Abstract

Research has indicated that one-to-one teaching in higher music education in Western classical music typically favours technical over interpretive aspects of musicianship, and imitation of the teacher’s rather than the student’s explorative interpretation. The aim of the present study is to investigate students’ and teachers’ understandings of how musical interpretation of Western classical music is learned in this context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with six piano students and four teachers in Sweden were conducted and hermeneutically analysed using haiku poems and poetical condensations. The analysis found that the conditions for learning musical interpretation centred upon students achieving a high level of autonomy, as affected by three key aspects of teaching and learning: (1) the student’s and the teacher’s understandings of what musical interpretation is, (2) the student’s experience of freedom of interpretation as acknowledged by the teacher, and (3) (expectations of) the student’s explorative approach. As none of these aspects were reported as being explicitly addressed during lessons, there might be a need for both teachers and students to verbalise them more clearly to support piano students’ development.

Highlights

  • Musical interpretation is a well-researched phenomenon from the performing artist’s perspective (e.g., Davidsson, 1991; Jullander, 1997; Landgren, 1997; Skowroneck, 2007; Sundin, 1982; Weman Ericsson, 2008; Östersjö, 2008), but hitherto relatively little research has studied how musical interpretation is taught and learned in higher music education.The aim of this article is to investigate students’ and teachers’ understandings of how musical interpretation is learned

  • The study is delimited to the context of one-to-one tuition of piano students in higher music education in the Western classical music tradition in Sweden

  • The main results were found to centre on the following four themes: 1. the student’s and the teacher’s understandings of what musical interpretation is 2. the freedom of interpretation experienced by the student and acknowledged by the teacher 3. the student’s explorative approach 4. the student’s level of autonomy

Read more

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this article is to investigate students’ and teachers’ understandings of how musical interpretation is learned. The focus is on the forming of a musical interpretation, which may include performance as an integrated aspect of such interpretation. How do students and teachers describe musical interpretation? 2. How do students and teachers describe the conditions for learning musical interpretation?. The term musical interpretation refers to the understanding of a piece of music. Musical interpretation is the process of selection and application of performance choices on a composition. This selection can be “more or less motivated and coherent” As the musical score under-determines performances, the interpreter unavoidably has to make countless decisions regarding how the

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call