MacGregor, E.H. orcid.org/0000-0002-4026-8816 (2022) Conceptualizing musical vulnerability. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 30 (1). pp. 24-43. ISSN 1063-5734
Abstract
Despite a growing body of advocacy for the beneficial effects of music education upon individuals’ development and wellbeing, lived experiences in the music classroom are testament to a diversity of both positive and negative musical encounters. For some pupils, classroom music-making is characterized by opportunities, achievements, and friendships. But for others it is redolent of shortcomings, disappointments, and conflicts. This reveals an urgent need for researchers and practitioners to acknowledge pupils’ “musical vulnerability”: their inherent and situational openness to being affected by the semantic and somatic properties of music.
In this essay, I offer a detailed conceptualization of musical vulnerability and its place in music education. I outline Judith Butler’s seminal theory of linguistic vulnerability, and evaluate how her conviction that language can cause hurt and harm may help redress the simplistic coupling of music and wellbeing lauded by music education advocacy. Drawing upon feminist vulnerability studies, I then reflect upon the distinctive experiences of inherent, situational, and pathogenic musical vulnerabilities in the classroom, and their relation to institutional, interpersonal, and individual responses to music’s particular semantic and somatic properties. I conclude by proposing how the conceptualization of musical vulnerability could transform music education through cultivating a renewed ethic of care.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Trustees of Indiana University. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Philosophy of Music Education Review. Uploaded with permission from the copyright holder. |
Keywords: | musical vulnerability; linguistic vulnerability; classroom music; inclusivity; care |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Music (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Apr 2021 10:54 |
Last Modified: | 30 Sep 2023 00:13 |
Published Version: | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/851848 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Indiana University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.2979/philmusieducrevi.30.1.03 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:172695 |