Music and Cats / Book of Abstracts - Catalog - Page 20
Abstracts
Panel 4: Pedagogy
14:40 – 14:55
The Cat and the Fiddle
Feline Imagery in String Pedagogy
Ivan Tan and Lisa Sailer / Brown University, Community MusicWorks
Excited, shy, mischievous, affectionate, curious:
these are all qualities that are commonly attributed
to both cats and young children, which may
explain the wealth of pedagogical music that
specifically references cats. Building on theories of
animal behavior, human play, and social emotional
learning, and drawing on previous research in
anthropomorphism in children’s literature, we
explain how feline metaphors can be useful
conceptual tools in helping beginning and
intermediate string students to develop both
technique and musicality, as well as creating
classroom
environments
that
facilitate
discovery-based pedagogical approaches.
conventional children’s pieces…designed to
provoke the mind of the child or adult who is
playing and studying them.”
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit.
After addressing some of the motivations behind
the pedagogical use of feline imagery, we discuss
how this imagery appears in music, ranging from
extended techniques that mimic the vocal sounds
of cats, to musical representations of specific cat
behaviors, to broader references to feline cultural
associations. While drawing from a range of
method books and string ensemble pieces, we will
focus primarily on selected movements from
Aleksey
Igudesman’s
The Catscratchbook,
a
collection of 10 “easy violin duets” with
accompanying poems that are “not the most
18
