The Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth are mostly comprised of the so called “Coloured” community and is vibrant in tradition and musical activities. Community music in the form of marching bands, brigade bands, wind bands and brass bands form a central part of the music activities in this area. The non-availability of music education in schools combined with the multitude of social challenges creates a cultural and moral vacuum. Children are not exposed to the finer arts and music in particular and without these bands and groups probably never will. This study will explore five community bands/groups and the role they play in the lives of people and especially the children and the youth. The impact and influence music has on the social upliftment of under-privileged children in this area has never been studied. The study shows the big impact these bands/groups have on the children and the communities they serve and highlights the dedication and good work of those band managers working with these groups. The study concludes with a proposal that an art/music centre be established in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth.

Arts and humanities programming is becoming increasingly incorporated in the medical school, balancing the biomedical paradigm, and nurturing human and emotional qualities and understandings in medical students. Music is often listed among these arts and humanities disciplines; yet there exists an acknowledged gap in the literature pertaining to musical activities and programming in the medical school, despite the prevalence of choirs, a cappella groups, small instrumental ensembles, and musical theatre programs in medical schools. Literature on choirs, musical ensemble, and community music suggests that choral singing can cultivate many of the intra and interpersonal skills that medical humanities programming encourages, such as empathy, cooperation, self-awareness, and human connection. Within the medical humanities, music has been tied to metaphors of “medicine as a performing art” or “the art of listening,” but very little literature exists delving into the actual musical experience of medical students. Drawing from medical humanities, community music, and education theory, and shaped by the metaphor of musical and emotional ‘resonance,’ this phenomenological study explores the relationships between choral singing and medical scholarship. Through semi-structured interviews, the primary goal of this inquiry was to develop in-depth understandings of the experiences of medical students singing as members of a musical community of practice: an extra-curricular medical school choir at a Canadian university. Findings indicate that choir is an informal, non-medical venue where students can engage with their musical identity during medical school; that choral singing can offer a means of stress-relief and creative outlet, mitigating symptoms of student burnout; and that engagement in the choir builds meaningful relationships and a supportive, connected community. Moreover, this study describes the role of music and choral singing in medical humanities and medical education, as well as suggests how involvement in a medical school choir may influence a medical student’s professional identity formation.

Phenomenological research was conducted to explore the lived experiences of adolescents in a Children’s home who participate in a choir that is facilitated from a community music therapy perspective. The case study involved 16 weekly choir sessions, where a variety of vocalisations and interactive vocal interventions were implemented. A performance marked the end of the process, where preferred songs were performed. Fourteen adolescents residing in Bramley Children’s Home participated in the choir and the research. Qualitative data was collected through 14 semi-structured individual interviews at the end of the process. All interview transcripts were analysed through utilising interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study concluded that participation in the community music therapy choir offered the adolescents perceived meaningful intra- and interpersonal experiences. At an intrapersonal level, the participants lived experience entailed discovering their musical voices, accessing inner strength to take action both in the here-and-now and in the future as well as experiencing a healthier picture of themselves through increased self-awareness, self-esteem and self-confidence. Utilising cognitive skills and experiencing, expressing and regulating emotions were also included in the in the intrapersonal findings. In terms of interpersonal experiences, the adolescents perceived growth in relationships, improved social skills, social harmony and connection into the community. An important finding in this study that drew on a community music therapy focus is connection into the community, where the adolescents are experiencing sustaining relationships and continuous musiking within their communities. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

This study was designed to explore the role of community music therapy in enhancing protective factors for youth at risk, which are associated with, and predictive of resilience. Resilience is understood as adaptive behaviour when faced with adversity and threats to adaptation. This qualitative research utilised a case study of six learners from Heideveld Primary School, aged nine to eleven, who participated in nine group music therapy sessions. Video recordings of the sessions and portfolio entries created by the participants were analysed by means of thematic coding and categorising. Individual, relational, community and cultural protective factors, which can enable resilience, were observed in the music therapy space and were incorporated into eight themes that offered insight into the contextually pertinent factors that can promote resilience in relation to the types of adversity faced in the Heideveld ecology. It was also explored how these factors may be enhanced in a community music therapy process. The importance of affording experiences of safety and a nurturing support system in the music therapy space, as well as the ability of interactions within musicking to evoke and enhance protective factors, are highlighted. / Mini Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

