ABSTRACT

The study of transmission, the delivery and acquisition (or teaching and learning) of music, is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is of increasing interest and importance to music teachers who strive for a broadly conceived template of pedagogical considerations that transcend cultural boundaries. The potential for idiographic studies of transmission is considered along with an approach that encompasses cross-cultural comparisons (if not universals) of transmission. A spectrum of formal and informal processes by which culture is acquired and learned is outlined at the outset. These issues serve to frame an examination of cross-cultural components of musical learning in the cases of children’s songs, Balinese gamelan, Bulgarian traditional music and Filipino kulintang. Comparisons of transmission principles are briefly noted, including the aural-oral techniques of demonstration and imitation; the visual-kinaesthetic network; the spectrum of holistic to analytical reception of skills and knowledge; the necessity of eye-hand coordination and the perception of gestural patterns for instrumentalists; and the role of the expert or more experienced musician. Recommendations point to the development of further studies of music’s transmission in various cultural circumstances, with the intention of determining the likelihood of pan-human principles of teaching and learning.