Communicative Human Musicality

Aim

A cross-cultural comparative study of dance, singing and musical instrument skills in 12-15 year olds.

Description

The project investigates how 12-15 year olds in Indonesia, Australia and South Africa develop the integrated musical skills of dance, singing and human learning. As a comparative cross-cultural study, drawing upon ethnomusicology, music psychology and music education, it will further develop concepts originally explored by John Blacking (1928-1990). It will advance ideas on music as social communication by interrogating Blacking’s notion of ‘universal human musicality’ and by studying differences in individual aptitudes and training. This will be achieved by working with unpublished materials from the John Blacking Collection held by the Callaway Centre Archive at The University of Western Australia, and by undertaking fieldwork in the three different countries.

Duration

3 years, 2008-2010 (In Progress)

Funding

Australian Research Council funded project (ARC Discovery Grant DP0879196)

Key Personnel

• Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson (Chief Investigator)
• Dr Victoria Rogers (Chief Investigator)
• Dr Jonathan McIntosh (Research Associate)
• Dr Andrea Emberly (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
• Kaye Hill (Honorary Research Fellow)
• Brian Dawson (Honorary Research Fellow)

Research Audience

Ethnomusicology, Music education

Benefits  

It is expected that the project will:

• contribute to the literature in order to move forward the thinking on communicative human musicality
• promote the importance of communicative human musicality in the development of music education
• raise the profile of the research by developing additional products and services
• realise the potential of the John Blacking Collection for the research community

Outputs

• At the 31st National Conference of the Musicological Association of Australia (MSA), Melbourne, December 2008, the research team delivered two themed panel-sessions titled John Blacking the Multi-Disciplinary Man: Reflections on the Life and Work of John Blacking
• At the 40th World Conference of the International Council of Traditional Music, Durban, South Africa, July 2009, Dr Jonathan McIntosh presented the paper, "Boys Learning Baris: Projecting and embodying notions of masculinity in a Balinese dance studio"

Further Information

Technical information about the role of the Callaway Centre Archive in this project can be found through its website.   

Acknowledgements

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council's Discovery Grants (DP0879196). The Chief Investigators acknowledge and thank the ARC for its support.