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JRME, VOLUME 50, NUMBER 4, 301-322 301 The case-study records of six sixth-grade composers were examinedfor evidence of con- nections between the music and life experiences of the students and compositions they wrote. Analysis revealed rich and varied connections between the students' contexts and their music. Idiomatic writing related to instrumental and ensemble experiences was present in their works, and links between instrumental fluency and fluency in composing became evident. Familiar melodies from instrumental experiences, films, and television served as starting points for compositions. Social and cultural cues related to other media as well as to school and home life were also evident in composi- tions. Findings suggest that young composers draw on their sociocultural milieu and personal experiences to create music that is relevant and meaningful to them.

Sandra L. Stauffer, Arizona State University

Connections between the Musical and Life

Experiences of Young Composers and Their

Compositions

A composer biography typically begins with a description of the subject's childhood. The biographer chronicles the composer's youth and adult years and draws connections between life experi- ences and musical works, often using the word "influence" to describe perceived links. Finding connections is hardly surprising, for as Raynor (1978) suggests, "the composer ... lives in some rela- tionship to his age and a community" (p. 5), and "art in part rises ... from the life its creator lives and the thoughts he thinks" (p. 13). In short, the musical works of composers are, at least in part, the prod- uct of the societies into which they are enculturated, the musical tra- ditions they inherit, and the specific circumstances of their lives.

This study was supported in part by grants from the Institute for Studies in the Arts, a division of The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University. The author wishes to acknowledge Darolyne Nelson and Bryan Priddy, who assisted with data collection, and Ben Goren, the technical support person for the study. Sandra L. Stauffer is a professor of music education in the School of Music, Herberger College of Fine Arts, Arizona State University, PO Box 870405, Tempe, AZ 85287-0405; e-mail: [email protected]. Copyright ? 2002 by MENC: The National Association for Music Education.

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Do connections exist between the musical and life experiences of children and the compositions they create? Examining this question can be challenging, for unlike mature composers who are the subject of biographies, children have neither significantly long life histories nor, in most cases, extensive compositional outputs available for review. Still, Hargreaves (1999) notes that "the importance of the social context is one of the two ways in which the study of musical develop- ment is currently changing. The other is inextricably linked with this, namely the ... study of generative or creative processes" (p. 33).

Researchers who have studied the links between sociocultural con- text and children's musical creative processes or products have gener- ally focused on singing games, playground songs, and children as spon- taneous song-makers or tune-makers (Campbell, 1998; Harwood, 1993; Marsh, 1995; Riddell, 1990). Although studies of children as composers are not absent in the literature, researchers have typically examined either the process or products of composition or both (Barrett, 1996; DeLorenzo, 1989; Freed-Garrod, 1999; Gromko, 1996; Hickey, 1995; Kratus, 1989, 1994, 2001; Levi, 1991; Stauffer, 2001; Wiggins, 1994, 1995; Wilson & Wales, 1995). The connections between children's compositions and their musical and life experiences or sociocultural contexts remain largely unexamined. In a recent study, however, Wiggins (1999/2000) suggested that children composing in groups in a classroom setting are empowered in their work by a shared understanding that is socially constructed, and furthermore, that "their ideas are born and reside within understandings developed through experiences with the music of their lives and also experiences with teachers and peers in music classrooms" (p. 87). But what of chil- dren composing individually outside of the classroom?

Campbell (1998) provides an excellent summary of how the inter- ests of researchers in anthropology and ethnomusicology have inter- sected and dovetailed with those of music educators, resulting in a growing body of literature about the culture of children's music and children as musicians. The underlying premise of this research, Campbell explains, is that children are already music-makers and cre- ators in their own right and that their music is worth studying as a rep- resentation of their cultural contexts. In this study, I accept the premise that children can and do create music in original and mean- ingful ways, and that they have "signified and signifying world[s]" (Greene, 1995, p. 55) which they manifest on their own, for them- selves, in ways particular to their individual contexts and development.

