Music and religion are concepts, which have been continually associated with spirituality throughout the history of Western religion. Since the dawn of mankind, it has been considered that music has had a clear function about how individuals grasp their inner emotions to reach the transcendent and comprehend "Self". The aim of this thesis is to gain greater understanding as to how a group of young catechists in the Swedish Lutheran Church feel, interpret and construct their identities through popular music. An exploration as to how this specific group perceives concepts such as the Bible, church, spirituality, and religion was undertaken. The theory forming the basis of this essay is derived from a sociological perspective of postmodernism.

Title: Organic / Synthetic in today's creative music making. This work intends to find out what synthetically versus organically produced music means for a songwriter / producer as well as for an artist in their everyday role of occupation. What are the positions regarding these two methods and how do they relate to these concepts? This study also concerns the general view of music produced with each one of these methods and to which extent there exists prejudice towards them. The method used for data collection is qualitative interviews.

Recent papers and bills from the Swedish Government deal with the possibilities  of giving all Swedish citizens the possibility of their own creative actlvities in the cultural sector. This work is about where such actlvities shall be placed in order to make them obtainable  for all. As an example of creative work this work takes computer-based music-making. At the public library in Odense, Denmark there is a weil functioning sound workshop where the public gets the opportunity of making music with some assistance from the staff. This work shows  that also in Sweden  the public libraries are the most suitable  institutions  for placing studies for computer-based music-making  for the public depending  on the public libraries'  traditions in adult education.

This study was conducted in the Master program at The Music Pedagogical Center (MPC) at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Korta musikresor (Short Music Journeys) is the Swedish term used for a receptive method of music therapy adapted from the tradition of The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) and the theory and practice of Expressive Arts Therapy. The KMR method uses carefully selected short pieces of music, lasting between 2 and 5 minutes, to work on various psychological problems and life- crises. The music session is conducted in a slightly altered state of consciousness with a clear focus being established beforehand in a verbal dialogue with the psychotherapist. There is also the possibility of using artwork to process and explore the imagery after the music listening.

This study was conducted in the Master program at The Music Pedagogical Center (MPC) at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Korta musikresor (Short Music Journeys) is the Swedish term used for a receptive method of music therapy adapted from the tradition of The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) and the theory and practice of Expressive Arts Therapy. The KMR method uses carefully selected short pieces of music, lasting between 2 and 5 minutes, to work on various psychological problems and life- crises. The music session is conducted in a slightly altered state of consciousness with a clear focus being established beforehand in a verbal dialogue with the psychotherapist. There is also the possibility of using artwork to process and explore the imagery after the music listening.

Thesis in Musicology and Artistic Practice by Anders Soldh. Part of the work for the master?s degree. Studies from School of Music, Theatre and Art, University of O?rebro, 2007.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka och synliggöra några olika sätt att se på musik som konst (eller icke-konst). Som metod har jag valt att göra kvalitativa intervjuer med fem personer som, på olika sätt och inom olika genrer, skapar musik eller ljudkonst. I intervjuerna har jag försökt ringa in de olika personernas syn på konstbegreppet, på musik i förhållande till detta begrepp samt på deras eget skapande. Resultaten visar på fem individuella synsätt och personliga definitioner av konst. Vilka intervjupersoner som delar varandras synsätt varierar mellan de olika frågeområdena och några generaliserbara slutsatser går inte att dra, vilket inte heller har varit målet med undersökningen.

