their names in a specific corner of the paper. The students will fold their paper vertically and then horizontally, dividing it into four quarters. The students will number the quarters one to four in the upper right corner of each square.
5. The teacher will play another piece for them called, Symphony No. 4, second movement by Tchaikovsky. Students will draw four accompanying pictures in each of the corners of their papers. They will go through three steps:
a) first, they should listen to the music for at least one minute.
b) second, get an idea of how the music makes them feel and what they think of. e.g. nature, people playing, scary monsters…
c) students will draw what the music makes them think of. There are no rules telling them what they have to draw as long as they can say the drawing came from what they heard.
6. Once the students have filled their page with four drawings, the floor will be open for sharing. Stress will be put on the fact that in this activity there are NO wrong ideas.

*All the steps may not be able to happen in the same period.  If so, the best place to separate the steps would be at the end of step 6.  During the next class period, students can resume step 6 and conclude with step 8.*

7. Next, the students will be divided into groups (four students) where they will put all of their drawings together into a kind of comic book story. 

8. Lastly, for a final presentation, they will tell the story to the rest of the class while the original corresponding music is playing.

Module 3-3

For quite sometime educators and legislators a like have debated the case for musical and non-musical benefits of music education.  There are valid reasons for each as well as valid concerns for each. The following is an exploration of both.

In a time of budget cuts and program cuts those in leadership positions are constantly having to examine and evaluate the usefulness of existing programs.  At the same time they have to find ways to conserve finances. Because of this, it becomes increasingly important for music advocates to show the non-musical benefits of music education. Secondly, as a result of our evolving society the job market has placed an emphasis on areas such as technology, business, and medicine.  There is hardly any knowledge of the viable career options in music.  For this reason, music education has to show the ways that it can assist in building skills that can transfer into other subject areas. Another challenge that exists is the student participation in music programs. Showing the fringe benefits of music education could encourage more students to participate in these programs. Lastly, showing the extra benefits of music education may encourage more sponsors to offer financial support to various music programs in their community.  For example, if the correlation between higher academic scores and participation in music programs were highly publicized, non-profit organizations whose focus is to encourage after-school activities that promote academic welfare might be more apt to contribute financially to music programs. There are many resources that offer researched information on these benefits.  One such resource can be found by clicking here.

In contrast, music advocates who truly have a passion to see the arts thrive know and understand that there is more to music education than these non-musical benefits.  There are many worthy components of music that deserve educational exploration.  In fact, there are national educational organizations who believe the same. One such organization called MENC came up with nine widely accepted standards for music education.Though there have been several revisions,  the latest revision which occured in the early1990's is the one still used today.  They are as follows:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Secondly, there is always the risk that the opposite of the desired effect would happen in legislation.  Who is to say that lawmakers could not simply extract those components of music education that is "proven" to show correlation with these non-musical benefits and only place emphasis on them.  The results would severely affect the arts and it's holistic appeal. Next, the aesthetic experience is what most people look forward to with music. In fact, it is usually the educated musician or educator who can discern more than the aesthetics of music.  Because of this, there should not be items in place to distract from those experiences. Lastly, only focusing on the non-musical aspects of music would severely impact our future.  How would our nation's future composers be impacted? How would our music educators be impacted?  What about the impact of our future society as whole?  The question should be considered: do we really want to live in a society where music is taught like math or science?  I should think not and in order to prevent this, we have to carefully consider the messages we present to those in legislative and administrative positions. Resources have been compiled on these types of view points and one such resource can be viewed by clicking here.

Resources

Brown, L. (2014). The Benefits of Music Education. PBS Parents. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/.

VH1 Save the Music Foundation. (2013). The Importance of Music Education. VH1 Save the Music. retrieved from http://www.vh1savethemusic.org/why-music/benefits-to-the-brain.

Module 1

"The view that music is linked to morality is surprisingly robust. Thinkers as different from each other as Confucius, Socrates, St. Augustine and al’Ghazzali have cautioned against the effects of music on the soul. Now researchers in Israel have found evidence that these moralists may have been on to something." (Bicknell,1) Bicknell's comments directly correlate with Hoffer who states, "He (Aristotle)  said that music directly imitates the passions of the soul-gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, and their opposites and other qualities; hence, when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to the kind of music that arouses ignoble passions his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form. (Grout, 1973, p. 7)  Bickell continues to describe an experiment conducted which examined the effect of music on pursuasion, specifcally in advertisements.  In this experiement, they explored the effects on subjects with music that was up-beat, music that seemed sad, and music that had a danceable groove.  The results were that the music did effect the perspective of the subjects. The perspectives depended heavily on the music.

In a second article, Music: Its Expressive Power and Moral Significance, Whitfield begins with an in-depth overview of ancient philosophers of contrasting opinion who all agreed that music is on of the most powerful art forms. She journeys through several explanations ranging from theories to mathematics, but the results are that music plays an important role in affecting human emotion.  Those emotions, she writes, goes on to effect the complete human being. Whitfield concludes, "The creation and practice of music is tightly wound with human emotion, character, and the overall tapestry of human experience. Music arouses sentiment, whether it evokes the intended sentiment or not. Thus, music cannot be underestimated as a powerful shaper of human virtue, character, and emotion." (Whitfield, 18)

Bicknell, J. Music and Moral Judgement: Can music promote unethical behavior?Why Music Moves Us. December 6, 2012.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/why-music-moves-us/201212/music-and-moral-judgement

Whitfield, S., Music: Its Expressive Power and Moral Significance. Musical Offerings, Article 1, Spring 2010. http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=musicalofferings&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dmusic%2520and%2520morality%252C%2520edu%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D3%26ved%3D0CDgQFjAC%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.cedarville.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1012%2526context%253Dmusicalofferings%26ei%3D-KJlU9qNKOL4yQHI-IGgBg%26usg%3DAFQjCNF8oaQ-KQfZMeI5IUgld9wIielckg%26sig2%3DVtDdKhhJIOxQ6yWAK8klqw%26bvm%3Dbv.65788261%2Cd.aWw#search=%22music%20morality%2C%20edu%22.