Back to the Future of Composition Pedagogy in Finnish Music Education

In this chapter, I have introduced the role of musical composition in today’s Finnish educational system. I have demonstrated how the earlier tendency of including composition as an add-on to (what have been perceived as) more essential activities—especially singing and playing instruments—i s now being replaced by a new way of viewing composition as an autonomous and fundamental part of music education. I have also discussed the opportunities and challenges this centrality of composition presents to music educators and classroom teachers and, ultimately, to music teacher education, which is now called upon to take a more active role in equipping current and future teachers with the skills and knowledge needed to foster experimental attitudes and musical creativity in schools. While envisioning an increasingly strong emphasis on creative music-making practices in the future of Finnish music education, it is also helpful to understand the path that has led to this point in history.

Returning to the Earlier Vision of Composing.Although composition and other creative activities have a central role in the current curricular documents in Finland, the aim of guiding students in musical expression is by no means completely unprecedented. As shown by Muukkonen (2010) and Suomi (2019), among others, the goals and contents of music instruction in Finnish schools have aligned themselves with international movements and methods (such as Orff or Dalcroze) as well as educational research.

An early milestone in the journey of Finnish music education was the establishment of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) in the 1950s, which allowed a small and geographically remote country to access the wealth of modern music educational thinking and global ideas that were quickly adopted in Finnish music education (Louhivuori, 2005). Kankkunen (2010) discusses the impact of wider international trends in Finnish music education and points out the rise of the increasing awareness “of the concept of sound as material for musical expression” (p. 120) in the late 1960s.

Inspired by the contemporary music of the time as well as the sonic aesthetics practices in British schools in particular, the Finnish music educator Liisa Tenkku put forward a proposition for the inclusion of sonic environment education in the very first Finnish comprehensive school music curriculum in 1970 (Kankkunen, 2009; 2010). It is no coincidence that the increasing interest of music educators in sound and the sonic environment took place in the mid-20th century. The wealth of new and unorthodox musical styles, experimental techniques, and electronic music inspired Tenkku and others to introduce avant- garde aesthetics also to children—and what better way to do it than by giving them a chance to experiment and play with sound materials.

By the 1970s the understanding of the significance of offering students opportunities to create and express their own musical ideas in school—opportunities for “musical invention” (musiikillinen keksinta) as the activity was referred to for decades—was already established, albeit the term “composing” did not occur among the key content areas of music instruction in the national core curriculum until 2014. One can only speculate the reasons for this slow arrival. Perhaps the term was attached to too much historical significance, including the great legacy of Jean Sibelius, Finland’s best-known composer whose music also played an important role in the struggle for Finnish independence.

Or, maybe the term composing had for too long been narrowly defined as an undertaking requiring extensive professional skill and thus making it somehow inappropriate to be used in the school context. Regardless of the reasons, the ethos of composing can be seen in music curricula throughout the years, although its role has not been particularly central until very recently. Following the early excitement of musical inventions, the fate of classroom composition was to remain in the margins while other activities, particularly singing and playing music made by professional composers, were considered more essential.

One could argue that the first decades of the new millenium have marked a return to the late 1960s ideas of Tenkku and others, at least in terms of the emphasis on musical inventions and creative interactions with the sonic environment and musical artefacts. Since then, there have been two significant developments, namely in music teacher education and in understandings related to the meanings of musical composition. To conclude, I will briefly discuss these two areas in regards to composition pedagogy in Finland.