TY - JOUR
T1 - Beowulf Opera Scenes
T2 - Classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children
AU - Axtell, Ian
AU - Anderson, Anthony David
AU - MacGregor, Elizabeth
AU - Nenadic, Emma
AU - Fautley, Martin
AU - Evans, Nancy
N1 - accepted for publication
PY - 2024/9/16
Y1 - 2024/9/16
N2 - Composing with children is a complex area that many generalist primary-school teachers in England report finding challenging or intimidating. This article draws on existing literature relating to composing in schools, child-centred learning, cultural capital, and classroom pedagogy to situate and discuss a longitudinal research project exploring composing with primary-aged children. The article focusses on one of eight schools involved in the project, in which children worked with a professional composer alongside their regular classroom teacher to compose operatic scenes to accompany the epic poem, Beowulf. The project utilised a collaborative action research framework, featuring researcher observations of the six composing sessions, semi-structured interviews and reflections with the teacher and composer, and a focus group with the children. The findings highlight seven themes relating to children?s understandings of the composing process, which are theorised into conceptualisations of musical knowledge. The article concludes by tracing some of the international implications for children composing in primary-school contexts.
AB - Composing with children is a complex area that many generalist primary-school teachers in England report finding challenging or intimidating. This article draws on existing literature relating to composing in schools, child-centred learning, cultural capital, and classroom pedagogy to situate and discuss a longitudinal research project exploring composing with primary-aged children. The article focusses on one of eight schools involved in the project, in which children worked with a professional composer alongside their regular classroom teacher to compose operatic scenes to accompany the epic poem, Beowulf. The project utilised a collaborative action research framework, featuring researcher observations of the six composing sessions, semi-structured interviews and reflections with the teacher and composer, and a focus group with the children. The findings highlight seven themes relating to children?s understandings of the composing process, which are theorised into conceptualisations of musical knowledge. The article concludes by tracing some of the international implications for children composing in primary-school contexts.
KW - classroom music
KW - composing
KW - culutural capital
KW - knowledge
KW - pedagogy
UR - http://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/15872/
M3 - Article
SN - 1321-103X
JO - Research Studies in Music Education
JF - Research Studies in Music Education
ER -