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The Sequence of Musical Development: A Study of

Children's Composition

Keith Swanwick and June Tillman

British Journal of Music Education / Volume 3 / Issue 03 / November 1986, pp 305 - 339
DOI: 10.1017/S0265051700000814, Published online: 18 December 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0265051700000814

How to cite this article:

Keith Swanwick and June Tillman (1986). The Sequence of Musical Development: A Study of
Children's Composition. British Journal of Music Education, 3, pp 305-339 doi:10.1017/
S0265051700000814

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The Sequence of Musical
Development: A Study of
Children's Composition
Keith Swanwick and June Tillman

A musical development sequence is proposed based on the psycho-

logical concepts of mastery, imitation, imaginative play and meta-
cognition, drawing on the work ofMoog, Piaget and the observations
of British writers. An interpretation of over seven hundred children's
compositions is undertaken yielding an eight-mode spiral of develop-
ment that may have consequences for music teaching; for overall
music curriculum planning, for appropriate responses to individuals,
for generating progression in a session or project.

Introduction
Everyday observation tells us that children develop as they grow
older and that this development relies on an interaction between
the genetic inheritance of each individual and the environment -
the physical world, home, school, society. A second 'common-
sense ' observation is that there is an element of predictability
about this process of development. We learn to walk before we
can run, to stand up before we can do either, to imitate before we
utter original statements, to become capable of sexual reproduc-
tion only when adolescence is reached. Of course, each person
imposes his or her own style on these developmental processes,
but that there is development and that there are at least broad
patterns of development are facts beyond dispute. Furthermore,
it seems important, especially for teachers and parents, to have
some understanding, of this, a set of expectations that corre-
sponds to the maturation of children in their care.
Maccoby tells us that we should notice two general meanings
of the term development. The first, which he calls a ' softer'
meaning, is the idea of sequence, that development will occur in
a certain order, 'early behavioural acquisitions are necessary,
though not sufficient, for later steps to occur'. The second
meaning ' goes beyond sequence', and points t o ' broad develop-
mental changes that occur in almost all children according to a
fairly standard timetable' (Maccoby, 1984).
In our study of the musical compositions of children between
the ages of 3 and 15, we are certainly finding that there is a
sequence, an orderly unfolding of musical behaviour, that there

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Sequence of development are stages through which the musical utterances of children can
Keith Swanwick be traced. Because our study took place largely in one school it
and would be unwise to be too dogmatic about identifying broad
June Tillman
developmental changes to a fairly standard timetable, especially
to generalise this to 'almost all children'. However, this possi-
bility is not ruled out and we have found several writers who,
from quite different perspectives, seem to support our findings.
Strangely, with one exception, those researchers directly
concerned with the musical development of children have been
least influential for us. The classic text by Helmut Moog, The
Musical Experience of the Pre-School Child (1976) has, by defini-
tion, little to say about the school-age child but is rich in detail
so far as the very early years are concerned. Much of his
observation is concerned with response to music in the role of
audience, including an element of movement to music, in
reproductive accuracy in singing and in the kind of song
repertoire acquired by children. Less is said about children's
musical utterances, the activity which we are calling ' composi-
tion ', though we shall find Moog helpful.
A fine example of the analysis of children's compositions is to
be found in Loane (1984). Here he examines the compositions
of 11 - to 14-year-olds, undertaking an' assessment' for formative
purposes, in order that the teacher might respond adequately to
the children's music. His work is theoretically based on the ideas
of Langer: music is seen as a 'way of knowing'. This sensitive
and subtle approach to the compositions of children, while
saying little about development in the sense we are using the
term, illustrates very clearly the value of declaring a conceptual
framework. Without such a framework, any account of musical
development in children will be simply descriptive, lacking in
interpretative power and the ability to relate the music of a
particular child to the music of others.
By happy chance, one of us was engaged in developing a
conceptual framework relating activity in the arts to human
play: at the same time, the other was working with children in
primary schools, building up a library of tape-recorded data.
The theory and practice have come together in what we think
is an exciting way, each illuminating and challenging the
other.

The theoretical basis

Our theoretical basis can be found in the paper The Arts in
Education: Dreaming or Wide Awake? (Swanwick, 1983). Part of
the discussion centres on the idea that play, a very important
human activity, is intrinsically bound up with all artistic activity,
the early and obviously playful activities of children being
sublimated into activities such as painting pictures, playing
music and reading novels. A powerful influence in the develop-
ment of this view is Piaget, though not the Piaget of tightly
formulated stages of development but the Piaget concerned with

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 Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman

fundamental human processes, the ways in which we make sense

of and grow into the world.
Piaget notes that play in very early childhood is characterised
by the sheer pleasure of exploring and mastering the environ-
ment, what he calls 'a feeling of virtuosity or power' (Piaget,
1951). We can see how this impulse to mastery evolves into
musical activities. The handling of voices and instruments, the
development of ensemble skills, the use of notations, delight in
the virtuosity of others; these are obvious elements of mastery.
There is surely a continuum from the pleasure experienced by
a baby who has just learned to drop things out of the pram, and
for sheer joy does this over and over again, and the satisfaction
of the sitar player technically exploiting the potential of a
particular raga.
We ought to notice one other thing; control of materials
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Sequence of development presupposes delight in materials. Sounds themselves seem to be
Keith Swanwick intrinsically interesting before and during the process of trying
and to control them. We remember Grieg being excited as a boy of
June Tillman
six by chords of the ninth, simply as a sound phenomenon; or
Kenneth Grahame (the author of The Wind in the Willows)
writing about his boyhood ' strumming' on a piano where some
notes were red and some were green and some told of armies
marching and, up above (it has to be a grand piano) 'the little
white men leap and peep and strive against the imprisoning
wires'; and also Stockhausen, who writes for his performers of
Gold Dust, ' after four days, late at night, without conversation
beforehand play single sounds without thinking which you are
playing. Close your eyes, just listen'.
Another Piagetian concept is called, simply, imitation. Imita-
tion is also easy to identify in early childhood: it happens when
a child submits to the world and attempts to resemble some
aspect of it. S/he may identify with and pretend to be a parent,
a friend, a tiger or a teacher. When we imitate something or
someone, we give up some part of ourselves and take on
characteristics of whatever is imitated. For Piaget, imitation
represents a tendency towards 'accommodation'. We accom-
modate to, change ourselves, pretend to be like; rather than
impose our idiosyncratic view upon the world.
Elements of imitation are more obviously present in the arts
when they are representational; that is to say, when there is
reference to events in life - in stories and drama, in poems and
paintings. Imitation is also obvious enough in programme music
and in opera, but it is also true that even in the most 'abstract'
musical works there are elements of imitation. Every perform-
ance of a Bach fugue has its own particular universe of gestures,
of feeling and emphasis; it has expressive character. Musical
characterisation is a development from the ' let's pretend' imita-
tion that we find in early childhood.
A little later on in infancy, play becomes imaginative and
according to Piaget, 'subjects things to the child's activity,
without rules or limitations'. Anyone who has close relationships
with young children will know about imaginative play. Objects
and people are transformed into other than themselves and
sometimes things are conjured out of the air. At one time, one
of the writers was accompanied on walks not only by his three
children but also by a horse which, though invisible, made great
demands on us all and caused us to open gates rather than climb
stiles. This enigmatic animal was a fairly constant companion
for several months and was a vivid part of the imaginative world
of this particular child. For Piaget, imaginative play tends
towards what he calls 'assimilation' and stands at the opposite
pole from imitation. The imaginative play-world is made by the
child for the child; events and objects are assimilated into this
world and transformed to fit into the unique make-believe
perspective of the individual.
In imaginative play we create a world of transformed relation-
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 Mastery
Sequence of development
Control of sound materials Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman

