Alla scoperta della storia nella musica d’arte: esperienze di analisi percettiva

Abstract

In the field of music, especially in Italy, the transmission of knowledge is confronted with a widespread lack of basic training, even in higher education. The self-assessment of educational background required of university students as part of the general national evaluation policy often places the musical disciplines in a statistically critical area. This also happens in the context of academic humanities courses that do not specifically focus on musicology. In cross-disciplinary data analysis, students’ perceived lack of background knowledge in relation to their undergraduate studies is partly tolerated as normal, and partly seen as a weakness to be addressed through targeted interventions. In specific cases, as a possible remedy, it often happens that Musicology teachers are encouraged to re-evaluate their programmes from a ‘presentist’ perspective. On the grounds of «presumed student needs», a reduction in historical-musical content and artistic repertoire is often advocated in favour of a greater, more explicit focus on the music of the younger generations.
It can also happen that the musical disciplines, generally considered to be relaxing and pleasant, are excluded from the unspecific study plans as non-essential because of the difficulties encountered by the students. While it is wise to resist easy presentist tendencies, this does not exempt musicologists from seriously addressing the issue of the well-being of young people and adults in music education, or rather, the correct perception of their often unrecognised abilities and potentialities in this field. Shifting attention from content to methods and soft skills, the paper addresses this issue by focusing on the notion of perceptive and maieutic experience as applied and observed in relation to the use of artistic repertoires in advanced educational settings, with brief references to independent adult education in non-humanities professional settings.