A conceptual study of spirituality in selected writings of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (original) (raw)
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Music Education Research, 2001
David J. Elliott (1995. Music Matters. A New Philosophy of Music Education. Oxford Universy Press) has recently posed the view that musical understanding is to equated with musicianship. This epistemological turn to musical ‘know-how’ in the philosophy of music education has faced opposition as well as acceptance. Our paper examines this question of the body in relation to music and movement, which has been raised by Elliott and which was also Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s major pedagogical concern. The general aim of the paper is to show the relevance of the philosophical question of the body in practical music education. This paper discusses attempts to avoid a kind of dualism in which music is either a mental-spiritual experience, which transcends the bodily pleasure, or a somatic experience of ‘flesh and blood’. The ideas of Jaques-Dalcroze and Elliott are examined in relation to recent philosophical discussion on the question of the ‘bodymind’ with particular reference to the views presented by pragmatists emanating from John Dewey’s philosophy. We argue that the body can be taken as a conscious object of transformation within a framework of ‘holistic duality’ rather than dualism, and that this idea should be more consciously considered and applied to research and practice in music education.
Research Studies in Music Education, 2021
The authors sought to test the fit of a new model of spirituality in music education by examining one jamming session through a hermeneutic phenomenological lens. In accordance with the work of Van der Merwe and Habron, the authors employ four lifeworld existentials as categories by which to organize the experience of the five musicians involved in a particular jam session. Participant researcher narratives are analyzed for fit with the model, and an analysis is reported. These narratives seem to support the existence of the guideposts inherent to the model. Furthermore, the researchers present a model as a way for situating the spirituality model in the context of an understanding of person, product, process, press, and position to inform the literature in creativity.
The educational context for the reflections that follow is my teaching of group-based acoustic free improvisation in UK HE institutions and, more recently, its digital equivalent. Furthermore, they are informed by my experiences as an improviser, both digitally and acoustically, in class and professionally. The paper also develops work I have published exploring the psychological characteristics of improvisation and their significance. (Sansom 2007). Applying post-Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, it considered aspects of musical meaning that serve in the construction and representation of identity. From a series of studies using qualitative research methods, a particular kind of experience came to the fore in the most heightened and meaningful experiences, and provided empirical evidence for what is often associated with experiences of music’s ‘spiritual’ dimension: where more objectively perceived states of consciousness fluctuate and give way to a loss of self. (Sansom 2007: 10). Descriptions of similar experiences across a range musical activity are relatively well documented. Staying with improvised music, David Borgo, for example, recounts musicians’ descriptions of ecstatic and trancelike performance states, the annihilation of critical and rational faculties, and quotes the bassist Willam Parker’s explanation of free music as an “emptying [of] oneself and being.” (Borgo 2007: 25). Stephen Nachmanovitch, significantly describing it as ‘common experience’, writes: The intensity of your focused concentration and involvement maintains and augments itself, your physical needs decrease, your gaze narrows, your sense of time stops. You feel alert and alive; effort becomes effortless. […] you forget time and place and who you are. The noun of self becomes a verb. (1990: 51-52) June Boyce-Tillman in her phenomenography of spirituality in experience defines such encounters as “the[ir] ability to transport the experiencer to a different time/space dimension – to move them from everyday reality to a world other than the commonplace.” (Boyce-Tillman 2007: 1410-1411). This, and her related work on the liminal space in musicking (Boyce-Tillman 2009), broadens and contexualises the understanding of trance states and loss of self via a range of sources taking in psychology, anthropology, mysticism, consciousness studies, and the likes of Buber, Maslow, Dewey, and Derrida along the way. And there are many other disciplines and approaches that have a contribution to make. Two notable examples are Richard Elfyn Jones’ Music and the Numinous (2007), which draws on Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy, and Judith Becker’s Deep Listeners (2004) with its deft synthesis of science, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. This paper brings to the discussion a Traditionalist or Perennial Philosophical approach. Although paradigmatically at odds with the secular humanism of academia, in relation to this topic it offers a highly relevant and specialist body of knowledge, which – if one has to argue its validity – has a historical and cultural legacy far beyond material rationalism.
Exploring the spiritual in music
2019
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES Giorgos Tsiris, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at Queen Margaret University and Arts Lead at St Columba’s Hospice in Edinburgh, UK. Exploring the performance of spirituality in everyday music therapy contexts, his doctorate research has introduced new conceptual and methodological approaches to spirituality and its understanding in music therapy. [gtsiris@qmu.ac.uk] Prof Gary Ansdell is Professor at Grieg Academy of Music, Bergen; honorary Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Exeter University; Adjunct Professor at University of Limerick; an Associate of Nordoff Robbins, UK, where he is Convenor of the MPhil/PhD programme. Gary is author/co-author of seven books on music therapy/music and health and joint editor (with Tia DeNora) of the book series Music and Change for Ashgate Publishers. [G.Ansdell@exeter.ac.uk] Publication history: Submitted 11 Nov 2019 Accepted 14 Nov 2019 First published 24 Nov 2019
'We want to perfect ourselves spiritually': The Salvific Power of Music
Spirituality is one of those categories that people discuss and debate with great passion and insight, yet it can be difficult to know what is meant by " spirituality " unless one takes the time to connect those ideas to specific beliefs, convictions, and practices. Spirituality, like no other category, holds one's implicit and explicit theological commitments, often in surprising ways. To get to an understanding of this hidden yet open category, this paper will explore how the definition of " spiritual " is discussed in the writings of composer Arnold Schoenberg and theologian Colin Gunton. By looking at these two divergent thinkers together, we can evaluate the ways in which implicit and explicit theological commitments can significantly shape one's views about the spiritual and salvific power of music. Both thinkers have particular stances on what is spiritual and salvific but, as we shall see, much relies on one's definition of the Spirit.
