Morena folks, an update on my ventures through academia as
promised.
My mission for this term was to complete two independent research
projects. I was allowed to choose any topic I wanted, provided it was
reasonable and I could find an advisor to support. The projects also had to
contrast each other to ensure a varied research experience. My chosen topics
were education and four-hand piano music.
More specifically, my education project has been a
comparative study of music education delivery in New Zealand and the United
States, with a goal of determining the primary differences. There are some
parallels, but a notable difference for sure. Through much exploration of
school data and government policy documentation (which I highly recommend if
you have trouble sleeping at night), I have deduced that the focus in the
States is ensemble instruction such as band and choir. New Zealand opts to have
workshop or taught courses focusing on a range of topics such as music genres
or technology or group composition, etc. etc. etc. Students wishing to pursue
ensemble experience do so as an extra-curricular activity.
My piano project has been looking at four-hand piano
transcriptions of symphonic music in the nineteenth century, as a social and
cultural phenomenon. The idea is that due to a lack of recording technology and
concert availability, the average Jane/Joe found a reasonable looking piano
arrangement of the music and played it themselves. I have stumbled on some
fascinating literature along this route, which has prompted the beginnings of
my research proposal for next year.
The interesting thing about these projects has been
completing them as a remote student. My advisors kindly agreed to advise from
afar so we have done a lot of emailing, supplemented by a few face-to-face
meetings when I could make it up to Auckland. The challenge on my end has been
maintaining structure and focus. There have been plenty of days it was a
challenge to talk myself into picking up another book or article after a busy
day at work, but one day at a time has gotten me mostly there.
We are now in week 10 of 12, so within two weeks time I will
complete editing on the papers (one approximately 12,000 words and the other
approximately 6,000 words) and do my final submission. This means I am free
until March next year, yay!
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| Fitzroy Beach on Sunday when I enjoyed a walk |
