GROWING UP IN A PHILHARMONIC BAND a cultural perspective 1

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1 GROWING UP IN A PHILHARMONIC BAND a cultural perspective 1 Rui Ferreira Graça Mota Filipa Seabra CIPEM Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico do Porto Rua Dr. Roberto Frias 4200 Porto Portugal Tel.: Fax: ferreira@ese.ipp.pt gmota@ese.ipp.pt filipaseabra@ese.ipp.pt This paper is submitted for consideration for the 21st international Seminar on Research in Music Education, 9 14 July 2006, Ramada resort Benoa-Nusa Dua Bali, Indonesia Key words: Musical Identity, Philharmonic Bands, Music Education, Musical development, Cultural context Abstract This paper addresses a particular type of music ensemble, of great importance in the Portuguese cultural context, and its role in the construction of the musical identities of Portuguese young musicians the Philharmonic Band. This concept emerged from two decades of experience of music teacher training at the Escola Superior de Educação do Porto (ESE), High School of Education in Porto (Polytechnic Institute), which has shown that a substantial part of its students have started a musical life as members of such Bands. Analysis and discussion of data includes the results from the questionnaire sent out to every student and former student of the music teachers training course (124 returned out 1 Acknowledgments: This Project was funded by the FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under the project POCI União Europeia Fundos Estruturais Governo da República Portuguesa

2 of 300 sent), and the findings of an in depth case study, built from an interview to a former student with a long personal and family history in Philharmonic Bands. Introduction This project stems from the experience of two decades in teacher training of the Escola Superior de Educação do Porto (ESE), acknowledging that many of the young musicians applying to the Teacher Training Course in Music Education, have started their musical training in Philharmonic Bands. This fact was identified as the potential object of a systematic research about the role of certain cultural contexts on the development of a musical and professional identity. Philharmonic Bands are ensembles of brass, woodwind and percussion instruments of about 50 musicians, mainly amateurs. Playing in a Philharmonic Band is often a family tradition. It is normal to find in the same Band several generations from one family, playing together. In the past, the musician with the best musical skills was usually the conductor, and the training of all instrumentalists was made from the older to the younger ones, based on imitative solfege routines (Vasconcelos, 2004). These ensembles play in popular religious fests, parade through the villages, and perform in open-air stages called Coretos. Aims and objectives This paper reports on the first phase of an on-going project, which started in May It seeks to understand, in the context of Music Teacher Education, the role that the participation in the Philharmonic Bands plays in the construction of musical and professional identities of young Portuguese people. The relevant objectives for this paper are: 1. To interpret the memories of young musicians about their participation in the Philharmonic Bands. 2. To understand the relationship that young music teachers maintain with their Philharmonic Bands, as a significant part of their professional activity.

3 Theoretical contextualization Developmental theories have been under a certain systematic critique as their approach emphasizes what can be explained by biology and/or evolution, rather than valuing the fundamental role of situation and culture (Minick, 1989; Bruner, 1990, 1996; Walsh, 1991; Graue & Walsh, 1995; Walsh, 2002). In fact, Vygotsky (1934/1987) had already stressed the importance of abandoning the concept of eternal child in favour of the concept of historical child, while stating that learning and development always take place under specific social and historical conditions. Further, the perspective of cultural psychology (Bruner, 1990, 1996) approaches development as a process of growth that happens within a certain culture where meanings are shared, and common narratives are constructed. Walsh (2002, p. 102) refers to the cultural-historical child, the child who lives in particular social, cultural, and historical situations, and ends up in particular classrooms. She does not live beyond time and place. She lives here and now. According to Dewey (1934, 1938), experience is the key to education, and is both personal and social. In his writings, education, experience, and life always appear intertwined. Therefore, to study education is to study experience, and thus to study life. Similarly, musical development is profoundly rooted in experience, and happens within specific musical contexts where young people spend a significant part of their time, and often find their cultural identity. On the other hand, the social psychology of music (Hargreaves & North, 1997), has been studying the various ways by which young people acquire their musical skills, and the most significant influences in that process, while placing an emphasis on the so-called reference figures (parents, friends and peers). Finally, the study field of musical identities (Hargreaves et al., 2002), and the body of research that envisions the development of identities in music as defined by social and cultural roles suggests, specific identities in music exist, which derive from special interest groups. Two obvious groupings might be those relating to particular musical instruments and those relating to particular musical genres (p ). Methodology This research uses a qualitative, ethnographic and phenomenological methodology (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1993), combined with the case study approach (Case, 1995)

