Matters of Place and Space in School-Based Performances of World Music

Abstract

Christopher Small (1998) famously explored the role of the performance venue in framing the music experiences of audience members. While Small observed how audiences consume music in the classical symphony hall, we might also consider how performance venues frame global music experiences as well. In this article, I suggest that considering the space where music takes place can offer insights into the deeper social and cultural contexts of any given music practice. Specifically, music teachers can foster meaningful world music experiences by embracing the participatory or presentational nature of the music and seeking to reproduce these performance contexts as closely as possible. I explore ways that these ideas might play out among teachers who wish to maximize both the authenticity and integrity of their music performances, and I discuss strategies for music teachers to incorporate these suggestions into their own teaching.