Review of June Boyce-Tillman’s Experiencing Music – Restoring the Spiritual: Music as Well-being
International Journal of Education and the Arts, 2019
Experiencing music-restoring the spiritual: Music as well-being, addresses the area of spirituality and music education. The book is organized in 10 chapters, framed by a prelude and a postlude, with two interludes in-between. Topics include the development of religionless spirituality; phenomenography of musical experiences; the environment; music and expression; values in musicking; extrapersonal dimensions; musical liminality as a space for peace and justice making; and the ecclesiology of music. The disciplines of musicology, ethnomusicology, music education, performance studies, music theory, and music therapy are used to convey their inherent and integral connections towards the understanding of music and well-being.
Three Perspectives on the Spiritual Qualities of Music
Conservatorium, 2020
Without containing any verbal or visual concepts, pure music has a deep and immediate power to penetrate into the mind and body. Is it also possible that it provides humans with an awareness of the depths of their nature and of the universe? Can it activate the feeling to be completely free and infinite? In sum, can we attribute to music the power of giving humans spiritual qualities; or to use a better expression, is it possible for humans to discover their spiritual side via musical experience? If the answer is positive, how can it accomplish this mission? In this paper, music's quality as a means for acquiring spiritual qualities will be discussed. The ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Sogyal Rinpoche will guide the discussion. These three people are from different branches; respectively philosophy, cinema and Tibetan Buddhism; which is thought to provide a discussion on the new perspectives about the spiritual qualities of music. Finally, the music type discussed in the paper is pure music, which addresses the music without words, a subject or a visual representation. In order to constitute a base for the discussion, the books of the three scholars were compiled and their thoughts about music were analysed with the document analysis method, which is used in qualitative research. The films of Tarkovsky were additionally analysed with the same method due to his being a visual artist.
2020
The experience of God’s presence within music and worship is a deep-seated conviction in Pentecostal circles. But God, music and feelings are three things that are notoriously hard to get a grasp of, and this has often discredited them. Sadly, when music and emotions come under suspicion it creates a bad environment for any wholehearted worship. Thus, in order to regain a basic trust, I believe we need a great deal of clarity concerning the nature of emotions. This is where the New Phenomenology, founded by the Germain philosopher Hermann Schmitz (b. 1928), is a strong alliance. The New Phenomenology is a theory of emotions in a more radical sense than its predecessors in the phenomenological traditions since Husserl (1859-1938) and Heidegger (1889-1976). Schmitz’ New Phenomenology overcomes the hiatus between the inner (subjective) and outer (objective) world, which enables him to describe feelings as atmospheres poured out spatially that move us bodily. This depiction fits squarely with the experience of the charismatic churches, who are also known for deriving much of their theology from experience. But what about the atmospheres we establish through music? At a closer look, it appears the atmospheres through music behave differently from feelings in general. The atmospheres in music are not a substitute for real feelings. They are something else entirely. Because of their aesthetic nature they are transparent and world-opening atmospheres. This can be accounted for philosophically. In order for this experience to be described in its own right it is important to keep religious explanations at bay. When we over-spiritualize the experiential realm of music it does more harm than good. God-of-the-gaps is not a viable model for God’s presence. Instead, the charismatic spirituality has a lot to gain by looking to the particular model of God’s presence developed around the controversy of icons in the 8th century, especially in the theology of John of Damascus. As a result of deep Christological considerations, they went with a sacramental thinking that allowed for a divine encounter within a natural framework—the icon. I claim that this sacramental way of thinking can give Pentecostals a more suitable language for expressing their experience of God’s presence in worship through music.
Body – Music – Being. Making Music as Bodily Being in the World
Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, 2014
Starting with Husserl (philosophy of consciousness: lifeworld) over Heidegger (fundamental ontology: being-in the-world) to Merleau-Ponty (phenomenology of the body: être au monde), a radicalization of ontology can be pointed out because of a consideration of the body as an access to perceive and understand being-in-the-world. Thus, Heidegger's fundamental ontology is an important approach to an embodied phenomenology. While Edmund Husserl's phenomenology is based on an apodictic Ego cogito (transcendental reduction: epoché) that leads to diffi culties in the constitution of the others as to their consciousness, Martin Heidegger solves this problem of solipsism in form of a fundamental ontology. Each individual meets the world in the coexistence with others (being-with). This openness of being-in-the-world unlocks the door for music educational prospects. Making music is always a bodily act. Therefore, the concept of aesthetical/musical experience depends no longer on a primacy of perception/listening as many traditional aesthetic theories. Inter-subjective and inter-corporal dimensions become relevant because the subject is embodied in and through music . Music instruments are anchored in the world as an extension of the expressive and engaged body. Making music is an ontological interpretation of the world considering all innerworldly existing.