The Legacy of Modernism – A Case Study of Individual Teaching in Music Composition

Application summary

In the 21st century, the pedagogy of composition has been of wide international interest, especially for children and young people. Composition pedagogy has hardly been studied in higher education, with research focusing on group teaching in classrooms and basic art education. This case study focuses on individual composition teaching and composition exercises in higher music education. The project documents the teaching method of composition professor Paavo Heininen (1938–2022) and analyses it in relation to the historical practices of composition teaching in Europe and North America during modernism. It also considers what kind of aesthetic and ethical ideologies are transmitted to future generations through composition teaching. I conduct the research as artistic research using the autoethnographic method. As an artistic researcher, my research position is unique: I examine the question from the inside as a composer and composition teacher, since outside researchers have had little access to composition classroom situations. The case study data consists of my composition exercises and the musical works I composed while studying with Heininen in 1997–2001, my autoethnografic descriptions in relation to composition exercises and assignments, and Paavo Heininen’s writings and interviews on composition teaching. The research produces a structured framework of the recent past of composition teaching at the Sibelius Academy. Based on the research results, I critically examine the relationship between traditional teaching practices, such as individual tuition and normative composition exercises, and the present. The aim is to open a discussion about the aesthetic legacy of modernism in composition teaching. Nowadays, composition students struggle with their professional identity amidst various conflicts. The composers are seen as ecosocial actors who combine ecological thinking and social justice in their work. This should also be reflected in composition pedagogy.