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Sinergias educativas
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Sounds of power and popular noises:
Analysis of choral practice from the
perspective of human rights and nature
Sonidos del poder y ruidos populares: Análisis de la
práctica coral desde la perspectiva de los derechos
humanos y la naturaleza
Janina Suárez Pinzón
*
Yanella Duarte*
Abstract
Since ancient times the ethos of choral music or chorality has kept a
singular relationship with the human being, through it he has
communicated, allied and fought for his rights in dissimilar
circumstances. In this case we propose the process of choral work
post pandemic of a choral group of elderly women and their
rehabilitation of vocal skills, rhythmic, attention, coordination, as
well as social relations. This process that is born from the University
of the Arts of Ecuador will be closely related to two components
such as musical education for vulnerable groups and human rights
where our objective will be to create, produce and disseminate their
recognition in the construction of methodologies in the visual and
sound field deriving in an artistic production.
Keywords: choral education, older adults, human rights, link with
society, higher education.
* Master's Degree Universidad de las Artes de Ecuador,
Guayaquil, Ecuador janina.suarez@uartes.edu.ec,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3418-0375
* Master's Degree, Teachers Universidad de las Artes
de Ecuador, Guayaquil, Ecuador
yanella.duarte@uartes.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-
0002-3418-0375
Article
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Resumen
Desde la antigüedad el ethos de la música coral o coralidad ha
guardado singular relación con el ser humano a través de ella se ha
comunicado, aliado y luchado por sus derechos es disimiles
circunstancias. En este caso se propone el proceso de trabajo coral
post pandemia de un grupo coral de adultas mayores y su
rehabilitación de habilidades vocales, rítmicas, de atención,
coordinación, así como las relaciones sociales. Este proceso que
nace desde la Universidad de las Artes de Ecuador estará
estrechamente relacionado a dos componentes como son la
educación musical para grupos vulnerables y los derechos humanos
donde nuestro objetivo será recabar crear, producir y difundir su
reconocimiento en la construcción de metodologías en el ámbito
visual y sonoro derivando en una producción artística.
Palabras clave: Educación coral, adultas mayores, derechos
humanos, vinculación con la sociedad, educación superior.
Introduction
Our qualitative research established relationships between choral
music education and human rights in order to identify methodologies
and good practices applicable in the priority territories for the
University of the Arts - UArtes to carry out its link with the
community. In this regard, we recall that the Ecuadorian
Constitution has made reforms to change the focus and offer of
public education in the arts and thus be able to contrast with the
region: Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, countries where
there are still universities of the arts, free of charge.
As an essential human right, education is oriented towards the full
development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity,
in accordance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights. This is associated with the San Salvador
Protocol, which promotes respect for human rights, ideological
pluralism, fundamental freedoms, justice and peace.
The question addressed in our research was related to the
responsibility that Higher Education Institutions - HEIs would have
to assume for a socialization of actions to achieve collective
strategies that allow an implementation and educational
strengthening in human rights in Ecuador.
HEIs structure bases for citizenship training by strengthening links
between members of the educational community, however,
according to what was analyzed by Hernández and De la Cruz Flores
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(2017) in the Latin American context, teaching methodologies that
do not connect with social needs and practices that respond to the
conditions experienced in the localities persist.
At the global level, States will ensure inclusive, equitable and quality
education and promote lifelong learning opportunities based on
human rights as expressed in goal 4.7. of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and found in the Guiding Principles for
Human Rights Education Activities established by UNESCO in its
World Programme for Human Rights Education.
Articles 12 and 71 of the Organic Law of Higher Education of
Ecuador speak of ensuring the same possibilities in access,
permanence, mobility and graduation from the Higher Education
System without discrimination of gender, creed, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, culture, political preference, socioeconomic status,
mobility or disability. The above was reinforced by the Higher
Education Council - CES with its Regulation to Guarantee Equality
of All Actors in the Higher Education System.
Education is a constitutional right based on human rights that
promote holistic development, gender equity, justice, peace and
interculturality. Since 1998, Ecuador's public policy priorities for the
achievement of Sumak Kawsay have had to do with integrating all
levels of formal and non-formal education into the National Human
Rights Plan.
Specifically, by determining parameters for diagnosis and territorial
work, UArtes strengthened networks based on cooperation and
solidarity to guarantee knowledge and the exercise of full
citizenship. It is important to highlight that by building citizenship,
the resilience of the democratic system in contemporary times is
being rethought.
As UArtes our intention is reciprocal learning, co-responsibility and
dialogue of knowledge to envision collective solutions for social and
institutional transformation. These solutions project us as a
university that explores artistic practices and pedagogical processes
by creating and producing together, not only in the city of Guayaquil
but also in the country. For example, the problems that have been
addressed in organizations, educational system, neighborhoods or
villages such as the circulation of the arts, environment, food
sovereignty, gender, memory, orality, heritage, public space, land
conflicts, interculturalism and public policies.
The challenge of our research was to generate an inclusive and face-
to-face space with older adults through choral singing that brings
together ancestral knowledge to raise aesthetic and learning
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experiences in accordance with reality and its limitations. Thinking
that with inclusion we would improve socio-cultural cohesion in the
group, we planned weekly workshops where musicograms would be
carried out for the graphic representation of works, as well as to
elaborate portraits or soundscapes of the environments of the people
involved.
In Ecuador, choral singing has been developed for 50 years in
schools, universities, banks, hospitals and companies in such a way
that they had a choir to represent them. According to our research, it
was in 2008 that community outreach projects on choral singing
were studied in institutions of higher education. Likewise, 13 years
ago the Municipality of Guayaquil implemented studies in
gerontological centers to prolong the autonomy, self-esteem and
assertiveness of older adults.
