A reversible musicological design for analyzing songs written in traditional western notation

Abstract

Song learning is one of the most frequent activities in the field of formal, non formal, academic or popular music. From my work in different Higher Institutes of Teachers Training, I have designed an analytical model, in which musical theory and practice are reversible, during the song teaching-learning process. I have used as a theoretical framework, the seven principles of full learning by David Perkins (2009). My objectives were: (1) Analyze in scores and in musical performances sung from those scores, eight elements of musical morphology: pulse, accent, rhythm, type of compass, type of start, type of finish, movement and musical phrases; and (2) Demonstrate the reversibility between theory and musical practice that the eight morphological aspects analyzed in songs have and its pedagogic utility for the field of the music education. The methodology was a case study of cognition and musical theory of performances, sustained in the musicology as unified discipline and in music as theoretical-practical discipline, according to eight specific musical morphological aspects. I have analyzed eight musical elements from theory and from musical practice in a reversible constructivist posture between theory and musical practice. I have been able to verify the effectiveness of the application of this reversible design between music theory and practice for music education. In addition, I demonstrated the importance of considering musicology as a unified disciplinary field and music as a theoretical-practical discipline, to continue advancing in the field of musical perception and cognition.