An Enduring Need for Voices and Choices

Composition is an important creative musical activity among others, such as improvisation and arrangement. These activities can afford children a voice in learning music and opportunities to make choices so that music can become a reflection of their growing selves. Creative musicianship is a broad category however, comprising many activities (Oseka, 2016). As Pamela Burnard (2012) pointed out, in addition to composing, arranging, improvising, and performing activities, musical creativity might also comprise other activities like “sampling, resampling, mixing, mashing and songwriting” (p. 6). Creativity of all types can hold cultural values and provide significant learning opportunities (Robinson, 2001).

What is composition? It is both a process and an outcome (Kaschub & Smith, 2009) that can strengthen children’s musical skills and interests, for instance by nurturing engaged listening and aesthetic decision-making (Barrett, 2000-2001). Composition is distinct from other kinds of music learning (Hogenes et al., 2014) and can allow musical elements to be understood and applied in a meaningful context. Researchers have also associated composition with extramusical benefits. For instance, Cynthia Colwell et al., (2005) stated that the experience of composing could improve one’s self-concept. Michele Kaschub and Janice Smith (2013) noted it is a significant form of knowing that “reveals and constructs an understanding of one’s self and others” (p. 7). In fact, composition can further lead to a “feelingful understanding of what it is to be human” (Kaschub & Smith, 2013, p. 7).

Through composition, children can apply and transform musical elements in their own ways. However, the types of activities children engage with informally do not tend to align with those in school settings (Burnard, 2012). Pamela Burnard (2012) and Scott Schuler (2011) have called to reduce prescriptive curricula to increase the relevancy of school music classes. Composition, which can build autonomy and ownership in children (Burnard, 2012), can certainly be one means to that end.

In the United States, traditional elementary music classes and music teacher preparation programs have inconsistently integrated composition. Nicholas Cook (1998) stated that teachers may prioritize performing over composing due to the ways they may have been prioritized in their own educational experiences. A lack of composing experience often continues into university studies. Music teacher preparation programs emphasize performance, including lessons, large ensembles, and recitals that favor Western classical art traditions. Pre-service music teachers do not typically have significant experience with composition (Deemer, 2016; Kaschub & Smith, 2013).

Inexperience may extend beyond the classroom into field work and student teaching. As pre-service music teachers enter the field, they may lack confidence to lead composition tasks (Kaschub & Smith, 2013). University experiences that prioritize performance over teaching and creativity can lead to an underdeveloped sense of teaching self (Deemer, 2016), and weak composition and facilitation skills.

Music teachers’ concerns may also include lack of time for creative tasks, often exacerbated by policies that emphasize standardized testing and narrowed curricula (Schuler, 2011). Administrators may emphasize the importance of creativity for children while nevertheless enacting policies that limit it (Burnard, 2012). Time to create and develop skills, however, is necessary for developing composition abilities (Bucura & Weissberg, 2016-2017; Stauffer, 2001). While inclusion of composition has increased, inconsistencies remain among elementary and early childhood music teachers and programs (Mills, 2009).

In recent years, composition has come into increasing focus in the field of music education, including not only music teacher preparation programs, but professional development, graduate coursework, publications, and conferences (Kaschub & Smith, 2013). These have broadened teachers’ interests, practices, and strategies for composition (Burnard, 2012). Additionally, curriular publications have emerged that have been pivotal in shaping composition approaches (Hickey, 2012; Kaschub & Smith, 2009, 2013). In 2011, the National Association for Music Education initiated the Council for Composition (Kaschub & Smith, 2013), and in 2014, Creating became one of four rewritten national standards (Deemer, 2016; NAfME, 2014).