Play
and the three
elements of music

Imaginative play Imitation

Structural relationships Expressive character
(assimilation) (accommodation)

Fig. 1

ships which we ourselves govern. This is clearly so with the

composer-musician. A new realm is created in a musical com-
position; for example, although the musical vocabulary of
Mozart might often be fairly commonplace, 'of its time', it is
transformed by the creation of new relationships, through the
imaginative power of the composer. Imaginative play has to do
with structural transformations, with personal interpretation,
reconstituting reality.
Figure 1 may help to summarise the relationships between the
concepts of mastery, imitation and imaginative play, and the
analogous musical play elements; control of sound, expressive
character and structure.
As we shall see, this theoretical starting point allows us to
interpret and to order the musical offerings of children in a
developmental way. For it becomes clear from our data that the
musical compositions of children tend to follow a broad sequence
of development through stages of Mastery, Imitation and
Imaginative play, in that order. Moog has observed the beginning
of this process with six-month-old babies, where ' attention is
given first and foremost to the sound itself. He cites other
researchers who support this view, especially Mursell (1948).
'There are strong reasons for believing that a young child's
primary responsiveness to music is first and foremost the tone
itself, and not, as is sometimes asserted without any good
evidence, to rhythm or to melody.' Mursell is prepared to
emphasise this point, stating that 'during the pre-school and
even the kindergarten period, the child is much more preoccupied
with the tonal content and appeal of music than with anything
else about it'.
Moog notes that his own observations of young children lead
him to the conclusion that' during the second year it is still the
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Sequence of development sensory impression of the sound, together with the rhythm,
Keith Swanwick which lie at the heart of musical experience' (p. 86). Moog also
and observes that before the age of one year the songs of children
June Tillman
bear 'no resemblance to what is sung or played to them' (p. 62).
A good deal of what Moog calls musical babbling goes on, and
this is clearly related to the fascination of sound itself and the
pleasure of beginning to control sound. After the age of 1,
children begin to demonstrate the art of reproducing what they
hear, a form of mastery which increases progressively. There is,
then, a clear indication here of a move from interest (delight) in
sound towards control of materials, and this seems to be the
first important shift in the musical development of very young
children.
Although Moog does not develop a unified theoretical frame-
work, he identifies an important change during the second year
concerning movement to music. Somewhere between the ages
of 18 months and 2 years children begin to 'match their
movements to the rhythm of the music'. This is rather fitful and
short-lived, and not every child does this at this age, but it is
surely the first presage of response to expressive character in
music. When a person moves to music what we are seeing is a
physical imitation of the sonorous movement of music and,
although movement to music made spontaneously tends to
diminish in the later years of infancy, its presence at this stage
is a helpful outward manifestation of this relationship.
One further example from the work of Moog will serve to
reinforce the view that our preliminary picture of musical
engagement has some foundation and that there may indeed be
a sequence of development to be observed, if we are patient
enough to look for it. Moog notes (p. 114) that a new category
of singing emerges at around the age of 4. He calls these songs
' imaginative songs', and fortunately the word imaginative here
coincides with our use of it (unlike his use of the word' imitative',
which refers only to the mastery of a song learned by imitation).
Some of these songs tell stories, some of them are totally novel
and some incorporate elements of songs already known but
rearranged in new ways. Here, then, is a hint of the emergence
of imaginative play, the forming of new structural relationships
from scraps of tunes already absorbed during earlier stages,
though Moog would not consider the 4-year-old capable of
'original creation' (p. 21). By the time children come to school
they have visited every corner of our theoretical triangle, with
Mastery most evident but with the first glimmers of Imitation
and Imaginative play and, as we shall see, each mode of
playfulness will be revisited and given more emphasis later on.
Unfortunately, for most children these are not reinforced at
home and in the community and the unfolding of Imitation and
Imaginative play in music lags behind language and other areas
of development.

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 Sequence of development
Collecting and analysing the compositions Keith Swanwick
and
The first empirical task was to try to verify our hunch that June Tillman
musical development occurs in a particular order and that this
sequence can be observed in children of school age. We needed
a pilot study.
The most direct and uncomplicated way of doing this is to
observe the compositional processes of children. We define
'composition' very broadly and include the briefest utterances
as well as more worked out and sustained invention. Composi-
tion takes place when there is freedom to choose the ordering of
music, without notational or other forms of detailed performance
instruction. Others may prefer to use the terms improvisation,
invention or 'creative music'. All of these fall within our
definition of 'composition'. The advantage of this approach is
that we are observing relatively undirected musical processes
rather than the products of polished performances, directly
influenced by teachers and peers.
Musical offerings were collected from children aged 3 to 9
years in a South London primary school. The school was
racially mixed, having children of Asian, West Indian, African,
Northern and Southern European backgrounds. The children
chosen were taken so as to be representative of the mix in the
school, both girls and boys. They included those having
individual or group lessons on an instrument and those who did
not. All the children had class music lessons with a music
specialist (the researcher) that varied in length from 20 minutes
a week for the 3 to 4-year-olds to two half hours a week for
the 5 to 7-year-olds and one half hour a week for the 8 to
9-year-olds. In some classes this music work was followed up
by the class teacher, particularly with the 3 to 4-year-olds. The
lessons all included elements of musical composition and some
of the older children had been involved in quite long, complex
projects, including composing music for stories of some half-
hour's duration, sometimes with dance and drama.
Each child was recorded individually or in a small group
(2 or 3 at the most) and was given a variety of musical
opportunities.
(1) First of all, s/he was given one or a pair of maracas and
asked to make up a pattern. (This instrument was chosen on the
grounds that it is easy to manipulate, demanding the least
technical skill, shaking being a baby's first movement.)
(2) Secondly, s/he was given a tambour and asked to make up
a pattern for it played with the hand. (This was considered the
next most easy instrument to play.)
(3) Thirdly, s/he was offered a choice of instruments with
which s/he would be familiar (tambour, maraca, Indian cymbal,
triangle, claves, castanets, tambourine), including the maracas
and tambour already played, and asked to make up a piece with
it.
(4) The child was offered a choice of instruments with which
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Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman

s/he was not familiar and asked to make up a pattern for it. The
choice offered was gato drum, cabassa, tambour, guiro, bass
drum, tubo and large cymbal. It was hoped to find out the
grounds on which the choice was made but the direct question
produced little response.
(5) The child was offered the chime bars of E, G and A and
one beater and asked to make up a pattern for them. (This gave
a limited number of pitches to control.)
(6) The child was offered a xylophone with a pentatonic scale
and two beaters and asked to make up a piece.
(7) The child was offered a metallophone with the scale of
C major on it and two beaters and asked to make some music.
(This further increased the pitch scope.)
(8) The child was offered a fully chromatic xylophone with
two beaters and asked to make up a piece. (This gave yet more
freedom of pitch.)

