World Music Pedagogy, Volume V: Choral Music Education

Sarah Bartolome

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351673044
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

World Music Pedagogy, Volume V: Choral Music Education explores specific applications of the World Music Pedagogy process to choral music education in elementary, middle, and high school contexts, as well as within community settings. The text provides clear and accessible information to help choral music educators select, rehearse, and perform a diverse global repertoire. It also guides directors in creating a rich cultural context for learners, emphasizing listening, moving, and playing activities as meaningful music-making experiences. Commentary on quality, commercially available world music repertoire bridges the gap between the philosophy of World Music Pedagogy and the realities of the performance-based choral classroom.

All chapters open with a series of vignettes that illuminate the variety of possibilities within multiple K-12 contexts, providing the reader with a sense of how the ideas presented might look "on the ground." Ready-to-integrate activities serve as concrete and pedagogically sound examples to guide directors as they develop their own instructional materials according to the needs of their choir. Content features choral and vocal music-making traditions from South and West Africa; Latin America; Southeast, East, and South Asia; the Pacific Islands; Australia; New Zealand; Scandinavia; and the Baltics.

1
Teaching and Learning in Context

The singers of the Pinecrest Community Youth Choir laugh breathlessly, trying to keep up with the tempo of the song Kadagys as Asta, a Lithuanian folklorist, calls out the dance figures. In preparation for their upcoming Baltic Tour, their director, Mr. Chandler, has invited Asta to rehearsal to teach them several folk dances. As the music fades away, the singers promptly dissolve into laughter and applause, turning to Asta for further instruction. After the dance workshop, the singers catch their breath while Asta shares a presentation on the music and culture of Lithuania. She pays special attention to the skudučiai tradition, the wooden folk flutes featured in the piece they are working on, Neišeik, Saulala by Vytautas Miškinis. She shows several examples of skudučiai ensembles playing at various festivals, including a children’s ensemble performing at the Jurginės festival in Palanga, a city they will visit on their tour. She exclaims, “Oh! It’s now April, so soon the festival will happen again in Palanga!” At the end of the presentation, there is time for the singers to ask questions. They pepper her with inquiries about what to expect during their time in Lithuania, what sights not to miss (the Hill of Crosses and Gedimino Bokštas), what typical foods to try (žemiačiu blynai, zeppelinai and šaltibarščiai), and how to say “hello” and “thank you” ( Labas ! Ačiu !). At the very end of the evening, the choir performs the Miškinis piece for Asta and she compliments them on their language production. Mr. Chandler admits that the Baltic languages professor from the nearby university came last week to coach them. As the choir packs up their bags, Mr. Chandler reminds them that next week they will have pizza and a screening of The Singing Revolution after rehearsal. As the singers exit, they each bid farewell to Asta, exclaiming “ Ačiu !” and shaking her hand before heading out into the damp April evening.

Sidumo stands at the front of the stage as the choir looks on with rapt attention. He explains, “We want to take the audience to Kwa-Zulu Natal when we sing this piece. Are you prepared?” The choir nods, standing up and getting ready to learn the movement. They spent the last three hours of the workshop learning three Zulu folk songs, all arranged by Sidumo and all taught in the oral/aural tradition. They are exhausted but eager to learn the motions that will accompany this, the third folk song of the day. Sidumo encourages them to copy his motions as they sing through the piece again. In the back row, Chandni turns to the choir’s director, Mrs. Pineda, and exclaims, wide-eyed, “I can’t believe we learned all this in one day. With no score!” Mrs. Pineda laughs and replies, “I know! It seemed so hard at first but I guess we didn’t need a score after all!” Side-by-side, they turn their attention back to Sidumo, joining in on the alto part and mirroring his motions.

Lucy sighs and looks at her spring program. She is mostly happy: There’s a nice balance between more traditional repertoire from the canon and some more contemporary pieces. She looks down the list: Tallis, Handel, Duruflé, Rollo Dillworth, Andrea Ramsey …. On a whim, she added her favorite Whitacre piece and a Japanese piece by Ko Matsushita. The students chose an arrangement of “This is Me” from the movie The Greatest Showman , so there is even a little bit of popular music. She sighs again. Something is missing. She flips through the pile of scores she collected at last year’s ACDA “Ethnic” reading session, stopping to examine “Yal Esmar Ellon,” an earthsongs arrangement of a Syrian traditional song by Edward Torikian. She Googles around a bit, looking up the arranger, listening to a clip of the Fayha Choir performing the arrangement, and downloading an article about Arab music in Syria. She feels confident that the arrangement honors the tradition but is still a bit hesitant. She wonders, “What will the school community think about me programming music from the Arab world? I know it’s not sacred, but is this going to be okay? It’s only my third year here and I don’t want to mess anything up …. But there’s so much we could learn from this music …. ” She puts the piece aside, making a note to discuss the possibility with her mentor and her principal.

