About the Chapter:
This chapter focuses on learning efficacy through Backward Course Design. A choral music class project entitled “Musical Responses to the Holocaust” taught Queensborough Community College (QCC) students Holocaust history through the eyes of its victims, and was part of the 2014-15 KHC-NEH Colloquium, “Testimony Across the Disciplines: Cultural and Artistic Responses to Genocide.” Course learning outcomes of empathy expansion through kinesthetic expression align with QCC outcomes regarding cultural awareness, civic engagement, and applying concepts to life. The chapter describes learning activities, provides evidence of student learning, and considers future avenues for course design and research.
About the Author:
Steven Dahlke, D.M.A. is a Professor of Music at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He received his D.M.A. in vocal performance, choral music, and music education from the University of Southern California with highest honors and his M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. Dahlke has published and presented in the areas of Choral Music Education, Academic Service-Learning, and Global Diversity Learning. He has soloed with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Pops, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Aspen Music Festival, among others. He conducts musical theatre and is co-director of Jazz Hands Children’s Theatre, advancing kinesthetic and empathic communication.
“What Do I Want?” Exercise – Students perform a structured question-and-answer chant to piano accompaniment. This exercise is intended to develop emotional awareness and its links to musical impulse. During solo sections, performance bravery and empathic connections are strengthened.
“Call and Response” Exercise – Individual Choral Music students improvise vocally to the piano accompaniment from a piece selected from the semester's repertoire. One student improvises his or her individual reaction to the accompaniment, and then chooses another student to react in improvised vocalization the first student's response. The exercise continues in the same manner, students unaware in advance of who will be selected to improvise. This spontaneity minimizes performance anxiety, and improvising to the accompaniment deepens students' connection to the emotional meaning inherent in the music.
“Empathic Movement and Vocalization” Exercise – Two choral music students respond in turn to improvised piano accompaniment using spontaneous physical gestures and improvised vocalization. After one student moves and vocalizes, the other student responds vocally and physically to what they just observed. In the QCC “Musical Responses” project, this exercise was also performed to the accompaniment of the project choral selection “Inscription of Hope,” and students were asked to consider the perspective of victims of the Holocaust as they moved and vocalized.
"Professional performance of “Inscription of Hope”
Varsha Appaji, “Music Builds Empathy” – In this TED Talk, the role of musical improvisation in empathy building is discussed, from the perspective of Indian musical tradition.
Antonio Damasio, "The Quest to Understand Consciousness" – In this TED Talk, the neurological connections between human consciousness, learning, and body consciousness are discussed. Damasio’s findings are an inspiration for the kinesthetic aspects of “Musical Responses.”
Jacques Launay and Eiluned Pearce, “The New Science of Singing Together” – This article reviews the research on group singing, physical and mental wellness, and social connection.
Elizabeth Mestnik, " What does the Meisner Technique Teach?” – This article discusses Sanford Meisner’s empathy-based Repetition Exercise, and clarifies Sanford Meisner’s influence on the pedagogy behind “Musical Responses.”
For more information about “Inspired Testimony: QCC Students Respond to Genocide through Music and Dance” on April 16, 2015, click here.
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