An assessment of children's discrimination of change when listening to a theme and variations form.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into children's ability to discriminate change within the temporal flow of a theme and variations musical form. Subjects in kindergarten and second and fourth grades (N = 43) manipulated the pointer of a Continuous Response Digital Interface dial while listening to W. A. Mozart's Twelve Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman (C major, K.265). Results indicated that there were no significant differences among grades in the proportion of students registering a perception of change in the first, third, and fifth seconds of any of the variations. Further analyses comparing single to combined grades revealed no significant differences in the first and third seconds of each variation, but there was a significantly greater proportion of students in grades two and four combined than kindergarten students who registered a change in the initial 5 s of Variation 4 (p < .05). Since developmental factors did not influence the ability to discriminate change, it is recommended that teachers consider devising lessons that guide the listeners to label the musical parameters they already perceive as varied.

Aesthetic Experiences With Music

“…Although a few studies have used the CRDI with preschool-and elementary-aged children to examine preference and perception (Byrnes, 1997;DeNardo & Kantorski, 1995Fredrickson, 1994;Kantorski & DeNardo, 1996;Madsen, Capperella-Sheldon, & Johnson, 1991;Parisi, 2004), it appears that only one Phyllis M. Paul is an assistant professor of music education at the University of Oregon. She can be reached at ppaul@uoregon.edu.…”

Emotion versus Tension in Haydn's Symphony no. 104 as Measured by the Two-Dimensional Continuous Response Digital Interface

“…In another line of research, investigators used the CRDI to investigate rubato and the subtle temporal deviations evidenced in sophisticated musical performances (Johnson, 1996a(Johnson, , 1996b. In still other studies using the CRDI, researchers have investigated its use with school-age children (Byrnes, 1997;Fredrickson, 1997;Gregory, 1984;Kantorski & DeNardo, 1996).…”