The purpose of this study, then, was to examine connections between the musical and life experiences of six young composers and the music they created during their sixth-grade year.

METHOD

History of the Project

The young composers described below were participants in a lon- gitudinal study of children as composers. The research began in 1994

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as a collaborative project designed to test a non-notational software composition program for children and to observe, record, and ana- lyze the children's work and thinking as they created music. When the software test phase of the project ended in 1995, the study of chil- dren as composers continued for the next 6 years.

I recruited the original group of participants through a letter sent to parents of all the students who attended a public elementary school (K-5) and selected volunteers on a first-come, first-served basis. The project began with 21 students. I added participants when students brought siblings or friends to the project and allowed attri- tion to occur naturally. More than 30 children participated in the project during the first 3 years of the study-some for a few weeks and others for the duration of the project.

During the first 2 years of the study, children attended after-school "computer music" (their term) sessions once a week for 30 minutes. Sessions were held in the university's Music Education and Therapy Lab, and no more than three students attended during any session time. When some of the participants entered middle school in the third year of the study, I modified the parameters of the project to include middle school students (Grade 6) and extended session times for these participants at their request to 45 minutes.

Participants composed music using various software programs available in the lab. Each student worked on a computer station located in a space that provided sound isolation sufficient to elimi- nate the need for headphones. During the first year, participants worked with pilot versions of a non-notational composition program. By the beginning of the second year, the software, now titled Making Music (Subotnick, 1995), was in its final version, and this program became the primary composition tool. Late in the second year, Juilliard Musical Adventure (1995) and Rock Rap 'n Roll (1995) were made available to participants. During the third year of the study, the notation programs Music Time (1992) and MusicAce (1996) were added to the software collection. Participants chose the program they wished to use in each session.

I chose a non-intervention protocol for the study. No instruction was provided, and no composition tasks were assigned. The intent of the protocol was to allow observation of what children do as they cre- ate music on their own, given minimal adult interference and repeated opportunities to compose.

In this report, I specifically chose to examine the case records of the six students who were in Grade 6 during the third year of the study. I selected these case records and limited the report to these students and to their sixth-grade year for several reasons. First, these six students were the oldest participants in the study, both in terms of age and grade level, during the third year of the project. No other students in this age/grade level had participated at any point. Only one student a year older than this group had participated and only during the first 12 weeks of the project. Second, these students represented longevity and continuous participation in the study. Each had been a faithful partici-

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pant from the time he or she started and remained so through the con- clusion of their sixth-grade year. Consequently, the six case records were very complete. Although other students in the study had participated for similar lengths of time, the closest in age was 2 years younger than this group. Third, all six had used the Making Music software for at least 1 year, and all six began using the Music Time program during their sixth-grade year. Given these characteristics, the case records worked together as a group and, furthermore, provided an "opportunity to learn," which Stake (1994) identifies as a "primary criterion" for select- ing cases and sampling data within them (pp. 243-244).

Sixth-Grade Composers: Background

Lee, Luke, Bruce, and Alex joined the study at its inception and were third-year participants during their sixth-grade year. Lee and Luke, twin boys, counted among their best friends Hilary and Kerynne, twin girls, whom the boys recruited to the project during the second year of the study. By their sixth-grade year, some of these students had begun to reveal a sense of self-efficacy as composers. "When I grow up," Luke announced one day, "I'm going to be an artist, a composer, and a neurosurgeon."

These six young composers knew each other, attended the same elementary (K-5) and middle schools, and participated in similar school activities, including science and art fairs as well as choral and instrumental music programs. Prior to sixth grade, Bruce, Alex, Luke, and Hilary had sung in their elementary school chorus, and Luke and Hilary had performed in a district-wide elementary honors choir in fifth grade. None of them chose to participate in chorus dur- ing middle school, though Alex continued to sing in a church choir.

