Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

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Figure 1.12.4 shows that pop and rock and world music are less likely to be taught than classical and jazz music. Over 80% of respondents felt that western classical music is essential or ‘matters a lot’. While the music schools predominantly stress a classical music education based upon European traditions, classical music accounts for only 4.4% of all sound recordings in Iceland in 2007 14 , compared with 82.4% of recordings for pop and rock. If we compare this figure to 10 years earlier, then 73.2% of all sound recordings were pop and rock. This indicates a nearly 10% growth in the area of contemporary music, compared to a fall in recordings of classical music. While it could be argued that a solid grounding in traditional music leads to more innovative and accomplished rock/pop music production, this link is not evidenced and genre transfer in the arts is generally not apparent. The following quote from a music school director questions the current balance in the music school: Jazz and pop music is not given the same status as classical music. It is sort of weird as there is more employment in pop music also it has a much higher priority in the mind of young people. Many teenagers are turned off music by having to learn theory. They should learn theory when they are ready for it and when they need it. I think that Icelandic pupils do not get enough ear training. The most common pattern of attendance for children studying music is to attend 2 x30 minute private lessons per week. Children may also be encouraged to do listening classes or ensemble playing. Most schools stipulate that students can only learn an instrument beyond the first stage level if they also study theory. The music taught is classical, with some jazz or rhythmic music being introduced in some schools in recent years. Children tend to learn instruments such as piano, violin or other string or woodwind instrument. Guitar and percussion are also popular. Singing can also be learnt. The availability of certain instruments and singing choices is governed by a combination of interest from pupils and teaching staff available. Most music schools provide ‘added’ experiences throughout the year. These can range from being more spontaneous opportunities to regular extra activities. For example, choirs, orchestras, involvement in community theatre, and musicals were all common ‘extras’ offered generally without additional change. Many music schools (especially the larger ones) provided free preschool music classes, conducted either in their own right or as part of a cooperation with the local schools or children’s centres. It is difficult to determine the exact percentage of all child and young people in Iceland attending music school on a regular basis at any one time, but the anecdotal evidence from research visits suggests it can be as low as 8-10% of pupils in one area, while in other areas, such as a compulsory school in Ísafjörður where 41% or 205 students out of about 500 pupils attended music school. Attendance rates tend to be highest where the music school is closely connected with the compulsory school, for example: The music school is inside the school; children are taken out of their regular class. This does not disturb their learning as we rotate the schedule. There are three choirs, different ages. We have a brass band in the school and form a big band before Christmas – to play for Santa and his guests. All children go to music, out of class, to a music school – a separate music school but located in the same building... 80 - 90% of students take music, learning instruments... There is a strong preference in the music schools for individual tuition. The content of the programmes tend to be based on models of the ‘master’ and the pupil and taught in individual lessons. The music teachers come from all over the world and have considerable expertise. Music teachers are encouraged to continue their own music profession. In practice though, the majority of teachers teach music as their main source of income, though they may concurrently 14 http://www.statice.is/Statistics/Culture/Sound-recordings 38
e active in a range of local professional and amateur musical activities including church choirs, playing the organ, in local bands and orchestras, appearing in local performances, running local festivals and so on. In all the centres visited, the practices were skill-orientated and quite traditional. Use of new technology was not apparent, except in one well-equipped music school that was using computers to teach music theory and musical composition. Theory is a crucial part of musical studies, and, as the following example demonstrates some schools prevent further musical study without completing theory courses: We start with Suzuki method from around 3 years of age. The general age to start music is around 7 years of age and they start with 2 x 30 minute lessons per week. Theory starts at 10 years of age. We also start Aural training at that time too. The pupils aged 16-20 years also study music history. The rhythmic department covers jazz – bass, guitar and keyboards. If students don’t want to take there music seriously and sit exams and do theory then we ask them to leave and make room for others. There is another music school without the obligation to do theory and pupils can go there. But this school has over 100 pupils and does not get any subsidy so the parents have to pay. We are really interested in developing talent. We follow the syllabus and expect the students to follow exams. There is a gap in pupils aged 12-15. It is a difficult age. It depends how they studied. Musical development is closely linked to the development of the child. All the lessons we give