8: Musical Multiculturalism and Diversity

Chapter 13

Musical Multiculturalism and Diversity

Chapter Summary: As part of 21st century teaching and common core state standards, it is important to “teach to reach”—in other words, organizing your materials and presentation to reach as many children as possible in as many possible ways. We’ve discussed many ways of teaching in this book, and this section concerns teaching multicultural material and teaching to culturally diverse learners. This chapter will look at the history of multiculturalism and diversity education, the field of ethnomusicology, and strategies for teaching using multicultural music aesthetics. It also includes case studies from several different culture areas.

Music, as a diverse human practice, is central to the constitution of cultural and individual identities.

—David Elliot, Music Matters

I. Multicultural/Diversity Education

Why teach Multiculturally?

There are many reasons for the inclusion of diversity in education, not the least of which is a mandated curriculum in many school districts. This aside, however, there are pressing 21st century learning issues that demand multicultural teaching material. Rapidly changing populations in the U.S. will dramatically alter the demographics for the remainder of the century. Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Americans of mixed ethnicity will become the majority in the near future.

Source: Natalie Sarrazin

Three ethnically mixed seven-year-old boys: Hispanic-American, African-German, Indian-American.

Thinking in multiple dimensions will not only be an asset, but indispensable. Luckily, the ubiquitous nature of music and arts as an expressive form found in all cultures, allows for extensive exchanges of ideas from all corners of the globe.

II. Ethnomusicology and Music Teaching

To address some of the drawbacks and difficulties in teaching music from another culture, I’d like to turn to the field of ethnomusicology. The field of ethnomusicology is well positioned to contribute toward multicultural and diversity education, and, after a brief description of ethnomusicology, its tenets will be applied towards an examination of them. Recently, scholars such as Patricia Shehan Campbell, Therese Volk, and David Elliott have begun blending the disciplines of ethnomusicology and music education, bringing some of the field research and holistic view from ethnomusicology into the pedagogical practice of music education.

Ethnomusicology is the study of music as culture. Ethnomusicologists:

• Study all the world’s music.
• Study music within a total musical system, including songs, musical instruments and music production, as well as the people and culture that the music represents.
• Compare what is typical of a culture as well as what is personal, idiosyncratic, and exceptional.

Ethnomusicology, at its foundation, examines the relationship between music and culture. Ethnomusicologist Alan Merriam developed a “tripartite model” through which to understand the complex interactions between concept, behavior, and sound.

The Merriam Tripartite Model

III. Aesthetics and Multiculturalism

Our journey through Merriam’s model explores values and aesthetics, allows a deeper understanding of how to incorporate multicultural music into lessons. The process begins with discovering the musical aesthetics and particular values of the culture or sub-culture you’re working with. This might mean working with broad categories of Chinese, Indian or West African music, or narrow sub-cultures such as hip-hop music, Motown sound from the 1960s, or even the sound of an individual singer.

Regardless of what material you are trying to incorporate, thoroughly understanding the aesthetics and values will be highly beneficial to preserving the integrity and authenticity of both the music and culture. To do this requires preparation of research and practice.

Begin by selecting one culture area in which you are interested. Conduct research by reading about and exploring available teaching materials on that culture. Depending on your resources, you might want to actually acquire further knowledge and skills such as attending professional development activities or workshops, webinars, courses, or even contact people in your area that might be familiar with that culture. Starting with your own classroom is an excellent first step. There are always parents willing to come in and share traditions!

Teaching the music or arts of that culture is the next step. Fortunately, there are ways in which to use pedagogies that you already know in order to teach the material, without compromising its integrity or authenticity. The approach is to step back and ask questions to find commonalities in both cultures from which to work.

• How do children learn in this (new) culture (enculturation, pedagogies)?
• What musical aesthetics (sound) are found in this (new) culture’s music?
• What music does this (new) culture value (concepts, beliefs)?
• What behaviors are associated with this music?

Music pedagogy of West Africa compared to the U.S.

While this list may be daunting, it is helpful in order to visualize the components necessary for a successful lesson—one that uses familiar pedagogies, materials, and processes between the two cultures. There is enough pedagogical overlap between the two to not only make a lesson work, but to contain a reasonable level of authenticity in its quest to successfully convey the intended musical and cultural material and values.

Revisit the pedagogies introduced in Chapter 4, Dalcroze, Kodály and Orff, to find excellent sources and approaches for teaching both Western and world musics. Dalcroze offers natural movement of the body, dance/movement and music; Kodály offers melodic and rhythmic sequencing; and Orff-Schulwerk offers a variety of aural singing and rhythmic body percussion techniques, including story-songs and literature, along with layers of percussion. This particular case study on West African music relies solely on aural learning, which means that a rote method is applicable to the music learning. In West Africa, rhythm is complex and highly valued, and involves communal/group participation, improvisation, and movement. West African music also integrates literature, movement, body percussion, rhyme, and music, so the Orff approach is probably the most applicable teaching method. Let’s take a simple playground rhyme as our material to teach West African musical and cultural values. (Note: This is but one variation of this particular rhyme.)

