The purpose of this investigation is to resolve an almost half a century old debate about the ethics in music and the extent of freedom of artistic expression. This debate originates in a few thousand year-old discourse which held the interests of a social group higher than the music preference of an individual, which has now completely reversed. The arguments for censorship of emotional expression in music that prevailed during Antiquity and Christianity, up until the 19th century, became ideologically tainted by what was perceived as communist propaganda, and was therefore downplayed in the middle of the 20th century. Today, the argument for individual freedom in music preference for production and consumption, has evolved into the status quo of Western music industry. However, unrestrained usage of music is found to lead to substantial increase in aggressive content in music which today constitutes about a fifth of the music products consumed in the U.S. This paper implements a number of approaches to draw a perspective view on the connection between violence in music and violence in society. It provides an insight into the causes for why violent music is cultivated, as well as the causes for persistent denial of ties between violent music and violent behavior that characterizes public consensus and opinion of music scholars.
Although music is often talked about as having one political agenda or another, in Western art music these features are generally thought to be distinct from the "music itself." As straightforward a proposition as this might seem to a reader fully acculturated to the contemporary music ideology, it is not the only possible way of conceiving of music as a social force. There exists music whose aesthetic merits are completely indistinguishable from its social function. More accurately, there exists an attitude about music in which it is not thought of as occupying a separate sphere with autonomous aesthetic principles. This paper creates a theoretical framework with these two attitudes at its extremes: absolute music and what I shall call "contingent" music. This theoretical framework has interesting historical antecedents, and is a useful way of thinking about some of modern music's ideological conflicts. It is also an important part of my own work as a composer, and this paper concludes by describing the way in which the absolute-contingent opposition informs three of my own compositions.
a contracept to the name understood as serious music (e-music) apostrophic art music, although only a few musical genera are in principle excluded from the entertainment claim (liturgical music, cultric music, representation music). ; Als Gegenbegriff zu der als Ernste Musik (E-Musik) apostrophierten Kunstmusik verstandene Bezeichnung, obwohl nur wenige musikalische Gattungen grundsätzlich vom Unterhaltungsanspruch ausgeschlossen sind (Liturgische Musik, kultische Musik, Repräsentationsmusik).
The case study is about loss of business due to piracy and file-sharing in the music industry in Britain. According to a survey by Ipsos Inc. (2006), CD piracy cost the industry £165m in lost revenue in 2005 - nearly 10% of total sales. The survey found that 37 million pirated CDs were sold in Britain in 2005. The piracy of music in Britain has pinned the British Music Industry (BMI) and the music artists against the internet service providers, the government and the consumers. The BMI is blaming the Internet Service Provider (ISP) firms for not policing illegal downloads of music and asked them to disconnect people who ignore requests to stop sharing music. The ISP firms do not see their role as policing the piracy problem and do not agree with BMI. The BMI is pressuring the government to legislate copyright offenses related to music downloads in Britain. Also, the BMI wants the consumers engaged in copyright offense of music piracy to be prosecuted for criminal offense in addition to civil offenses. The consumers disagree with the BMI. The case study discusses the current actions of the BMI, ISPs and the British Government.
"Music from the backyard": Hagström's music education, is a PhD thesis that investigates the music education that the company Hagström ran from 1946 to 1983. The aim of the thesis is to investigate and recreate Hagström's music educational history from a Deweyan pragmatist point of departure. The study searched for answers to the following questions: What were the societal and educational settings in which Hagström's music education took place? How did Hagström's music education develop, and what led to its rise and fall? What educational content and pedagogical ideas constituted Hagström's music education? How can Hagström's educational enterprise be understood with the help of Bourdieu's theories of symbolic capital? Because of the historical nature of the study, the availability of empirical material was limited. Hagström had some archived material which I was given access to, and there were a great deal of periodicals from the time with articles about music education on people's spare time. Additionally, the Hagström course books were important documents, since they were the only centralized document to govern the directions for Hagström's music education. The pragmatist perspective of the study led to a desire to highlight parts of the human experience that constituted the history. Based on a snowball-sampling strategy, I traced down eleven persons from Sweden and Norway which were interviewed.The results of the analysis became a story about Hagström in the society - a story that revealed an entrepreneur whose company grew quickly and represented other values than the better parts of the cultural establishment in Sweden. The company rested on several pillars: The production of accordions, and later on even guitars, basses, organs and amplification systems, import