Children’s Home Musical Experiences Across the World

This book offers a fresh and diverse perspective on home musical activities of young children from a variety of countries, including; Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Kenya, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK, and the United States. Narrowing their study to seven-year-olds from middle-class families, the articles in this volume argue that home musical experiences provide new and important windows into musical childhoods as they relate to issues of identity, family life, gender, culture, social class and schooling. Though childhood musical engagement differs considerably, it has direct implications for a better understanding of music education and childhood development. Using a wiki to share data and research across time and space, this volume is a model for collaborative cross-cultural research and is centered on the home as a primary research site for children’s musical engagement.

Beatriz Ilari is Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Southern California. She has published five books in Brazil, including Música na infância e adolescência and Em busca da mente musical and is editor of Perspectives: Journal of the Early Childhood Music & Movement.

Susan Young is Retired Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Music Education at the University of Exeter, UK. She is author of Music with the Under Fours and Music 3-5.