My mother, your mother live across the way.

Every night they have a fight and this is what they say:

‘Icka backa soda cracker, icka backa boo.

Icka backa soda cracker, out goes you!’

Rhythm: the rhyme is very simple with 8 beats in each line.

My Mother Your Mother

Learn the rhyme first using rote learning (call and response or echo). Then have the students clap on each beat. Repeat until the rhyme becomes embodied, and flows freely. Next, drop the “Icka Backa” section, and recite only the “my mother” section, while maintaining the steady beat clap throughout. Have everyone think the “Icka Backa” words in their head in order to remember the length of that section.

The rhyme itself implies that there is an inherent dialogue between the two mothers. This is perfect for implementing one of the essential elements of West African dance and music, where people take turns “showing their stuff” in a playfully confrontational way.

Form a circle. Communal learning lends itself to performing in a circle, and indeed most game songs are performed in a circle. Clap and say the rhyme several times. Choose two “mothers” to step out into the middle of the circle to face off against each other musically (no fighting or yelling)!

Each “mother” takes 8 beats to improvise using body percussion. Mother 1 “talks” for 8 beats, and Mother 2 then responds also taking 8 beats. Take turns around the circle alternating the rhyme with two new “mothers” in the center battling it out through rhythm, movement, and improvisation.

Sorida

Traditional Zimbabwe Children’s Song

Done with partners facing each other.
R L Clap indicates a paddy-cake style of clapping across to your partner.

Another example of a rock-passing game from Ghana in West Africa is “Obwisana.” In this game, all children sit closely in a circle, each with a small rock in front of them. Rock passing games such as “Obwisana” start out very simply, but the rocks can be tapped in more complex polyrhythms after the children master the easier rhythms. These games, like all children’s songs and games, carry great meaning. The lyrics mean “the rock crushed my hand, grandma,” and is meant to assure the child that there are always people to take care of them in their lives, either in their family or village. The rock-passing accompaniment reflects the idea of a tight-knit community and cooperation, for if even one child fails to pass their rock on the beat to the next child, the entire song cannot continue.

Obiswana

Children’s rock passing game from Ghana

Western Classical Music Aesthetics compared to Indian Classical Music Aesthetics.

Classical Indian musical aesthetics require only three major components in an ensemble: a drone, a solo instrumentalist or vocalist, and a drum.

Listen Drone

Melodies are based on raga, which is a set of pitches similar to what we think of as a scale, but with many more non-musical characteristics. Like a scale, a raga contains a certain set of pitches or notes. Some notes are flat, others sharp, etc. There is also often a mood associated with a raga, such as a time of day the song should be sung, or a season of the year like monsoon season, hot season, or winter. A raga might also be associated with a particular deity. The pitches of the scale have their own syllables called sargam—which is very similar to our solfege system. Just like the term solfege which is made up of the syllables “sol” and “fa,” sargam is comprised of the syllables sa re and ga, the first three pitches of the Indian scale.

Indian music has roots that are thousands of years old. There is cultural meaning in every aspect of Indian music. For example, each syllable of the sargam (solfege) is based on the sound of an animal.

Animals are very prevalent in India, particularly in the rural areas where you can hear the cries of peacocks, the whinnying of goats, and even the occasional cry of an elephant. These are familiar sounds to many children growing up in India.

Singers in training spent a lot of time learning to improvise with these syllables. Here are a few typical warm ups for the voice.

• SS, RR, GG, MM, PP, DD, NN, S’S’
• SRG, RGM, GMP, MPD, PDN, DNS’
• SRSRG, RGRGM, GMGMP, MPMPD, PDPDN, DNDNS’
• SRGSRGM, RGMRGMP, GMPGMPD, MPDMPDN, PDNPDNS’

In India, there really isn’t any notation at all since music is improvised, but in the 19th century, musicians developed a system for notation that is used to teach beginners. Here is an example of what that notation would look like for singing the song Frere Jacques. Dashes equal rests, and the slur underneath two notes is equal to two eighth notes.

C Major mode, 4/4 time, medium tempo

Below is a song in one of the raga called Raga Bhupali. This raga is meant to be sung in the evening, and has a mood of devotion. It is a pentatonic raga, which means that only 5 pitches are used, Sa, Re, Ga, Pa and Dha.