of music merchandise, as well as the largest chain of music retail shops in the Nordic countries. The music education started in 1945 in Växjö, and in 1946, the rest of the country. In the beginning they taught accordion and guitar, but later developed to include electric bass, organ and keyboard as well. The courses were organised as group education with a duration of ten weeks in a semester. Geographically they were spread all over Sweden as well as around Oslo, Bergen and Copenhagen. All in all there were close to 100 000 pupils attending Hagström's music education. Hagström's music education was, despite new ideas such as group education and that the student should be able to play a melody as quickly as possible, a fairly traditional master-apprentice kind of education. The teacher demonstrated what he considered to be the correct technique and musical performance, and the student imitated. The pupil had little or no opportunities to influence the content of the education. On a macro level however, Hagström's music school was important in the process towards a more democratic music education in Sweden. Hagström helped to increase the availability of music education through their geographical dispersion as well as the affordability of attending the courses. An important difference from the other agents on the market that aimed to refine the students' musical preferences, was that Hagström had no musical agenda. Hagström might have contributed to Sweden's strong position on the global popular music scene. ; "Från musikundervisningens bakgårdar": Hagströms musikpedagogik är en monografi som behandlar den musikundervisning som bedrevs i företaget Hagströms regi från 1946 till 1982. Syftet med avhandlingen var att undersöka och återskapa Hagströms musikpedagogiska historia med utgångspunkt i ett pragmatisk utbildningspedagogiskt perspektiv. Studien sökte svar på följande frågor: I vilka sociala och utbildningsmässiga kontexter försiggick Hagströms musikutbildning? Hur utvecklades Hagströms musikundervisning och vad ledde till dess uppgång och fall? Vilket pedagogiskt innehåll och vilka pedagogiska var väsentliga i Hagströms musikpedagogiska verksamhet? Hur kan Hagströms musikpedagogiska verksamhet förstås med hjälp av Bourdieus teorier om symbolisk kapital? Som historisk studie var det tillgängliga empiriska materialet begränsat. Hagström hade en del arkivmaterial lagrat som jag kunde få tillgång till, och det fanns en mängd tidskrifter från den aktuella perioden som behandlade utbildningen. Kursböckerna var viktiga dokument genom att de var de enda centraliserade styrdokumentet för hur Hagströms musikskola skulle utformas. Det pragmatiska perspektivet förde med sig ett behov av att synliggöra delar av den mänskliga erfarenhet som konstituerar historien. Baserad på en snöbollssamplings-strategi spårade jag elva personer från Sverige och Norge som jag intervjuade. Resultatet av analyserna blev en historia om Hagström i samhället - en historia som visade en entreprenör vars företag växte snabbt och i opposition till stora delar av det kulturella etablissemanget i Sverige. Bolaget hade flera ben att stå på: Produktion av dragspel och senare även gitarrer, basar orglar och förstärkarsystem, import av musikutrustning, försäljning genom Nordens största kedja med butiker, tryck av noter samt musikundervisning.Musikundervisningen startade 1945 i Växjö och 1946 i resten av landet. Instrumenten som det inledningsvis undervisades på var dragspel och gitarr men det utvecklades till att även inkludera elbas, orgel och keyboard. Kurserna var organiserade som gruppundervisning och en kurs pågick under tio veckor. Geografiskt var de spridda över nästan hela Sverige samt runt Oslo, Bergen och Köpenhamn. Tillsammans estimerar jag att uppemot 100 000 elever har fått undervisning i Hagströms musikskola. Hagströms musikundervisning var, trots nya idéer som gruppundervisning och att eleven snabbt skulle uppnå klingande resultat, en variant av traditionell mästare-lärling-pedagogik. Läraren förevisade vad som ansågs rätt teknisk och musikalisk och eleven imiterade. Eleven hade liten eller ingen påverkan på innehållet i undervisningen. På ett makroplan var Hagströms musikskola viktig i arbetet med att demokratisera svensk musikpedagogik genom att tillgängligheten ökade. Vidare var kursavgifterna överkomliga och det var billigt att hyra instrument. Hagström hade ingen musikalisk agenda, vilket skilde honom från andra aktörer på marknaden som hade som mål att förädla elevernas musikaliska preferenser. Hagströms musikskola kan sägas ha bidragit till vad som nuförtiden kallas det svenska musikundret. ; Godkänd; 2009; 20090501 (kettho); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Musikpedagogik / Music Education Opponent: Professor Gunnar Ternhag, Högskolan Dalarna Ordförande: Professor Sture Brändström, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag 5 juni 2009, klockan 13:00 Plats: Musikhögskolan Piteå, Sal L165
Classroom music teachers in England design their own music curricula for Key Stage 3 (11 – 14 year olds, 6th – 8th Grades). These curricula are designed in a context where policymakers define, regulate and legitimate curriculum formulations. This study traced curriculum development in England, where government has validated a policy driven approach. It explored programs of study, which music teachers in England design as summaries of musical learning for Key Stage 3. The research consisted of documentary analysis in a two-phase study of 13 secondary (high) schools in the English midlands, exploring musical knowledge for musical learning, which is analysed utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The paper concludes with a discussion which explores the impacts of music education policy on classroom practices, and presents a proposed model which captures this interaction.
