Description
Music for Life: Music Participation and Quality of Life of Senior Citizens presents a fresh, new exploration of the impact of musical experiences on the quality of life of senior citizens, and charts a new direction in the facilitation of the musical lives of people of all ages. Authors Fung and Lehmberg clearly define the issues surrounding music education, music participation, quality of life, and senior citizens, discussing the most relevant research from the fields of music education, adult learning, lifelong learning, gerontology, medicine, music therapy, and interdisciplinary studies. At the heart of the book is Evergreen Town, a retirement community in the southeastern U.S.A., that serves as the backdrop for three original research studies. The first of these is in two phases, a survey and a focus group interview, that examines the histories and rationales for the music participations and non-participations of community residents. The second and third case studies take an in-depth look at a church choir and a bluegrass group, two prominent musical groups in the community, and include the perspectives of the authors themselves as group members and participant-observers. Fung and Lehmberg conclude with a challenge for the profession of music education: to act on this research and on the current advances in the field, to enable all people to benefit from the richness of music as a substantial contributor to quality of life.
Table of Contents
PREFACEACKNOWLEDGMENTSPart I: Setting the StageChapter 1 Music Education and Quality of LifeChapter 2 Impact of Music Participation on Quality of LifePart II: Looking into a Retirement CommunityChapter 3 A Big Picture from Evergreen TownChapter 4 Delving Deeper through Their WordsChapter 5 The Role of Music in Senior Citizens' LivesPart III: Case Studies of Two Contrasting Musical GroupsChapter 6 The Graceful Singers: A Traditional Church ChoirChapter 7 The Pickers and Grinners: A Bluegrass GroupChapter 8 Juxtaposing The Graceful Singers and The Pickers and GrinnersPart IV: Toward a New Path for Music EducationChapter 9 A New Mindset for Music EducationChapter 10 Practical Suggestions: Music Education for Life
