Teaching listenings: sound pedagogies between Murray Schafer and Sound Art

Abstract

This article draws an approximation between Sound Art and music education, especially that of R. Murray Schafer, based on the centralization of listening that both share as a fundamental characteristic. To formulate this approximation, we mobilize the concepts of sound-musical education (LATORRE, 2014), sound pedagogy (TINKLE, 2015) and listening pedagogy, which indicate an internal pedagogical character to the artistic work that would consist of teaching listenings. We begin initially from the Sound Studies discussion on the the musical avant-gardes of the 20th century and the concept of musicalization of sound (KAHN, 1999), which critically points to the split in the sound world between musical sound and noise, and identifies the musical paradigm as founded on a conception ofsound and listening  that  excludes signifyingand relational dimensions. Next, we explore  Murray Schafer's educational propositionsthrough his formulation of acoustic ecology and sound education, highlighting his formulation of a moralistic listening based on the dichotomy between silence and noise and the pedagogical limitations arising from this conception. Finally, we approach Sound Art by positioning its sound pedagogy methods as a possible opening point for the teaching of plural listenings, investigating the diversity of its understandings of sound and listening that would engender what we call relational listening. We conclude by proposing that Sound Art could contribute to the development of a pedagogy of listening that expands the scope and interrelations of sound and listening, consequently expanding the listening conditions that could be pedagogically approachedby a sound-musical education.