Ways of Resonance: Sonic Hospitality,Universal Design for Learning,and the Sound of Friendship in Lauren Coons’s Sonic Pathways

Abstract

Compositional indeterminacy (aleatoric music, graphic notation, open works, etc.) provides an option for applying the Universal Design for Learning framework in large ensembles at many different levels of maturity, which can potentially increase access to our programs for marginalized students. I first share some aspects of my pathway through disability studies that led me to revisit open and aleatoric works as curricular repertoire for the sake of including students with widely varying ability levels in a single large ensemble. I then relate this journey to the framework of Universal Design for Learning and the practice of open musical works by focusing on Lauren Coons’s Sonic Pathways (2015), an open work written for any large ensemble with any instrumentation. Large ensemble music educators can potentially broaden their efforts toward increasing access for marginalized students into their programs by considering such repertoire in their educational practice.