SCOTT GOBLE & ANITA PREST
J. Scott Goble is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses and supervises work of M.Ed., M.A., and Ph.D. students. A specialist in vocal and choral music, he taught music in public schools near Seattle, Washington, later serving on the music faculties of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, Boston University, and San Francisco State University. Scott has conducted choirs and orchestras in educational, professional, church, and community contexts throughout North America. His book What’s So Important About Music Education? is published by Routledge.
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Anita Prest is Assistant Professor of Music Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Victoria, Canada. Her current research, supported by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, examines the factors that must be considered in the creation of appropriate Indigenous material choral music resources (in partnership with the Victoria Native Friendship Centre). Anita teaches music education courses to both secondary music specialist and elementary generalist teacher candidates. Prior to her appointment at the University of Victoria, Anita taught K-12 music for 20 years in rural and metropolitan settings.
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On the boundaries of musical tradition and change: The role of music education in advancing Indigenous worldviews and changing musical practices in British Columbian schools and society
Beginning with the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (d. 348/347 BCE), Western scholars have observed that different forms of music and music making (or musicking) are reflective of characteristics of people in the communities where they are practiced (Plato 360 BCE). Some scholars have noted further that musics and musical practices aurally and physically manifest the worldviews held by different peoples (e.g., Turino 2008, Goble 2010). More recently, scholars have asserted that changes in music and musicking reflect social changes taking place within the societies where they are heard, sometimes in response to influences within the society, sometimes presaging them. For example, Irish ethnomusicologist John Blacking acknowledged musical change as a type of socio-cultural change, although he cautioned that “changes in music do not necessarily accompany the changes of mind [e.g., political changes] that affect institutions related to music-making” (1977, 3). Similarly, French economist Jacques Attali (1985, 11) argues that music heard as “noise” (i.e., objectionable sound) within a given society at any point in time should be considered as an aural harbinger of a new social order emerging within that society. Ted Gioia (2019, 19-20) contends that, while human biology lays the foundation for music making, it is social conditions—i.e., technological innovations, political structures, economic conditions, cultural institutions, belief systems—that contribute to shaping and changing music’s forms. The arguments provided by these scholars notwithstanding, the precise means by which musical change has taken place historically in different societies are not well understood; specifically, the factors determining which changes in society are reflected in music and musicking, and thus become habitual or traditional (while others do not), are not clearly addressed in existing theories, although some scholars have suggested that they may lie in the realms of emotion and psychophysiology (e.g., Turino 1999, Goble 2010).
Following on the Canadian federal government’s belated establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008 to address abuse inflicted on Indigenous peoples through the residential school system and its legacy, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education mandated in 2015 the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge into school curricula in all subjects—including music—by 2019 (Province of British Columbia 2015). In conducting a study in 2016 of how public school music educators in rural BC had already begun facilitating the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge and musics in the K-12 classes, we identified and began confronting challenges that inhere in bringing Indigenous cultural and musical practices into classes largely rooted in Western European musical traditions. We ultimately recognized that there are essentially two ways for educators to proceed legitimately (i.e., with the help of Indigenous leaders, Elders, culture bearers, and others): One is to introduce Indigenous musical practices as “separate from, but parallel to” the largely Western musical practices typically introduced in BC school music classes; the other is to take steps to synthesize Indigenous and Western musical practices (while also taking into account inherent epistemological differences and guarding against the potential danger of asymmetrical assimilation). Such synthesis has potential for leading to musical change in schools and in BC society, and we are presently seeking to understand what factors could contribute to making certain musics and musical practices become habitual or adopted as traditional there.
Our recent research has led to a new study, one that will be conducted in partnership with six other institutions and co-led by an Indigenous Steering Committee. It will lead to the design, organization, and carrying out of a large, two-day knowledge-sharing and -creation conference in which music teachers and Indigenous leads will share wise practices in decolonizing and Indigenizing music education and (in small sharing circles) imagine and plan local ways to embed Indigenous ways of knowing and being in music classes in each school district. The aim is to enable music teachers and their community partners to facilitate musicking—rooted in relationships with local landscapes and ecosystems—in K-12 schools. We expect that the data we collect in this event will enable us to identify and explore the dialogical tensions among Indigenous community members, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous music teachers, and between First Nations that underlie musical change. Further, we anticipate that, following on this conference, efforts made by music teachers and their community partners to synthesize Indigenous and Western musical practices will contribute to advancing Indigenous worldviews and changing musical practices in British Columbian schools and society.