4 both for the data collection about the memories of the young musicians on their participation in the Philharmonic Bands, and the characterisation of these ensembles as an overall social and cultural phenomenon. In the first phase of the study, a questionnaire was sent out to the 300 students and former students of the ESE Porto (May 2005), in order to identify those that have participated and/or still participate in the musical activity of Philharmonic Bands. The questionnaire included closed and open-ended questions concerning the subjects family history and personal past or current involvement with Bands. To date, semi-structured interviews were carried out, in a one-to-one setting, with three former students of the ESE Porto, to uncover the role they attribute to the participation in the Philharmonic Bands, and the personal perceptions of how it affected the construction of their musical identity. Each interview was transcribed and subjected to phenomenological interpretation (Smith, et al, 1995), in which key themes were identified and ordered after they emerged from repeated reading of the data. In this paper, we present the data from the questionnaire, and the qualitative analysis of one of the interviews. Findings Questionnaire From the 300 questionnaires that were sent out, 124 were returned. Table 1 depicts the analysis of the collected data. Table 1 Past and current experience with Philharmonic Bands, family history, and gender. % Gender M F Family members Band Currently Band Direct or indirect relationship with Philharmonic Bands Experience in Philharmonic Bands No experience in Philharmonic Bands No family members 44 band (35,48%) Family members 80 (64,52%) Band Family members Band 14 (11,29%) (24,19%) 66,67 33,33 15 (12,09%) 46,67 53,33 45 (36,29%) 35 (79,55% dos 44) Yes 59 (47,58%)

5 No family members band 65 (52,42%) 32,31 67,69 No 65 (52,48%) From the 35 subjects who are still involved with Bands, 8 are conductors, 4 are teachers, and 2 assume management functions in the ensemble in which they perform. Gender distribution of this group showed a percentage of 63% male, and 37% female. Interview with M. M. is a 31 year old male music educator. The interview was done shortly after M. graduated from the ESE Porto, in July The analysis of this semi-structured interview uncovered the following emergent themes: Musical life pathway Family influences Musical Training Repertoire Social Issues Perception of the musical self Musical life pathway M. started his musical training in the Banda de Golães at the age of 8. His father, himself a musician in that Band, taught him the solfege. At the same time he started to learn the trumpet, and at the age of 10 he had already begun to play in concerts. All decisions stayed solely with the conductor of the Band who chose the instrument, and evaluated the basic musical skills of each child, prior to joining the ensemble. He remembers that, at that time, there was no female participation in the Band, while today it is integrated by almost 50 percent women. When he was 14, he registered at the local music conservatoire, but one year later he came to Porto to make an audition for the North Military Band, where he was admitted as a french horn player from the age of 16: In the military Band I changed my instrument from trumpet to french horn. At that time there was a lack of french horns, which was still an unusual instrument in Philharmonic Bands, and the

6 conductor thought I had the right lips size I started and enjoyed playing it. ( ) I eventually registered at the music conservatoire in Porto, and finished my french horn degree. M. played in the Military Band, as a professional, for 10 years, while performing regularly in his original Band, and collaborating sporadically with other Bands as an invited, external element. In January 2001 he was invited to be the conductor of the Banda de Carrazedo in a small town of the northeast of Portugal (Trás-os-Montes). At this time he had decided to apply for the Teacher Training Course in Music Education of the ESE Porto, where he started in September From then on he would divide his activity between the undergraduate course at the ESE, and his duties as a Band conductor: Every Friday evening I travel to Carrazedo (ca. 170Km from Porto) for a rehearsal. I stay overnight, and the whole Saturday is spent teaching in the Band s music school, I have the main responsibility for this school, although I have recruited some of the best players to help me with the different instrumental groupings. For M., to pursue a college degree in Music Education was the vehicle to attain a future professional stability as a Music Teacher in Primary and Secondary Schools: I like to teach, and this degree contributed to my personal and professional fulfilment. From the moment when M. became fully engaged with the Banda de Valpaços, he ceased to collaborate with other Bands. Today he states: I can t see myself outside of a Philharmonic Band. It is where I started, where I grew up musically. Family Influences M. realizes that his father being a Band member was determinant to his involvement in a Band, namely to the choice of instrument. M. s father is currently conducting a Band in the same geographical region as himself. Besides his father, he stresses the influence of a cousin who is a professional trumpet player. M. states it s a family with musical traditions, and (traditions) concerning the Philharmonic Bands. Musical Training Thinking back to the musical training he received in the Band, M. describes it as being based on memorization.