The purpose of this study was to examine the practices and perspectives of music teachers who integrated popular music and informal music learning practices into their secondary school music programs. A primary goal was to understand music teachers' perspectives on the process of enacting change. The data for this parallel multiple-case study were four semistructured interviews, two school site visits and observations, documents, and a researcher journal. The content of teachers' interviews was synthesized in the form of four narratives. Teachers' pathways to becoming more reform-minded were marked by shifts in professional identity away from teacher-centered, autocratic mindsets toward student-centered, democratic approaches to music teaching and learning. The change process was natural for teachers. The tensions that typically surround popular music, informal music learning practices, and secondary music education (i.e., institutional constraints, music teachers' uncertainty, music teachers' views of popular music, and limited resources and professional development opportunities) were minimal for teachers in this study. Thematic analysis revealed eight characteristics of effective teacher-initiated change in secondary music education: (1) holistic and gradual change processes, (2) teacher reflection and inquiry, (3) teacher autonomy, (4) enabling institutional factors, (5) use of a variety of supportive networks, (6) student-centered pedagogy, (7) teacher-selected professional development, and (8) a balance of structure and chaos and formal and informal music learning practices. Teachers demonstrated the power of local change centered on democratic, student-centered practices and serve as exemplars for how K–12 teachers can step into traditionally structured music programs and create educational experiences for their adolescent students that are more relevant and engaging than what is currently being offered in many secondary music programs in the United States. ; ProQuest 3743553
African music is an epitome of the rich cultural heritage of the African people. This esteemed cultural heritage evident in the unique music genre found in the diverse ethnic societies in Africa must be celebrated, promoted and preserved to posterity. African music festival is one of the viable avenues of showing the culture and unity of Africans. This short commentary discusses the unique characteristics of African music, its status quo in the minds of the youth, and how music festivals such as the Aswan music festival can help ignite the love and passion for African music, educate the youth about the Afircan music heritage as well as help promote and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the African content. It argues that if African governments as well as private and public agencies assist in funding music festivals, it would help promote African music in global music industry and immortalize the rich cultural heritage of the African people.
After World War I, America was musically transformed from an outsider in the European classical tradition into a country of musical vibrance and maturity. These great advances, however, were deeply threatened by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the consequent Great Depression. The nation that, for the first time, was developing an international reputation in the arts now faced a crisis of how to support them. Government sponsorship of the arts through the New Deal Federal One projects allowed struggling artists to survive economically during this era. In the realm of music, however, the Federal Music Project (FMP) had consequences that reached far beyond economics and into the realms of politics and culture. This article surveys the important impact of the Federal Music Project on American music in both the East and the West by using statistics, examples, and stories, specifically with regards to new music, populism, American nationalism, minority involvement, and ethnomusicology.
Music Generation is the title of one of the most significant national initiatives in music education in Ireland. It seeks to put in place a countrywide infrastructure for instrumental and vocal music education. It has long been awaited. Over the last 30 years numerous reports and initiatives have highlighted the geographic inequity of the lack of access to high quality and affordable music tuition outside major urban centers.(1) In the ensuing years many ambitious plans and proposals have been made, including those commissioned by Government.(2) Funding to realize these plans however was always elusive. It is significant that they are now made possible not by a national government-led initiative, but as the result of philanthropy. This essay examines the context in which a philanthropic gift by the Irish rock group U2 and the philanthropic organization The Ireland Funds has enabled the development of a much needed nationals system of vocal and instrumental music education. Furthermore, it explores how philanthropy has shaped the development of this new national infrastructure and influenced the guiding principles.