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 (9) The child was asked to ' say something' like,' It is sunny Sequence of development
and I am happy', on any of the instruments available. (This Keith Swanwick
and
was designed to see if the introduction of an extra-musical June Tillman
idea (imitative play) produced different results compared with
starting from sound materials.)
(10) The child was asked to sing a song that s/he had made
up. S/he was given the option of having words or humming or
'lahing'. Sometimes, if no response was forthcoming, the
researcher sang a phrase to which the child responded. This
usually consisted oilah, soh and mi. (The child would be familiar
with this activity from class lessons.)
All these were recorded together with the necessary conversa-
tions. Later, procedure was refined so that each child was asked
to repeat each task, to see the extent of his/her musical memory
and note which elements in the composition survived, an
indication of what was important to the child. (In later interviews,
tasks 3 and 4 were combined and task 8 was omitted. A new
possibility was added. Each child was asked to draw on the other
children and the researcher to make up a piece for a group of
instruments. S/he was to decide which instruments they would
play and give any instructions s/he wanted.)
A tape was prepared, giving fairly typical examples of the
work of children aged 3 to 9 years. Three examples were chosen
from their second versions. The edited tape contained these
pieces but in randomised age order. In actual age order, the
following notes give a rough impression of what the judges
heard. (All notations are approximate. Some examples can be
found on the accompanying cassette tape.)

Three-year-old girl:
(a) an attempt at a steady beat on a maraca with some
half-pulse notes;
(b) eleven steady drum beats;
(c) an uneven and irregular exploration on a xylophone using
two sticks going up and down the range of bars.

Four-year-old boy:
(a) a steady beat pattern on a drum involving some half-pulse
notes;
(b) an irregular exploration on the gato drum with two sticks,
sometimes hitting the wooden surround;
(c) an exploration on a xylophone using two sticks involving
some pairs of quavers and with some underlying sense of a beat.

Five-year-old boy:
(a) long irregular beat pattern on maracas which are sometimes
hit together;
Starts
JJJ JJJJJJJ a Exam
P'e

long pattern on small cymbals - developed into a pattern involv-

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Sequence of development ing some shorter and some longer notes - a fairly steady
Keith Swanwick underlying beat which became more erratic towards the end - no
and sense of ending, several attempts at stopping
June Tillman
(c) a long exploration on a xylophone — developed into a
pattern involving short and long sounds with a fairly steady
underlying beat - sometimes two notes were used together and
sometimes the wood of the instrument is hit.

Six-year-old girl:
(a)
Example 2 J J | J J J I on a drum'
Example 3 (b) I J J I on small cymbal;

Example 4 on chime bars.

Seven-year-old girl:

Example 5 (a) J7J] Jl J J73 J\| J>J

on a drum - the syncopation at the end was handled a little
hesitantly;

Example 6 on a

xylophone with some development of melodic ideas;

(c) an eight-bar tune on metallophone involving a good deal
of repetition and accompanied by a beat on small cymbals and
Indian cymbals (difficult if not impossible to notate).

Eight-year-old girl:

Example 7 W J J IJJJ |J J |JJJ |J J |J J J -

^IJ J>
<wwwv\
on a drum; scraped

(b) a development of a melodic pattern involving augmentation

and diminution on three chime bars;
(c) twelve bars on the xylophone not clearly defined because
the beat got faster and appeared unsteady.

Nine-year-old girl:

Example 8 w J J1J J J J J1J J J J | |

on a drum;
(6) an eight-bar tune in four-time in clear-cut phrases involv-

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ing some half-pulse notes and some repetition of ideas on three Sequence of development
chime bars; Keith Swanwick
and
(c) an eight-bar tune in four-time on a diatonic xylophone June Tillman
with some repetition of ideas - clear-cut phrases - some sense of
the potential of the diatonic scale - some syncopation.
Three independent judges were asked to listen to the tape
recording containing the three items from all seven children,
ranging from the age of 3 to 9. The age of each child was not
revealed and the age order was randomised. The judges were
asked to rank the ages of the children from the evidence they
heard on the tape. One of the judges, a teacher but not
experienced musically, found this task almost impossible and
said so but the other two, who were both musicians and
experienced teachers, managed the task without too much
difficulty and gave interesting reasons why they thought that
a particular group of compositions were from an older or a
younger child. These comments were frequently to do with the
level of mastery and the degree of structural organisation.
If we look at the estimated ages given by the two appropriately
experienced judges and compare them with the actual age we
find a strong relationship.

Actual ages 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Judge 1 8 9 7 4 5 6 3

Judge 2 7 8 9 4 5 6 3

Fig. 2. Actual and estimated ages of children. (The statistical probability

of the two judges agreeing so closely with each other and with the actual
age order by mere chance is fairly remote. See Statistical Note 1.)

This is quite helpful. There do appear to be observable

differences between the musical utterances of children that vary
with age, at least when there is a musical environment in the
school. Questions remain: what are these differences and can
they be found in a larger sample? In order to answer it is
necessary to further refine the model so far developed, though
it should be pointed out that the categories about to be described
were not pulled out of 'thin air' or merely derived from the
literature but emerged as further analysis proceeded of several
hundred compositions offered by forty-eight children over
four years.

Towards a model of musical development

As we moved towards completing this analysis, the emergent
picture was strikingly confirmed for us by Malcolm Ross who,
in a speculative book, puts forward his own description of the
process of aesthetic development in the arts (Ross, 1984).
For the purposes of comparison with our own analysis, it will
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Sequence of development serve to pull out some of the key statements made by Ross giving
Keith Swanwick four periods of development in music, especially those categories
and of statement that coincide with his descriptions of the process
June Tillman in Art and Drama (pp. 129-30).
(1) (Years 0-2) Pure sensuous engagement with sound mater-
ials, along with experimentation and beginning to relate music
to feeling or mood characterises, for Ross, the early years.
(2) (Years 3-7) This stage is characterised by musical dood-
ling, especially vocal doodling, and the progressive mastery of
what Ross calls 'sound structures and patterns'. He notes the
beginning of anticipation in music. Interestingly, in Art and
Drama he begins to see perception of expressive gesture de-
veloping, of signs as ' representative' of experience.
In our terms, these two stages seem to correspond with
delight in sound itself leading to control of materials, the play
element of Mastery, moving into Imitation, where expressive
character, gesture, mood and feeling are recognised and
reproduced.
(3) (Years 8-13) This, for Ross, is marked by concern with
the 'conventions of musical production', a desire to 'join the
adult scene'. Programme or 'narrative and descriptive music
makes sense'. There is a desire to become 'conventionally
proficient' and teachers must 'satisfy the demand for greater
conventional competence'. We shall meet this concept again
shortly when we refer to an interesting paper by Robert Bunting
(1977). For the moment it will suffice to notice that the important
element here is that of working within an accepted musical
idiom.
(4) (Years 14 + ) Here music is seen as taking on greater
significance as a form of personal expression, 'embodying,
meaning and vision', significant for an individual or for a
community.
If we are to take Ross's observation, that powers of anticipation
begin to develop during his second stage, as signifying the
beginnings of concern for structural relationships, then the over-
arching sequence of development seems to run through Mastery
and Imitation to Imaginative Play. We would emphasise that
each one of these is swept up into the next developmental thrust
and is repeatedly revisited. For example, if we begin to handle
a new instrument, or work in a new idiom, or explore a new
piece of music, we are sent immediately back to the problems
of mastery. It is important to be clear that we regard these
developments as cumulative and cyclical and, to use the words
of Maccoby, recognise that the ' early behavioural acquisitions
are necessary, though not sufficient, for later steps to occur'.
We have referred to the work of Bunting which appeared as
Working Paper 6 of the Schools Council Project, Music in the
Secondary School Curriculum (1977). This paper has as its focus
the idea of the Vernacular, 'the common language of music',
what Ross calls the 'conventions of musical production'. It
seems a remarkably perceptive view of developmental possi-
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bilities written from the perspective of a teacher in a secondary Sequence of development
school. Keith Swanwick
and
Bunting identifies several modes of musical perception and June Tillman
these descriptions fit well into our own developmental sequence,
as established by analysis of the children's compositions. He
does not always appear to order his modes of musical perception
in a developmental sequence but there are hints of this.