All six students participated in the school district's instrumental music program, although their experiences varied. Kerynne began cello lessons in fourth grade. By the sixth grade, she was a devoted player and member of the school orchestra, and she joined a local youth symphony during the second half of the year. Hilary, a begin- ning trombonist in fifth grade, played in the middle school band as a sixth-grader and was also a member of the school'sJazz Cats ensem- ble. Both girls started private lessons during sixth grade.

Lee tried the cello for a few weeks in fourth grade, but said he didn't like the teacher and quit. In fifth grade, he settled on "Baritone TC," referring to the instrument designation on his beginning band music. He developed an immediate affinity for the instrument, which his father had also played, and began private lessons. By sixth grade, he was playing in both the band and the Jazz Cats ensemble, where he was assigned trombone parts. This was a sore point with Luke, who had chosen oboe in fifth grade and was very unhappy to discover that oboes were not permitted in Jazz Cats. He persisted in playing, how- ever, and by the end of sixth grade he was also taking lessons.

Alex began string bass lessons in elementary school but lost inter- est by the end of fifth grade. He switched to trumpet in the sixth

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grade and brought his instrument to the lab a few times at the encouragement of the project's technical assistant, who also played trumpet. But Alex made little progress (partly, according to his moth- er, because he didn't practice), and by the end of the year he seemed ready to give up his second instrument as well.

Bruce did not begin instrumental instruction until sixth grade and then chose the clarinet. His conversations about the clarinet were very nonchalant. Our only indication that he enjoyed playing at all was that he was still doing so at the end of the school year, though he indicated he was considering a switch to saxophone.

During their sixth-grade year, the Music Time program became the primary choice of everyone except Alex, who used Rock Rap 'n Roll regularly. Because their prior composition experiences were lim- ited to non-notation programs, learning to use notation software was a new challenge during the third year of the study. Participants entered music by pointing and clicking with a mouse. In keeping with the protocol, we did not intervene to work on technical prob- lems such as correct number of beats per measure. Students eventu- ally discovered and solved most notation problems on their own. The excerpts included in this article are printed exactly as the students saved them.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection during the third year of the study adhered to pro- cedures refined during the first two years of the project, including observations of the young composers at work, interviews with student composers and other informants (e.g., parents, adult composers), and collection of compositions written by the students. As in previous years, each participant was paired with a primary observer who took field notes, monitored equipment, and answered questions about software and hardware. I interviewed participants periodically using a set of questions that I prepared at the beginning of the year and revised as our work progressed. Some interviews occurred as students worked, and others occurred at the end of sessions, depending on the student composer's preference and working style. Although stu- dents saved their work each week, only pieces that participants called compositions are referred to as compositions in reports of this study. Collectively, the six students described in this report composed 78 pieces in the Music Time program during their sixth-grade year.

Observers trained in qualitative research techniques and familiar with the protocol of the study assisted with data collection. Observers added field notes to the case-study records of the students to whom they were assigned, and I read and reviewed all case records, as well as serving as primary observer for some participants. Observers also participated in periodic debriefing sessions to answer any questions that emerged during the study or in my review of the case records.

Notes from observations and interviews, transcripts of field notes and interviews, and students' compositions were assembled into a

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case study record for each participant. I analyzed each data record for evidence of cultural and social cues in the students' compositions and in their commentary about their work, then presented my find- ings informally to other observers in the project who responded with additional ideas and suggestions. After further analysis, including comparison of data among cases and a search for disconfirming examples, four primary themes emerged: instrumental influences; familiar melodies; media, school, and home referents; and ensemble experiences.

THEMES: MUSICAL, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES IN COMPOSITIONS Instrumental Influences

Connections between the instruments these students played and their compositions became evident in the earliest sessions of their sixth-grade year. Luke wrote his first composition of that year, "Oboes Conquer," partly as commentary on oboes not being allowed into Jazz Cats. His outrage at this injustice fueled the beginning of 'Jazzical," an extended piece that he began in mid-October and saved in its final version in late January (Figure la). Initially, his moti- vation for composing 'Jazzical" was "to show the teacher that oboes can do jazz." But in the end, Luke usually played the piece, which included chords, using the panpipes or organ sound, and he described his work as related to the life and death of Beethoven, though he preferred to keep the details a mystery.

