This article aims to describe the phenomenon of spirituality in music education by means of a model derived from the academic literature on the topic. Given the centrality of lived experience within this literature, we adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological theoretical framework to describe the phenomenon. The NCT (noticing, collecting, and thinking) model was used for the qualitative document analysis. Atlas.ti 7, computer-aided qualitative data analysis software, was used to support and organize the inductive qualitative data analysis process. After data saturation, we used Van Manen’s lifeworld existentials (corporeality, relationality, spatiality, and temporality) to help organize the many quotes, codes, and categories that emerged from analyzing the literature. The model that results assigns codes to quotes and codes to categories, which in turn appear within one of these four lifeworlds. This article not only offers a working conceptual model of spirituality in music education but may also help to foster an awareness of spiritual experience in pedagogical contexts and thus contribute to what Van Manen calls “pedagogic thoughtfulness and tact.”

Abstract. There is a longstanding relationship between music therapy and Dalcroze Eurhythmics, an approach to music education that had its beginnings in the reform pedagogy movement of the European fin de siècle. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950, the founder of the approach, initially focused on educational aims, but was soon to include therapeutic ones as well. During the early twentieth century, Dalcroze teachers applied the approach to their work with disabled children. Such applications have continued to develop to the present day and have expanded to include palliative treatment in HIV/AIDS and gerontology.There are many theoretical and technical similarities between Dalcroze Eurhythmics and improvisational music therapy, including communication through musical improvisation and attunement in playing for movement. However, many of these similarities remain to be discussed in relation to the literatures on music therapy and communicative musicality. To address this gap, this article takes a transdisciplinary approach, making conceptual connections between the theory and practice of both Dalcroze Eurhythmics and music therapy. Implications for future training, practice and research in Dalcroze Eurhythmics are discussed.

Introduction: Participatory music making for older people has tended to focus on singing and performance. In a community music project undertaken by Manchester Camerata (a chamber orchestra), Blacon Community Trust and a small group of older adults, participants were given the opportunity to compose individual pieces of music interactively with professional musicians. This paper reports the findings of the research project. Method: An arts-based research method was adopted and incorporated action research and interpretive interactionism to articulate the experiences and perceptions of participants. Participants and Manchester Camerata musicians also worked together to represent the thematic findings of the research in a group composition. Findings: The findings demonstrate that individual and group music composition contributed to a sense of wellbeing through control over musical materials, opportunities for creativity and identity making, validation of life experience and social engagement with other participants and professional musicians. Conclusion: The results emphasised occupation as essential to health and wellbeing in the later stages of life. The findings also highlight the particularly innovative aspects of this research: (i) the use of music composition as a viable arts-in-health occupation for older people and (ii) the arts-based research method of group composition.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a rich and multifaceted, living practice that has developed a wide range of applications and pedagogical approaches during more than a century of endeavour.Most researchers have situated this work within music education, dance and theatre history and therapy of various kinds. In this article we argue that it may also be considered a somatic practice owing to the ways in which movement, space, sensation, presence, touch and improvisation are central to the method. While recognizing that not all somatic practices include touch and improvisation, we focus on these aspects to explore the notion of the haptic nature of vision and sound, as they are manifest in the Dalcroze class. Drawing on practical examples of widespread practice within the Dalcroze community as well as personal experiences, we assert that the touch-like nature of sound not only makes contact with the body, inciting physical and emotional movement, but also develops awareness of self, others and environment due to the social nature of musical participation in general and of the rhythmics class in particular. I am seated at the piano at one end of a dance studio. I look at the group of students filling the space. They are dressed for a movement class. The fingers of my left hand trail over the piano keys, cool, black and white. They choose a low G. Quietly, slowly and smoothly they trace a line that rises up to the D, then G above. As they do so the group starts to move into the space, gathering speed as my phrase passes into my right hand, gaining momentum and intensity. The left hand joins the right and as music spreads out over the whole keyboard, the class spreads out in the room. Responding to my sound the students start to travel with the triplets I am now playing, each student moving in a unique and personal way: we are all 'tripletting' together. They look as if they are flying. As I shape my music towards a cadence they start to look for a partner. KeywordsAs I bring my music to rest they draw together and touch hands. I withdraw my fingers from the keys. Silence. They laugh. 3We do not hold hands but my hand rests firmly on hers.We run and glide, dip and turn.(This is the nearest I've ever been to feeling what a bird must feel.)The choir intones and the saxophone spins out its line.Other sensations quickly fade.My whole being is concentrated in that single point of contact: hand on hand.I want nothing; all is trust and movement.I am aware of the space of the entire room, Right up to the corners beyond my reach.It seems as if this point of contact -the ever-renewing beginning point of the phrasecan travel anywhere.As we turn I feel the sun on my face.As we soar forward my mouth drops open.