Mastery - sensory response to sound materials -

evolving into manipulative control
Bunting uses three terms here: neurological; acoustical; mech-
anical. The neurological mode he describes as 'the reaction of
the nervous system to sensations of timbre, rhythm, pitch,
quite independently of the analytical mind'. He notes that the
use of very high or low pitches or loud or soft instrumentation
brings the neurological impact of music forward. Related to this,
the acoustical mode has to do with the interaction of sound with
the size and design of buildings in which music is played. We
can be ' affected as much by the degree of resonance as sound is
given, as by its pitch or syntactical meaning'. He gives as
instances the use of open strings and mutes or the use of space
and distance for musical impact. In the compositions of our very
young children, at the age of 3 or 4, we notice an interest in very
soft and loud sounds, a big bang on the bass drum followed by
sheer delight or fear, or a preference for the very soft sounds
of a shaker or Indian cymbal. Both the neurological and the
acoustical mode are evident in the young child's primary concern
with the tone colour of an instrument, experimenting with short
and long sounds, or slow and fast shakes of a shaker, or fingers
and fists on the surfaces of drums.
In the work of these younger children it is often difficult to
sort out exploration of tone colour from problems of mastery.
Below this age, it is clear that the ' sensory impression of the
sound', as Moog puts it, predominates. The programmatic task
at 3 to 4 tended to elicit pieces still primarily concerned with
timbre, as when a tubo (a small shaker) is explored, by a boy aged
3.10 in response to the task of making up a piece about' Spring'.
As children get older, the exploration becomes more deliberate;
as in the case of a girl aged 4.3 for tambour, when, in the course
of a long composition with an uneven beat, she hit the wood
intentionally, and an 'Autumn' piece for a pair of plastic
cymbals, in which interest lay in the cymbals, which were
sometimes clicked together and sometimes rubbed. The' scraper'
provided opportunities, not only for scraping, but also for
tapping, as in this short piece by a girl aged 4.8.

(Vague beat)
Example 9
scraped tapped

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Sequence of development The wooden agogo provided the same girl with the chance of
Keith Swanwick exploring rhythm and timbre together, giving rise to variations
and
June Tillman
Example 10 on:.nnm scraped
J t with a vague pulse.

Both tambour and maracas provided children with chances

for the exploration of timbre. A piece by a boy aged 4.5 shows
the hand being rubbed over the surface, while a boy aged 4.7
uses his hand flat and in a fist. Maracas are sometimes used
together, sometimes separately and are sometimes knocked
together. A composition from a girl aged 4.2 has the two
knocked together, although many other aspects are explored
such as gradual changes in dynamics and a change of speed at
the end. The beginning of phrase structure is shown in the
opening, which is repeated.

Example 11 J J J t J J J i J J J J JJ Jill
Clearly, all these activities belong in the category of Mastery
and move from curiosity and delight into experimental manipu-
lation. There are other features. Bunting notes that' a composer
can make music out of purely mechanical processes (for instance
where hands on a keyboard move in contrary motion he may
accept whatever harmonies result)'. Younger children are fasci-
nated by the alternation of two sticks on pitched instruments
and produce pieces in which pitch organisation is determined by
mechanical alternation often producing trills and tremolos.
Other patterns go up and down a series, as in this pentatonic
piece by a girl aged 5.0.

hit wood

Example 12

mishit

A piece by a boy of 4.5 has exploration of scales and sequences

starting on apparently random pitches, although there is some
influence of the extremes of the instrument in the choice of
starting and finishing notes.
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 1 Sequence of development
f rr i i | r r J J ^ Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman
r
rr r
Example 13
J J j J r-

J •» r r r r r r m
Delight in sound and the urge towards manipulative mastery
through exploration is swept up into succeeding stages of
development and is evident in the musical productions of
children of all ages. At these later stages, though, interest in and
control of sound is combined with a developing concern for
expressive character and structural relationships. The more
developed explorations of older children include the use of
different beaters for different purposes and experimentation
with more systematic ways of organising sound. Older children,
when playing together, usually give some kind of starting and
stopping signal and use a variety of methods of combination,
including the 'layer' device, where players start and finish in
series, building up and then reducing the texture. Younger
children have very little idea as to how their sounds may be
combined with the sounds of others. We noted an exuberant
piece for gato drum and metallophone, in which both players
pursued their own pulse patterns regardless of each other.
There was, however, an instruction to stop!
With older children the visual and physical characteristics of
instruments continue to exert an influence on musical produc-
tions but in more sophisticated and structured ways. The
ubiquitous glissando appears in early musical offerings as an
ending. The glissando is often used as a contrasting device, as
we noted in a piece by a girl aged 11.5.

m
t=2±
glissando wmm Example 14

slow
glissandi
glissando
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Sequence of development A melody by a girl aged 7.8 shows an inversion which appears
Keith Swanwick to be influenced by the visual aspect of the instrument.
and
June Tillman
Example IS
r rr f
An interesting example of the use of mechanical patterns
occurs when more than one is used together. In one example,
by a girl aged 11.7, each hand pursues its own muscular
sequence in alternation with the other.

Example 16
=F W
It is important to stress that the shift from sensory exploration
towards manipulative skills - the phase of mastery essentially
concerned with the materials of music — is an on-going concern
at any stage of development and is reactivated every time we
confront a new musical idea, idiom or work. Readers may
perhaps share the experience of the writers in that, if deprived
of music for some little time, the first and most striking
impression of music when it is rediscovered is of its sensory
surface, the sounds themselves. This is particularly noticeable
at the start of a concert or when we come across music
accidentally.

Imitation - personal expression moving towards the

vernacular
Bunting uses the term illustrative, 'a way of giving music
meaning by association'. He suggests a range of illustrative
devices, from such obvious things as a drum roll signifying
thunder to the more subtle possibility of a drum roll signifying
anger. This is important for us. In our category of Imitation, we
are not referring to a rather crude copying of sounds using
musical instruments. This kind of procedure, the literal making
of ' sound effects', is rarely present in the musical work of our
children of school age; nor is it observed by Moog at younger
ages. Even at its simplest, music is much more abstract than this.
We are more concerned with the tendency of music to be
expressive, without being in any way illustrative, or representa-
tional. Music rarely appears to have a conveniently describable
' subject', yet does seem to contain an expressive charge: we hear
gestures, character and movement in music. Bunting appears to
believe that this level of musical perception, which he calls the
' symbolic mode' appears late, towards the end of schooling, if
at all. In this he may be misled by children's responses going
'underground', blocking out the gaze of the outside observer,
especially in adolescence. We detect expressive quality much
earlier on in the musical behaviour of children. Bunting puts
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it rather well when he says that 'musical rhythms and tensions Sequence of development
seem to mirror the flow of feeling within us in a direct, Keith Swanwick
and
non-verbal and non-illustrative way. Most of us would consider June Tillman
this music's most important quality and it is not a thinking
process but a feeling one' (p. 4).
It is in the songs of children that the first signs of Imitation,
acts of musical expression, begin to appear. It may be that the
personal and ' non-technical' nature of the human voice makes
early expression more likely. The exuberant imitation of feeling
in improvised songs is well caught in a composition by a girl of
4 in response to the idea 'the sun is shining'. (On tape-example
9.)
rhythm vague O
Example 17
q> J J t f
Shiny shine shine shi-ny shine shine

mm
vague pitch v

shine shine shine

r shine shine shine

shine
T
shine shine
j r
shine shine shine

accel.

shine shine shine shine shine shine

shine shine shine

mm
shine shine shine

After a steady beginning with some element of repetition, the

widening intervals and increase in speed give us an almost
first-hand experience of the excitement generated by the idea of
' shine'. Although the idea of' shine' is an external one, it is clear
in this performance that the child is taken over by a sense of
shining. She herself shines: the process of imitation is clear. Two
songs, one by a girl aged 4.5, the other by a boy aged 4.7, clearly
show that they are able to catch and hold expressive character
in their music.