Adolescents living in peri-urban settings in South Africa face multiple challenges to realising their own health and wellbeing. A lack of opportunities exists for young people to gain practical skills and the self-efficacy necessary to address these challenges. One area in which they have the potential to make an impact is that of water-related disease. In this context Jive Media Africa, a media agency with a focus on health communications, initiated the Hip Hop Health project. The project made use of hip hop centred community music making to enable 60 young people from three schools in peri-urban communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to share, with their broader communities, findings from research tasks that they had undertaken in the area of water and health. This qualitative case study explored the affordances of this community music making process for the adolescents involved. The study employed thematic analysis of thick descriptions of video excerpts, song lyrics and focus group transcriptions, drawing strongly on a Freirean construct of conscientisation and on youth empowerment theory. This research suggests that the writing and performance of hip hop songs empowers young people to engage with complex issues affecting their health and wellbeing. Through this process they gained hope for their futures, as individuals and as a community. The overarching theme of empowerment is supported by three subthemes, each of which was facilitated by the creation and performance of hip hop songs. In ‘becoming’, young people gained knowledge and were empowered as individuals. Through ‘belonging,’ the learners forged mutually supportive relationships with their peers, families and the broader community. Finally, through ‘believing’, young people began to conceptualise the future as holding hope and possibilities, based on their learnings and the experiences of the process. In this sense, empowerment was seen to take place at both an individual and a community level, and demonstrated elements of building critical consciousness through cycles of action and reflection. The findings hold relevance for programmes that seek to address other issues impacting adolescent health and wellbeing by empowering participants through community music making using hip hop and rap. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / University of Pretoria / Music / MMus Musicology / Unrestricted

The context of this research project is Eersterust, a suburb situated east of Pretoria. Eersterust is hallmarked by socio-economic contrast: While some people in the community live comfortable lives, other community-members endure poverty and hardship. Eersterust is plagued by socio-economical problems including unemployment, crime, substance abuse and gang-activity. Music Therapy was established in Eersterust in 2003 at a community-based centre called YDO (The National Youth Development Outreach). YDO facilitates the social rehabilitation of adolescents who are at risk of coming in conflict with the law or have already committed some sort of petty crime. When Music Therapy was introduced at YDO it was isolated from the rest of the organisation as well as from the broader community of Eersterust. The Music Therapist at YDO realised that she had to adapt her work in order for it to justly address the needs of the context. In the process of adaptation, Music Therapy became integrated within the organisation and currently works both with and within the broader community of Eersterust. The adaptation of the Music Therapy practice has lead to some unconventional practices of Music Therapy according to traditional Music Therapy discourse. These Music Therapy practices may be described from a Community Music Therapy angle. The aim of this research project is to analyse the narrative of the Music Therapist working within YDO/Eersterust in order to describe the practice of Music Therapy within this context from the angle of Community Music Therapy. The following research questions were addressed in this research study: <ol><li> How is Community Music Therapy at Eersterust constructed in the context of a Music Therapy narrative? </li> <li>How does the narrative draw from and contribute to the emerging field of Community Music Therapy?</li></ol> The study is conducted within a qualitative paradigm and methods of narrative analysis were used to describe the practice of Music Therapy in the context of YDO/Eersterust. The research study is data-driven and raw data consisted of a single semi-structured interview conducted with the Music Therapist working at YDO. The narrative text was transcribed, coded and categorized. From the analysis process themes emerged that indicated the primacy of the context in influencing the construction of the narrative of the Music Therapist. These themes were used to answer the two pertaining research questions. The discussion focuses on the importance of the context as it seems to impinge directly on the Music Therapy practice within the context of YDO/Eersterust. The discussion draws from Social Construction Theory to explain how Community Music Therapy is constructed within the narrative of the Music Therapist. At the same time Community Music Therapy draws from and contributes to the narrative of the Music Therapist. Certain areas of discussion were highlighted in the emerging themes and these areas are used to describe Community Music Therapy within the context of YDO/Eersterust. In this research project the Consensus Model is presented as a contrasting thinking tool to Community Music Therapy discourse. The Consensus Model describes the standardised practice of Music Therapy as a neutral and transferable therapeutic model that can be applied in a similar way in all contexts while Community Music Therapy advocates context-bound and context-specific Music Therapy work with and within communities. Community Music Therapy implies that Music Therapy is not necessarily a neutral model that can be transferred from one context to the next. Areas may exist where Community Music Therapy and the Consensus Model may present different opinions regarding Music Therapy practice. The narrative data concludes that both Community Music Therapy and the Consensus Model are constructed within the narrative of the Music Therapist. Both these models exist simultaneously in the context of YDO/Eersterust. Music Therapy in South Africa is still an emerging field of practice. Community Music Therapy may be especially relevant to South Africa as Music Therapists are increasingly called upon to work in the contexts of socio-economically disadvantaged communities, similar to Eersterust. Whilst this study may have focused only on a single community in South Africa, my hope is that it will encourage Music Therapists in South Africa to review and research Music Therapy with and within communities in South Africa. This study will also contribute to the emerging discourse of Community Music Therapy. / Dissertation (MMus (Music Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / Unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to identify and assess Texas community orchestras and create a demographic and musical profile of participants. This was accomplished through use of two online questionnaires. A director survey questionnaire determined the organizational status of each orchestra. The directors surveyed were leaders in these organizations who provided information about their orchestras’ founding, budget, and membership numbers. The participant survey questionnaire was adapted from Bowen’s 1995 study of community band participants in the southeastern United States. Participant data included educational and musical training, musical activities, and demographics. Bowen’s study guided this venture in expanding a profile of community musicians to include those in community orchestras. Eleven of the 18 community orchestras identified in Texas responded to the questionnaires distributed, with 361 participant questionnaires returned. Although many music making opportunities for adults are available in Texas, the existence of only 18 community orchestras in the state indicates a tremendous gap between school music making and adult music making in these types of ensembles, given 44,000 Texas school orchestras reported competing in 2010–2011. Research has shown that making music increases the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual wellbeing of those who take part. As serious leisure, community music making experiences enable those involved an opportunity to engage in a challenging, satisfying, and meaningful activity. All members of a community should have access to such opportunities because these activities may improve their quality of life. According to the profiles in the participant survey questionnaires, the following activities may encourage more participation in adult music making: Offering diverse music making opportunities, intergenerational music activities, encouraging community music experiences, and the modeling adult music making by teachers.

