Towards an understanding of community music in Norway

Abstract

Abstract This article explores ‘community music’ in Norway, where the term is currently being introduced into higher education. The Norwegian context is outlined, and community music practices are traced back to inclusive music education practices in the 1990s. The authors discuss whether community music is a useful concept in a Norwegian setting. Three case studies are presented, exemplifying musicmaking activities with paramusical aims beyond teaching, rehearsing and performance. Conceptualizing community music as open-access musical participation with paramusical objectives represents a contribution to a pluralistic understanding of community music in the Nordic region. As the term community music becomes an educational subject in Norway, based on local practice, the need for a common theoretical basis uniting a diversity of practices becomes salient. The authors argue that, as awareness of community music as a distinct musical discourse grows, benefits might emerge if practitioners and institutions worked to develop a common professional identity, adopting the common label ‘community music’.