Example 18
Fish are far (?) Fish are there The

-vague tuning N ^.vague tuning.

fish are growing in the wa ter

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Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman The sun
m is out,
S3
the sun is out The

trees are sum-me- The

Example 19

leaves are out the

J. J»J
leaves are com- ing the

leaves are all

J'U round

These songs go well beyond manipulative control. They also

show the emergence of a musical vernacular.
The instrumental pieces are much less developed but we can
detect an expressive intention in a good number of them — a
reflective quality about a chime bar improvisation, despite its
unsteady pulse, an expansive gesture in a maraca pattern which
starts as a steady pulse with no regular metre and then builds
up with a crescendo and accelerando to an explosive climax at
the end (a boy aged 4.5 and a girl aged 4.7). Changes in loudness
and speed frequently play a crucial part in determining expressive
character.
An important shift in the process of Imitation is from the
personal and idiosyncratic towards socially shared Vernacular
conventions. The imitative aspect of expressiveness, the sense
of 'pretending to shine' in musical gestures, may begin as
Personal expression but is soon swept up into a community of
musical commonplaces; shaped phrases and received melodies,
rhythm patterns and repeated formulas. What Bunting calls 'the
common language of music' takes over as the dominant influence,
as learned songs are incorporated into the musical inventions of
children, as metrical patterns, syncopations and phrase-shapes
are acquired within general musical conventions. Moog noticed
this to some extent in the singing of his 4-year-olds but it
becomes much more evident by around the age of 7, when
musical gestures are more stylised, borrowed from tradition,
though perhaps with modifications.

Example 20
j J HT3|J J rm\
The contrast between this kind of thing and' Shine' is striking
yet very frequently observed. What is imitated is not so much
an expressiveness arising directly from the child's state of
feeling but an entry into a world of cliche, where expressive
character appears to be secondhand. This may seem a regressive

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step, but it is certainly an important and necessary one if
children are to share musical procedures. The music is not
without expression but the expressiveness tends to be borrowed,
as when common rhythmic or melodic patterns are repeated,
or when fairly conventional answering phrases appear, un-
ambitious musical gestures.

Example 21

Example 22

It is often difficult to decide what is happening to melodies

that are already known. Is the tune being attempted, though
inaccurately, or is a new tune being invented on a kind of
subconscious model of that already learned, as in the case of this
incomplete transformation of 'A Sailor went to Sea' ?

Example 23

j J j
vague tuning

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Sequence of development Of course, just as we shall still find examples of sensory
Keith Swanwick exploration and manipulative interest, it is also possible,
and throughout this long period of development, to find direct
June Tillman
personal expressiveness. The main thrust of development,
though, is from the Personal to the Vernacular, from individual
expressiveness to that which is socially shared. As Ross puts it,
there is a desire to become 'conventionally proficient'. As we
shall see, this desire returns again in a much stronger form in
the third main surge of development, which is related to Piaget's
concept of imaginative play.
Imaginative play - the speculative merging into the
idiomatic
We take from Bunting the term Speculative. He writes: 'a
composer may seek out new ideas by speculating on accepted
musical conventions. Extreme cases are atonality and indeter-
minacy, but less radical speculations have always been part of our
musical tradition.' Any musical speculation clearly depends on
a grasp of the vernacular, for speculation implies that there is
not only sufficient manipulative ability but also a history of
personal and public expressiveness, there has to be a context of
socially shared musical possibilities in order to create surprises
and deviations from these norms. Around the age of 10, though
usually closer to 11, we notice the emergence of the Speculative
out of the commonplaces of the Vernacular. It is on this ability
to identify new relationships that any grasp of musical form is
predicated.
First attempts at musical speculation sometimes appear to be
a kind of regression to earlier stages of manipulative insecurity.
Some of the earlier fluency seems to be lost in a new phase of
experimentation which is often focused on melodic development.
A typical example comes from an 11-year-old girl:

Example 24

Some basics of the Vernacular — steady pulse and phrase -

seem to erode as a search begins for the exact pitches which help
to generate structural interest.

Example 25

glissando
m
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 Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman
We notice in music by a boy aged l l a similar concern with
melodic development, employing a mixture of metre in the first
instance but on repetition becoming fixed in duple time.

Example 26

Example 27

Another boy of 11 appears to be speculating with melodic

inversion. There is an initial hunting for a note as the inversion
pattern is started and (probably) a mis-hit at the end.

Example 28

A piece by a girl aged 11.6 shows a bold attempt at atonality.

Here again, the rhythmic control seems subordinate to searching
for notes within a new structural framework of pitch relation-
ships.

J J i Example 29

1
J

d 1 1 hn=s \
I Le! 1 J»Qj "
We also find at and after the age of 11 many examples where
speculation is more securely integrated into a style. This permits
more effective surprise. The next example, played on a gato
drum, shows the speculative impulse working in two ways. Each

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Sequence of development repeated section employs at the second hearing a different level
Keith Swanwick of indeterminate pitch of which this particular drum is capable.
and This may seem to be simply a typical device from the vernacular
June Tillman
mode, that of antiphonal repetition, but in this case it is so
well used that we interpret it as speculation with the timbre/pitch
of the gato. On the second level, she has developed a short
rhythmic fragment and added a clear ending 'tag', a kind of
'punch line', which gives variety that would not have been
possible by just repeating the pattern, perfectly controlled within
the framework of the piece. She has grasped the vernacular and
experimented with it successfully to produce music that has
expressive character and an elegant form. (Taped example 17.)

Example 30 |J>|J J J?tJ>|J J J T $ J > | J J

J»|J J t J | j I
The use of the unexpected is often seen at the very beginning
or ending of pieces, as in the next example, a maraca piece by
a girl aged 11.2:

Example 31 j J
tapped together
uJ tapped together

J J |J J | t J J
tapped together

A boy aged 11.9 produced this tambour piece:

nn\nn\nn
Sometimes rhythmic devices of this kind are combined with
melodic exploration, as in this composition for chime bars by a
girl aged 11:

Example 33
I
i»j- u $

m
IM- I J»J «
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 A song by a boy aged 11.9 shows both melodic development Sequence of development
by the procedure of inversion and an ending emphasis by leap, Keith Swanwick
which is in complete contrast to the general stepwise movement and
June Tillman
of the melody:

Example 34

A girl of 11.6 explores octave leaps but deliberately changes

the character of the composition at the end, intentionally
surprising us:

Example 35
j j r r ij J f

These examples are typical of the work of our 11-year-olds.