This thesis strives to demonstrate my increasingly phenomenological approach to musical composition in relation to the extensive body of musical works connected in different ways to the poetry collection ORDER by the Swedish author and play-wright Lars Norén. The hand, the touch, the voice, the space (environment) and its philosophical implications are scrutinised from a poetic perspective (my poetics). The question of language (the word), the sign (text), sound/noise/music and its immanent bodily qualities are focused and questioned in my own work as well as in primarily two case studies of the music of Pierluigi Billone (1960-) and Morton Feldman (1926-1987).The text reflects the emancipatory process my music has undergone the last 4- 5 years: moving away from language and text (representation) to body and sound, although preserving and nurturing the extended idea of the sign (as signification of sound and body) as a possible embodied vehicle in my composing and artistic thinking.The reader is invited through the extensive use of sketches and work methods to witness and follow this process as a manifestation of the ?doing? rather than the presentation or construction of an analysis in an academic sense.The thesis offers no solution and it fails to encapsulate all of the so-called ORDER-MUSIC (the music that is connected with Norén's collection of poetry) Instead it proposes a possible way of ?opening? the process to a basically phenomenological methodology inside the musical field of score based chamber music..

Female musicians and actors are being disadvanteged in the music industry, because of standards that prevents women from participating on equal terms. Unequal distribution of resources and status depends on power structures which creates an hierarchy. This study is about how an organization, Femtastic, works for equality and diversity in the field of music, how they experience their positions and their possibilities. Also how they relate to the cultural policy objectives. Femtastic is trying to create a structural change in the male-dominated music industry.

Title: Playing techniques of the eight-keyed traverso in Irish and Breton traditional music. The dissertation examines basic aspects of playing techniques of the eight-keyed traverso, as it is used in Irish and Breton traditional music. The background material consists of four interviews with four professional flute players as well as literature that considers the subject from different perspectives. The results reveals a consensus between those of the informants that are mainly playing Irish music while the informant that is mainly playing Breton music has a different approach to several of the technical aspects examined.Examensarbetet behandlar grundläggande spelteknik på åttaklaffig traversflöjt inom bretonsk och irländsk folkmusik. Studiens underlag består av intervjuer med fyra professionella flöjtister samt av litteratur som belyser ämnet från olika perspektiv.

Title: A study of how active therapist talks about the FMT method. FMT-therapists use music as a means of communication. The method is non verbal and uses musical codes to create a framework for the apprentice. The instruments that are being used are piano, drums, a variety of flutes and whistles. The FMT-method is a musical form of therapy that targets all functional disabilities.

In the following study I probe the social world of hard-rock music. By conducting interviews with four young male enthusiasts of this music I try to develop a general picture of this social world, as well as of the basic elements on which this particular subculture is constructed. The identity of a hard-rocker is based upon a number of factors beyond just a preference for that music. Throughout the interviews I encountered many implicit norms that one must followed in order to be able to see oneself as a true hard-rocker. I also found that from the respondents? perspective, the mainstream culture has, throughout the history of metal music, used various ways to counter the spreading of this genre.

This thesis aims to investigate the information habits of peoplewith a serious interest in music. What information needs do theyexperience, what information sources do they seek out to fulfillthese needs and what part does the public libraries play in theirinformation habits?To answer these questions a qualitative approach was used. Fourrespondents with a serious interest in music were interviewed.The theoretic framework was based on Robert A. Stebbins theoryon serious leisure and Karen E.

My interest in the problem I have chosen has grown from my practise as a music teacher in Swedish compulsory schools. It springs from my own reflection, that the content pupils meet during music lessons in year 4-6 of compulsory school, seems to vary. My ontological and epistemological standpoints belong to a life-world-phenomenological way of thinkink. This kind of thinking implies that human beings are indissolubly connected to the world, which means that the only way to access the world is trough human beings lived experience. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse how music teachers, who work in years 4-6 of compulsory school, talk about the subject music and its content in relation to the new curriculum, Lgr11.

Sammanfattning Zavgorodni, Nikolai (2008). Titel: Rock- och popmusik i undervisningen. En studie om betydelsen av musicerande på gymnasiets estetiska program (Rock and pop music in music education. Investigating the importance of music creation in high school?s aesthetic program). Syfte med denna studie är att undersöka vilken betydelse musicerandet har i elevernas musikaliska utveckling.