Song lines and soundtracks: Autoethnographic narratives across four generations

Abstract

Music is personal. While self-reflection is common to performers, composers, teachers and researchers, there exists a musical dimension – the source of these experiences – wanting recognition. These experiences, I suggest, are the personal memories of one’s deep involvement with music. Reported here are rich narratives across four generations of women in my family. Each one demonstrates separate cultural identities and influences according to her musical heritage, religious traditions, upbringing and access to music at a given time, place and environment. Each one’s story reveals a profound sense of self-knowing, the ‘me-ness’ of lived experience through music. The autoethnographic data were inspired by close relationships with the women in my family and interest in the significance of music memories from childhood, youth and early adulthood. I propose that knowledge of our students’ musical memories provides a baseline for understanding their musical development and influences our curricular decisions.