Promoting African music and enhancing intercultural understanding in teacher education

Australia is a culturally diverse nation. The Arts provide a pathway that contributes to the rich tapestry of its people. Tertiary music educators have the responsibility to provide opportunities to effectively prepare and engage pre-service teachers in becoming culturally responsive. The authors discuss the importance and need to include guest music educators as culture bearers when preparing pre-service teachers to teach multicultural music. Drawing on data from student questionnaires, author participant observation and reflective practice in 2014, the findings highlight the experiences and practical engagement of an African music workshop in teacher education courses. Generalisations cannot be made, however, the findings revealed the need, importance and benefits of incorporating guest music educators as culture bearers who have the knowledge, skills and understandings to contribute to multicultural music education. This experience may be similar to other educational settings and it is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue in other teaching and learning areas.

Digital shimmer: popular music and the intimate nexus between fan and star

Conception of ‘star performance’ through popular music is stratified which generates diverse and often contradictory forms of thought. For example, stars and celebrities plausibly act as a ‘culture medium’ in which, through imagination, one’s identity is assembled, realised or constructed. What to become and how to be are questions we individually and collectively contend with throughout our lives to varying degrees (Maslow, 1954; 1968). Predominant use of digital technologies has seen the delivery of sound much altered. Music, be it Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata or Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, once sourced via analogue legacy devices such as ‘old-school’ tape cassette or vinyl record is now a series of zero and one digits. Advocates argue that the key benefit of digitalisation is the ability to compress data because sound generates large files of information. The discourse of digitalisation begs the question of how a series of ones and zeros, albeit in a plethora of configurations, registers with listening bodies and affects ‘the sublime’. It is without doubt that some musical experiences afford indescribable, unlocatable sensation—even enchantment (as defined by Bennett, 2001: 5 and called forth by Redmond: 2014: 126). Such musical experiences might be in the presence of the performer or in their absence such as in the case of recorded music. In this context, any sense of ’real’ space and place is less definitive allowing for ‘special encounters’ to be imagined and felt. For these reasons, music and all that the use of the word might convey, the proposed notion of phaino-ken here, acts as the lens through which to examine the meaning and value of celebrity and star embodiment.

In the heat of the moment: audience real time response to live music and dance performance

Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience explores the processes and experiences of attending live music events from the initial decision to attend through to audience responses and memories of a performance after it has happened. The book brings together international researchers who consider the experience of being an audience member from a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives. Whether enjoying a drink at a jazz gig, tweeting at a pop concert or suppressing a cough at a classical recital, audience experience is affected by motivation, performance quality, social atmosphere and group and personal identity. Drawing on the implications of these experiences and attitudes, the authors consider the question of what makes an audience, and argue convincingly for the practical and academic value of that question.

The natural death of the Supreme Judicial Commission of Bangladesh and the consequent patronage appointments to the Bench: advocating the establishment of an Independent Judicial Commission

In order to strengthen the constitutional process of appointment of judges in Superior Courts, Bangladesh established a Supreme Judicial Commission in 2008 by promulgating an Ordinance. This Ordinance was neither promulgated in pursuance of any provisions of the Constitution nor by introducing any amendment to the provisions of the Constitution. The recommendations of the Commission were not given binding force on the executive. The power of the executive to accept or reject the candidates recommended by the Supreme Judicial Commission at his pleasure defeated the very objective of establishing the Commission for appointing the most competent and suitable persons as judges of the superior courts in Bangladesh. However, following the general elections held on 29 December 2008, the newly elected Government of Bangladesh Awami League dispensed with the Supreme Judicial Commission by not placing the Supreme Judicial Commission Ordinance before the parliament for its approval. This resulted in restoring the previous system of appointing judges on the satisfaction of the executive, which has resulted in patronage appointments. Thus, the establishment of an independent judicial commission in Bangladesh is an imperative necessity for strengthening the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

Oxford handbook of music therapy

In the Oxford Handbook of Music Therapy, international leaders in the field from 10 countries have contributed their expertise to showcase contemporary music therapy.

Music therapy and medical ethnomusicology: distinctive and connected

A music therapist and an ethnomusicologist who is also qualified as a music therapist explore some of the ways in which music therapy and medical ethnomusicology might engage a dialogue that is helpful to expanding thinking and practice in both fields. We begin by describing music therapy and outlining some core concepts of therapeutic work. We then discuss ethnomusicology and reflect on the ways in which music therapy and ethnomusicology may complement one another in the field of medical ethnomusicology. We consider how an exploration of concepts informing cultural safety might be enacted in healthcare through the use of music and whether this might serve as a useful joint future enterprise between music therapists and medical ethnomusicologists. Finally we explain why we encourage medical ethnomusicologists to cease attempts to become applied therapeutic practitioners without further therapy skills training.

Music in worship: making spiritual connections through sound

Music has played a significant role in religion and spiritual settings over the centuries and continues to be included throughout church history, forming an important aspect of worship, contributing to spiritual growth and wellbeing. This article situates itself within a wider study on Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the community. Drawing on narrative reflection, the authors discusstheir experiences across Melbourne (Australia) and Potchefstroom (South Africa) and include some interview data from church musicians from the wider study in Melbourne in relation to how church music contributes to spirituality and impacts on wellbeing. As church musicians they argue that music in church settings can offer parishioners the opportunity to experienceand express spirituality in their life through sound. They recognize and acknowledge that music through singing, playing, improvising and listening is an aspect of spiritual connection that is not confined to the institution of the church or to a religion but is concerned with the connection wefeel and sense in mysterious and unknown places and spacesThe findings of this study are limited as it only focuses on the experience of the authors, hence, generalizations to other musicians or church settings cannot be made. The authors argue that music in church settings can enliven andtransform worship through music in which spiritual connections can be fostered between God and man that positively engender wellbeing.