In so many of their compositions there is an obvious delight in
the formal possibilities of music with their potential for effective
surprise.
The transition from the Imaginative Play element of the
Speculative to the Idiomatic is somewhat similar to the develop-
ment from Personal to Vernacular expression seen in the previous
stage. There seems to be a periodic swing of focus, of psycho-
logical emphasis, between a more idiosyncratic relationship with
music and the desire to conform to accepted norms. In the case
of the Vernacular, the acceptance is of the most common musical
procedures, involving such elements as pulse, metre, sequential
patterns and phrase. With the Idiomatic, the accepted musical
conventions are more strictly denned, often vigorously asserted,
and usually defended with conviction. Frequently, the chosen
idiom comes from the range of rock and pop music, though it
is possible to find other strong commitments to a particular style
or type of music between the ages of 10 and 15 years.
As with the Speculative phase, there is still tremendous
concern for the excitement of sound materials and music's
expressiveness, but the Speculative mode has initiated a new
concern for musical form which is to persist thereafter, and this
can still be seen despite the sometimes less experimental
productions of an Idiomatic kind. Frequently, stylistical

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Sequence of development authenticity is at a premium and, in many circumstances, is
Keith Swanwick linked with dress, social behaviour, complete life-style. In
and some senses children have less freedom than was the case at the
June Tillman
Speculative level, but they do have much more security and the
feeling of belonging to an accepted musical convention. Teachers
of young people at around this age commonly report resistance
to anything but the accepted idiom and, in some cases, it seems
that imaginative Speculative activity goes underground while
repeated cliches dominate the musical landscape. However,
speculation can be kept alive, and often emerges from inside the
adopted convention. It has not been our main concern to collect
compositions from children above the age of 11 or 12, but we
do have some examples from the 14 to 15-year-old age-group.
Among them is a striking calypso for bass xylophone.

Example 36

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 Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick
and
June Tillman

Here we can see that the calypso idiom is well assimilated but
with strong elements of the Speculative in the use of rests and
subtle variations and in the repetitions at the end. There is a
very strong similarity between this and a published song,
though the student believes her piece to be original and has since
arranged it for a performing group. Conscious or unconscious
copying is a frequent feature of the Idiomatic mode where the
stylistic focus is more specific than in earlier vernacular
compositions.
Two more 14-year-olds worked from the expressive idea of a
'Storm'. The piece, though, is not at all programmatic and is
based on a clearly idiomatic motif repeated several times.

Example 37

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Sequence of development Towards the middle of the composition there is a passage
Keith Swanwick based on note clusters, an idea adapted from a contemporary
and piece they had recently heard at a concert. Following this, the
June Tillman
motif on the piano is resumed and fades away until only an
Indian cymbal is left. Once again the element of speculation is
carried forward into the Idiomatic and, in this case, musical
features from two quite different traditions are deliberately
juxtaposed.

Meta-cognition - from symbolic value to

systematic development
We feel able to speculate and project a fourth level of develop-
ment which occurs beyond the age of about 15 years. The
emphasis here would seem to be upon what psychologists call
Meta-cognition. Basically, meta-cognition is to become aware of
one's own thought processes. We are using the term here in a
special sense, meaning self-awareness of the processes of thought
and feeling in response to music. Central to this awareness is the
development of a steady and often intense commitment to what
Bunting calls 'the inner emotional content of music at a personal
level'. A strong sense of value, often publicly declared, permeates
this stage. This coincides with other developments frequently
noted in the mid-teens; religious commitment, political affilia-
tion, intense personal relationships and hero-worship have all
been observed; we may ourselves have experienced them.
People are not only intensely self-aware at this time but also are
frequently articulate and wish to talk with others about their
experiences and emerging value-systems. Bruner, in Towards a
Theory of Instruction (1966), puts it this way; 'intellectual
growth involves an increasing capacity to say to oneself and
others, by means of words or symbols, what one has done or
what one will do. This self-accounting or self-consciousness
permits the transition from merely orderly behaviour to logical
behaviour, so called. It is the process that leads to the eventual
recognition of logical necessity - the so-called analytic mode of
the philosophers - and takes human beings beyond empirical
adaptation' (p. 15).
Although the transition from the Idiomatic mode into this new
level of awareness is gradual and frequently imperceptible,
there is a difference between the kind of commitment we have
described to a particular musical style and the first stage of
meta-cognitive development which we, adapting Bunting, call
the Symbolic. The shift can be seen in the tendency for individuals
to go their own way and be less concerned about any general
consensus. People may begin to find that music of a particular
kind begins to correspond with special personal needs. The
record collections of, say, 17-year-olds are likely to be much
more diverse than the recordings of young people at the age of
13 and before, when musical preferences seem largely determined
by social consensus. It is possible to view this new commitment
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as the first full flowering of aesthetic appreciation, involving all Sequence of development
previous levels of response but adding to them a strong element Keith Swanwick
and
of self-awareness, when young people can be overwhelmed by June Tillman
intensity of feeling and become acutely conscious of the fast-
expounding boundaries of self.
It may be that, for many, such a level of response to music
is never reached and only very few people engage with music at
this level. Whether or not this need be so is another question.
The ultimate development within the Meta-cognitive mode
we call the Systematic. There is plenty of evidence for this in the
writings of musicians, especially composers. Here the strong
sense of value within meta-cognitive processes leads to a
commitment to systematic engagement. New musical universes
are rolled back and this creation, not just of music but of musical
systems, can be observed either in new generative musical
procedures - we may think of Schoenberg and serial technique -
or of talking and writing about music in a way that borders on
the philosophical - and here we might think of Hindemith,
Tippett, Cage, Copland and such personal documents as the
letters of Beethoven. Not only is the value of music strongly felt
and declared; the field of music is expanded by new processes
or perspectives and these are offered to other minds.

The spiral
Thus we can see that the processes of musical development
appear to lead us through four fundamental transformations.

(15+)
Meta-
cognition

(10-15)

Imaginative
play ^Speculative

(4-9)

Imitation.

(0-4)

Mastery

Fig. 3. Musical development.

Towards social sharing

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Sequence of development It may be helpful here to summarise each of the eight
Keith Swanwick developmental modes which appear in the spiral.
and
June Tillman Sensory
Here the child is concerned with the impressiveness of sound,
especially timbre. There is also a fascination with dynamic
levels, especially the extremes of loudness and softness. There
is much experimentation with a variety of sound sources,
conventional instruments being only one source amongst many.
There is desire to investigate the nature of sound, so that, for
example, maracas are shaken and hit together, the wood of the
drum is tapped as well as the skin, various parts of the hands
and fingers are used to play the tambour. At this level, though
the elements are fairly unorganised, pulse is unsteady and
variations of tone colour appear to have no structural or expres-
sive significance. The activities of children up to about 3 years
have this character of unpredictable sound exploration.

Manipulative
The child is acquiring increasing control of techniques involved
in handling instruments and other sound sources. S/he is
moving towards control of steady pulse and the interest in
timbre and the other surface effects of sound shifts towards the
control of particular devices, such as glissandi, scalic and
intervallic patterns, trills and tremolos. Compositions tend to be
long and rambling and are frequently determined by the actual
physical structure of instruments themselves. Increasing control
in the manipulative mode is most apparent in the work of
children of 4 and 5.

Personal expressiveness
Direct personal expression appears first and most clearly in
song. In instrumental pieces it is mostly evident through the
exploitation of changes of speed and dynamic level, climaxes
being created by getting faster and louder. Signs of elementary
phrases (musical gestures) appear. There tends to be little
structural control and the impression is frequently of spon-
taneous and unco-ordinated musical gestures emanating directly
from the immediate feeling experience of the child, without a
great deal of reflection and shaping.

