Choral music and computer games?

or: How Prof Dr Helmke Jan Keden makes music from the world of young people didactically usable

He has been at the University of Wuppertal for five months now and is bursting with vigour. We are talking about Professor Dr Helmke Jan Keden, music teacher at the school of humanities and cultural studies. He taught at a grammar school in Hilden for six years before deciding to continue his university career, first as a university professor in Cologne and now in Wuppertal. Today, he is on the "other" side and knows what schools need: Future teachers today basically have to be all-rounders and, particularly in the subject of music, have to be artistically adept as well as well-rounded in terms of musicology and music education.

We teach skills for independence

Keden believes that being able to deal with music competently is an important cultural technique, just as important as reading and writing: "There has never been as much music in our world as there is now. The increasing medialisation alone means that music is playing an ever greater role for many people. Listening to music alone is increasing from year to year. But people are also making more and more music, even if not necessarily in the conventional sense. So why shouldn't it be important to be competent in this area? I see this as an important task in teacher training!"

The ability to perform independently in the field of music should be encouraged from an early age. Support programmes at this age are therefore particularly important. Keden believes that broad-based early musical education in nurseries and music schools as well as support programmes in primary schools are extremely important. But there are problems here. For example, music is hardly ever offered as a subject in teacher training programmes. One consequence of this can be that teachers and children in daycare centres sing too low, as do untrained staff in primary schools. "Around 80% of music lessons there are taught by non-specialists," criticises Keden, "and many of these teachers often sing in their comfortable position, which is far too low for children and can result in vocal damage." The staff shortage can certainly only be alleviated in the medium term. Fortunately, extracurricular support programmes such as the Bergische Musikschule's "SingPause" programme can help in the short term: professional singing teachers come to schools twice a week and sing with the children. Singing teachers and children develop basic musical skills as well as a broad, international repertoire of songs. During the "SingPause", the primary school teachers remain in the classroom and also benefit from the professionally qualified singing.

Using music from the young people's world

"If I were to come into a school class and say I'm going to play you Mozart's piece XYZ and then we'll talk about it afterwards, many pupils would only be physically present," says Keden and pleads in favour of implementing the request from the curricula, according to which music from the real lives of young people should also be used. And this not only consists of pop music, but also has classical connotations in some areas. However, the (self-)socialisation of schoolchildren with so-called classical music does not primarily take place by going to the town hall or the opera. Keden therefore argues in favour of using the new media approaches for teaching the more traditional music genres: "If you show pupils that many classically trained composers now write music mainly for films and video games and demonstrate this using specific examples or even write music for these media themselves in class, the barrier to actively engaging with this supposedly complicated genre disappears."

In addition to classical orchestral and choral music, for which the trained horn player has developed many possible applications in schools, Keden is also interested in examining the possibilities of mediatisation for their benefits for future-oriented music lessons: "What do I have to consider when learning virtual instruments, for example? If a pupil proudly comes to me with their iPad and says: 'Look what I've written here,' then these are also musical skills that should not be ignored and may be useful for music lessons."

Historical and current phenomena of singing

Keden has dedicated himself in particular to singing and choral research. For example, he has explained the reasons for the disappearance of singing in schools in many publications. His article "Die Gleichschaltung des Chorgesangs im "Dritten Reich""*** is just one example of his exploration of this topic. "What interested me at the time was that we always portray singing today as something positive. But how was and is singing still used today in ideologies and dictatorships? I investigated how this was implemented in the Third Reich as part of my doctorate." After initial reorganisation and conformity, a whole series of works, a certain form of musical practice, indeed a musical style of its own, was later created, which was intended to influence the masses. "And this in turn was an important reason for the great musical crisis of singing after 1945," Keden continues, "so that singing almost disappeared from schools. Fortunately, the trend reversed around 10 years ago and the practical, reflective approach to singing, whether professional or amateur, is on the rise again. This is good, because the ability to sing is unique and should be investigated further. "We don't forget songs that we sing in childhood," he explains, and we know from dementia research that people who can no longer speak have not forgotten how to sing. When we sing, certain processes take place in our brain areas that are still awaiting further research.

Choral music in silent films

A current project by the internationally networked choral researcher is seemingly a contradiction in terms. In it, Professor Keden is looking at choral music of the Weimar Republic in silent films(!). The large amateur choral organisations, he reports, were huge at the time - figures speak of up to 1 million members - and had an enormous socio-political significance, which was showcased at large singing festivals. Despite the enormous costs, the choral organisations also decided to produce the new, still silent, mass medium. Researching its design techniques and intentions is the aim of Keden and his team.

However, Keden is not only fascinated by historical research, but also by current phenomena within choral and singing research. He realises that today it is not so much the melody that plays the key role in the success of a pop song, but rather the sound, i.e. the entire context that is to be suggested by an artist's voice. Here's an example: "If you imagine that up to 150 people are now working on the sound of the voice for a studio album, let's say Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor, then what should be conveyed is no longer the original voice, but a sound that is much more important than the melody of the song or the original voice of the singer and should convey much more content."

This makes it possible for people to identify with individual artists or bands across generations, even changing or expanding their sound to such an extent that it is even enjoyed by different generations. "It's interesting when they listen to concerts by bands that have been around for a long time, such as the Rolling Stones. There are now three generations going. Grandma and grandpa, mum, dad and the kids are there and they all feel addressed by this event, just in different ways."

Musical memory works extraordinarily well, especially when the songs are linked to memories of personal experiences.

"This shows," concludes Keden, "that music can play an incredibly important role in our lives. There is hardly any other medium that combines rationality and emotionality in us like music. Making young people competent for this is my transfer job."

Uwe Blass (interview from 28/07/2017)

*** Freedom & suppression. The synchronisation of choral singing in the "Third Reich" between voluntariness and coercion. In: Brusniak, Friedhelm; Klenke, Dietmar: From the struggle for freedom to leisure activities. Catalogue for the anniversary exhibition 150 years of the German Choral Association 1862-2012. Berlin, Deutscher Chorverband 2012. p.14-17.

Born in 1974, studied music and German at the University of Wuppertal and the University of Dortmund, graduated in 2002. 2002 to 2004 traineeship, until 2011 assistant teacher at the Protestant Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Gymnasium in Hilden, where he was ensemble leader at the municipal music school. Music school and lecturer at the University of Wuppertal; 2011 to 2017 professor of music education at the University of Cologne; since 2017 professor of music education at the University of Wuppertal.