Andean Music Ensemble Community Engagement Workshop
Supported by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the School of Music
Project description
The Andean musical trunk allows teachers at all levels to bring the world of music into the classroom in order to promote awareness of different musical traditions and to use music learning as an effective point of entry for understanding cultural diversity.
The musical trunk is equipped with:
- Culture area and/or historical context information
- Framing concepts on ethnomusicology/musicology, performance, rhythm, folklore, language and culture
- Information on musical genres typical of this area
- Description of musical instruments
- Simple method for playing music in this tradition
- Two or three music charts
- Practice CD
- Idea cards
- Glossary of terms
- Instruments
Teachers can borrow the toolkit for the semester and incorporate this activity into their lesson plans for language instruction, music learning, geography, history, cultural studies, after school programs, summer camps, community theater, etc.
Objectives and achievable outcomes for Andean Music Toolkits/Workshops
At the level of outreach, this musical toolkit can serve to:
- introduce students at all levels to the Andean culture area including its languages, cultural
- practices, aesthetics, and values
- introduce students at all levels to music notation and musical performance through simple
- methods and understanding of basic musical concepts• expose students to participatory musical practice and performance experiences
- introduce students to the disciplines of musicology and ethnomusicology
- by choosing a repertoire that is appropriate and conducive to the objectives above, this outreach project can fulfill the important goal of repeated positive experiences that can instill habits of competent and fulfilling performance for all participants (Duke 2009:82).
Benefits/Objectives for Ohio State students
- equips ensemble members to go beyond their role as students to share this musical/cultural/historical/linguistic information as teachers, thus allowing them to take a more active role in the ensembles
- functions as a starter kit for graduating students to begin their own ensembles at hiring institutions
- underscores public involvement and applied scholarship for OSU students and courses
- opens possibilities for departmental and Interdisciplinary collaborations
Why music matters and how it can enrich student learning and cultural understanding
Music is something we share as a common humanity. At the same time, music is a vehicle for expressing our cultural and social differences. Activities in the toolkit allow us to focus on basic and important questions about music and culture. For instance, what is it that compels people to make music in the first place? How do people’s experiences influence the unique sounds they make? Why is it that people in different cultures or time periods produce uniquely sounding music that is identifiable by them and by others as music from that particular culture or time?
Other questions central to ethnomusicology include: What role does music play in the formation and expression of society? What unique insights does music provide into historical and social processes? To what extent does music reflect social organization? How can music sometimes influence socialand political changes? To what extent does folk or popular culture offer a different interpretation of society than mainstream and/or dominant narratives? Why does music play such an integral role in shaping and celebrating a sense of community?
These questions provide a glimpse of the many ways in which music can introduce important cultural and social topics and complement educational curricula for a range of subjects.