Citation: Sweet, Bertha Florence. History of music. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1907. ; Morse Department of Special Collections ; Introduction: Rome has almost all the credit for the early development of music, but according to actual history it seems that the Romans were a people of observance of and appreciation for arts, but the artists were all from foreign countries, who came to Rome to receive the praise of the hosts, and then made their homes there, practicing and teaching. The most ancient treatise on music is written in the Grecian language, and there had been no original work on the subject by the Romans till the time of Boethius. Another cause for Rome becoming the center of music is that of the spread of the Christian religion. The persecution of the Christians in their own countries caused many to flee from their mother land, and seek the lad of Rome, where they could worship in secrecy. With them they brought the memory of the songs of their native land, and by an intermingling of the various melodies of the different countries, a new type of music was created, but even this deteriorated, as there was no written music, and the so-called melodies were either changed or forgotten.
In its various guises, blockchain technology has generated friction across a range of sectors; most notably as an enabler of anonymous trading, but perhaps more significantly in terms of longer-term adoption, via its application in supply-chain monitoring, and rights management. This article draws on stakeholder theory to examine the deployment of blockchain technology in the music streaming sector, in order to assess how these blockchain-based innovations - via interactions with users, market environments, and overarching economic and political frameworks - are contributing to evolving conceptions of ownership, inclusion and involvement. Initially, the article examines three approaches to theorising and designing inclusive governance structures that acknowledge the distributed, and at times collaborative, nature of interaction between members of a group; be that a society, a company or other form of organised grouping. Here I draw on three discourses to underpin the evolving role that stakeholders - in the guise of networks, companies, societies and platforms – can play in digital commerce: (i) John Rawls' concept of Distributive Justice, (ii) a set of principles known as the 'Scandinavian approach to Participatory Design'; and (iii) the emergent concept of 'New Economics', a term particularly associated with current and emergent left-wing political perspectives in the UK. Taking three use cases in Resonate, Musicoin and Choon, the article engages with how blockchain-based music start-ups are interacting with an evolving marketplace; identifying the benefits and beneficiaries of blockchain uptake, along with a wider set of structural changes that are taking place within music commerce. The article focuses on music streaming in particular to explore how blockchain is transforming the way that things are owned, and how it is contributing to an evolving conception of ownership, and reflects on how blockchain is finding increased used within the physical world of private and public property, and political governance. The article concludes by considering how stakeholders with the music streaming sector are indicative of wider changes, challenges and tensions within the digital marketplace, and the role that innovations in blockchain can play in this transition.
The idea that music has mystical powers—to heal, to soothe, to cause depravity, to promote political unrest or intelligence—has a long history that persists to the present day. Yet even scientific research into music and health often focuses on effects rather than causes, leaving vital questions unanswered. By contrast, Music Asylums, part of Ashgate's Music and Change: Ecological Perspectives series, sets out to explore "how, where and when music makes a difference." It is the first volume in a triptych devised by Tia DeNora and Gary Andsell, based on their six-year study of community music therapy in a center for mental health in England. The focal point of the three-part work is the recently published co-authored volume Musical Pathways for Recovery (Ansdell and DeNora 2016), with DeNora's Music Asylums and Andsell's (2014) How Music Helps envisaged as side panels that support and reflect on the topic from the authors' respective specializations of music sociology and music therapy. Music Asylums is roughly divided into two halves, the first providing a general ecological account of "how illness, health, the body, mind, culture and agency are intertwined" (6), the second developing and illustrating these ideas with reference to specific contexts where music is a significant factor in producing and maintaining wellbeing.
Chapter from Dublin's Future: New Visions for Ireland's Capital City, Dr. Lorcan Sirr (ed.), (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2011). Dublin's Future is a collection of essays, which, for the first time, recognises that the future of the island's largest and most important urban conurbation is about more than the engineering of roads and the colouring of development plans. Seán Mac Erlaine's chapter explores the performance of music in Ireland's capital city, documenting the currently vibrant use of alternative art spaces for niche markets of improvised, experimental and non-mainstream music practice. Contributors are recognised authorities in their fields. They cross sectors of age, private and public, profit and non-profit, and each and every one has something interesting to say about the future of Dublin. Lorcan Sirr - on Cities; Peter Sirr - on Literature; Patrick Daly - on Energy; James Pike - on Housing; Dermot Lacey - on Politics; Paul Donnelly - on Theatre; Seán Mac Erlaine - on Music; Sinead Shannon - on Ageing; Helen Carey - on Visual Arts; Ciaran Fallon - on Movement; Gillian O'Brien - on Memory; Conor Skehan - on Economy; Deirdre Black - on Landscape; Katrina Goldstone - on Ethnic Legacy; Noel J. Brady - on Bridges and Crossings; Ferdinand von Prondzynski - on Education; Gregory Bracken - on the View from Without.
