Learning creative interpretation in the music classroom: the possibilities of the emotional expression method

The article discusses the problems of interpretation of a piece of music and presents a part of an extensive research on 26 filmed lessons, where the emotional expression method is used to reveal innovative possibilities for encouraging creative interpretation. The emotional expression method is used here as a way of stimulating musicality and musical, including interpretative, skills, and self-expression, by expressing the content of a work’s emotional intonations, or the experiences of a “fictional hero”, evoked by the integration with non-musical art forms. In this one alternative empirical experiment we used Emery Schubert and Dorottya Fabian’s taxonomy of expressive features in music performance, which was developed in 2014 and focuses on expressivity in music performance, defines the specificity of interpretations, determines the differences between performances, and allows to identify the style of the various different interpretations. The participants (19 female and 7 male students) were selected for the experiment by means of representative case sampling. The main aims of the 26 experimental lessons were to stimulate the pupil to develop a personal relationship with the piece being performed, its “fictional hero”, to improve the pupil’s interpretation of the piece, and to stimulate the discussion of moral values by asking specific questions focused on the fulfilment of the goals of emotional and ethical education. The results of the study were evaluated by four experts – teachers of different specialisations in the subject of the instrument. The evaluation procedure was based on the review of the experimental filmed lessons and the filling in of templates of evaluation protocols (104 in total) prepared in advance by the researchers. The study revealed the positive impact of emotional expression method on harmonising the music-making process, where traditional teaching makes it challenging to quickly achieve changes in sound quality, dynamics, phrasing, expressiveness, or stylistics; it helped to develop the student’s emotional competence and reduce stage anxiety. However, there were also necessary conditions for the application of emotional expression method: the pupil must have a good knowledge of the text of the piece of music, so that the “technical” difficulties do not interfere with the expression of the experiences of the “fictional hero” used in the method.