The lives of songs : an exploration of how new songs become part of young children's musical cultures

It is increasingly recognised that humans are innately musical, and that the early interactions of infants and mothers are based on what is known as communicative musicality. Young children’s innate musicality is often expressed through singing and their songs play a role in the cultures of most early childhood educational settings. This research explores the lives of six original songs within the cultural context of an early childhood educational setting. Musical and social aspects of culture are explored: both the children’s cultures and the shared cultures of adults and children. The thesis incorporates creative work - tracing the writing of the six songs – and fieldwork – in which these songs are shared with children aged from three to six years. The two aspects combine to present a picture of the life cycle of the songs from their creation to their becoming part of the musical culture of one early childhood community. The research used ethnography, portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) and a participatory approach to researching with children to explore song writing processes and the children’s interactions with me and the songs over a period of eight months. This research adds to current knowledge about song as a form of meaning-making, communication and culture; its findings support the precept that music is more fully understood as social and cultural practice. The significance of the research lies not only in its findings but also in the methods used. Its purpose was to explore the children’s engagement with songs in relation to the context of their social and musical cultures. This was realised through the use of a unique mix of approaches drawn from the disciplines of sociology, music education, early childhood and creative arts research. A combination of techniques from ethnography, narrative and arts-based methodologies led to a detailed and resonant exploration of the lives of children’s songs