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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that different melodic configurations on an Orff xylophone have on the ways children compose and on the musical characteristics of their compositions. Subjects were 48 fourth graders with no formal instruction in composition. They were individually asked to compose a song on a xylophone that was configured in one of four ways: (1) pentatonic with 5 bars, (2) pentatonic with 10 bars, (3) melodic minor with 5 bars, and (4) melodic minor with 10 bars. Two pairs of independent judges rated various aspects of the subjects' use of compositional processes and products. Results indicated that subjects composing with 10 bars spent more time in exploration while composing, composed longer songs, and were less able to replicate those songs as compared to subjects composing with 5 bars. Subjects composing in harmonic minor were more likely to end their songs on the starting pitch than were subjects composing in pentatonic.

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Effect of Available Tonality and Pitch Options on Children's Compositional Processes and Products

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