Vernacular
Here, patterns, both melodic and rhythmic, start to appear,
marked by repetitions. Pieces are often shorter than previously.
Expressiveness is now contained within established musical
conventions and, in particular, the structure of phrases, which
increasingly tend to fall into two, four or eight-bar units. Metre
emerges more often along with syncopation and little sequences
of melody and rhythm. Here children seem to have entered the
first stage of conventional music-making. What they do is often
predictable and they have clearly absorbed into their musical
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vocabulary much from their musical experience both inside and Sequence of development
outside of school, while singing, playing and listening to others. Keith Swanwick
and
The Vernacular mode begins to appear at about the ages of 5 or June Tillman
6 but is much more clearly established at 7 or 8.

Speculative
With the Vernacular fairly firmly engaged, the deliberate
repetition of patterns makes way now for imaginative deviation.
Surprises occur but they are not yet fully integrated into the
style. Control of pulse and of phrase, which was clearly apparent
at the earlier stage, now appears less fixed as children hunt for
the 'right' note or attempt to introduce a deviation which
doesn't quite work. The evidence here points to much greater
experimentation, a willingness to explore the structural possi-
bilities of music and to contrast with and vary an established
motif or melody. At times it appears that there is a musical
formulation in the mind of the child that is not quite realised.
Speculative procedures become apparent in the work of
10-year-olds.

Idiomatic
Structural surprises now become more firmly integrated into a
particular style. Any contrast is frequently at the end of a phrase
or piece when a pattern has been clearly established from which
there can be deviation. Answering phrases, variation and ending
' tags' are common. Technical, expressive and structural control
begins to be established realiably over longer periods of time.
There is a strong tendency to move towards what children
regard as a 'grown-up' musical style or idiom. The world of
popular music is especially influential here. Previous tendencies
to work in a speculative way outside the conventions of metre
and melody can be suppressed. Children seek to enter recog-
nisable musical communities. This is most apparent by the ages
of 13 or 14.

Symbolic
Growing out of the Idiomatic is a strong personal identification
with particular pieces of music, even turns of phrase and
harmonic progressions. These appear to be developed from the
stylistic clusters which, in the previous mode, were felt to be
musically and socially important. At the Symbolic level there is
a growing sense of music's affective power and a tendency to
become articulate about this experience. Musical values become
more idiosyncratic and commitment to music is frequently
based on an intensity of experience that is felt as unique and
highly significant. The Symbolic mode of experience is dis-
tinguished from previous levels by the capacity to reflect upon
the experience and to relate it to growing self-awareness and
developing value-systems. It seems unlikely that we shall find
musical meta-cognitive processes before the age of about 15.

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Sequence of development
Keith Swanwick Systematic
and At the Systematic level we think of the fully fledged musical
June Tillman person, capable of reflecting on his or her musical experience.
There is consciousness of the stylistic principles underlying the
chosen idiom(s). There is the beginning of aesthetic speculation
and the possibility of creating new 'systems'. Musical composi-
tion may be based on general principles of consciously organised
groups of musical materials (such as the use of the whole-tone
scale, serialism, electronically generated music and so on).
Musicians and others often feel the need to write and talk about
these processes, often in a philosophical way. Even if they do
not, we can still find evidence of a strong value commitment to
music which involves expanding musical possibilities in a
systematic way.

Left to right
It would be inappropriate in a paper of this kind to do more than
hint at the significance of the pendulum swings from left to right
and back again as the spiral is traversed, though there is clearly
much that could be developed here, taking in the work of Piaget,
Bruner and others. We would simply draw attention to each
shift from left to right as representing a move from the more
individual and personal to the schematised and social. There are
many fascinating theoretical and empirical roads to be trodden
here. For the moment we will merely notice that the stages on
the left-hand side of the spiral appear to be egocentric and
experimental, while those on the right seem to be dictated by
conventions within which the tendency is to be more derivative
and less original. Bruner writes that myths, art, ritual and the
sciences are all 'expressions of this deep-lying tendency to
explicate and condense, to seek steady meaning in capricious
experience' (1974, p. 31). It may be this move from capricious
experience to steady meaning that is seen in our left-to-right
swings.
There is clearly much scope here for further development, for
the replication of observations and for the testing of this scheme,
as pictured in the spiral. To our knowledge this is the first time
that such a model has been systematically developed, and it is
hoped that people might use it as a profitable starting point
rather than as the final word. We would also wish to draw
attention to the approximate age specifications. These are to be
by no means taken as rigid, nor is it to be assumed that
individuals may not fall outside these general boundaries. Ages
have been indicated merely to point to the relationship between
our model and the data, to give a feeling of reality to this complex
and difficult enterprise. Figure 4 shows the proportions of 745
compositions as they are observed to reach the highest develop-
mental mode.
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 Personal Manipulative Sensory Speculative Vernacular
s % % X X K
s f • • •
S I 1 X X
s » X X X

N=224 N=63 N=50 N = 50 N = 58 N = 55 142

100
s s s
° ° o o o o X X X X X X a x
s s . . .
90 - o
o
o
O o o • • »
s s s
o o o " X " X X
S S !
o o o
80 - e o
* . •
o o o X XX X X X

70 - s $
o o o o o
s s s $ o o o

o o X X It X
60 - o o o o o o X X X X XX X
$ $ S
50- S $ $ o o o
X X X

$ 5 $ o o o . . . .
40 - s $ s o o o
e o c o o o • • •
s $ s $ $ $
o o o
30 - S S S
• • •
S $ S
20 -
S I S . . .
s s s
s s s
10 - I I I
s s $ S S I
$ * *
s i t s ° o ° o° S » » » J

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Age (years)

Fig. 4. Musical development spiral - distribution of levels by each age.

This analysis is based on 745 compositions from 48 children collected
over a period of four years. There is thus a longitudinal dimension to
this study. (See Statistical Note 2.)

