Varde ljud! : Om skapande i skolans musikundervisning efter 1945

The study deals with creative music making in the compulsory comprehensive school’s music instruction. This is an educational effort and is carried out within the framework for the research area Educational work. The objective is, in investigations, steering documents, and teaching material, from 1945 and onwards, as well as through observations of classroom practice today, to describe the discourse about creative music making in music in the Swedish compulsory comprehensive school, and discuss its importance for the field of music and music instruction. The problem area encompasses questions about how generation of knowledge and practice is regulated in the instruction. The empirical material in form of transcriptions from interviews with teachers and students, as well as field notes and recordings from classroom observations together with general texts compose the inter-textual chains that form the discourse about creative music making. The study has a historical beginning inspired by Michel Foucaults’ discourse concept. The regulating and normalizing procedures are used as analytical tools that create the discourse. The study puts in focus the recommended practices in the cited texts. The qualitative differences and similarities, continuities and discontinuities are sought, as well as the definitions and categorizing that is done in the texts. Information which is repeated in several sources, and deviates or breaks with frequently occurring content in the texts is noted. “Creative music making” has been categorized in relation to the individual, socially and in musical contexts. Analysis has been carried out as change over time related to the subject of music and from creative music making’s suggested goals and functions. Access to current school practice has been made through observations and interviews with teachers and students during lessons that contain creative music making activities as well as analyses of these in relation to the texts. In the analysis work, keywords are sought that provide a foundation for categorizing the material. With the establishment of the discourse a descriptive analysis about the remarks that have been registered is made. The classroom studies were carried out at 4 different schools where the four teachers who have been followed were interviewed. Shorter interviews were made with some of their colleagues and with those students, whose work has been followed. The result shows that the power which is exercised in the discourse affects both planning and organization of music instruction, like choice of content and work forms. In the discourse the categories freedom as recreation, creating music making as a we can and you can, the classroom as a musical practice room for the individual and social cultivation, contemporary culture orienting and to play is to create are constructed. The discourse about creating in music instruction functions as a tool for the changes in school that prepares the compulsory comprehensive school’s actualization. The reform and learning by doing ideas together with ideas about aesthetics and social cultivation of the individual towards democracy, and an active participation in society and cultural life is a part of the discourse. Today, this makes up the structural elements in the description of creative music making. The musical style and genre appears to be important as musical frames in the creative music making activities but also for the working methods and contents. In the discussion, the discourse on creative music making is linked to the larger space that ensemble music making has received in music instruction. Creative music making’s culture-oriented functions are linked to music as important phenomenon for the individual and society. Keywords: creative music making, discourse, music instruction, educational work, school, history of education, creativity, aesthetics, popular music, yout