CSEME MISSION STATEMENT

The Center focuses the dissertations of music education Ph.D. students, and faculty research, on issues related to the nature of musical experience and how education can enhance its development.

A variety of research methodologies are employed to reflect the diversity of student and faculty research orientations and the need for a variety of perspectives on an issue which is complex. Philosophical, historical, descriptive, and experimental studies, as well as appropriate non-traditional projects, explore several aspects of the musical experience in selected educational settings.

Given the many different concepts of musical experience within Western though and among other cultures of the world, the Center adopts no single definition, and, in fact, pursues clearer definition as one research goal. Two basic assumptions unify the work of the Center:

  1. Musical experience requires musical perception. An awareness of how sounds have been organized into compositions, including sensuous and syntactical components, is essential for any notion of experience that can be called “musical.” The ability to discern how a piece of music is constructed; that is, its use of musical elements (melody, rhythm, tone color, etc.) within a particular stylistic and cultural context, can be improved through education. Studies in the Center explore the mechanisms by which musical education improves musical perception.

     

  2. Musical experience includes musical affect. The significance of music as an art rests on its power to involve the subjective (emotional-feelingful) aspect of human life. The ability to respond feelingfully to music, like the ability to perceive music, can be influenced by education. Less is known about the details of musical affect than about musical perception. Studies in the Center pursue problems relating to the nature of musical affect, with particular concentration on how musical awareness influences musical responsiveness.

These unifying assumptions provide guidelines for specific studies in various settings, with emphasis on the school as an institution and with the developmental span encompassed by grades K-12. Within the school setting the two major music education activities –performance groups and general music classrooms– are the focus for systematic explorations. The following musical behaviors, and their interactions, are studied in relation to their effects on musical perception and affect:

  1. Listening
  2. Creating (composing, performing, improvising)
  3. Conceptualizing
  4. Analyzing
  5. Evaluating (judging, assessing, criticizing)
  6. Valuing (attitudinal influences)

 

Individual studies, therefore, a) use an appropriate research methodology, b) focused on a problem relating to musical experience including aspects of perception and affect, c) in a relevant school setting and musical activity, d) employing one or a combination of musical behaviors. Additional unification is achieved by an attempt to have each new study build upon, extend, and refine significant findings among studies previously completed both inside and outside the Center.

A variety of activities supportive of the research efforts of the Center are pursued: guest lectures, publications, special symposia, cooperative projects with other universities, conferences, exchanges, etc.