The oboe-jazz problem bothered Luke the entire year and culmi- nated in a 15-measure work for oboe, trombone, cymbals, and guitar written in May and titled "The Wiggorly: AJazzy Little Jazz 'Big Band' " (Figure lb). Nearly half of Luke's 16 compositions either included oboe in the score, were written for solo oboe, or began as a piece for oboe and were transformed into something else. In these pieces, Luke wrote for the oboe using pitches within the range of an intermediate- level player, though parts for other players were not as friendly.

Kerynne's dedication to the cello, more quietly and subtly expressed than Luke's loyalty to the oboe, also emerged early in the year. Her earliest pieces resembled beginning cello studies not only in the selection of clef but also in the predominance of notes that could be played on the open strings of the instrument. "Done now fixed," written in October, is idiomatic of exercises for young cellists, including quarter-note rhythms, repeated melodic patterns, and the ABA form suggested by both dynamic markings and a shift of starting pitches at the beginning of each eight-measure phrase (Figure 2). Melodic lines characteristic of cello music appear in nearly all eigh- teen solo and ensemble pieces Kerynne composed during the year, including a set of five compositions titled "Symphony No. 1" through "Symphony No. 5."

Hilary and Bruce also wrote for their respective instruments, although not as frequently as either Luke or Kerynne. Although

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Figure lb. Measures 1 through 6 of "The Wiggorly: AJazzy Little Jazz 'Big Band' " by Luke.

"Trombone Fun" (Figure 3) is the only one of Hilary's 14 composi- tions in which she specifically told us that the bass clef line was intended for trombones, she often wrote bass clef parts that seemed idiomatic for her instrument. Only two of Bruce's 11 pieces included specific references to clarinet, and both were short compositions

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based loosely on familiar melodies he had learned to play. Lee was incensed that his instrument was not available in the

sound palette of the program and flatly refused any substitutes. He considered but did not designate either euphonium or "Baritone

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ICE RAIN Alex MacTighe

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T.C." in any of his fifteen works. Alex was relatively uninterested in using the notation programs during the first half of the year, choos- ing instead to work in Rock Rap 'n and Roll, a program that allows students to arrange sampled musical fragments into longer pieces. But interest in a friend's ability to play the piano, including a piece the friend "made up himself," inspired Alex to shift to notation so that he could write for his friend. Although Alex did not play the piano, this project occupied him for several weeks, resulting in his longest composition, "Ice Rain" (Figure 4). Alex never wrote for his own instrument.

Familiar Melodies

The sounds of the students' chosen instruments, as well as the music that they had heard or practiced for these instruments, seemed to serve as starting points for the students' work. Lee and Luke raced into their session one afternoon with their band methods books in hand. Both began to reproduce lines from their music, but neither stayed with the task long. Instead, their copies gave way to other ideas, including replications by ear of melodies they had learned to play. Some of these experiments became imbedded in their works and others evolved into entirely different pieces. For example, Lee began a composition entitled "Beethoven 9-Lee as Conductor" with the "Ode toJoy" theme, but the final version bore no resemblance to the original tune except, perhaps, in its dramatic effect.

Other familiar melodies and variants on them appeared in the stu- dents' pieces. Bruce's by-ear reproductions of familiar melodies gave

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Figure 5b. Measures 1 through 6 of "Chopsticks" by Hilary.

us hints about his progress as a beginning clarinetist. "Al Clardei Da La Lune," written in October, was his attempt to recreate the three- note "Au clair de la lune" he had learned to play. By the end of January, "Ferra Weird," a variant on "Frere Jacques" as well as a taunt aimed at his younger brother, let us know he was making progress (Figure 5a). Hilary's variations on "Chopsticks," written in February, included both familiar "Chopsticks" melodies, though she had not yet figured out how to notate the rhythms (Figure 5b).

