'Sounds of Intent' : Mapping musical behaviour and development in children and young people with complex needs

This article reports on the first year of an Esmae Fairbairn Foundation-funded research project into the design and evaluation of an original 'framework' for mapping the behaviour and development in, and through, music for children with complex needs, specifically those with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). An initial four-month design and pilot phase critiqued and evaluated a framework that was grounded in video-based iterative analyses of individual case studies that had been collected during the previous two years. The piloting phase was followed by a sustained period of classroom-based music lesson observation in five special schools over a period of seven months. A total of 630 observations were made using the framework for 68 participants whose ages ranged from 4 years 7 months to 19 years 1 month. Subsequent analyses support the general design features of the observational framework and provide new evidence of PMLD musical behaviour and development

Mapeando o desenvolvimento musical em alunos com as necessidades mais complexas: o projeto sounds of intent // Mapping musical Development in learners with the most complex needs: The Sounds of Intent Project

Este capítulo tem como foco o projeto Sounds of Intent, que visa mapear o desenvolvimento musical de jovens com as necessidades mais complexas. A partir de 2002, a equipe de pesquisa trabalhou com um grupo de profissionais que atuavam na área - musicoterapeutas, educadores musicais e outros profissionais - para desenvolver descrições precisas e interpretações compartilhadas das diferentes formas e níveis de engajamento musical que observaram entre crianças e jovens com necessidades educacionais especiais. O referencial teórico desenvolvido pela equipe é discutido nessa tradução. // This chapter focuses on the Sounds of Intent project, which aimed to map the musical development of young people with the most complex needs. Beginning in 2002, the research team collaborated with practitioners actively involved in the field—music therapists, music educators, and other professionals. Their objective was to develop accurate descriptions and shared interpretations of the different forms and levels of musical engagement observed among children and young people with complex needs. This translation discusses the theoretical framework developed by the team

The Role of the Institution and Teachers in Supporting Learning

We draw on four contrasting examples to illustrate how institutions and teachers support and shape music learning. Institutions include cultural settings and educational establishments, and teachers are broadly defined as people who have a role in musical learning, such as peers, and are distinguished by having knowledge of perceived value to the learner. The underlying conceptualization is that individual and collective music learning is nurtured within social contexts. The lens of activity theory is used to explore how learning and development are the product of inter- and intrapersonal behaviors shaped by cultural artifacts, tools (e.g., language, selected music repertoire), expectations and “rules” (conventions and norms) within a community setting. The examples reflect the contextualized music learning experiences of (1) a young musical savant, (2) advanced music students in higher education, (3) female choristers in a traditionally all-male UK cathedral setting and (4) diverse groups of adolescents in lower secondary school

Mapeando o desenvolvimento musical em alunos com as necessidades mais complexas: o projeto sounds of intent

This chapter focuses on the Sounds of Intent project, aimed mapping the musical development of young people with the most complex needs. From 2002, the research team worked with practitioners who were active in the field—music therapists, music educators, and other professionals—to develop accurate descriptions and shared interpretations of the different forms and levels of musical engagement they observed among children and young people with complex needs. The theoretical framework developed by the team is discussed in this translation.Este capítulo tem como foco o projeto Sounds of Intent, que visa mapear o desenvolvimento musical de jovens com as necessidades mais complexas. A partir de 2002, a equipe de pesquisa trabalhou com um grupo de profissionais que atuavam na área - musicoterapeutas, educadores musicais e outros profissionais - para desenvolver descrições precisas e interpretações compartilhadas das diferentes formas e níveis de engajamento musical que observaram entre crianças e jovens com necessidades educacionais especiais. O referencial teórico desenvolvido pela equipe é discutido nessa tradução

Similarity relations between groups of notes: Music-theoretical and music-psychological perspectives

The starting point of this article is Irène Deliège s essay on the similarity relationships that, it is claimed, lie at the heart of creating and cognising musical structure (2007): in particular (though not exclusively) relations that function internally within works, and which may be perceived implicitly or conceived explicitly. Initially, a music-theoretical tack is adopted, commencing from Arnold Schoenberg s concept of the musical motive (Alternatively known as motif ), and his taxonomy of motivic transformations, which, he asserts, underpin musical coherence (1967). This and other classifications by the theorists Rudolph Réti (1951), Jan LaRue (1970) and Wilson Coker (1972) are interrogated using the author s zygonic theory of music-structural understanding (Ockelford, 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a), and, with reference to the music-psychological work of Mary Louise Serafine (1983), David Temperley (1995) and Bruno Repp (1997), a new, composite taxonomy is proposed, which sets out the forms of connection that can logically exist between one group of notes and another. This is illustrated with musical examples, which suggest (a) that similarity cannot be judged in isolation from the musical context in which it occurs (something that is modelled through an expanded version of Leonard Meyer s (1973) formula of perceived conformance ); and (b) that similarity is likely to be judged differently between and even within subjects, depending on the listening style that they adopt. This will vary in general terms according to listeners musical beliefs and experiences, and specifically in relation to the attitudes and attention that they bring to bear on a given occasion. Hence it is concluded that there is not, and could never be, a universal metric of perceived musical similarity. How, then, does one explain the coherence of music as a communicative medium, which purportedly depends on a common understanding of relationships of similarity between composers, performers and listeners? It is surmised that composers intuitively or consciously endow their music with sufficient similarity for it to be recognisable and meaningful to listeners, even if some connections, particularly those functioning at a conceptual level, are missed or construed in unanticipated ways (Ockelford, 2004). The highly repetitive nature of music means that analysts too are able to identify not only those similarity relationships that seek to illuminate the compositional process or reflect or influence the way that listeners approach pieces, but also those correspondences that are deemed to be intrinsically noteworthy, without necessarily having any direct bearing on the musical experience. Clearly, this stance is at odds with music-psychological methodologies that tend to examine aspects of similarity perception that are common across a population. That is to say, different music-related disciplines (and even different approaches within disciplines) are likely to afford similarity a different ontological status. Zygonic theory offers a way forward: a conceptual framework that different epistemological modi operandi can potentially share