Paper presented at the NORAD Music seminar May, 1999
Published in "Music co-operation between Norway and the South"
NORAD report 2/99
ISBN 82-7548-172-4

Jan Sverre Knudsen
 

Why music?

Delegates to the music seminar,

As a part of their focus on music cooperation over the past few years NORAD recently decided to make an evaluation of their music cooperation projects. I have been engaged to do this job and have since the beginning of April been going through documents and meeting participants at different levels of organization. Otherwise I am a Phd. Student at the department of music and theatre at the University of Oslo.

My evaluation work has so far been an exiting and encouraging experience. It has given me a close encounter with the power of music activity. The projects I have become acquainted with show a lot of sincere involvement. Dynamic changes are taking place in schools and organizations; ideas are being born and learning is being spread.

Unlike many development projects in other fields I feel there is little use in making a quantitative analysis. While counting the number of concerts, the number of cassettes released, the number of lessons taught, may give an indication of the volume of activity, it doesn't necessarily say anything about the value for people involved.

My approach to this matter is to get a close look at what we might call experienced value by interviewing people involved at all levels and by doing "live" observations of the projects in question, both in Norway and in two of the project countries, Nicaragua and Tanzania.

If we look at the history of western music education there has been, and there still is, a certain dichotomy in arguments used to justify music. In a simplified manner, adjusted to our purpose it could look something like this:

Goal

Tool

Music as a goal for development

Music as a development agent

Aesthetic values

Developmental values (political, educational)

Musical quality

Quality of human interaction

Professionalism

Participation

Developing musical skills

Developing extra-musical skills, attitudes etc.

The music event itself

Effect of the music event

Music can be regarded a goal in itself, (we could call it an objectivistic or materialistic viewpoint) or as tool, an instrument to reach other, extra-musical goals (which we might call an instrumentalistic or functionalistic viewpoint).

This of course is a simple polarization. The real world is far more complex than this, and I am sure most of you will say that music activity in your area always should relate to both sides; that there is no contradiction between them.

If we go deeply enough into the arguments on the goal side, we more often than not, will find arguments that support the concept of music as a tool in some way or another. Expressions like: "the music created a good feeling, it made the audience happy, it made people dance etc"… indicate that music is conceived of as a tool for creating feelings, happiness etc. Likewise, if we look at the arguments promoted by the tool side, we often find that aspects concerning quality and aesthetic values are regarded as a condition for music to function well as a tool for reaching extra-musical goals like education, the promotion of national identity or development in general.

Still I feel that a set of concepts like these, which I consider closely connected to basic understandings of culture, can tell us quite a lot about what we are aiming at, shed light upon the arguments employed and perhaps clarify some of the contradictions experienced.

As an example we could look at how NORADs cultural policy, relates to this model. At a first glance, most arguments promoted by NORAD primarily bring us to the tool side. The very conditions set for this conference point in this direction. Today's topic is "music cooperation as a development agent", which to my ears sounds very much like "music cooperation as a development tool".

In NORAD's cultural strategy documents the connection to general NORAD goals is emphasized. In other words, a link is sought between cultural cooperation and superior goals like those expressed in a current strategy document: "to assist developing countries in their efforts to create lasting improvements in political, economic and social conditions for the entire population."

Other expressed goals of NORAD cultural policy are to:


Identity, heritage, international cooperation, …all worthy goals to be attained using the tool of cultural, in our case, musical activity. Although these points obviously are based on an underlying perception of the inherent value of cultural activity, my impression is still that of a predominant functionalistic justification in the official paperwork.

Now, are these things happening through music cooperation? Are these goals being reached? Different projects put varying emphasis on these aspects, but there is little reason to question that all these aims are being met in some way or another by ongoing projects. If there was time I could give you many telling examples of how this is happening, both in Norway and in cooperating countries.

But in addition to this, there are fundamental aspects to this work which are less visible in the official paperwork: People are enjoying music. People are enriching their lives through music experiences. People are being touched at a deep personal level by the power of music. Good music is being created and spread. People are learning to play new instruments, sing new songs; improving their musical skills, their performance skills, their skills in recording music.

In the United Nations declaration of human rights, article 27, the "right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, and to enjoy the arts" is presented as a human right in itself in the same way as the right to freedom of thought, freedom of expression and the right to food, clothing, housing and medical care. In other words, culture is considered by the United Nations a basic human right in itself, and not only a means of fulfilling the other more frequently mentioned rights.

Perhaps my point becomes clearer if we compare these arguments with the ways in which Norwegian cultural organizations justify the promotion of music in Norway. In these connections the extra-musical aspects are much less frequently marketed. The promotion of quality music is considered a good enough goal in itself.

At a conference I recently attended in Pretoria, hosted by the International Society of Music Education. There were many good lectures concerning the impact of music on multicultural understanding and Ubuntu, a Southern African word for humanness. However, the lecture that made the deepest impression on me was made by Andrew Missingham, an English jazz musician with experience from multicultural music projects. According to him there are three basic motives for musicians to engage in cross-cultural activity:

Go

Have fun

Make good music

Now while this may seem rather hedonistic, it still represented a refreshing point of view after several days of listening to presentations about the many ways in which music can create understanding, build bridges between ethnic groups, fight crime, build a nation etc. etc..

Now don't get me wrong. I feel there is understanding for the inherent value of music activity both in the NORAD system and in the participating organizations. Still, through my evaluation work so far, in a number of cases I have noticed a certain discrepancy between the so-called mantras repeated in documents, applications and reports, and the powerful emotional and aesthetic experiences made by musicians, audiences, students and teachers.

To summarize I think it is imperative to ask one question:

Do we consider music activity in itself a legitimate development goal, or does our context make it necessary to wrap motives into functionalistic arguments in order to be taken seriously and be found worthy of funding?

I hope this can give food for thought both in the coming discussions at this seminar and in all the fruitful work you are doing in the field of music.

Music is a development agent, yes, but much more than that:

Music is development!