A comparative study of the musical characteristics of children as observed in the spontaneous chant of Native American and Anglo American children.

Abstract

During the past fifty years, researchers and scholars have studied the musical development of young children, identifying not only the musical characteristics of young children, but also the developmental stages of their musical growth. These studies have specifically defined what children can and cannot do at various ages of musical development. Methodologies and approaches to music teaching and learning based on this body of research have emerged and have permeated preschool and elementary school music curricula throughout the United States.

The Comparative Study of the Musical Characteristics as Observed in the Spontaneous Chant of Native American and Anglo American Children was designed to create a concise and definitive research environment that would provide optimum reliability and validity of the responses observed in the spontaneous chant of Native American and Anglo American children. Ten Native American subjects and 11 Anglo American subjects were randomly identified. Recordings were made of the spontaneous chants of 21 Native American and Anglo American children. The recordings were transcribed into musical notation and were reviewed by two independent judges for accuracy. A comparative analysis matrix instrument was used for comparing the spontaneous chant of Native American and Anglo American children. Metric frequencies, intervallic frequencies, pitch centers, intervallic directionality, and the frequency of rhythmic patterns were analyzed and compared using this matrix instrument. The analysis supports the hypothesis that significant differences can be identified in the spontaneous chant of children in the two distinct cultures.

The differences in the musical responses identified in the spontaneous chant of Native American and Anglo American children have clear implications for the development of music teaching materials, approaches, and environments.

This study concludes that there are significant differences in the musical characteristics and the musical responses of children in the two groups arbitrarily selected by the primary investigator. In the 17 recorded examples of the spontaneous chant of Native American children, the chants were most dominantly multimetric, the most frequently sung interval was the major second, and the most frequently sung pitch center was c#/db. The most frequently sung intervals were descending, and the most frequently sung rhythmic pattern was the double eighth-note pattern. In comparison, the recorded examples of the spontaneous chant of Anglo American children, duple meter was dominant; the most frequently sung interval was the minor third; and the most frequently sung pitch centers were b, bb, f#, e, and d. The most frequently sung intervals were descending; and the most frequently sung rhythmic pattern was the double eighth-note pattern. Significant differences were identified in meters, intervals, and pitch centers between the Native American and Anglo American cultures. The directionality of intervals and the frequency of rhythmic patterns were similar. However, some differences were identified in the lesser-sung rhythmic patterns.