Musical Creativity in Childhood- A Research Project in Retrospect

Abstract

This paper provides the first English language report on a research project undertaken from 1960 to 1963 in three kindergartens in Stockholm, Sweden, with children from 3.6 to 6.6 years of age. The purpose was to learn more about young children's own musical culture and especially their invented songs. The study combined ethnographic and quasi-experimental approaches. The first consisted of naturalistic observations of the spontaneous musical life of the children, while the second asked children individually to sing known tunes and to invent their own songs. Parents and teachers were interviewed and rating scales were used to compare the children's musical life in different contexts. The songs were transcribed and categorized. The results imply that musical creativity is relatively independent of both singing ability, intelligence and parents' musical interest and is more an expression of a general creative attitude. The results, which were pioneering for the time, are discussed and compared with more recent research in the area.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barrett, M. (1995). Children composing, What have we learnt? In H. Lee, & M. Barrett, (Eds.) Honing the craft: Improving the quality of music education. Conference proceedings of the 10th National conference of the Australian Society for Music Education, Artemis Publishing Consultants, Hobart.

Barrett, M. (1996). Children's musical discourse as aesthetic decision-making . Unpublished Manuscript.

Bjorkvold, J.R. (1985). Den spontane barnesangen - Barns musikalske morsmål (Children's spontaneous singing - our musical mother tongue). Oslo: Freidig Forlag. A summary can be found in a conference report edited by Ragnhild Söderbergh : Children's Creative Communication (1988 ). Lund: Kent.

Cox, G. ( 1990). The legacy of folksong: The influence of Cecil Sharp on music education. British Journal of Music Education, 7(2), 89-97.

Davies, C. (1992). Listen to my song: A study of songs invented by children aged 5 to 7 years. British Journal of Music Education , 9(1), 19-48.

Folkestad, Göran (1996). Computer based creative music making. Young people's music in the digital age. Doctor of Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, Institute of Education, Sweden. Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences 104.

Goodman, Mary Ellen (1970). The culture of childhood. Child's-eye views of society and culture. Teachers College, Columbia University.

Guilford, J.P. (1950). Creativity. American Psychologist , 5, 444-454.

Hattwick, M.S. (1933) The role of pitch level and pitch range in the singing of preschool, first grade and second grade children. Child Development, 281-291.

10.

Hattwick, M.S. (1935). A genetic study of differential pitch sensitivity . In University of Iowa Studies of Child Welfare , No 11: 1-87. The measurement of musical development II.

11.

Kratus, J. (1994). Relationships among children's music audiation and their compositional processes and products. Journal of Research in Music Education, 42(2), 115-130.

12.

Moog, Helmuth (1976, German original 1968). The musical experience of the pre-school child. London: Schott.

13.

Nestele, A. (1930). Die musikalische Produktion in Kindesalter. Zeitschrift angewandte Pychologie, 15(52).

14.

Pond, Donald (1981). A composer's study of young children's innate musicality. Council for Research in Music Education, 68, 1-12. See also contributions of Shirley Shelley and Bruce Wilson about the same topic in the same issue of CRME.

15.

Rainbow, B. (1989). Music in educational thought and practise. Aberystwyth: Boethius Press.

16.

Révèsz, Geza (1964, German original 1946). Introduction to the Psychology of Music. London: Longmans, Green & Co

17.

Richardson, C.P. (1983). Creativity in music education: A review. Council for Research in Music Education, 74, 1-21.

18.

Russell, R.L. & Orlinsky, D.E. (1996). Psychotherapy research in historical perspective: Implications for mental health care policy. Archives of general Psychiatry, 53, 708-715.

19.

Schünemann, G. (1930). Musikerziehung. Leipzig: Kistner & Ziegel, .

20.

Sundin, B. (1963). Barns musikaliska skapande (Musical creativity in childhood). Stockholm: Liber .

21.

Sundin, B. (1995, third edition, first edition 1978). Barns musikaliska utveckling (Children's musical development). Stockholm: Liber utbildning.

22.

Werner, H. (1917). Die melodische Erfindung in frühen Kindesalter . Vienna: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften.

23.

Werner, H. (1948). Comparative psychology of mental development. New York: Wiley