This polyphonic audio paper addresses the relation between master and apprentice in the music conservatoire, and gives voice to the central human and non-human agents in this context. We aim to explore the power structures that constitute a structural framework for these relations, with regard to the agency with which students shape their individual interpretations, and therefore also to the role of imitation in instrumental music teaching. Master classes have arguably been seen as the pinnacle of the master–apprentice tradition, and have had a central role within higher education in Western classical music. It has regularly been claimed that such classes are effective for student development (see Hanken, 2008; 2011; Hanken and Long, 2012; Hanken, 2015; 2016; 2017) although, until recently, research on master classes has been quite sparse (see Hanken, 2008; 2011).

Results from a qualitative study of teaching and learning of musical interpretation in a master class setting—first articulated in the form of an ethnodrama (Holmgren, 2018; 2020; Nguyễn and Östersjö, 2020; Saldaña, 1998; 2003; 2005; 2011; Salvatore, 2018), written by Holmgren—constitutes the point of departure for the audio paper. Our staging of Holmgren’s ethnodrama as a Hörspiel constitutes an artistic research process, through dramatical and musical composition (Olofsson, 2018). The research process originated in sound, as well as in questions related to musical performance; ultimately, through the many layers of analysis and artistic production, the final outcomes are again manifest in sound. Originating in music education research, the study seeks a better understanding of how the dynamics between teacher, student and music institution can be better utilised in curriculum development. Hence, the audio paper, and the Hörspiel that it contains, constitutes a central result of the study (see further Holmgren, 2020) in artistic form as a sonic and multivocal artefact. We ultimately propose that the future for instrumental teaching in the conservatoire lies in the creation of situations that allow for sharing experiences of performative knowledge. Hereby, teacher and student can work together towards the goal of fostering an individual musician’s voice (Gorton and Östersjö, 2019), highlighting the importance of personal autonomy, situatedness, and an analytical awareness of institutional and societal power structures. Hence, the study points to perspectives that may contribute to curriculum development in higher music education, specifically with regard to instrumental music teaching.

This article explores three aspects of interpretation—musical interpretation of notated Western art music, hermeneutics (theoretical framework), and poetry (tool for analysis and representation)—based on ongoing music education research focusing on the learning of musical interpretation within the one-to-one context of higher music education. The broad philosophic poetic inquiry of interpretation has the form of an autoethnodrama containing both haiku and found poetry. Poetry is both used as a process of inquiry and as a means of representation. The autoethnodrama explores the author’s struggle with finding his cogito for conducting arts-based research and touches upon his personal history. Through the combination of autoethnodrama and a philosophic poetic inquiry, he finds a deeper understanding of musical interpretation, usage of poetry and autoethnodrama in research, as well as of his personhood. Concluding reflections on one possible way of interpreting the autoethnodrama in relation to teaching and learning of musical interpretation within higher music education are also presented.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of musical interpretation in teaching and learning Western classical music from both a teacher’s and student’s perspective within the context of piano main instrument teaching in higher music education in Sweden. The following research questions were formulated to fulfil this aim: first, how do teachers and students understand musical interpretation as educational content?; second, how do teachers and students understand teaching and learning of musical interpretation?; third and finally, how could verbal and musical dialogues be used for improving teaching and learning of musical interpretation?

The thesis employs an overarching hermeneutical framework and consists of three movements. Multiple forms of empirical material were created and collected to understand the complex phenomenon: semi-structured interviews (with and without stimulus) with teachers, students, and master class teacher; video and audio recordings of master class lessons and workshops; annotated scores; audio-recorded student performances and written instructions, written responses, and reflective one-minute papers. The empirical material was hermeneutically analysed and presented using poetical condensations, haiku formed poems, (auto)ethnodrama, and collaboratively negotiated student narratives.

The results outline that musical interpretation is neither verbalised nor negotiated. Furthermore, the students are held responsible for developing or already having the skills and capacities required for autonomy and a personal, authentic artistic voice, described as the desired learning outcome. That the students find their education backwards-looking and not preparing for a professional career in music could at least partly be due to the instrumental lessons being mainly devoted to demonstration and imitation without argumentative support. Moreover, as the teachers’ capacity to verbalise and engage in dialogical practices seems to be situationally bound and requiring questions, the possibilities to, on an organisational level, empower students to initiate and enter such dialogues should be further studied.