She goes back to the pile, eyeing “Balleilakka,” an arrangement of a Tamil film piece by A.R. Rahman. Pursing her lips, she wonders: “But how do I even approach this? Should we add movement? What do I use for percussion? And the language is Tamil …. I wonder if any of my students are from that part of South India. We could have a movie night …. ” Lucy adds to her to do list: Screen Sivaji to see if it is appropriate for Concert Choir. Glancing up at the clock, she pushes the scores aside. That final programming will have to wait until she can do a little more research. The bell rings as a stream of high schoolers file noisily onto the risers. Once they settle down, Lucy begins their daily stretching sequence and asks, “Does anyone speak Tamil or know someone who speaks Tamil?”

A World of Singing

All over the world, people sing. People sing to their babies and with their children, they sing as they work in their gardens or in the field, they sing as part of rituals and ceremonies and at seasonal and holiday celebrations, over menorahs and under Christmas trees. They sing at family gatherings, at weddings and funerals, over birthday cakes, under piñatas, and around campfires. People sing in the car, in the shower, at karaoke bars, at weddings, on playgrounds, in garage bands, and at sporting events. They sing in schools to help young students create routine, remember the days of the week, and memorize their multiplication tables. In Ghana, West Africa, singing and drumming accompany an Ashanti healing ceremony, while in the southern part of the continent, villagers in the Zimunya area of Zimbabwe sing and drum as part of a rainmaking ceremony. In shopping malls and grocery stores the world over, shoppers sing along with pop tunes that accompany the hustle and bustle of busy commerce. In the United States, spectators at a baseball game stand both before the game to sing the national anthem and again during the seventh-inning stretch to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball-game.” Across the pond in the United Kingdom, soccer fans belt out football chants to cheer on Liverpool or Manchester United or their favorite football club. In Korea, friends gather and rent a noraebang, a private room at a karaoke club, singing a blend of Western pop, K-pop, and traditional Korean songs while sharing snacks and beers. In Vilnius, Lithuania, citizens gather on Pilies Street outside of the House of Signatories, singing national songs to commemorate the signing of the Act of Independence on February 16, 1918. In Brazil, employees of large corporations gather during lunch to sing arrangements of Brazilian popular tunes with their company choir. Singing is a rich part of the lives of people all across the globe, and vocal music accompanies many of the recreational, ceremonial, celebratory, and even mundane daily events that define and give meaning to the human experience.

In many cultures, people opt to participate more formally in weekly singing opportunities, joining choirs at schools, in churches, and in the community. These people choose to devote time and energy to the joy of collective singing and the fellowship that flourishes within choir communities. In an age when so much music is available for instant download, it would be easy for music making to become a solitary endeavor, practiced within an invisible force field created by a pair of earbuds. And yet people choose to sing together. There are children’s choirs, show choirs, homeless choirs, justice choirs, church choirs, symphony choirs, prison choirs, beer choirs, gospel choirs, barbershop choirs, hospice choirs, company choirs, choirs that celebrate ethnic identity, choirs that serve individuals with dementia or disabilities, and choirs for eldering communities. In the United States alone, there are an estimated 42.6 million people singing in nearly 270,000 choirs, while Europe is home to an impressive 1 million choirs that serve 27 million singers. The 2018 World Choir Games in Tshwane, South Africa welcomed choirs from 44 countries representing five continents. The size and geographic diversity of the choir community is evidence that choral singing remains a global phenomenon. But why do people continue to sing together?

Choral directors know there are myriad musical, personal, and social benefits that come along with choir singing. Musically, choristers learn about great choral literature, improve music reading skills, develop vocal technique, and train their ears. As individuals, singers demonstrate discipline and commitment, develop better time management skills, and learn how to subjugate their own personal desires to serve the needs of the ensemble. Socially, they learn to work as a team, interact with diverse choristers, and find a place to belong and engage in a meaningful activity with like-minded individuals. Singers also reap positive physical benefits: choral participation has been found to have a positive impact on health and well-being. Aesthetically, choristers find refuge in the choral arts, a place to escape the stressors of daily life and a mechanism for expressing complex emotions. This unique array of both individual and collective benefits to choir participation may, in part, explain why choral singing remains a vibrant part of musical life in many communities around the world. Given the prolific nature of singing the world over, it is easy to imagine the incredible array of rich and diverse vocal repertoire that choir directors might share with their singers. If choral directors choose to explore the world of music with their students, another benefit emerges: the opportunity to learn more about the world and its diverse people through music.

