Since the late nineties, composition projects inviting artists and contemporary composers into schools and communities became more established and written about in German speaking countries (see for instance Henze, 1998; Schneider, Bösze & Stangl, 2000; Schneider, 2000; Schatt, 2009; Schlothfeldt, 2009; Schneider, 2012). Additionally, music…

This article reports on a case study in a Norwegian primary school where nearly 50 fifth-grade pupils took part in a creative music-making project. Facilitated by two professional artists, they created an original piece of music and performed their composition for an audience at the end of the project week. A substantial part of the data consisted…

Recent decades have seen gender and feminist research emerge as major fields of enquiry in musicology and to a far lesser extent, music education. While these fields have increased awareness of the issues confronting women and other marginalised groups, the pedagogical practices and curricular design that might support aspiring women composers are…

This study examined the nature of inclusion for female and black and minority ethnic (BME) young people in elite-level classical music in England. By contrasting the numbers of female and BME students taking part in elite youth orchestras and music schools with the representation of female and BME compositions in the professional classical music…

Musical scores constitute a key element in the development of expertise in musicians from western tonal traditions, since they act as a mediator between the performer and the music itself. Our aim was to study the role of musical scores in instrumental performance practice by analysing the process of learning a new piece of music, as well as the…

This paper reports on the compositional processes of an Italian rock band whilst composing a new piece over seven group composing sessions. The band members were videotaped during the group composing sessions in their rehearsal room. A qualitative analysis of the video recordings was performed using the Constant Comparative Method. In the…

I am a composer, producer, pianist and part-time music lecturer at a Further Education college where I teach composing on Music Technology courses at levels 3 (equivalent to A-level) and 4 (Undergraduate/Foundation Degree). A "Music Technology" course, distinct from a "Music" course, often attracts applicants from diverse musical backgrounds; it…

This study explores the musical content and human processes of improvisations of children and adults using the phenomenological lenses of time, space and responsivity. Paired improvisational performances of two late-career adult composers and two 7-year-old children were analysed considering a lifespan-related perspective involving the origins of…

This study investigated modes of communication adopted by six student jazz musicians during rehearsal and performance. Six one-hour rehearsal sessions and a performance were observed and videotaped for analysis. Results revealed six modes of communication that formed two main categories, verbal and non-verbal, each containing three distinct modes…