Children’s Music in India

Since many rural children in India do not have access to televisions, computers, or other electronic forms of entertainment, children play lots of games and learn many songs from each other in their local vernacular or regional language. Indian films, however, are all musicals, and contain five to six songs each. Children and even adults are exposed to and learn many, many of these popular film songs.

Source: Natalie Sarrazin

Children playing on a roof in a Bihar village, 2009.

Many parents restrict media viewing, for families with access, limiting the number of films they see as well as the hours spent watching television, listening to radio, and playing video games. Computer gaming and television watching is curtailed by these parents to one hour per day in exchange for study time.

Source: Natalie Sarrazin

High School Music Class, New Delhi, India, 2009.

Below is a children’s game song called “Okaa Bokaa Teen Tarokaa” from Bihar, India. This rhyme and song is a good example of a children’s game song, which has many, many parts to it. The lyrics contain many references to animals, foods, perfumed oils, etc. There is also mention of a king and a princess, referring to a time when India was comprised of many feudal states ruled by kings.

Okaa, Bokaa

Children’s rhyme game from Bihar, India

Translation N. Sarrazin

Everyone is seated in a circle very close together for this game song. The actions for this rhyme are indicative of life and culture in India, and include motions that are both familiar and unfamiliar to children’s game songs in the U.S. For example, the beginning of the rhyme consists of an elimination game similar to “eenie, meenie, miney, mo” but pinching the back of the hand in the next section is rarely found in children’s game songs. Grabbing ones earlobes in India is a sign of contrition for one’s actions. It indicates that you are sorry and would like forgiveness.

Okā Bokā Tīn Tarokā

Children’s rhyme game from Bihar, India

Translation N. Sarrazin, A. Dwivedi

Case Study 3: Japan

Japanese Aesthetics

Japanese music can also be challenging, since its aesthetics are very different from those found in Western music. If we think back on the elements of Western music (sound, melody, rhythm, harmony, form), we see that almost all Western rhythm emphasizes a continuous, steady pulse or beat. Western music is very melodically and harmonically oriented, with a continuous rhythmic pulse. We need to grasp a melody and a drum beat or steady pulse in order to make sense of what we are hearing.

Tawaraya Sōtatsu [Public domain], via Wikimedia

17th Century Japanese Painting, “Waterfowls in Lotus Pond”

In traditional Japanese music such as gagaku or shakuhachi however, a steady beat is non-existent, and the emphasis is overwhelmingly on timbre, which is part of sound. Stringed instruments such as the biwa are used sparingly to play a fixed harmony or chord that marks time rather than plays a melody, and the short sound patterns from an instrument such as a single small drum or gong, might be front and center. How are we supposed to listen to this music? Japanese music relies on subtle changes and exploration of timbre rather than continuous sound. It takes a great deal of listening and understanding to be able to listen to and appreciate this music.

In Japan, key cultural, musical and artistic aesthetics include:

• Ritual
  • Process over product
• Nature
  • Reference to, reproducing, or connecting with (i.e. Shakuhachi made of bamboo)
• Simplicity
  • Minimal sound, maximum effect
• Space/silence
• Form and the destruction of form
  • Idea of impermanence
• Variation
  • Multiple perspectives

Traditional Japanese art such as that pictured above, uses the same aesthetics. Notice all of the white space in the painting, and its minimalist nature. In the music, this white space is represented by silence. The same goes for Japanese flower arranging ikebana, where a single flower in a simple vase succinctly expresses the nature of Japanese aesthetics and worldview.

Japanese musical aesthetics are difficult to apply in the classroom. The first thing that children will want to do is play a steady beat on the drum and create a melody. This is so ingrained, that it is almost impossible to unlearn this Western cultural norm.

Classroom equivalents of traditional Japanese instruments.

However, approaching Japanese music from the perspective of timbre and silence, and to use visuals such as the classical paintings above to represent the simplicity of the music can help.

• Begin by passing out various percussion instruments, and even pitched instruments such as an autoharp, glockenspiel, or xylophone.
  • Have students create as many different timbres as possible on their instrument, and as many “cool sounds” as possible. Remember, the autoharp should just play one chord with a lot of space in between strumming.
  • Practice simple rhythmic patterns (ti-ti-ta, ta ta, ti-ti ti-ti) on the instruments.

• Hitting the small drum or gong, for example, is not a matter of creating a steady beat, but of bringing subtle changes in timbre to the composition. This concept can be taught using an object like a bouncy ball. Take a bouncy ball, and drop it on the floor once. At first, it hits with a loud thwack. Each successive bounce, becomes both fainter and faster. Imitating this sound on a small gong or drumhead will approximate the type of play with timbre that is required.

