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Abstract
This study considers the way children listen to classical music composed for them and the effect of age on their spontaneous invented notations and verbal responses. The musical selection is a piano piece for children by Claude Debussy: ‘Jimbo's Lullaby’ from ‘Children's Corner’. Two hundred and nine children 4–9.5-years-old listened to the music and expressed their impressions graphically and verbally. Three systems of conceptualisation emerged: Associative responses (A-responses) suggesting metaphoric interpretation, Formal responses include references to sound and Compound responses integrating Associative and Formal expressions. Results show a strong dominance of Associative over Formal and Compound categories at all levels and a gradual decline of A-responses with age. Studying children's responses to a classical work addressed to them paves a way to a greater understanding of their music perception. This bears a number of implications for music educators who introduce young children to classical music and for composers of music for children.
Notes on contributor
Dr. Rivka Elkoshi is a senior lecturer of music at Levinsky College for Education in Tel-Aviv, Israel. She teaches music at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and conducts workshops for music educators on behalf of the Education Ministry in Israel. Her publications include a number of books on music education and piano pedagogy (in Hebrew) and articles in Israeli, American and British journals. She has presented internationally in a number of different countries and served as a member of the editorial board of Art and Learning and IJEA.
Notes
1. Unlike music, such as Mozart's music, originally intended for mature listeners but is being endorsed as ‘classics for kids’ or ‘baby music’ (e.g. Naxos of America, Inc. Citation2013).