The created dialogical pedagogical situations, opening for musical and verbal collaboration, helped establish a shared understanding of musical interpretation and highlighted the difference between students’ intentions and performances. These situations offered collaborative explorations of what musical interpretation is, might be, and could be. I suggest that musical interpretation, including its philosophical and ethical aspects, is lifted as a general subject at a programme level, thus securing that it is dealt with adequately, not merely relying on individual teachers. Finally, methodological considerations and suggestions for further research are put forward.

This study aimed to empower piano students and explore their understandings of how teaching and learning of musical interpretation of Western classical music could be developed to foster autonomy and a personal, authentic artistic voice. Two research questions were formulated: How have students experienced teaching and learning of musical interpretation? How do students envision a meaningful organisation of such teaching and learning? The empirical material, created during a participatory action research project with 4 piano students within an artistic bachelor program, was hermeneutically analysed, and narratives were created and twice negotiated with the students. Their education was described as backwards-looking and not preparing for autonomous learning and musicianship. In contrast, a meaningful organisation was envisioned as collaborative, dialogical, characterised by openness, humility, honesty, and mutual understanding where musical interpretation is viewed as a complex, ongoing, open-ended process, allowing for multiple, incompatible views, breaking from the master–apprentice model and the current restrictive ideology.

Composers (and compositions) within western art music need an intermediary performer (the interpreter) in order to make the work audibly accessible for the listener. Musical interpretation is becoming a rather well researched phenomenon from the performing artist's perspective, but little attention has been given to how such general interpretative skills are developed and communicated within higher music education.The aim of this study is to describe the learning of general interpretative skills from a teacher's and student's perspective within the one-to-one context of higher music education. The following research questions were formulated to fulfill this aim:1. How do teachers and students describe and define musical interpretation and the development of general interpretative skills? (Qualitative interviews with students and teachers.)2. How do teachers and students see and describe their interaction while developing the students’ general interpretative skills during lessons?(Video documentation and stimulated recall with students and teachers.)3. What do these descriptions, definitions, and the interaction between teacher and student imply with regards to pedagogical, aesthetical, and philosophical values within higher music education?The expected outcome is a description of students’ learning of general interpretative skills within higher music education, which hopefully will be beneficial in the development of one-to-one tuition.

Composers (and compositions) within western art music need an intermediary- performer (the interpreter) in order to make the work audibly accessible for the listener. Musical interpretation is starting to become a rather well researched phenomenon from the performing artist’s perspective, but little attention has been given to how such skills are developed and communicated within higher music education.The aim of this study is to describe the learning of interpretation from a teacher and student perspective within the one-to-one context of higher music education. The following research questions were formulated to fulfill this aim:1. How do teachers and students describe and define musical interpretation? (Qualitative interviews with students and teachers.)2. How do teachers and students see and describe their interaction while developing the students’ musical interpretation during lessons? (Video documentation and stimulated recall with students and teachers.)3. What do these descriptions, definitions and the interaction between teacher and student imply with regards to pedagogical, esthetical and philosophical values of higher musical educations?The expected outcome is a description of students’ learning of interpretation within higher music education, which hopefully will be beneficial in the development of one-to-one teaching.