Participants also drew melodic material for their compositions from music they heard in the media. Both Lee and Luke, fans of the television program The X-Files, attempted to recreate the theme music of the show and spent most of one session visiting each other to com- pare versions. Lee eventually abandoned the attempt, but Luke saved his best version in a piece entitled "Ode to X-Files" (Figure 6a). Lee and Luke were also among the first people waiting in line to see the rere- lease of Star Wars when it opened at a local theater. Shortly thereafter,

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Luke composed "Imperial" (Figure 6b), mimicking the "Imperial March" theme from the movie, which the brothers saw several times. Bruce, who identified himself as a loyal Star Trek watcher, was equally excited by the rerelease of Star Wars but took a different approach in his tribute. The title and music of"gnuirtygnvbk,rdythdmryngfre8," he told us, were "written in code" (Figure 6c).

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Measures 1-9, chase music

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Figure 7. Excerpts from "AchTung" by Lee.

Media, School, and Home Referents

Not only the music but also the sociopolitical themes (e.g., civil unrest, assassinations, and war) that these young composers encoun- tered in the media as well as in their school history classes influenced their compositions, particularly the boys' pieces. Titles of their pieces, such as "Psychotic Maniac" (Bruce) and "What MK Ultra Project?" (Luke), demonstrated their obsession with conspiracies,

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which also emerged in conversations with them. They teased us that the lab was bugged and called out warnings to the spies they imag- ined were watching, sometimes delivering their comments directly to the cameras used to record sessions.

Lee's "AchTung," an extended piece that he began in late fall and returned to throughout the year, was by far the most musically devel- oped and intense of all the "conspiracy pieces" written by the stu- dents. Lee developed several musical gestures that he manipulated to achieve specific effects. For example, he described sections dominat- ed by eighth- and two sixteenth-note rhythms as "chase music" and repeated thirty-two-pitch clusters as "gunshots" (Figure 7).

Other media influences also became evident in students' compo- sitions during the year. Lee wrote a piece that included the call let- ters and logo of a local jazz radio station in the title. Alex described pieces he composed in the Rock Rap 'n Roll program as being "like stuff on the radio" and asked if he could tape-record his composi- tions. He filled more than half of a 30-minute cassette with music and told us later that he listened to it "in [his] room at night."

Some compositions suggested that interactions with various media provided the young composers with information about musical styles. Family listening preferences reported by the students and their parents in informal interviews were diverse; they included pop- ular, jazz, and classical styles. Jazz appeared in the title or in the ver- bal descriptions of works by Hilary, Luke, and Lee. Hilary titled one of her pieces "D. K. New Age," and Luke described his "Ghugck II" as sounding "kind of like a New-Age CD we have at home. That's where I got the idea." Lee told us that his "Ancient Lands" quintet was supposed to sound "ethnic, you know, like ethnic music."

Links to non-electronic media also appeared in some of the stu- dents' works. Composition titles included references to characters in books they read, such as Lee's "Mad Hatter's Dance" or Kerynne's "Quiqueg," a piece of which she was particularly proud. As she played it for Hilary at the end of one session, I remarked that Quiqueg was a character in Moby Dick, and the girls nodded. Kerynne told us later that she was reading an abridged version and didn't finish it.

The visual arts appeared to be an important referent for Luke. When I questioned him about the title "A Monkey Touches the Sky 'crisply touching'," he talked about Michelangelo and "his painting, you know, the one with God pointing," as well as a parody he knew of the same work. When I asked him how he knew about Michelangelo, he replied, "What? If I'm going to be an artist don't you think I'd know something about Michelangelo?" I received a clue several weeks later when the students invited me to a school arts fair. Following a performance by the Jazz Cats, Kerynne gave me a tour of an exhibit of student artwork. From her descriptions and the students' work, it was clear that the teacher used masterworks as start- ing points for various projects, though Michelangelo was not present in that particular display.

