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Orchestral hybridity and convergence: FUSE@PSO & potential for music education

Here’s another example of how professional orchestras are engaging in some of the ideas expressed in my article Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture: The FUSE@PSO (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) initiative currently involves Steve Hackman’s arrangement of music by Brahms, Radiohead, and others in the form of mashups (as discussed in this article by Elizabeth Bloom in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). While in this case Hackman is creating mashups for an orchestra to perform, I suggest that in music education… Read More »Orchestral hybridity and convergence: FUSE@PSO & potential for music education

Musical, community, and political leaders: FM Supreme working towards justice in Chicago

Music educators often discuss how musical engagement provides multiple opportunities for leadership. This week, Chicago musician Jessica Disu AKA FM Supreme is leading a youth-oriented peace and justice initiative “The Chicago International Youth Peace Movement.” According to a dedicated eventbrite site: “The goal of the first annual Chicago International Youth Peace Movement Conference, June 4th-6th, 2015 is to mobilize, activate and empower youth and young people, in grades 5th-12th  to organize and utilize their voices for peace and social change.”… Read More »Musical, community, and political leaders: FM Supreme working towards justice in Chicago

From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture

Tobias, E. S. (2015). From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture. General Music Today, 28(3), 23-27. doi: 10.1177/1048371314558293 My article From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture is now published. Here is the abstract: Many music educators address aural skills and analysis by drawing on strategies designed for the realm of Western classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within… Read More »From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture

Blurred lines, forensic musicology, and music

[updated 3/17/15] Musicologists, and more specifically forensic musicology, are receiving some attention in the mainstream press lately over the lawsuit regarding whether Robin Thicke and Pharell Williams violated copyright law by essentially creating music substantially similar to Marvin Gaye’s music without permission or providing royalties to Gaye’s estate. (To make a long story short, jurors found Thicke and Williams guilty.) You might be interested in musicologist Joe Bennett’s analysis and commentary on the issue. I’m more interested here in the… Read More »Blurred lines, forensic musicology, and music

Hybridity and Convergence: Popular and “Classical” music and musicianship can live together

I often write and speak about music education curriculum and teaching/learning contexts in terms of hybridity and convergence. I differentiate these paradigms of curriculum to those that are more compartmentalized or specific to particular ways of knowing or doing music such as “strands” and classes that focus on a form of musicianship or type of music (particularly in relation to secondary K-12 music education). John Covach’s recent piece, Rock Me, Maestro, in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a great… Read More »Hybridity and Convergence: Popular and “Classical” music and musicianship can live together