Musik har alltid varit en utövande konstform. Först under 1800-talet formerades standardförloppet inom västerländsk konstmusik till att interpreten framför en interpretation – ett konstverk i sig baserat på och relaterat till musikverket; interpretationen kan analyseras och värderas, och interpreten är en konstnär. Inom konstnärlig forskning undersöks de kreativa aspekterna av musikalisk interpretation från ett utövarperspektiv, men från musikpedagogiskt håll har hittills föga uppmärksamhet ägnats åt hur dylika färdigheter beskrivs, utvecklas och kommuniceras. Musikpedagogiska studier visar att interpretation och musikens expressiva aspekter sällan behandlas på kulturskolenivå, och att det även på högskolenivå – i synnerhet för instrumentalister inom västerländsk konstmusikalisk tradition – fokuseras mer på teknik än på interpretation. I enskild instrumentalundervisning på högskolenivå läggs betydande vikt vid studenternas spel, och härmning – vilket studenterna ofta är bra på – är vanligt förekommande. Studier visar en diskrepans mellan praktiskt spel och förmåga till självständig interpretation, vilket antyder att färdigheterna inte har internaliserats. Syftet med studien – den första delstudien inom mit tavhandlingsarbete – är att öka förståelsen för lärande av interpretation av västerländsk konstmusik inom ramen för enskild huvudinstrumentundervisning på högskolenivå i Sverige. För att besvara syftet formulerades följande forskningsfrågor: 1. Hur beskriver studerande respektive lärare musikaliskinterpretation? 2. Hur beskriver studerande respektive lärare förutsättningar förlärande av musikalisk interpretation? Vårterminen 2016 genomfördes kvalitativa halvstrukturerade intervjuer med 10 personer med piano som huvudinstrument (4 lärare, 6 studerande) fördelade mellan 3 institutioner för högre musikutbildning i Sverige. Analysen har hermeneutisk ansats med utgångspunkt i Gadamersoch Ricoeurs filosofi. Jag kommer att presentera en preliminär schematisk modell för förutsättningar för utveckling av interpretation där bland annat följande faktorer är betydelsefulla: definition av interpretation, uppfattad tolkningsfrihet och självförtroende som interpret; förekomst av och förhållningssätt till musiklyssning; relationen mellan teknik och interpretation; utveckling av ett utforskande förhållningssätt.

Earlier research indicates that the conservatoire tradition still influences higher music education. In the context of Western classical music, it has been criticised for unreflected use of the master–apprentice model, e.g., emphasising imitative aspects of one-to-one tuition, favouring technical over interpretive aspects of musicianship, and lack of systematic development of students’ autonomy.

Research on group learning of Western classical music within higher music education has highlighted that although students say that group lessons are valuable, they often do not realise the inherent learning potential. Also, students need instructions for how to prepare (and actually prepare) to be able to contribute actively during lessons.

Studies of text seminars have shown that student activity, quality of response, ownership of learning, and participation on equal terms can increase through using response models. Although growing attention is given to collaborative learning within higher music education, there is a need to better understand how learning of musical interpretation could be developed using such models.

This paper aims to study how response guided workshops can be arranged to improve piano students’ learning of musical interpretation of Western classical music. During autumn 2019, five workshops were conducted with a group of four piano students from the bachelor programme at one institution within higher music education in Sweden. In the response model used, students, one week before the workshop, scanned their scores, audio recorded their performances, described where they were in their interpretational process, and included questions directing the desired response. All participants shared their written response, and students beforehand selected topics to focus on during the workshop.

The produced empirical material consists of:

• scanned scores, audio recorded performances, and written instructions;
• participants’ written responses;
• transcriptions of four workshops;
• reflective one-minute papers written at the end of each workshop; and
• the researcher’s field notes and reflections.

The preliminary findings indicate the importance of communicative aspects and how a response model is implemented as challenging and changing established educational traditions are complicated. The students showed a limited capacity for verbalising their thoughts about musical interpretation, selecting topics to focus on during workshops, and tended to focus on details. During the study, the students’ understanding of musical interpretation seemed to increase, and they stated that such workshops should be included in the curriculum. Consequently, further developing such workshops may contribute to increasing student autonomy and responsibility, equal participation, and multivoicedness.

Music has always been a performing art. However, it was first during the 19th century that the standard procedure within Western art music was formalised to the interpreter performing an interpretation—an artwork in its own, based on and related to the notated musical work. As such the interpretation can be analysed and valued, and the interpreter is thereby an artist.

Musical interpretation is starting to become a rather well-researched phenomenon from the performing artist’s perspective, but hitherto little attention has been given to how musical interpretation is described, developed, and communicated within higher music education.

Research shows that interpretation and the expressive aspects of music tend to be stepmotherly treated at the lower levels of education, e.g., in municipal music schools. Even in one-to-one teaching within higher education in Western art music, less attention is usually given to interpretation compared to technique, and the students’ practical playing is often emphasised. The discrepancy, found by teachers during lessons, between students’ practical playing and capacity for independent interpretation has been analysed as indicating that the students had not internalised the necessary skills.

