In 2017 the Swedish Government commissioned four Universities to plan and execute a project aiming to develop and test different models for long-term collaboration between Universities and Colleges and heads of Schools concerning practice-based research (Utbildningsdepartementet, 2018). This should be seen in the light of the decree in the Swedish education act from 2010, that declares that the Swedish compulsory school shall be founded in scientific basis and proven experience (SFS 2010:800; Norrestam & Alfredson, 2018).

These four Universities became the core of a practice-based test project between Higher Education and School, called ULF (Utbildning, Lärande, Forskning) [in English ELR, Education, Learning, Research]. The four Universities have collaborated with other Universities and Colleges and formed four hubs in the ULF project network. The Royal College of Music (RCM) in Stockholm has been a part of the project through the hub administrated by Uppsala University. The trial period ends in 2021, and throughout the period RCM has been conducting four practice-based research projects where music teachers in the compulsory school have worked together with researchers from the college in pairs and in one case in a trio, researching areas that have been identified by the music teachers as important for them in their daily work. These research areas have been: Leadership in the music-classroom; Interventions for musical knowledge development and participation; Music education and digitalization; and Norm-critical music education.

Five music teachers and four researchers together have developed multifaceted knowledge concerning, of course, the research areas of interest, but also about matters concerning arrangements supporting practice-based research. This could be called incidental findings, but we argue that these areas of interest may, in fact be part of the main findings, of the study made by the RCM, as well as of the main project nationally. The results are presented in an anthology called “A Prima Vista” which will be completed in January 2021.

In the symposia we would like to present results and further discuss:

-  How to define practice-based research? The definition of the term practice-based or practice-conducted research is not an easy on to make?-  The ethical codex for conducting studies that include humans, is in Sweden not updated to adequately meet the special issues that arises when practicing teachers are partaking in research that their head of the school department is engaged in. This concerns i.e., the matter of anonymization and bias.-  How do one practically take on the task of practice-based research? Little is written in Sweden on organizational matters. Our project has shown that issues like schedules, access to resources, and substitute teachers are just a few of many pressing organizational matters.-  Findings from the collaborative part-studies. 

References 

Norrestam S. & Alfredsson, S. (2018). Skola på vetenskaplig grund. Hur LUnd gör BFL/BFFL. I Vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet, (s 29–38) VBE- programmet, Lund.

SFS 2010:800. Skollagen. Stockholm, Utbildningsdepartementet.

Utbildningsdepartementet. (2017). Uppdrag om försöksverksamhet med praktiknära forskning. Utbildningsdepartementet. Diarienummer: U2015/03573/UH, U2017/01129/UH.

The national project of Skansen was established at the end of the 19th century. Here, the Swedish is being created during a national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all provinces of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s open-air museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has, as an institution, become significant for knowledge production and the understanding of Swedish culture in several ways. Our contemporary understanding of Swedish folk music also originates from this time and the very event – the establishment of Skansen. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate how, and in what way, music becomes manifested and displayed at Skansen. One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland, Sweden. Edlund, engaged as a fiddler 1896-1899, is portraited his first week at Skansen by the folk music collector Karl Peter Leffler. This book has, since its publication, been one of the oldest sources that later studies depart from. This research project, at hand, critically examines the origin of this manifestation of the Swedish. When it comes to Leffler’s transcribed music from Harg, it becomes clear that the music is not merely directly retrieved from the province to the capital. The presentation will show how national folk music is by far of a national origin but rather a conglomerate of international influences.

Just before the turn of the last century, the young and promising Swedish music ethnologist Karl Peter Leffler published Om Nyckelharpospelet på Skansen. In the writing, two detailed portraits are drawn of the fiddlers Johan Edlund and Jonas Skoglund, both of whom had been summoned from Uppland to contribute with folk music to the capital’s national project in Stockholm. The booklet has worked as the basis for several studies about the nyckelharpa, and folk music in general. The institution Skansen, is emerging as part of the Nordiska Museet under Artur Hazelius’ care. Here, the Nordic and the Swedish are being established during this national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all areas of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s outdoor museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has become significant for our knowledge of and how we understand Swedish culture. What kind of music was to become a part of the Swedish? One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – which in my case is one of the two fiddlers that Leffler highlights – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland. The project, which is ongoing, tries to map the musical cultural geography of the 19th century and the Roslagen’s parish of Harg with the help of genealogical research using records of parish catechetical meetings, old maps, old national surveys from Nordiska Museet, photos, newspapers, and private correspondences. What was the musical life like for those who lived at this place at this time? What occasions, venues and contexts were music present in people’s lives? Where did the music stem from? How did they learn how to play and where did the instruments come from? The emerging picture around this fiddler, his playing and learning, shows, among other things, that it is not only Roslagen that brings music to the capital – musical influences also travel in the opposite direction. The patrons of the iron mill, järnbruken, of Uppland, often live with their families in the capital during the winter months where they enjoy musical salons as well as the city’s opera performances. They return to the estates during the spring and summer months where parties and dinners with ballroom dances offer the local fiddlers to play. At these events, the fiddlers seem to expand their repertoire with the novelty of the mill pattern drawn from the city’s social life. A picture of a give-and-take emerges, not only between the upper-class milieu and the common people but also between the capital city and the rural perishes as well as music genres in between.

