Music as Authentic Resiliency

In her article, Clark examines a variety of roles that music has played in wartime: communal inspiration for civilians surviving in ruins, uplifting escape for prisoners of war (such as in the holocaust), hype for soldiers destined to enter combat, and even negative use such as psychological warfare on prisoners in the forms of forced listening or humiliation.

The focus on this article is the examination of music and its role in resistance and human resilience. She goes on to cite specific examples of musicians being agents of resistance in a war-torn land.

One can participate in “Musiking” either socially with others, or individually. However, resilience is primarily a phenomena shared with others. Music as “resistant resilience” is quoted by Clarke as “living not with uncertainty but despite uncertainty” (p. 10). Music can bring us together in what Clark describes as “micro environments” or, protective bubbles amidst the chaos that surrounds us. However, she describes this not as “noise-cancelling headphones…. [but rather] communication, shared experiences, and protecting social-ecological relationships and resources” (p. 12).

The creative act of soundscaping with others is a bonding experience, and can become an expression (and exposure!) of our authentic selves to the world. Through soundscaping, we can become what Clark describes as “active agents” as we participate as listener and performer alike.

I became a big fan of soundscaping in my classroom for a variety of reasons. As a teacher, having the courage to break away from traditional rehearsal protocols to make space for this sort of activity can be difficult. (I’m happy to help with that, but that’s a whole other article!).

As we navigate times of difficulty in the world, I know that I can oftentimes feel helpless in that I want to do something, I want to process what I am seeing/hearing. Soundscaping can be a wonderful tool for us to engage our students in connecting to this concept of being agents of “resistant resilience.” As we all know, music can be therapeutic on so many levels. Sometimes we may find it appropriate to break away from tradition, and to acknowledge a need for our students (and ourselves) to immerse ourselves in the moment through soundscaping.