Matters of Place and Space in School-Based Performances of World Music

Abstract

Christopher Small (1998) famously explored the role of the performance venue in framing the music experiences of audience members. While Small observed how audiences consume music in the classical symphony hall, we might also consider how performance venues frame global music experiences as well. In this article, I suggest that considering the space where music takes place can offer insights into the deeper social and cultural contexts of any given music practice. Specifically, music teachers can foster meaningful world music experiences by embracing the participatory or presentational nature of the music and seeking to reproduce these performance contexts as closely as possible. I explore ways that these ideas might play out among teachers who wish to maximize both the authenticity and integrity of their music performances, and I discuss strategies for music teachers to incorporate these suggestions into their own teaching.

Toward a Decentered Music Education Using a Rhizomatic Approach

“…Teachers' knowledge about this may enable them to cultivate a performance environment that helps students "feel a deeper sense of belonging to the music experience." 31…”

Teaching Traditional and Transformed Versions of Culturally Diverse Musics With Integrity

“…However, scholars point out that as soon as music is removed from the context in which it was created, absolute authentic world musical experience cannot be achievable within the boundaries of a school curriculum (Abril, 2006; Fung, 1995; Henninger, 2018). Rather than debating whether a musical work is authentic or inauthentic, scholars have recently suggested shifting our focus from authenticity to “the integrity of music” (Coppola, 2021). By doing that, “the teacher’s mind is freed from the burdening thoughts of ‘getting it perfect’ and is able to depend on their innate creativity to develop experiences that are meaningfully rooted in the cultural tradition” (Coppola, 2021, p. 5).…”

“…Rather than debating whether a musical work is authentic or inauthentic, scholars have recently suggested shifting our focus from authenticity to “the integrity of music” (Coppola, 2021). By doing that, “the teacher’s mind is freed from the burdening thoughts of ‘getting it perfect’ and is able to depend on their innate creativity to develop experiences that are meaningfully rooted in the cultural tradition” (Coppola, 2021, p. 5).…”