7 In solfege it was... you know, a little «square», let s say it was kind of traditional. It was learning the dó, ré, mi, fá, sol, lá, si, dó, associating lines with notes, spaces with notes ( ) it had to be all by heart, right? it was just looking at the score. Children would learn the notes by heart, and then the positions on the instrument with the aim of joining the Band as soon as possible. Nowadays, M. notices several changes, because most Bands have their own music schools. However, in his opinion, the kind of musical training offered by these schools is still far from that of conservatoires or High Schools of Education. Since the Band cannot afford to hire teachers for each instrument, M., as the conductor, tries to increase his skills on instruments other than his own, to be able to teach them to the young musicians. Moreover, there is a lack of pedagogical approaches in Band Schools. He mentions a need for the schools to keep training musicians, even comparing schools to factories, which must keep producing new members for the Band. M. has tried to bring some more listening activities into the Band, after having noticed that the musicians showed some difficulty associating what they saw in the scores and what the sound should be like. For that purpose, he recorded most of the pieces the Band plays. Repertoire M. explains why there are certain constraints in terms of repertoire, which he partially has to conform to: We have to be aware of the fact that we need to please our audience. In Trás-os-Montes people like Portuguese folk melodies, and when I started to conduct I had to get acquainted with that type of repertoire. Unlike the Bands in Minho (in my opinion, the best ones in the country), that play a more symphonic repertoire, here we play rhapsodies made up of several different pieces gathered under a certain name, usually attributed by the conductor. I have been, however, introducing other type of repertoire, such as Rossini and Tchaikovsky, according to the musical skills of the musicians. Further, the repertoire includes dance music for the open-air summer fests, marches, which go with the processions, and all the religious pieces to accompany the mass in the church. In this case, some of the musicians will perform in a small choir. Social Issues

8 During the interview it was easy to understand how clearly M. sees the social role the Band plays in the musicians lives, as well as in his own life: the group comes first, the social issues come first. We have many social aspects to consider; we are working in a group, so one needs to know how to behave in the group. ( ) We must have leadership abilities as well, right? It s not just getting there with a pile of scores. ( ) What we are doing there is to work with a group, in a group, conducting, leading a group and this is so important that it becomes my main concern. He tells us about a special feeling in the group, that he calls the Philharmonic spirit. The philharmonic spirit is a very peculiar one. It gives us a unique sensation of living according to the group s rules, doing things together, playing together, going together on a trip...people I know who have experienced this spirit never or hardly ever leave their Bands. M. emphasizes that members of the Band who are studying away from home, usually come back to play in the weekends and during summer holidays. End of July they are back, ( ) until mid September I have everybody there, the group is complete again ( ) but I always tell them your life comes first, this is just a hobby. Perception of the musical self M. sees the Band as the image of the conductor. He is the leader who is in charge of the Band s musical life, a friend, but always the one in command. The conductor has a very important role, I think it s the leading role in all aspects. I m in a group, and I want the group to be homogeneous, I want the group to be able to work when it is time to work, and have fun when it is time to relax. They understand it quite well because I set the example. In order to have some results, it is important to know the field very well, to know what being a philharmonic person is about (...) When comparing himself to other conductors, he values his higher education, and acknowledges: I plan my rehearsals ( ) and when it comes to teaching, what I learned at ESE was very helpful. M. also sees himself as a guide to his young musicians in their musical studies. He suggests what instrument they should play, according to some physical characteristics he values, and always tries to talk to the parents, when he foresees the potential of a child:

9 He is the trumpet soloist of the Band and he is only 11. Actually I ve already talked to his parents and the parents of four other kids who are finishing 6 th grade in the regular school, so they can go on to study in Mirandela, at the music specialist school. When questioned about his sense of accomplishment and future plans, he says: After all what I want to do, what I have been doing for a long time, is to teach, to conduct and to play. These are the three things I most like to do ( ) I have great pleasure being on stage, ( ) from the most famous to the most humble ( ) a stage is always a stage and we must show respect for it ( ) that s what I like to do and cannot see myself ever doing another thing. Discussion The findings from the questionnaire illustrate a relevant presence of Philharmonic Bands in the lives of ESE s former and present music students, either through direct influence, or family history. While Philharmonic Bands still seem to be predominantly male groups, women are becoming increasingly involved. This is confirmed by M. s account of his own experience. This aspect will be further researched in the scope of this project. The interview revealed that M. has a strong sense of responsibility, and of the several roles that permanently cross his life the teacher, the leader and the performer. He sees himself as the main actor contributing for the social cohesion of the group, and in many ways a guide to his young musicians. In his own definition, he is a philharmonic person, and values his work and identity as such. His self perception is deeply embedded in this culture, as he cannot imagine his life away from a Philharmonic Band. It is where he began, and was musically raised. Musical training seems to be changing with the emergence of music schools associated to the Bands. Furthermore, M. s higher education appears to have been determinant to the systematic way in which he pedagogically prepares his rehearsals. The findings from this phase of the project suggest that our methodological focus is appropriate, and bares the potential to shed light upon the construction of musical and professional identities of young Portuguese people through the Philharmonic Bands. From our researchers point of view, important implications for music education might arise from the understanding of the effect that a strong instrumental practice in the context of a Philharmonic Band may have, as a motivator for young children to pursue an involvement with music for life.

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