Forskningsnoter Research notes. Rhythmic music education as aesthetic practice

Abstract

The study presented is a case study of rhythmic music teaching; an oral approach to teaching, where rhythm, participation, movement, improvisation and playing together are essential. The purpose of the study was to examine how rhythmic music teaching was constituted as aesthetic practice, meaning socially instituted action related to appreciating, performing and teaching music. The theoretical point of departure is Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social practice, also Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body and John Dewey's pragmatism is applied. The study concludes that participating in music teaching is participating in aesthetic practice, which implies an incorporation of aesthetic values. Incorporating aesthetic values is incorporating guidelines for taste and action, which has both ethical and epistemological implications: It forms the perception of what is legitimate, and, consequently, what the individuals may be required to learn, know, believe and think, as well as what they may require of themselves and of others. Some implications of the study are discussed, focusing on the notion of musical belief, and also on the question of placing the aesthetic within a social and cultural perspective.