In this paper, we will provide an overview of past scholarship theorizing musical change within societies, present an account of the procedures and content of our present research, consider our recent findings in light of the theories and findings of past and current scholars, and present an account of how those findings align with and/or contribute new insights to existing theories on musical change.
References
Attali, Jacques. 1985. Noise: The political economy of music. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Blacking, John. 1977. Some problems of theory and method in the study of musical change. Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 9: 1-26.
Gioia, Ted. 2019. Music: A subversive history. Boston: Basic Books.
Goble, J. Scott. 2010. What’s so important about music education? New York: Routledge.
Plato. Laws. 360 BCE, 1871. Book II. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/laws.2.ii.html
Province of British Columbia. 2015. Aboriginal worldviews and perspectives in the classroom. Victoria, BC: Crown Publications, Queen’s Printer.
Turino, Thomas. 2008. Music as social life: The politics of participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
__________. 1999. Signs of imagination, identity, and experience: A Peircian semiotic theory for music. Ethnomusicology 43(2): 221-255.
Following on the Canadian federal government’s belated establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008 to address abuse inflicted on Indigenous peoples through the residential school system and its legacy, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education mandated in 2015 the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge into school curricula in all subjects—including music—by 2019 (Province of British Columbia 2015). In conducting a study in 2016 of how public school music educators in rural BC had already begun facilitating the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge and musics in the K-12 classes, we identified and began confronting challenges that inhere in bringing Indigenous cultural and musical practices into classes largely rooted in Western European musical traditions. We ultimately recognized that there are essentially two ways for educators to proceed legitimately (i.e., with the help of Indigenous leaders, Elders, culture bearers, and others): One is to introduce Indigenous musical practices as “separate from, but parallel to” the largely Western musical practices typically introduced in BC school music classes; the other is to take steps to synthesize Indigenous and Western musical practices (while also taking into account inherent epistemological differences and guarding against the potential danger of asymmetrical assimilation). Such synthesis has potential for leading to musical change in schools and in BC society, and we are presently seeking to understand what factors could contribute to making certain musics and musical practices become habitual or adopted as traditional there.
Our recent research has led to a new study, one that will be conducted in partnership with six other institutions and co-led by an Indigenous Steering Committee. It will lead to the design, organization, and carrying out of a large, two-day knowledge-sharing and -creation conference in which music teachers and Indigenous leads will share wise practices in decolonizing and Indigenizing music education and (in small sharing circles) imagine and plan local ways to embed Indigenous ways of knowing and being in music classes in each school district. The aim is to enable music teachers and their community partners to facilitate musicking—rooted in relationships with local landscapes and ecosystems—in K-12 schools. We expect that the data we collect in this event will enable us to identify and explore the dialogical tensions among Indigenous community members, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous music teachers, and between First Nations that underlie musical change. Further, we anticipate that, following on this conference, efforts made by music teachers and their community partners to synthesize Indigenous and Western musical practices will contribute to advancing Indigenous worldviews and changing musical practices in British Columbian schools and society.
In this paper, we will provide an overview of past scholarship theorizing musical change within societies, present an account of the procedures and content of our present research, consider our recent findings in light of the theories and findings of past and current scholars, and present an account of how those findings align with and/or contribute new insights to existing theories on musical change.
References
Attali, Jacques. 1985. Noise: The political economy of music. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Blacking, John. 1977. Some problems of theory and method in the study of musical change. Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 9: 1-26.
Gioia, Ted. 2019. Music: A subversive history. Boston: Basic Books.
Goble, J. Scott. 2010. What’s so important about music education? New York: Routledge.
Plato. Laws. 360 BCE, 1871. Book II. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/laws.2.ii.html
Province of British Columbia. 2015. Aboriginal worldviews and perspectives in the classroom. Victoria, BC: Crown Publications, Queen’s Printer.
Turino, Thomas. 2008. Music as social life: The politics of participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
__________. 1999. Signs of imagination, identity, and experience: A Peircian semiotic theory for music. Ethnomusicology 43(2): 221-255.