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Ensemble Influences

As the year progressed, parallels developed between the students' participation in various instrumental ensembles and their composi- tions. All the pieces written during the first two months of the acad- emic year were composed on a single staff or on the treble-bass piano system to which the Music Time program defaults. By late October, however, experiments with pieces for multiple instruments had begun, though students' motivation for pursuing that course of action varied. Bruce was interested in seeing how many notes he could stack in a single chord and how loud the resulting sound would be. Hilary wanted to write a piece forJazz Cats and attempted sever- al pieces for multiple instruments.

Luke, Hilary, Kerynne, and Lee's joint decision to form their own band became the impetus for some of their ensemble compositions. Lee soon discovered problems inherent in writing for his friends' instruments, as illustrated in the following conversation:

Lee: Which one of these does Hilary play in? [He is pointing to clefs.]

Obs: Which clef?

Lee: Yeah, which clef? It must be this one. [He points to treble clef.]

Obs: Actually, trombone plays in bass clef.

Lee: That can't be right. Hilary plays the same as me.

Obs: She plays some of the same parts, but I think she plays in bass clef.

Lee: How do you know?

Obs: We can check some band music.

Lee: Do you have any?

Neither the music for the would-be quartet nor the quartet itself actually materialized (only four measures of one piece by Luke were spared the "trash" function), but the students' interest in composing for multiple instruments was piqued. Luke pushed the limits of ensemble composition with a 10-measure work titled "Oboe in 'de' score 'I rock!' " for his own instrument plus seven others. He also attempted a 16-instrument work, but scrapped it after listening because there were "too many parts at the same time."

The students' ensemble pieces demonstrated their growing aware- ness of the roles of instruments within ensembles as well as an increasing ability to hear how parts fit together. While composing "Ferra Weird," Bruce told us that the melody could be played as a round "like we did in band," and he attempted to show that by writ-

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Figure 8. Measures 26 through 40 of "Symphony No. 5" by Kerynne.

ing in score form (see Figure 5b). "Trombone Fun" (see Figure 3) reflected Hilary's reactions to band parts assigned to her and her fel- low trombonists. Beginning in measure four, the trombones (bass clef) "play the interesting parts" while all the other instruments (tre- ble clef) "play the same thing over and over again plus all the slow notes."

Similarly, Kerynne's "Symphony No. 5," one of three trios she composed during the second half of the year, shows the extent to which she had absorbed information about the relationship of parts in a string ensemble (Figure 8). "The cellos have the slower part," she told us, pointing to the bass clef staff. "Then the violins have the faster part," she said, pointing to the top treble staff. "And the mid- dle part, the violas, they're in the middle." Kerynne borrowed part of the cello line from one of her earlier pieces. The violins play charac- teristic rhythm and melodic patterns, and the cello line not only cen- ters on intervals and pitches that hold the tonality of C major but also moves in characteristic accompaniment figures both melodically and rhythmically. Not surprisingly, the viola part, which would be most difficult to hear from Kerynne's perspective in the middle school orchestra, is the least developed in her music.

While Kerynne's ensemble pieces seemed guided by what she heard in the ensembles in which she played, Luke's ensemble com- position technique seemed based on what he saw as he composed as

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A Monkey Touches the Sky "crisply touching"

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well as what he heard. The following conversation occurred during work on "A Monkey Touches the Sky 'crisply touching'," one of his favorite pieces (Figure 9):

Obs: How do you know where to put the notes?

Luke: By the space.

Obs: By the space?

Luke: Yeah. See? Here there's a space here. [He points to a half note.] So I have to put something in this space. [He is adding something to a different instrument part under the half note.]

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Obs: I get it. The space. [He plays what he has.]

Luke: Over there (he points), that's no good. See? There's too much. I have to take something out. [He erases a few notes then plays again.] That's better.

Obs: Interesting.

Luke: Yeah. I have great spatial intelligence, you know. [He continues working.]

