Using Transdisciplinary Interpretative Analysis to Understand the Reactions of Preschoolers to Live Classical Music

Abstract

What researchers see in pre-school children’s reactions to live classical piano music, and how this knowledge can be interpreted into a broader societal context, is the focus of this study. The specific purpose was to see how a transdisciplinary group of researchers, interpreted 32 pre-school children’s reactions when listening to a short live classical professional piano concert, Beethoven’s piano sonata No. 23, Op. 57 “Appassionata”, first movement. The children were video recorded before, during and after the piano concert and were asked to draw self-figure drawings before and after the live concert. Through body language and cognitive/verbal reactions, interviews, analyses of movements and self-figure drawings, rich data from the pre-school children were analyzed and discussed. The concert affected the children in different ways and as interpreted from the narratives from the pre-school teachers; the children were absorbed and energized many days after the concert. Research collaborations across disciplinary boundaries are needed to deepen the knowledge of how music can contribute to children’s creativity, curiosity, physical security, and creative learning for the coming school year. We need to look deeper into the meaning of kinesthetic musicality in pre-school contexts and more frequently ask in what ways knowledge is taught and organized.