Strax före förra sekelskiftet utkommer Karl Peter Leffler med en skrift om nyckelharpospelet på Skansen. I skriften tecknas två utförliga porträtt av spelmännen Johan Edlund och Jonas Skoglund, båda tillresta från Uppland enkom för denna uppgift. Institutionen Skansen, som växer fram under Artur Hazelius försorg, etablerar sig under denna nationalromantiska era genom att samla folklig kultur från riket och visa upp det svenska. Föreliggande forskningsprojekt fokuserar på en av dessa två spelmän, Johan Edlund, nybyggare på torpet Sundhagen vid Stockby i Hargs socken, Uppland. Projektet, som är pågående, försöker kartlägga Johans liv och leverne och vad som ligger bakom att han finns på Skansen 1896 och då beskrivs som en framstående spelman, en representant för den genuina folkkulturen. Vilka andra uppländska spelmän fanns att spela med och lära av i gårdarna och byarna kring Sundhagen? Hur ter sig musiklivet för de som bor på denna plats vid denna tid? Vilka tillfällen, spelplatser och sammanhang fanns att spela på och med vilka? Den bild som börjar växa fram kring denna spelman visar bland annat att det inte bara är Uppland som levererar musik till Stockholm – musikaliska influenser reser även i motsatt riktning. Brukspatronerna vid Hargs bruk vistas, med familj, i huvudstaden under vinterhalvåret där de njuter av musikaliska salonger såväl som stadens operaföreställningar. De återvänder till bruket under vår- och sommarmånaderna där fester och middagar med sällskapsdanser erbjuder traktens spelmän att spela. Vid dessa begivenheter verkar spelmännen utvidga sin repertoar med brukspatronens nyheter hämtade från stadens societetsliv. Fram växer en bild av ett givande och tagande, inte bara mellan stad och land utan även musikgenres emellan.

Inom musikforskning används av tradition källmaterial som inspelningar, noter och textdokument i tryck så väl som handskrift. Denna typ av källmaterial utkommer numer många gånger i digitalt format (så kallat born-digital eller ”digitalt fött” material) Det är även så att äldre icke digitala källor digitaliseras. Digitalisering uppfattas ofta vara ett sätt att rädda äldre och skört material från tidens tand. Digitaliseringen kan leda till ökande möjligheter för forskaren vad gäller till exempel åtkomst och spridning. Men samtidigt kan den också leda till utmanande begränsningar i fråga om till exempel krav på teknisk utrustning och kompetens i digital literacy. Centrala teman i en diskussion om born-digital och digitaliserat källmaterial är bevarande, tillgänglighet, sökbarhet och kvantitet så väl som materialets kvalitativa innehåll.

På ett rent organisatoriskt plan innebär dessutom digitalisering och tillgång till digitalt material många gånger en hybridisering mellan traditionella kulturarvsbevarande samhällsinstitutioner och privata kommersiella aktörer, eftersom arkiv och bibliotek inte sällan köper in programvara och databaser från privata företag.

Förutom dessa tämligen konkreta problemområden kan användningen av digitalt material i vetenskaplig forskning även lyftas till en abstraktionsnivå. Det handlar om forskningens nav och vetenskapens kärna: Vilka möjligheter och begränsningar för forskning erbjuder det digitala paradigmet? Vad är att betrakta som forskning då källmaterialet är flytande och föränderligt? Vilka krav behöver vi som forskare ställa på vetenskaplighet i detta paradigm?

Teaching and Learning with Nimbra Technology

What do you do when you want to play a particular instrument and no teacher of that particular instrument can teach you where you live? This is the case for several music students at Ålands Musikinstitut (ÅMI) at Mariehamn. One way to solve the problem is to employ a teacher to travel to the school of music. However, the distance is always far – as Åland is situated in the middle of the sea between Sweden and Finland so such travel is not possible on a regular weekly basis. Another solution is to use digital communication technology that can enable such a music educational meeting. In this project, we analyse the educational and didactical affordances such long-distance communication technology provides. We will present the high-fidelity fibre technology of Nimbra with an extremely low latency of five milliseconds.

Given that latency, playing music together in real-time is possible. For a couple of years, a cello teacher from Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut (SMI) has been teaching students at ÅMI via this technique an arrangement that we have started to follow. In the research project, we will look at crucial issues of music didactic communication – sonic attunement; sound and frequencies, rhythm and tightness; visual contact; mutual eye contact, instrument, score; and tactile contact. By employing a multimodal social semiotic theory, we will present how we examine how multimodal semiotics translate to the digital presence. Does all the semiotics translate? If so, to what extent? Does it communicate at all “levels” of music knowledge development – from the level of beginners to advanced level? These questions lead to a recapture of frame factor theory regarding physical frames and the qualification of the student and teacher. An overarching aim of the study is therefore to map out the future need for music educational reforms with regards to the entrance of such digital equipment and the digital literacy that follows.