The aim of this compilation thesis—consisting of four articles and the ‘kappa’—is to describe teaching and learning of musical interpretation from both a teacher and student perspective within higher music education in Western art music. Contexts studied were delimited to one-to-one, master class, and prepared student-centred musical interpretational response seminar (henceforth abbreviated to PSCMIRS) teaching in Sweden. The following research questions were formulated to fulfil the aim:

1. How do teachers and students describe and define musical interpretation? (Part study 1: qualitative semi-structured interviews [6 students and 4 teachers]; autoethnography. Part study 2: see below.)

2. How do teachers and students see and describe their interaction while developing the student’s musical interpretation during lessons? (Part study 2: video documentation and stimulated recall [2 students, 1 master class teacher, and the students’ regular teacher (1)]; follow-up interviews [2 students and their regular teacher (1)]; field notes; scores annotated by the master class teacher. Part study 3 [planned participatory action research on PSCMIRS teaching].)

3. What do these descriptions, definitions, and the interaction between teachers and students imply with regards to pedagogical, aesthetical, and philosophical values of higher music education?

The theoretical framework consists of selections from the hermeneutical philosophy of Gadamer and Ricoeur including the concepts of pre-understanding, the interpreter’s horizon, and the fusion of horizons. Currently, poetry is used both as one of the methods for analysis and forms of (re)presentation. In addition, Jungian archetypes might be used as an analytical lens to further the understanding of the relationship(s) between student, teacher, musical work, and composer.

Results—as presented in article 1 (in press) and 2 (in review)—indicate that both the student’s and the teacher’s definition of musical interpretation are of importance. They defined it as the process that results in a musical interpretation (mainly viewed as a practical performance) that should be positioned in the continuum between a non-interpretation and an over-interpretation. Conditions for learning of musical interpretation within the one-to-one context seemed to centre on the student’s achievement of a high level of autonomy. Three aspects appeared to affect this condition: (1) the student’s and the teacher’s view of what musical interpretation (as an activity) is, (2) experienced respectively acknowledged freedom of interpretation, and (3) (expectations on) the student’s explorative approach. Overall, honest and real dialogues where both the student and the teacher are open and feel secure enough to put something at risk seem to be a prerequisite for learning to take place.

The expected outcome for the finished thesis is a multi-dimensional description and deepened understanding of the teaching, learning, and communication of musical interpretation within higher music education in Western art music, which hopefully will be beneficial in the future development of one-to-one, master class, and different forms of group teaching.

At the conference, preliminary results including the interaction between teacher and student while developing the student’s musical interpretation during master class lessons (part study 2) and the research design of the planned participatory action research on PSCMIRS teaching (part study 3) will be presented.

Research has indicated that one-to-one teaching in higher music education in Western classical music typically favours technical over interpretive aspects of musicianship, and imitation of the teacher's rather than the student's explorative interpretation. The aim of the present study is to investigate students' and teachers' understandings of how musical interpretation of Western classical music is learned in this context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with six piano students and four teachers in Sweden were conducted and hermeneutically analysed using haiku poems and poetical condensations. The analysis found that the conditions for learning musical interpretation centred upon students achieving a high level of autonomy, as affected by three key aspects of teaching and learning: (1) the student’s and the teacher's understandings of what musical interpretation is, (2) the student's experience of freedom of interpretation as acknowledged by the teacher, and (3) (expectations of) the student's explorative approach. As none of these aspects were reported as being explicitly addressed during lessons, there might be a need for both teachers and students to verbalise them more clearly to support piano students' development.

Master classes, arguably the pinnacle of the master–apprentice tradition, have been common within higher education of Western classical music. Although claimed to be effective, teaching and learning of musical interpretation in this setting are not well-researched. One seven day long piano master class in the form of a self-contained university course was critically analysed from a hermeneutic perspective and philosophically discussed using three components from the ancient dialogue Philopseudes concerning the learning of magic as well as my experiences of apprenticeship. The empirical material consisted of observations of and field notes from 18 master class lessons; six video-stimulated interviews with two students, master class teacher, and the students’ regular teacher; qualitative semi-structured follow-up interviews with two students and the students’ regular teacher; and scanned versions of the students’ scores. The analysis indicated that the students’ learning of musical interpretation is hindered owing to the master’s beliefs and actions; the lessons centre on the master’s privileged access to secret knowledge mediated in writing; and, the metaphors of gods, ghosts, and Weiheküsse, can be used to understand the master’s storytelling and teaching. I suggest re-negotiating the master class and the required competencies of teachers for such classes within higher music education.