Musikkbegrepet som sort boks. Et forsøk på en dekonstruksjon av begrepet musikk i vestlig tenkning, med utgangspunkt i en lærebok i musikk for ungdomsskolen

Abstract

The present article critically examines the concept of “music” as it is used in textbooks in Norwegian schools on grades 8-10 (Opus – Music for lower high school). How “music” is understood has relevance of course to both music as a school subject, and the more common sense public use of the term, particularly in relation to multicultural issues. By using Bruno Latour’s notion of Black Boxes – a concept developed to focus on how science and scientific facts often hide the action, interests and processes behind them and function like closed and neutral entities – it is argued that “music” is (wrongly) presented as culturally independent and universal. By hiding the cultureand power-related factors that constitute the concept, the dependence of Western thinking and understanding of the concept is exnominated. The black box of music is opened by using some of the insights gained from an article by Robert Walker, which discusses the Western ideology encapsulated in the notion of music. This is relevant in today’s global and multicultural context when “music” is also used to denote musics foreign to the Western concept, especially with regard to multicultural music education, in which the exnominated notion of music is in danger of systematically devaluating foreign musics, as their concepts may significantly differ. Keywords: notions of music, black box, text book, deconstruction, Latour