The last twenty years have shown increased focus on expanding the stylistic boundaries of string music education. The many styles of traditional fiddling are a natural answer to the call for a culturally responsive curriculum in the string classroom, but they each come with their own history, context, and methods of transmission. These can pose challenges to music teachers with experience only in Western art music. To what extent and how are methods of folk music transmission finding their way into classrooms? How are string teachers meeting the need to teach music outside of their own experience? How does the context of the music change when it enters a classroom setting?
This ethnographic multi-sited case study was designed to investigate existing examples of how traditional fiddling is currently taught. The result is a picture of how two individual educational scenarios incorporate elements of traditional music transmission, informal learning, social collaboration, and group instruction into their educational design. I explored the backgrounds and values that instructors and directors bring to each program and those of the musical traditions represented, and investigated how these are negotiated in the development of instrumental music programs. These programs are unique in that they feature group instruction, but classes are taught by tradition bearers.
The programs studied here are Mountain Music for Youth (MMY, a pseudonym) in two counties in the southeastern United States. The two programs are primarily focused on traditional Southern American mountain music, with classes offered in fiddle, banjo, guitar, flatfoot dancing, and mountain dulcimer.
Data was collected through observations of classes and performances, interviews with teachers and program directors, and document collection. First, I identified and explored four themes: “Music became my social life,” playing with others as a curriculum, values of the musical tradition, and need for instructor training. Then, using Schippers’s (2010) Twelve Continuum Transmission Framework (TCTF), I explored context, modes of transmission, dimensions of interaction, and approach to cultural diversity.
Aural/oral and holistic learning, ties to lifelong social groups through music, and skills for participation in music communities play significant roles in the findings of this research. I argue for development of a participatory competency to be included in secondary instrumental curricula and in music teacher preparation programs to prepare students for lifelong participation in a wide variety of musics. Findings from this study can offer tools and perspective for string educators: a window into musical and non-musical elements that are central in the minds of tradition bearers as they pass their music on to the next generation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/44263 |
| Date | 20 April 2022 |
| Creators | Schaad, Emily |
| Contributors | Waldron, Janice |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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