What is education? The inhibiting effect of three agendas in schooling

The article seeks to further debate on what we mean by education and how it is to be distinguished from incipient indoctrination. Starting from the politicisation of education, it draws attention to three powerful agendas impacting on the education systems of the West: positivism, utilitarianism, and inclusivism. Intertwined in various ways, these agendas have had the effect of silently restricting understanding of education, moving it closer to a form of control and policing. Some discussion of their impact on music education is given to help clarify what is at stake. A substantial critique of these agendas is then offered before concluding with a brief indication of a way forward.     

Do local properties function as cues for musical key perception?1

Abstract: A global property (i.e., pitch set) of a melody appears to serve as a primary cue for key identification. Previous studies have proposed specific local properties in a melody (e.g., the augmented fourth, the perfect fifth, etc.) that may function as further cues. However, the role of the latter in key identification is controversial. The present study was designed to investigate what kinds of local properties, if any, function as reliable cues for key identification. Listeners were asked to identify keys for 450 melodies that consisted of the same pitch set, but which differed in sequential constraints. Using multiple discriminant analyses, we evaluated relative contributions of as many kinds of local properties as possible (e.g., single intervals, single pitch classes in each sequential position, etc.). The results showed that, except for the pitch class of the final tone, for which interpretation should be taken cautiously, none of the specific local properties examined contributed significantly to key identification. This finding suggests that, contrary to prior findings, key identification is derived from unidentified properties other than the specific local properties.     

Ancestral Voices, Spirits, and Magic: Dance a New Dance in the Family Therapy Room

Despite important moves toward reconciliation and dreams of a rainbow nation, the culture of violence impacts upon family and community life. This article is written within this context and more specifically within the writer's personal reflections on her practice of working as a family therapist in one of South Africa's largest black townships, Mdantsane. It challenges the relevance of first world theory and practice of family therapy in the third world context but is written in the first person and thus in the form of a reflective practitioner. The usefulness of the Milan approach is questioned and a move toward a social constructionist approach is favoured. The metaphor of dance and music is used to capture the dynamic interaction between client and therapist in the search for a relevant and respectful way of working with families in the South African context.     

Books received

Analytical Psychology
Hinshaw, Robert (ed.) The Rock Rabbit and The Rainbow
Serrano, Miguel. C. G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships.
Kennedy, Roger. The Elusive Human Subject: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Subject Relations.
Molino, Anthony (ed.) Freely Associated: Encounters in Psychoanalysis with Christopher Bollas, Joyce McDougall, Michael Eigen, Adam Phillips, Nina Coltart
Sandler, J., Holder, A., Dare, C. & Dreher, A. U. Freud's Models of the Mind: An Introduction
Hunt, Celia & Sampson, Fiona (eds.) The Self on the Page: Theory and Practice of Creative Writing in Personal Development.
Evans, John. Active Analytic Group Therapy for Adolescents.
Furer, Manuel, Nersessian, Edward & Perri, Carmela (eds.) Controversies in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Lectures from the Faculty of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
Harwood, Irene & Pines, Malcolm (eds.) Self Experiences in Group: Intersubjective and Self Psychological Pathways to Human Understanding.
Marrone, Mario. Attachment and Interaction.
Rothstein, Arnold. Psychoanalytic Technique and the Creation of Analytic Patients.
Srole, Leo, Millman, Ernest Joel. Personal History and Health: The Midtown Longitudinal Study, 1954–1974.
Ulanov, Ann & Barry. Cinderella and Her Sisters: The Envied and the Envying.     

Contributors to this issue

Brigitte Allain-Dupré
Peter Ammann
Reid W. Anderson
Catherine Crowther
André de Koning
Mary Dougherty
Victoria Graham Fuller
Donald E. Kalsched
Véronique Lemaitre-Sillère
Renos K. Papadopoulos
Jan Wiener     

Sound escapes: images of spirituality from music teachers and students

This on-going piece of research seeks to identify what music teachers, performers and students from high school through to university understand by the word spirituality in relation to music. From this it is hoped to be able to look at the relevance of the term spirituality in the music classroom. In this paper, data are presented from qualitative research gained in the form of interviews with 37 respondents and four focus groups of children, and quantitative research from questionnaires completed by 38 trainee music teachers. From these data, we identified five themes relating to the respondents’ understanding of the term ‘spirituality’ in relation to music. These were: to what extent spirituality is seen as a religious concept; whether spirituality is an inner or outer experience; to what extent words are relevant to spiritual experiences; the role that knowledge and emotion play and whether musicians experience a sense of spirituality more when listening or performing. From these data we go on to identify implications for the music classroom.     

TheoArtistry: practical perspectives on ‘theologically informed art’

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the TheoArtistry Composers’ Scheme (2016–2018), in light of the developing concept of ‘theologically informed art’. Based at the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts (ITIA) (University of St Andrews), the scheme partnered emerging theologians and composers to create six new choral settings of Hebrew Bible ‘annunciations’. In addition to producing new music, the project became a practical touchstone for reinvigorating dialogues between theologians and practising artists, as well as Christians and non-Christians. First, the author assesses the scheme’s contributions to the study and practice of theologically informed art in the future. Second, she outlines some methodological issues associated with the scheme’s unique breadth of participants. Finally, she assesses ecclesiological and theological ambiguities within the scheme. The author argues that clarifying these ambiguities expands horizons for future collaborations in theologically informed art.     

The influence of two years of school music training in secondary school on visual and auditory memory

The present study tested the effect of an extended music curriculum (EMC) for two years in secondary school, consisting of musical instrument, auditory perception, and music theory training, on children's visual and auditory memory. We tested 10-year-old children who had just started EMC and children without EMC (T0) in visual and auditory memory and retested the same children two years later (T1) to observe the effects of school music training. Confounding variables, like intelligence, socioeconomic status, extracurricular schooling, motivation to avoid work, and musical aptitude were controlled. Prior to the beginning of the music training no differences in the control variables and the memory variables between children with and without EMC were revealed. Children with EMC improved significantly from T0 to T1 in visual as well as in auditory memory. Such an improvement was not found for children without EMC. We conclude that extended school music training enhances children's visual and auditory memory.