Implications for music teaching

There seem to be three levels at which we can begin to see the
implications for musical transactions in classrooms and studios.
The first of these is in terms of general curriculum planning,
especially in schools. It has seemed to many people that formal
music education in Britian is somewhat arbitrary and that
expectations of children at different ages are by no means
universally shared. The result of this is that is is perfectly
possible to find little or no apparent development in musical
terms over several years at school. Indeed, it might be said that
a lack of sense of achievement may account for the disenchant-
ment towards music in schools that has frequently been observed,
especially by the middle years of British secondary schooling.
If our assessment is anywhere near correct, then the overall
curriculum implication is that we should focus our musical
curriculum activities towards broad aspects of musical develop-
ment. In the very early years of school, sensory exploration and
the encouragement of manipulative control would be crucial. In
the primary school this is taken forward and the expressive
elements of music, grounded in the personal and exploratory
but moving towards vernacular control, would be the centre of
our work. This could be related to movement and dance and to
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Sequence of development visual and other images which help to promote, stimulate and
Keith Swanwick intensify expressiveness. By the age of 10 or so we would be
and looking to further the production and recognition of musical
June Tillman speculation, a recognition that all musical form depends on
contrasts and repetitions and that surprises are crucial to musical
encounters. This, we know, may be transformed through ado-
lescence towards an idiomatic 'hardening of the arteries'. Even
so, we should strive to keep the speculative alive whilst making
it possible for young people to enter a ' grown-up' world (rather
than the classroom world) of music. Much soul-searching will
be needed in order to transform present opportunities into
something that more nearly matches the development of children
and the demands of music, including appropriate instruments
and purposeful student groupings.
The second way in which such a model may inform the music
curriculum concerns individual development. It ought to be
possible for a teacher to identify where a child is on the spiral
at any given time. Although we teach classes, people develop as
individuals. If we are aware of the next likely stage of develop-
ment, that for example manipulative ability may lead to personal
expression or that engagement in the vernacular may lead to the
more imaginatively speculative, then we are more likely to ask
the right kind of question, to suggest a more relevant possibility,
to choose material or suggest an activity that may have more
personal meaning and consequence for the individual. The
model here has just as much significance for the studio teacher
as for the teacher in school classrooms. It might also be that
sensitivity to the concepts which we have attempted to articulate
here may help us all to understand what is musical about music.
In other words, we shall be able to see the relationship between
musical phenomena, here called Materials, Expression, Form and
Value along with their psychological correspondences Mastery,
Imitation, Imaginative Play and Meta-cognition. For example,
once we grasp that musical expression is a form of imitation then
we can immediately see relationships with movement, drama,
poetry and visual images; we can also understand how music can
be expressive without necessarily representing anything else,
that a musical gesture is an abstraction of a physical gesture. We
may use programmatic ideas to get the imitative process going
but will always avoid the literal translation of objects or events
into music and will look towards the next stage of development -
musical speculation.
The third set of implications for the music curriculum has to
do with the role of the teacher. How, for example, do we propose
to start up a certain activity, or to introduce a new musical
procedure or idea? Here we must repeat something of import-
ance. The overall development outlined in this paper is reacti-
vated each time we encounter a new musical context. If we take
up a new instrument, for example, no matter how experienced we
are, we shall first be engaged with the sensory properties of the
sound (possibly even the feel and smell of the instrument),
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before moving to manipulative engagement and, fairly quickly, Sequence of development
into expressive and structural procedures. To take another Keith Swanwick
example, if we come across a style of music that is unfamiliar we and
June Tillman
are first attracted by its sensory properties, become aware of
the manipulative articulation and then begin to penetrate its
expressiveness, eventually responding to its structural specula-
tions before feeling at home in the idiom. All of these processes
will take place before it could ever become important for us at
a symbolic or systematic level.
Let us, for instance, take a fairly simple example of a com-
positional project. We may have decided to base this activity on
the materials of short and long sounds. Let us make sure that the
first stage of the Sensory is properly entered, no matter what the
age or previous experience of the children. There are different
kinds of shortness; a very long sound has a very different effect
from one that is only moderately long. These perceptions are an
important pre-condition for sensitive Manipulative control.
Now we must learn how to sustain long sounds, what techniques
may be involved on different instruments - the use of beaters,
for example, to continually activate sound as a tremolo. We may
now move to explore the expressiveness involved in combining
short and long sounds into patterns that communicate (i.e.
imitate). Is each student able to generate a short Personal
musical gesture from short and long sounds? Is expressiveness
communicated? We might then move to consider how these
sounds can be caught up into existing musical practices, the
Vernacular. Shall we choose to organise them within a framework
of pulse and metre or within other musical conventions? If the
children are above the age of about 9, we shall certainly want
to turn them towards the Speculative. Can we create a surprise
using short and long sounds ? Can they make a piece that holds
the interest? Can we devise episodes that relate to one another
either as contrasts or as repetitions? Are we concerned to
broaden the range of what is considered to be Idiomatic ? This
will certainly lead us to encounter the music of others, as
performers or in audience.
What is being suggested here is a strategy for curriculum
development. We start from a collection of musical materials;
then, no matter how tightly or loosely we organise the learning
process, we shall be looking for the next question to ask. Asking
the next question depends on having an idea as to what possible
developments might be 'round the corner'. In our spiral, so to
speak, we have many corners. The transition from one mode to
the next is often so smooth as to be almost unnoticed, though
occasionally it will occur as a leap. An awareness of these
possibilities must surely be helpful, and we shall at least avoid
the danger of predicating a curriculum upon a narrow view of
musical response. We would certainly not wish to limit ourselves
to the sensory, to personal expressiveness or to the speculative,
but will also notice the importance of manipulative skills, of
entering a general musical vernacular and recognising idiomatic
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Sequence of development procedures. Crossing from side to side of the spiral is a develop-
Keith Swanwick mental necessity.
and All the indications are, then, that there is such a thing as
June Tillman musical development and that it takes place in a certain sequence,
the 'softer' meaning of the term development; certain develop-
ments are necessary for later growth to occur. Whether or not
the stronger sense of the term 'development' holds is still
problematic. Our evidence suggests that there may be broad
changes that occur in ' almost all children', though whether this
is to what Maccoby calls a 'fairly standard timetable' is still
undemonstrated, though supported by many writers. With the
children we observed there does indeed appear to be a sequence.
We suspect that, if children are in an environment where there
are musical encounters, then this sequence will be activated. If
the environment is particularly rich, then the sequence may be
followed more quickly. The opposite may also, unfortunately,
be true: in an impoverished musical environment, development
is likely to be minimal, arrested.
The intellectual journey which has culminated in the writing
of this paper has been difficult, erratic and exciting. We hope
that some of the excitement may be caught by others and that
this work may be taken further. It is, after all, important for all
of us to feel that there is 'something round the corner'.

References
BRUNER, J. S. (1966) Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
BRUNER, J. S. (1972) The Relevance of Education. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1974.
BUNTING, R. (1977) The Common Language of Music. Music in the
Secondary School Curriculum, Working Paper 6, Schools Council,
York University.
LOANE, B. (1984) Thinking about children's compositions. British
Journal of Music Education, 1, 3, 205-31.
MACCOBY, E. E. (1984) Socialization and developmental change. Child
Development, 55, 317-28.
MOOG, H. (1976) The Musical Experience of the Pre-School Child
(translated by Claudia Clarke). London: Schott (first published
in Germany, 1968).
MURSELL, J. L. (1948) Education for Musical Growth, p. 30. London:
Ginn.
PIAGET, J. (1951) Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Ross, M. (1984) The Aesthetic Impulse. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
SWANWICK, K. (1983) The Arts in Education: Dreaming or Wide
Awake? Special Professorial Lecture, London University Institute
of Education.

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 Sequence of development
Statistical Notes Keith Swanwick
(1) The Spearman rank correlation coefficient gives the following and
probabilities on the relationships between the judges and between June Tillman
each judge and the actual age.
Judges 1 and 2: p = 0-89, P < 001
Judge 1 and actual age: p = 082, P < 002
Judge 2 and actual age: p = 0-71, P < 005

(2) Table 1 gives the highest levels in the spiral judged to be

reached in 745 compositions across the age-range 3—11 years.

Table 1

Age

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Speculative 0 0 0 0 4 5 22 31 68
Vernacular 0 2 1 12 21 39 29 18 64
Personal 0 48 40 24 9 1 4 6 6
Manipulative 18 129 19 14 12 8 3 0 4
Sensory 31 45 3 0 4 1 0 0 0
Total 49 224 63 50 50 54 58 55 142 745

X2 = 1755-3, P < 0001.

Note on the musical examples

The accompanying cassette tape gives further examples of
children's compositional processes. We should emphasise that
they are not exceptional but are typical of what the children
involved in this study produced. There is no sense in which they
are prepared, public performances. They are part of everyday
classroom musical transactions. It is as such that they should be
heard.

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