Some time later, we were able to confirm that Luke had heard the term "spatial intelligence" in his school art class.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Observations of these sixth-grade composers and analysis of their works indicate that links between their compositions and their musi- cal and life experiences were both rich and varied. Social and cul- tural cues, some directly linked to musical experience and some linked to other life experiences, were indeed evident in their works in multiple ways.

Instrumental music experiences of these young composers direct- ly influenced their compositions. They included not only their own instruments but also instruments played by their friends in their pieces. They used melody and rhythm patterns idiomatic to their own instruments, and when they began writing ensemble music, their understanding of stereotypical functions of various instruments (i.e., melody or accompaniment) as well as how instrumental parts fit together appeared to be related to their participation in instrumen- tal ensembles. Further examination and comparison of their compo- sitions indicated a relationship between proficiency and fluency in playing an instrument and proficiency and fluency in composing. Lee, Luke, Hilary, and Kerynne, who were more advanced on their instruments and who participated in more advanced ensembles than Bruce and Alex, who were beginners on their respective instruments, were more likely to write ensemble music than their peers. In addi- tion, their pieces were typically longer, more musically complex, and more coherent.

The apparent relationship between instrumental proficiency and composing proficiency is interesting. Why might such a relationship exist? Lee, Luke, Hilary, and Kerynne, all of whom played their instruments for at least a year prior to sixth grade, reproduced famil- iar melodies as well as melodies and rhythms idiomatic for their instruments. Idiomatic writing was not a consistent quality in works by Alex and Bruce. Furthermore, Alex never reproduced a familiar tune, and Bruce did so only twice. One might infer that the ability to reproduce familiar tunes from memory is an indication of audiation ability, and that audiation ability may affect composition. Indeed, Kratus (1994) documented a positive correlation between 9-year-old children's audiation scores and the tonal and metric cohesiveness of

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their compositions. Because I did not test for audiation, the students' relative abilities are not known, though it is interesting that those stu- dents more likely to reproduce tunes from memory were those who were more fluent as instrumentalists and composers.

An alternative explanation may be that the experience of playing an instrument over time and playing in ensembles in which more complex music was performed yielded a more sophisticated and complex understanding of how music worked, which, in turn, affect- ed compositions. Certainly, the students' verbal descriptions of their compositions and of their instrumental experiences indicated that they had developed an understanding of how parts worked together in ensembles and how the instruments they played fit into the musi- cal texture. As students gained experience, they may have been more able to recall, remember, or simply understand more complex music. Alex and Bruce may have not yet developed the same degree of abil- ity or understanding as their peers because they were playing less sophisticated repertoire. Similarly, because they were still learning the basics of their instruments, concentration on their own parts and playing skills may have precluded hearing others during ensemble rehearsals. The complex relationship between playing an instrument and composing should be studied further, particularly given the results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (1997), in which instrumental music students scored better than non-instrumental students on composition tasks.

An artifact of the research design rather than difference in stu- dents' instrumental experience may have also contributed to the dif- ferences in the students' compositions. The non-intervention research protocol, designed to help us discover what students were thinking while composing, may have hindered Bruce and Alex. In a study of children composing in groups in a school context, DeLorenzo (1989) suggests that "students need as much experience in ways of thinking about music as in the actual 'doing' process itself' (p. 197). Because I chose not to intervene in the composition process, I did not provide "ways of thinking" to Bruce and Alex as they composed. Whether and how such interventions may have affected the compositions of any or all of the participants remains a question.

Like composers throughout history, these students borrowed familiar tunes gleaned from their sociocultural contexts for their own pieces. Their sources included music they played in lessons and ensembles, music from various media, and even their own previous works. Though some replications of a known melody seemed to be an exercise in satisfying curiosity (e.g., "I wonder if I can make this tune"), others became starting points for more extended composi- tions. In this respect, familiar melodies became tools used to com- pose just like one might use familiar words and phrases to construct a sentence or paragraph. When using familiar melodies, students seemed to be starting from a familiar place-the music of their own culture and experience.

