MUSIC, EMERGENCE AND PEDAGOGICAL PROCESS
Abstract:
Music presents features typical of complex systems, whether for the multiple aspects it contains or the type of connection
it establishes between systems that are seemingly far apart in terms of context, problematic and local characteristics.
Actually, in music it is detected the necessary persistence and coexistence of contrasting or apparently irreconcilable
elements whose interaction gives rise to what we call “beauty”; this can be more accurately defined, by way of complexity,
as an emergent property of artistic production. In this sense, music can help us to redefine “cognitive paths” in virtue of its
profound ability to represent and make emergent cognitive processes. Perception, representation, abstraction, creativity
and non-linearity are, among the emergent properties of the music-system, those which are most consistent with the
process of learning. A didactics of music based on complexity as methodological point of reference shapes the pedagogical
process as an interaction in which teacher and student are involved in a reciprocal relationship. From the superposition of
their roles in real experience and from the relational aspects, a form of self-defined learning process arises taking on the
character of emergent property of the system..
Key words:Music, emergence, pedagogical process, complexity.
PRÆLUDIUM
“Music, like the soul, is a harmony of contrasts, the unification of many and the consonance of dissonance.”
Philolaus of Croton
ca. Fifth century BCE
INTRODUCTION
Complexity and emergence are often revealed in the perception of a fleeting dissonance, in the sudden awareness of a contradiction.
There is no error or incoherence, only a particular detail that, for an instant, stands out from the marked path.
This is a particular form of implicit learning (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio 2000) that occurs when one is before a work of art: there’s an emotive exchange, a sense of wonder, of astonishment. In essence, it predisposes one to a conscious perception.
This probably happens because art manifests itself through the representation of a unified experience, of a space-time bond between the corporeal self, consciousness and the mind (Solms and Turnbull 2002).
The creation of art necessarily contains, in principle, the persistence and coexistence of contrasting or seemingly irreconcilable elements whose interaction gives rise to what we call “beauty”; this can be more accurately defined, by way of complexity, as an emergent property of artistic production.
The occurrence of processes of emergence is the key property of complex systems. Processes of emergence are based on the fundamental role of the observer able to realize them by using its cognitive models (Baas 1997; Pessa 2002).
Music contains and represents aspects that are typical of complex systems: openness, fuzzy boundaries, non-linear relationships among elements, and behavioral characteristics such as chaotic, adaptive, anticipatory behavior (Flood and Carson, 1988).
From this point of view, it’s possible to understand the nature of the musical phenomenon by way of the link between the various aspects that characterize it, thus overcoming the limits created by an epistemological reading.
These connections can involve vastly different domains, systems that are apparently far apart from one another in terms of context, problematic and local characteristics. The functional link between them can be defined in terms of coherence: the emergent properties of individual systems, or parts of them, are shared. From this standpoint, the observer’s role is enhanced by the property of identifying coherence in the network of connections between systems; one could say that this very characteristic develops as emergence and contributes towards defining a higher level of abstraction in which there is awareness and perception of the unity of the whole. Emergence, in fact, consists in recognizing coherence in processes that were not initially recognized as such by the observer-listener.
The crucial point of this discussion is developed around two basic considerations:
Music contains and involves multiple aspects that, for complexity, can be likened to elements of the development of cognitive processing. “Thinking musically,” means, in fact, having an integrated experience of the perceived world in every moment of the temporal continuum; this is brought about by an alternative source of information that involves both cognitive and affective aspects (Solms and Turnbull, 2002) and represents a unitary image (i.e. trans-disciplinary, in the systemic sense. Recall that in the trans-disciplinary approach, distinguished from the inter-disciplinary one, when considering systemic properties are considered per se rather than in reference to disciplinary contexts) of the contents, meanings and forms.
Music can help us redefine the pedagogical approach since it induces processes activating a form of self-defined learning, that, due to the cognitive style, modality of approach and attractors of interest, are consistent with the learner’s personality (Ferreiro and Teberosky, 1979).
Learning assumes the aspect of an emergent property of a system that takes complexity as its methodological reference.
In this article I’ll seek to highlight certain features of a pedagogical process through which the music hour and piano lesson may be considered as integrated in the global process of learning. The first part takes a close look at the systemic aspects linked to musical action and thinking and introduces, in an historical-critical context, some of the aesthetic and structural aspects of music that best highlight the themes of complexity; the second part examines its links with cognitive processes of learning.
The point of view presented here is that of a musician —performer and interpreter of early music— and teacher who places her own reflections and experience in the systemic context and sees them enhanced by the added value of awareness.
The references to cognitive processes are not of a scientific nature, but are used to recall certain aspects of the developmental path within the didactic experience.
Emanuela Pietrocini
