About waves, creeping lions and slipped sounds

Reflections on the challenges and potentials of different variants of (written) music description for a successful participation in music lessons.

Abstract

This article deals with the question, which cognitive and linguistic ways students chose when they are asked to describe music - and which didactic value which form of describing has or can have. For this purpose, the factors that influence how music is experienced and processed will be explained first. Subsequently, the interrelations of auditory perception, cognitive processing and verbalization will be discussed and the challenges and potentials of music description (for teachers and learners) will be explained (also) from the perspective of language and writing didactics. Finally, it will be discussed how music writing can be taught in such a way that on the one hand it promotes a musical and technical understanding and on the other hand it enables the participation of learners who, due to their social and/or linguistic background, bring different preconditions into the classroom than their fellow students.