are private and cost around 63, 900 ISK for a year for one instrument. The teachers come from mixed nationalities. A lot of teachers are Polish, Estonian and England. With the Icelandic teachers, they have all studied abroad, in the UK, USA or Germany and France. There appears to be some controversy over the place of music theory within music education. There is a widely held practice that theory is compulsory, but this is not the position of the syllabus editors. They argue instead that, “Nothing is compulsory. Pupils don’t have to take exams at all and recreational musicians can be supported within the current system.” Other music school directors are critical of the need to include theory and also the overly high demands of some curricula documents, as this criticism outlines: We want pupils that enjoy playing and carry on playing. The system is wrong. The rules say you can’t go on to grade 5 unless you study theory. You are in a situation of either having to force 12 year olds to study theory or they drop out. The emphasis on the theory, the scales and so on is over the top. I sent a complaint to the Music Schools' Examinations Board, because they had over 96 things that pupils had to do to move to the next level in woodwind. Everybody should have the chance to make music. Even the new jazz syllabus… I can’t do half of the things! It is like the curriculum specialists go to heaven when they write these documents and forget the real world.” As can be seen in Figure 1.12.5, 98% of music school directors felt that individual lessons were very advantageous or rather advantageous. Similarly, 35% of the same survey respondents felt that group teaching was very disadvantageous or rather disadvantageous to pupils’ learning. This presents a very clear preference in the music schools within the Icelandic system for individual instrumental and vocal education. The rationale for this preference is less clearly articulated and appears to be in contrast to methods such as those in the United Kingdom that have shown that group instrumental lessons with children 8-12 years of age has a success rate equal to – or better than – individual lessons. Further research could be conducted into this matter in Iceland as group lessons may be an effective way to reduce costs if these do not detrimentally impact on quality. Figure 1.12.5 Perceived advantages of group or individual instruction 39
Page 1 and 2: Arts and Cultural Education in Icel
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements This research woul
Page 5 and 6: Helga Rut Guðmundsdóttir Helgi Vi
Page 7 and 8: 5.4.2 Talent developement..........
Page 9 and 10: practices, but in reality there are
Page 11 and 12: Chapter 1: Introduction and overvie
Page 13 and 14: school type to which the comment re
Page 15 and 16: A future study could examine specif
Page 17 and 18: The number of pupils with a foreign
Page 19 and 20: pre-primary school teachers were so
Page 21 and 22: Figure 1.5.3: How useful is the Nat
Page 23 and 24: The conclusions from this report in
Page 25 and 26: primary level exceptional students
Page 27 and 28: ‣ Schools and colleges should be
Page 29 and 30: Increasingly, schools are becoming
Page 31 and 32: here, it is a good cooperation. We
Page 33 and 34: In terms of suggested improvements
Page 35 and 36: There are 300 hundred pupils in thi
Page 37: Figure 1.12.2 Accessibility of the
Page 41 and 42: schools have waiting lists of child
Page 43 and 44: Going to local schools… well we t
Page 45 and 46: in theatre. The students really lov
Page 47 and 48: We had a great show. The teachers d
Page 49 and 50: lot of satisfaction out of the proc
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 2 World Benchmarking 2.1 In
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 3: Responses to quality 3.1
Page 55 and 56: Figure 3.2.1 Compulsory school coll
Page 57 and 58: In the survey, dance schools report
Page 59 and 60: The school is participating in the
Page 61 and 62: visitors. The diverse and ‘quirky
Page 63 and 64: A smaller group of girls performs a
Page 65 and 66: Figure 3.3.6 Pupil performances in
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Page 77 and 78: Vignette 3.7.4 Every day there are
Page 79 and 80: Despite the geographical challenges
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demanding more of our schools and t
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It was argued that the arts may not
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(teacher a professional photographe
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There is a lot of respect amongst p
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“The popularity of pop music is g
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Others would argue that the connect
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interrelationship with nature and c
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From this summary, it can be seen t
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training of senior secondary arts t
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Vignette 5.2.4 Our selection proces
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There is a lack of connection betwe
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During the research, various school
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The following sections are other as
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For older pupils, there are electiv
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Before I came here no-one was doing
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Creative and cultural industries Mo
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While the previously listed recomme
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