Anna Rita Addessi

Proceedings of ECME [Early Childhood Music Education] Commission13th International Seminar of ISME [International Society for Music
Education] Music in the early years: Research, Theory and Practice: 14-19 July 2008,Centro Giovanni XIII, Frascati, Rome, Italy
Young children’s musical experience during the
daily routines
Addessi Anna Rita
Faculty of Education
University of Bologna, Italy
[email protected]
communication, expressiveness. To analyze the musical
characteristics of vocal games (Panzetti, 2008).
ABSTRACT
This paper deals with a research project currently being
undertaken about the observation of young children’s
musical behaviours during the daily routine: changing the
diaper, before sleeping, the lunch, free game.
Lunch in the nursery and in family : Video recorded of
the collective lunch in the nursery, and at home over five
consecutive days. Age of the children: 12-24 months.
Aims: to observe the conducts of sound exploration and
the vocal communication between pairs and between
child/mother (Quartieri 2007, Cammisa 2008).
INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with an action research project currently
being undertaken at the Faculty of Education of the
University of Bologna about the observation of musical
conducts during the daily routines with children under
four years. In psycho-sociological studies strong value is
attributed to the moments of daily routine: they represent
fundamental steps in the life of the child and allow the
children to establish stable relationships with adults and
peers: they learn to building episodes and rhythms, to
perceive, recognize, elaborate and fix the sequences of the
actions (Emiliani, 2004). In the musical field, recent
studies dealing with the ethological observation in
naturalistic contexts, have studied the musical
development of the child in the familiar contexts or in
communities (Young 2006, Tafuri, 2007). Trevarthen
(2000), Stern (2004) and Imberty (2005) have provided
evidence of the fundamental role of the repetition in the
child’s development: the experience of the repetition
represents not only the first experience of organization of
the time but rather the first experience of structured
sound, shape, rhythm and intensity of the movement.
Anzieu (1997) called this kind of experience the “musical
wrapping” of the Self.
The aims of this study is to study the musical behavior of
the children in the daily routine: changing the diaper,
before sleeping, the lunch, free play.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data collected were analyzed on the base of the
following criteria:
•
repetition/variation
•
turn-turning
•
passage from the “material object” to the
“sonorous object” (Delalande 1993)
•
Exploration
of
the
voice
communication, expressiveness)
•
Prosodic elements
•
Sense-motors (rhythm and tuning)
•
Elements of proto-narrativity (proto-speech,
proto-“laugh”)
•
Interaction and musical bubbling
METHOD
•
Intensity, duration, articulation, shape
Four protocols have been realised so far, based on the
observation methodology, as follows:
•
Interactions with the adult
•
Interactions between peers
•
Role of the observer
•
•
Free play at home: Video recorded of a young girl during
her moments of free game in the drawing-room, 3 times
for week. Duration 1 month. Age of the child: 22 months.
Aims: to analyze the elements of proto-narrativity of the
musical language of the child. (Finotti 2008).
Changing the diaper: Video recorded of the moments
of changing the diaper in family, with mother and
father. Age of the child, 8 months. Duration 2 weeks.
Aims: to analyze the vocal interaction infant/mother,
infant/father (Gastaldelli, 2008).
The data collected so far document a variety of
observable musical behaviors of children, also when they
are engaged in other activities. The data show as musical
dimension is part of the daily life of the children, marking
the time, giving a rhythm to their experiences and the
Before sleeping: Video recorded of the moment before the
sleeping in the nursery. Duration 1 week. Aims: to
analyze the use of the voice by every child: vocal game,
L. Suthers (Ed).
(game,
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Proceedings of ECME [Early Childhood Music Education] Commission13th International Seminar of ISME [International Society for Music
Education] Music in the early years: Research, Theory and Practice: 14-19 July 2008,Centro Giovanni XIII, Frascati, Rome, Italy
temporal organization. The musical experience also marks
the
REFERENCES
Addessi, A. R. (Ed.)(2008). Educazione al sonoro nella
prima infanzia. Infanzia Special Issue, 2.
Anzieu D. (1997). Gli involucri psichici. Masson.
Cammisa, M. (2008). Dialogar mangiando. Interazioni
vocali tra madre e bambina nel momento del pasto,
Thesis at University of Bologna, 2007. In Addessi (Ed.).
Delalande, F. (1993). Le condotte musicali. Clueb:
Bologna.
Emiliani, F. (2004). Il bambino nella vita quotidiana.
Carocci: Roma.
Figure 1. Changing the diaper, microanalysis n. 8:
interaction face-to-face, vocal improvisation father/infant.
Finotti, F. (2008). Il linguaggio sonoro privato del
bambino, Thesis at University of Bologna, 2007. In
Addessi (Ed.).
Gastaldelli, E. (2008). Interazioni vocali tra
genitori/bambino durante il momento del cambio. Thesis
at University of Bologna, 2006. In Addessi (Ed.).
Imberty, M. (2005). La musique creuze le temps.
Harmattan:Paris.
Panzetti, B. (2008). La voce, il primo strumento musicale
del bambino, Thesis at University of Bologna, 2006. In
Addessi (Ed.).
Figure 2. Lunch: vocal games.
Quartieri, M. (2007). Le condotte musicali al nido
durante il momento del pranzo. Thesis at University of
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Stern, D. (2004). The present moment in psychotherapy
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Tafuri, J. (2006). Nascere musicali. EDT, Torino.
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Young, S., (2003) 'Time-space structuring in spontaneous
play on educational percussion instruments among threeand four-year-olds', British Journal of Music Education,
20, (1): 45-59. …………………………………………
Figure 3. Lunch: girl singing.
interactions between the children, the context and the
other persons, adult or children. The data allow to
document the development of the first form of narration
and some vocal "schema" of dialog, ("telephone call", or
the laugh one.
L. Suthers (Ed).
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