• Then work to put the group together. Remember, only one or two sounds should be played at a time, with a lots of silence in between, no harmony or melody or steady pulse should emerge. Silence, called ma, is very important in Japanese music. If you look at the classical nature painting above, you will see a lot of “white space.” This white space in art is equivalent to silence in music.
• Instruments should be played slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately, not rushed and with a lot of stylized movement (dramatic but slow sweeps of the arm, positioning of drumsticks or mallets far in advance of striking, attentive and very alert and still musicians when not playing).

After some practice with this, it will be easy to plan an integrated multicultural lesson using something like kamishibai, or Japanese story cards. Having children play Orff instruments and classroom instruments as sound effects using the aesthetics above, would add greatly to the stories, as would composing an original song for the stories.

Multicultural Material Evaluation Rubric

References

Adzenyah, A., Maraire, D., & Tucker, J. (1996). Let your voice be heard! Songs from Ghana and Zimbabwe. Danbury, CT: World Music Press.

Boyer-Alexander, R. (2002). Celebrating African-American history through plantation songs and folklore. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard.

Brumfield, S. (2006). Hot peas and barley-o: Children’s songs and games from Scotland. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard.

Buenker, J., & Ratner, L. (2005). Multiculturalism in the United States: A comparative guide to acculturation and ethnicity. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Campbell, P., McCullough-Brabson, E., & Tucker, J. (1994). Roots and branches: A legacy of multicultural music for children. Danbury, CT: World Music Press.

Campbell, P., & Frega, A. (2001). Songs of Latin America: From the field to the classroom. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music.

Elliott, D. (1995). Music matters: A new philosophy of music education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gold, M., Grant, C., and Rivlin, H. N. (Eds.). (1977). In praise of diversity: A resource book for multicultural education. Washington, DC: Teacher Corps. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=5LU0AAAAMAAJ

Kiester, G. (2005). India: Games children sing: 16 children’s songs and rhymes. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishers.

Knapp, D. (2011). The inclusive world of music: Students with disabilities and multiculturalism. General Music Today, 25(1), 41-44.

National Association for Music Education. (2009). Kamishibai: Emotional hook for learning. Retrieved from http://nafme.org/kamishibai-emotional-hook-for-learning/

Sarrazin, N. (2008). Indian music for the classroom. Lanham, MD: MENC, Rowman and Littlefield.

Sarrazin, N. (2006). India’s music: Popular film songs in the classroom. Music Educators Journal 93(1), 26–32.

Sarrazin, N. (2006). Multicultural music in the classroom: Teaching burden or good musicianship? Asia Pacific Journal of Arts Education 3 (2).

Sarrazin, N. (1995). Exploring aesthetics: Focus on Native Americans. Music Educators Journal 4, 33–36.

Volk, T. (2004). Music, education and multiculturalism: Foundations and principles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

India Resources

Vocabulary

acculturate: learning a new language, giving up traditional customs, heritage, etc., in order to blend, melt, and assimilate

assimilation: explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, food, clothing, language, and social institutions. At the individual level, differences in the way individuals acculturate have been shown to be associated not just with changes in daily behavior, but with numerous measures of psychological and physical well-being. Acculturation can be thought of as second-culture learning

authenticity: how closely a performance of a piece of music conforms to the author’s intention; how closely a work of art conforms to an artistic tradition; how much the work possesses original or inherent authority, how much sincerity, genuineness of expression, and moral passion the artist or performer puts into the work

behavior: how we act as performers, audience members, listeners, etc.

cultural assimilation: the process by which a subaltern group’s native language and culture are lost under pressure to assimilate to those of a dominant cultural group

cultural mosaic: refers to the mix of languages, cultures, and ethnic groups that co-exist in society; intended to champion an ideal of multiculturalism as opposed to other systems like the melting pot, which is often used to describe the U.S.’ supposed ideal of assimilation

cultural pluralism: when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture provided they are consistent with the laws and values of the wider society

enculturation: the process whereby the established culture teaches an individual the accepted norms and values of the culture or society where the individual lives; learning your first culture

ethnicity: a socially defined category based on common culture or nationality; can include a common ancestry, dress, religion, dialect, etc.; reinforced through common characteristics, which set the group apart from other groups

homogeneous: the same or similar in nature

melting pot: metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements “melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture. It is particularly used to describe the assimilation of immigrants to the U.S. the melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s

multiculturalism: the action, process, or practice of including several cultures

multiethnic society: one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies that are ethnically homogeneous

musical aesthetics: what is considered beautiful or pleasing to listeners as a result of the music

polyrhythm: two or more contrasting rhythms such as groups of two played against groups of three

subaltern: lower in position or rank, a secondary group. Often this means a lack of access to political and financial power

Western culture: a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, specific artifacts, and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe; applies to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, such as the Americas and Australasia as well as Europe