RESPONSIVE MUSIC LISTENING AS AN INNOVATIVE METHOD IN PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF NORWEGIAN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Abstrakt

The author presents the listening method «Music in Use», developed by his brother Magne Espeland, professor at Stord College of Education, Norway. It is based on an impression-expression model, where the pupils’auditory impression of music is related to different modes of expressions or activities. Activities like language, visual art and movement form basis for a dialogue and discussion between teacher and children and between children within a given group.

A central principle in the method is the emphasis on the relationship between the auditory impression and the resulting corresponding expression, which depends on the listening task and the type of listening.

There are two main types of listening: Formal listening,making the children focus on the structural elements of the music, and associative listening, utlilising the children’s assosciations when listening to the music.The learning models consists of five basic stages of learning, Presentation, activation, sharing, processing and evaluation.

The last part of the article discusses and exemplifies important aspects of the ‘Music in use’ methodology, like active listening and creativity, based on repeated music and musical exploration.