Figure 1.1 University of Pretoria Camerata performing a traditional Black South African piece under the direction of Dr. Michael Barrett

Twenty-First-Century Choirs

Today’s choral singers are immersed in a truly global society, one intricately connected by technology and the global media. Their educational communities are increasingly diverse, and students are learning about the world and all its rich diversity, preparing for the day when they will be expected to function and interact in a multicultural society. For educators, this diversity represents both a rich resource and a significant consideration. Like all teachers, music teachers are expected to be responsive to the varied learning needs of a heterogeneous student body and also teach them the twenty-first-century skills required for success in today’s global marketplace. These factors raise several critical questions for the field of choral music education: How can choral directors respond effectively to the changing demographics and values of our society? How is the reality of our world reflected in the repertoire they program and in the teaching methods they employ in the classroom? What role do choirs have in teaching singers about the world and about each other? One answer to these questions is through World Music Pedagogy (WMP), an approach to music teaching that emphasizes the exploration of a wide variety of diverse musical cultures situated within their cultural context.

Choral music educators who adopt WMP in the classroom are interested in broadening and diversifying the repertoire that forms the foundation of the choral curriculum. They also want students to have opportunities to engage with music in meaningful ways that highlight the cultural context of the music and the musicians that created it. World Music Pedagogy requires the integration of diverse repertoire, but it also emphasizes diverse pedagogical approaches: Choristers contextualize the music they are singing by engaging with audio and video recordings, interacting with culture bearers, composing and improvising in culturally appropriate ways, and giving sensitive and nuanced world music performances based on these experiences. In short, WMP lets students engage in participatory music-making experiences that enhance the traditional choral rehearsal and help students delve into the historical and socio-cultural contexts that exist behind the score. The purpose of this volume is to explore the ways World Music Pedagogy can enrich the music learning experiences afforded to singers in a variety of choral music contexts, from elementary school and children’s choirs, through middle and high school ensembles, to community-based youth choruses. By embedding world music experiences into the choral curriculum, singers move toward more culturally sensitive performances of diverse music even as they deepen their understanding of music as a human phenomenon.

The Dimensions of World Music Pedagogy

World Music Pedagogy (Campbell, 2004, 2018) is an approach in which teachers involve students in a variety of activities that allow them to listen to, sing, play, move to, create, explore, discuss, and perform music drawn from many of the world’s diverse musical cultures. Comprised of five Dimensions, students are given the opportunity to engage with music in multiple ways over time. In the first Dimension, Attentive Listening, students are presented with a task (often in the form of guiding questions) to accomplish while listening to a musical excerpt. Attentive Listening activities are often good starting points, allowing students to become more familiar with a new musical culture while also attuning their ears to musical features and characteristics. The second Dimension of WMP, Engaged Listening, provides students with an opportunity to participate in the recorded music, humming, singing, clapping, playing, or moving along to the music being played. Enactive Listening, the third Dimension, challenges students to replicate world music examples independent from the recording, using the aural model as inspiration and making reference checks to continue to inform and nuance subsequent performances.

Through WMP, students are also drawn into Creating World Music, the fourth Dimension, applying their musical and cultural understandings as they improvise, compose, and arrange music that honors the traditions and musicians they have studied. The fifth Dimension of WMP is Integrating World Music, the process by which students explore the cultural context of the music being studied. Students might be presented with more in-depth information about the country or culture group from which the musical content is drawn, looking at maps, discussing historical and sociopolitical context, reading stories or poetry, looking at photographs, watching videos, or exploring demographic and economic statistics. Students might make connections to geography, social studies, history, literature, Fine Arts, math, and science, exploring music in a truly interdisciplinary way. An overview of the five Dimensions of World Music Pedagogy is presented in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 The Dimensions of World Music Pedagogy

While there are almost unlimited possibilities for exploring the world’s musical cultures, there is not a singular path through the Dimensions of World Music Pedagogy. These Dimensions are presented in a particular order here, but it is important to recognize the flexibility of World Music Pedagogy: there is no prescribed order in which to approach the Dimensions. Certainly, the three listening Dimensions proceed logically from initial to ever-deepening experiences that first draw attention to musical features and later draw listeners into musical participation and performance. The creative processes of composition and improvisation in the style of a particular musical work are both well served by listening experiences that precede and prepare for this activity. The integration of cultural context, however, can be insert...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Episodes
• Chapter 1 Teaching and Learning in Context
• Chapter 2 Attentive Listening for Cultural Awakenings
• Chapter 3 Participatory Musicking
• Chapter 4 Performing World Music
• Chapter 5 Creating World Music
• Chapter 6 Integrating World Music
• Chapter 7 Surmountable Challenges and Worthy Outcomes
• Appendix 1: Learning Pathways
• Appendix 2: References and Resources
• Index