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ENQUIRE PROJECT DETAILS BY GENERAL PUBLIC |
| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | General Research Fund | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 18612619 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | Early 20th Century Mediated Pedagogy: An Historical Study of the Emergence of Music Appreciation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 音樂欣賞的興起：20世紀初媒介教學法歷史研究 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Dr Thibeault, Matthew D. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Department : | Department of Cultural and Creative Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | The Education University of Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | mdthibeault@eduhk.hk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Humanities, Social Sciences | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Humanities and Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2019 / 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 245,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 30-9-2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
At the turn of the twentieth century technologies and media of sound recording entered music classrooms and became an integral part of music learning. What then existed was often called “the teaching of singing,” classrooms where students sung along to teacher- played piano accompaniment. What emerged was “music appreciation”—as teachers used recordings to teach great works like literature, shared music from distant places, and a variety of other ways to teach about music. Building on work in the field of sound studies, the present proposal will provide an historical account of the creation and emergence of music appreciation as pedagogy built around media of sound recording from approximately 1900-1950.
This study addresses the understanding of how music learning is connected to various media of sound recording in ways that impact what is taught and how it is taught, working within theoretical approaches from the field of sound studies (Pinch & Bijsterveld, 2012; Sterne, 2012a). Sound studies is a newly emerged interdisciplinary approach to the study of sound in human contexts, typically combining disciplines such as history, philosophy, and science and technology studies. In particular, this study characterizes media not only as the gadgets, but as larger mediated networks of recurring relations between people, practices, institutions, and technologies that come to be understood as a medium through recurrent patterns of usage. For instance, the actual medium of radio is a network that includes producers, artists, technicians, broadcast standards, advertisers, and so on. Because the radio medium involves these various aspects, media theorists note plasticity as the medium evolves, and especially as a medium first emerges, just as radio now includes satellite and various connections through the internet.
This project is comprised a set of case studies, each of which examines the ways that various media of sound recording were incorporated into the teaching and learning of music. Following previous research, particular attention will be paid to the emergence of specific pedagogic approaches that emerged in concert with media of sound recording. The cases will combine historical data, changing pedagogic practices, along with theoretical implications to establish the recurring patterns and interactions between people, practices, institutions and technologies as wants, needs, values and practices adapted to sound recordings. Cases will include changes to textbooks, the Music Memory competitions in the USA, and the NBC Music Appreciation Hour, along with the connections to the larger network of media and technology. 此項計劃將研究1900-1950年間音樂老師如何使用錄音方法，以及此項新方法如何對音樂教學帶來改變. |
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| Realisation of objectives: | The basis of the original GRF was archival research to be conducted in the US. The COVID pandemic made the conduct of this proposal largely impossible, particularly the 21-day hotel quarantine requirement, which was not able to be supported through grant finds. This resulted in a substantial reorienting away from in-person archival work and towards modified objectives achievable through online archives and secondary research. This was achieved, and the final work is of value and is still ongoing. Note that the final objectives are not fully achieved. Throughout the project, the uncertainty of COVID and the restrictions on travel in place left the project in a bit of limbo. As a result, some aspects of the objectives dependent upon travel are not fully achieved. Instead, the partial achievement is related to what was able to be achieved through online archives instead of the originally proposed research visits. Each objective was achieved to the level that was possible given the constraints of COVID. Further, the COVID wave of early 2022 brought work on this project to a standstill and also resulted in an inability for student workers to continue working on the project for a substantial period of time. This included both primary workers’ need to rethink their Independent Research projects, further taking time that would have been spent on this GRF project. As such, an approved extension was not as fruitful or productive as had been hoped. A final requested extension, to cover a period of time where international travel was finally allowed without a quarantine was denied, although the PI was able to use additional funds to support a research trip that allowed for further connection to the project. What resulted, thus far, are the KT presentations listed below in addition two presentations were given at the University (both to the CCA at a departmental meeting and as a presentation to the doctoral students in CCA, these in fall 2022). The project has resulted in two knowledge transfer presentations: “Sounding (in)visible Voices In Music Education: recalibrating Music ‘fundamentals’” International Society for Music Education World Conference. July 13, 2022. [held virtually] “They Have Ears to Hear and Hear Not: Early Depreciation of BIPOC Music, 1910-20.” University of Sheffield Research Seminar Series. Sheffield, England. November 19, 2021 [via Zoom]. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | Research Outcome Major findings and research outcome The primary major finding of this research was the uncovering and mapping throughout the literature of music appreciation the presence of recapitulation theory, that is, that early music appreciation was based on a now-discredited scientific theory that people of colour were inferior to Europeans, and that European culture was the historic and evolutionary endpoint of human development. This theory was a bedrock of the “new education” and also contributed to the rise of progressive education, but previous research in music education had not documented the presence. My research shows the importance of key thinkers in recapitulation theory, whose ideas were picked up and synthesized by C. Hubert Parry, who posited an evolutionary approach to the history of music history. Parry’s book, The Evolution of the Art of Music (1893) was found to be a key resource in 9 of the 11 most-popular music appreciation texts used in the USA. As such, teachers and students were encouraged to conceive of music history in terms of an evolution from the music of so-called savage cultures (Black and Native Americans) into barbaric cultures (Asian and European folk musics based on pentatonic scales) towards so-called civilized culture (European “Christian quietude” and harmony based on a seven-tone scale). The research documents how music appreciation materials were built around ideas of recapitulation, including focusing on BIPOC music in the early grades, adding pentatonic music for the upper primary grades, and then transitioning to full harmony in secondary school, along with a focus on European classical music. Research also documented a stance against popular music that was associated with cultures considered stuck in earlier stages of development, such as jazz and ragtime music. Teachers were also encouraged to teach BIPOC music with blatantly racist terms, characterising the music and people as “illiterate,” “uncultured,” “uncivilised,” and “primitive.” This research expands the understanding of colonialism in music education, and maps onto existing research that is engaged with undoing and challenging the residue of racist theories in music education. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
A primary further development is the planned submission of a journal article to the Journal of Research in Music Education, the field's top journal, with which I have a very good track record (100% acceptance for 3 articles over the past 6 years). This article is completed in terms of the research but I am still revising and working on the final writeup, and I hope to submit it before the end of the semester. It is also likely that a secondary article to another A level journal will be submitted within a year (that article more concerned with the philosophical objectives). The establishment of an understanding of recapitulation theory in music appreciation connects with several current trends in music education research, particularly the connections between music learning and diversity as well as promoting more multicultural approaches. Current efforts to further make music education that is less Eurocentric also depend on the kinds of understandings uncovered by my research. My current efforts are to continue to extend this line of research through finishing two articles for publication, and then to collaborate with other researchers working on similar issues in music education. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | This project documented how music recordings allowed for educators to teach music without musical scores, which made it possible for the first time to teach Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) music. However, research found that the overall framework used was a racist framework, namely recapitulation theory, which was also at that time widespread in psychology, anthropology, and pedagogy. This research provides the first extensive documentation of the presence of recapitulation theory in music education, which positioned BIPOC music as lesser than European classical music, which was positioned as the most important and most valuable music for students. While focused on the USA, the project documented similar thinking in the UK, and it is likely that the use of the materials in the USA and UK were taken up in other countries, a potential topic for further research. In short, this research documents how teachers using the most-valued resources of the time nevertheless enacted a curriculum that furthered racist ideas and created an orientation towards BIPOC music in the curriculum that has a continued presence in contemporary materials to be confronted by today’s educators and researchers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |