Threatening Behaviors: Transgressive Acts in Music Education

Threatening Behaviors: Transgressive Acts in Music Education Patricia O'Toole Ohio State University How can a twelve-year-old girl who likes to sing be threatening? Historically, singing has been a culturally appropriate and preferable activity for delineating femininity and youth. What better avocation to delight family members and attract suitors? Charlotte Church, a twelveyear -old Welshsoprano who became an overnight classicalsuperstarinlate 1998, hasbeendescribed as "uncloyingly cute...[with] such an appealing personality (withjust enough touch ofcheek) that you'd almost rather have her as a dinner guest than on your CD player."1 What could be threatening about Charlotte Church? In many respects, she is the patriarchal feminine ideal with her lyrical soprano voice and angelic youthfulness stereotypically suggesting one befitting a pedestal and gentle care, not an intimidating, imposing figure to fear. In an interview on National Public Radio, Church revealed that many voice teachers have discouraged pursuit of a career because of her youth and the likelihood of vocal damage. She explainedthat some criticsevensuggestedthatshe could lose control of her mental faculties if she persisted in singing professionally.2 These reactions only make sense to those raised within the institution of Western classical music. Classical musicians use professional common sense and medical/scientific reasoning for denying Charlotte, or any other twelve-yearold , a professional singing career. But I am suspicious of the simplicity and apparent neutralityofsuchcriticalresponses; thearguments lose persuasiveness when examined from a position outside of the institution of classical music. Could voice teachers be responding from a position of anxiety about the longevity ofthenown careers,as ifonlya long careeris a successful one? Could their dismissal of Charlotte be based on disdain because her path to London Palladium and the Royal Albert Hall was through winning karaoke competitions and appearingon children's television programs instead of the traditionally arduous and competitive path most recital and opera singers must endure? Could her lack of appropriate reverence for the art form (she has been quoted as saying, "I don't listen to classical music really. . . . I'm not sure if I want to sing opera. ... I can't decide.")3 and her abundant opportunities invoke pejoratively polite chuckles or disdain from less fortunate professionals? Or, does the slender, youthful Charlotte ignite pangs ofinsecurityabout femininityand aging that dogs allfemaleperformers? Examiningtheplacesfrom which one speaks reveals much about one's ideological assumptions. Church transgresses cultural, political, gendered, and ageist boundaries. For the purpose ofthis paper, a transgression is defined as an act ofdisregardingprinciples,beliefs,regulations, and standards.For an act to be read as a transgression, then, onemust exarninewhat beliefsareoperating as normative and who holds those beliefs (institutions, particular positions within institutions, individualswithspecificinterests,and so on). When the transgression yields success, pleasures, and/or the potential for establishing contrary beliefs and standards, it becomes threatening. For example, to frame Church's career as transgressive means to suggest that she failed to observe traditional beliefs and standards upheld by most professional singers (she is too young, participates in karaoke competitions instead of opera competitions, and so on). This©Philosophy ofMusic Education .Review10, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 3-17 Philosophy ofMusic Education Review transgression is threateningto professional singers and to the institutional values of music because her path to success creates different values and beliefs about becoming a professional singer (anyone with a good voice can become a professional , as opposed to only those with the "proper" training) and about music (maybe I'll sing opera; maybe I won't), which are further validated because of her success. In this paper, I examine Music Education's institutional4 values by asking, in several different contexts, "Who does Music Education think its participants are?' I borrow this mode of inquiry from Elizabeth Ellsworth5 who refers to this question as the "mode ofaddress,"a concepttaken from film theory. All films address a particular,preconceived audience. For example, Disney animated movies address an intentionally young audience, "grossout " comedies address teenagers and undergraduates, and romantic comedies address middle-age women. Some movies are intendedto have mass appeal and play in large, commercial cineplexeswhileothersareintendedforarttheatre audiences who enjoy films operating on racial, political, and/or sexual fringes. Movies are not onlyintendedfora specificaudience,but theyalso construct their audiences in ideological and hegemonic ways. For...