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Other evidence that these young composers were influenced by sociocultural context was abundant in their works. Their interests not only in the music of television programs and movies but also in the sociopolitical themes they saw in the media events appeared in the titles of their pieces and in their scores. References to radio sta- tions, CD recordings, and styles of music with which they were famil- iar-jazz, New Age, "ethnic"-emerged in their work. Referents to visual art works and historical events they studied as well as books they read also appeared in their compositions.

Although students derived ideas for their compositions from musi- cal and life experiences, occasionally it seemed that the same expe- riences hampered the composition process. Hilary, for example, wanted to write a piece that sounded like the music she played inJazz Cats, but could not come up with anything she liked for weeks. When she gave-up what seemed to be a strongly held idea and started "doo- dling," she was more successful. She described herself later as a "per- fectionist," confessing that if she couldn't get something to sound exactly like she wanted it, she scrapped the idea.

While various links between students' compositions and their musical and life experiences were clearly evident, disconfirming evi- dence for nearly every category of connection could also be found in their collected works. For example, most students wrote for the instruments they played, but Alex didn't, and Lee rarely considered the idea. Most participants borrowed or replicated familiar melodies by ear or copied a melody and transformed it as a starting point for composition, but Kerynne never brought music to a session, nor did she choose to replicate any melody we could recognize. Ideas con- nected to media sources (television, movies, visual art, books) were evident in many compositions, but Hilary never mentioned any media sources nor did any referents emerge in her music.

Interestingly, not all musical experiences translated into impetus for compositions. None of the students composed songs, though all had general music experiences and some had choral singing expe- riences, as described earlier. It may have been that singing and choral music were less powerful or immediate in comparison to their instrumental experiences. The non-intervention protocol pro- hibited me from asking the students why they did not compose songs, but the nature of the Music Time software and the Making Music software, which all six students used in the previous year, may have had some effect. While the Making Music software includes a "chorus" timbre, the compositions created in the program are entirely iconic. No notation and no lyrics appear on the screen; pieces are, in effect, instrumental. Similarly, when opening a new file, the Music Time software defaults to a treble-bass system and a piano timbre-an instrumental composition. Students soon discov- ered alternate timbres, including voice sounds, as well as title and lyrics tools. Still, they did not choose to compose songs, and I did not hear any of them sing along with any of their pieces in any ses- sions.

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The purpose of this article was to examine the relationships between students' musical and life experiences and the compositions they created during one academic year. Runfola and Swanwick (2002) argue that "music itself is an activity that is in some way rep- resentative of our experience of the world" (p. 379). The students in this study composed based on their own understandings and ideas derived and constructed from their musical experiences and their sociocultural milieu. To use Greene's terms, they created music that "signified and [was] signifying" of their own sociocultural contexts. Even more striking, the students composed on their own and in their own ways, creating music that was personally meaningful and satisfy- ing to them. They selected seven of the compositions shown above ('Jazzical," "The Wiggorly," "Trombone Fun," "Ice Rain," "AchTung," "Symphony No. 5," and "A Monkey Touches the Sky") for perfor- mance (by computer) in an end-of-year composition recital.

As these and other participants continue in this longitudinal study and others, further insights may be gained into the ways in which musical and life experiences are reflected in the works of young com- posers, and we may begin to examine ways in which we can build upon these connections to foster composing in the classroom and beyond. Neither adults nor children function apart from cultural frames of reference. Both the individual and the context matter in acts of creating music. Children can and do already compose on their own at home, in school, and in other settings using computers or other tools available to them. Considering that the compositions created by the children in this study were clearly linked to their indi- vidual contexts, how do children negotiate the differences in inten- tion, meaning, and context when they are working on group compo- sitions in music classes? Can (or should) individual or group compo- sition experiences be constructed to take advantage of the power and meaning of context? What do students gain from individual and group composition experiences? Clearly, we have more to learn.

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Submitted January 25, 2002; acceptedJuly 22, 2002.

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