Family as interlocutor of children's musical project: a study from the musical socialization of children and young people in an orchestra

Abstract

This work, built from my PhD research, aims to reveal, understand and discuss musical socialization of children and young people who learn music in the context of an orchestra, focusing on the educational project, the expectations and conceptions of their families in relation to musical learning developed in the orchestra. The orchestra began as a proposal for social inclusion through music in a public notice of the selection process for admission of the student and stay in the group. In the first call, there was the registration of more than 1,200 children and adolescents from which the first group of students was formed, focus of this study. Their families are by low income households and live in distant neighborhoods of the central city of Porto Alegre, where the instrument classes and orchestra rehearsals are held. The study was constructed from the oral depositions of 27 families and 28 students participating in the orchestra in a qualitative perspective, supported by authors such as Lahire, Bourdieu, Gayet, Papadopoulos and Setton. Throughout the study, it was possible to understand that, while young people learn music in the classical universe legitimized by the orchestra, have other musical references and develop cultural practices in the universe of the popular. However, socialization marked both in the family as in orchestra show that the musical choices of students and their cultural practices are not separated from other spaces of socialization. Moreover, the results indicate that the musical environment of origin, built on familiar everyday experiences in interaction with other socialization instances, was not abandoned by social actors of this research throughout his musical training in the orchestra. They find loopholes to a contemporary mix of musical styles and experiences, where every space selects and opines on what you can hear, and what you can play. The research enabled to understand that the family plays an active role in the project for their children to learn music. These families are engaged so that children can continue attending the orchestra, a musical training space that is focused on training future professional musicians. Coming from the popular spaces, they develop a teaching job sometimes diffuse and veiled, and want to see the children happy with their choose professionally. In this way, students who are in the group also remain for a strong family mobilization, which works in parallel to the musical socialization developed intensively in the orchestra. The research built a new way of conceiving the family as an institution training and forming. The results contribute to a critical reflection on the educational project of parents, their expectations for the musical education of children and how the family unit reconfigures itself from musical projects of this nature. Consequently, the research contributes to an understanding of the impact that social projects in the area of music have on the families involved.