There is a wealth of literature on people who participate in community instrumental ensembles. Studies exist regarding demographics, educational level, socio-economic status, music education experience, and musical self-identities of community music participants. Far less study focuses on young adults who were successful in high school programs but chose not to continue playing in a community instrumental ensemble group after the end of formal schooling. Traditional assumptions about their reasons—job and family for example—need to be examined. Attribution Theory, which provides a means of analyzing motivation for choices as well as perceived attributions for success or failure, was the theoretical framework of this research, with focus group interviews as the main procedural methodology. The geographic area of the study was limited to the greater Los Angeles area of southern California. Music education literature is replete with references to building skills and values for lifelong participation in music, whether in performance, in listening, or in engaging with music in other ways. This study will offer insight into why many young adults who were once in high school music choose not to continue in instrumental music performance beyond their high school years. I anticipate that this research may lead to better understanding of issues in young adult stages of life as they relate to choices about non-participation in community instrumental ensembles. This research suggests ways in which school music education can facilitate lifelong engagement with music, and will suggest how community ensembles might make changes that will broaden participation by a greater number of young adults after they leave school.

This author conducted a qualitative interview study of community orchestra musicians to better understand why they have sustained their music-making. The first chapter of this dissertation outlines the three research questions along with a rationale and author’s narrative. A problem statement along with a conceptual framework are also included within the first chapter. Three key areas of connected and relevant literature are identified and discussed in the second chapter of this proposal: 1) Socioeconomic Status (SES), parental involvement, efficacy, and attrition in formal school settings: Motivations of students to start learning an instrument and sustain that learning through high school; 2) Characteristics of members of community orchestras; and 3) Studies examining why adults sustain their music-making. The first dimension enables comparisons and contrasts between community orchestra members and school music students. The second and third domains offer a context for both the musicians' individual work and adult music-making in general. The third chapter is a description of the methods, research questions, and timeline of data collection. Data were gathered via a semi-structured interview and a PhotoVoice activity from 10 community orchestra musicians in the New York City area. A description of the pilot study is also included along with the findings. Additionally, the third chapter includes a detailed description of the PhotoVoice method. There were three main findings for each of the three research questions and those findings and the supporting themes/codes are described in chapter 4. The discussion chapter includes extensive thoughts on the implications of the findings. The concluding chapter summarizes the research, lays out plans for future research, and reflects on the study.

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