Within the framework of the II Higher Education Meeting on Human
and Natural Rights. Approaches for its understanding and
implementation in contexts of crisis, which will take place in
December 2021, we will contribute with a choral intervention called
"Sounds of power and popular noises" starring 22 women from
Guayaquil who voluntarily responded to a call by the teacher Yanella
Duarte. The aforementioned choral intervention is part of the project
Toolbox for Non-Formal Education of the Community Network of
Human Rights and Nature Defenders of Guayaquil led by the teacher
Janina Suárez Pinzón. This project was declared winner of the IV
Ibero-American Prize for Human Rights Education "Oscar Arnulfo
Romero" organized in 2021 by the Organization of Ibero-American
States, the National Office of Ecuador, the Ministry of Education and
Editorial SM.
Since September 2021, the women's group has been meeting twice a
week to rehearse and train a repertoire that promotes the
enforceability of human rights. The choir was assisted by Jhilmar
Muñoz and Alexander Morales, UArtes students doing their pre-
professional community service internships. Through the choral
experience the women were able to re-establish skills and body
rhythmic competencies that are often lost over time. Because an
adult body marches slower, the rhythmic exercises enhanced
selective attention, spontaneous language, coordination and
psychomotor relations of social, interpersonal and intrapersonal
relationships. In addition, these musical exercises addressed
articulation, phrasing, verbal and non-verbal communication.
Then, at the moment of participating in the musicograms and the
assembly of the sound portraits, a remote and operative memory was
stimulated through the memory of the lyrics of the songs and of the
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personal facts that developed a cognitive area. In the socioemotional
part, a mood of improvement was maintained in the women with
smiles and cooperative attitudes. In the interaction with their
classmates, inside and outside the classroom, they felt in a pleasant
and accepting environment, since it is no less true that at a certain
age, indifference and abandonment are common forms of
mistreatment towards older adults. On the other hand, in the physical
motor area, breathing and mobility mechanisms were progressively
stimulated, that is, balance, perceptual, motor and rhythmic
coordination and dynamic coordination.
Our research contemplates the problems that are experienced every
day in the Ecuadorian context, Gentilli (2015) emphasizes that there
are large gaps linked to discrimination, conditions that promote
poverty and deep inequalities, scenarios that are lived within the
daily life in Latin America. Similarly, another triggering factor that
causes a deep rooting of these conditions is due to the fact that
various elements entrenched in the culture and prejudices cause
phenomena of invisibilization of human rights, as expressed by
Daros (2013), is a problem that causes all kinds of violations of rights
whose root lies in ignorance, since what is not known, is not
practiced, is not disseminated and is not part of the culture in the
different territories.
In this sense, another of the barriers that foster deep social
inequalities in Latin America is growing: the normalization of
discrimination and violence, which according to Flores-Hernández,
Espejel-Rodríguez and Martell-Ruíz (2016), represent one of the
social evils that are integrated into normalized daily practices in
families. The fact of normalizing shouting, connecting authority to
permissibility to disrespect, shout and impose, added to stereotyped
behaviors with discriminatory bases with respect to gender, social
class and situations of vulnerability.
In the face of these daily scenarios, education should be the key to
break with discriminatory conceptions, violence and inequalities;
however, the problems in Latin American educational environments
represent another factor that reinforces the problems to develop
actions that represent a real social change. Lorente (2019) indicates
that education in values has been left in the background, it has been
downplayed, first due to the lack of appropriate methodologies for
its current teaching, secondly by prioritizing other subjects more
linked to the exact sciences, over the social sciences and not
reformulating the educational curricula to address the real
shortcomings that affect harmonious coexistence in society.
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An education based mainly on the repetition of models that do not
respond to learning needs or to the development of meaningful
learning, in addition to profound inequalities of access, relevance
and availability of resources for full learning. In synchrony with
Mujica's (2007) questioning of what it means to educate in human
rights, the need for values education to regain the importance it
deserves is evident; but if educational policies are not directed
towards changing their approaches, it is essential to exercise action
plans from the communities, with emphasis on collaborative, joint
work, to create bridges between formal and non-formal educational
scenarios.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand what Giménez and Valente
explained, regarding the fact that the only way to achieve these
changes is through constant work, through strategies that lead to
results associated with solving problems related to inequality,
discrimination, violence, invisibilization and prejudice. These
actions should aim at the development of public policies that
accommodate the different voices and needs of the communities
through the practice and strengthening of social fabric based on the
respect and practice of human rights.
Vásquez, Loza, Analuiza and Espín (2019) emphasize that in order
to find feasible solutions to these problems, it is necessary to
consolidate actions focused on the trilogy: Social Responsibility,
Human Rights and Education for Peace, because the conjunction of
these three elements in actions focused on the integral development
of citizens in our continent is the only way to enable true sustainable
human development.
The structural basis of the project seeks to strengthen the links
between society and educational institutions, in this case, to
strengthen the shortcomings associated with the essential functions
of higher education, that is, to put the social function of the
university as a starting point.
Deepening in the method of Jaques-Dalcroze and the importance of
musical education, the relationship with rhythm is analyzed in order
to establish corporeal bonds using the qualities of music. This close
relationship prepares the older adult for better auditory and gestural
skills. Also Carl Orff and his method of emphasis on verbal and
corporal expression provides elements for the learning process
adapted to the senior choir.
Gackle and Fung (2009: 65-77) choral singing improves aspects of
education, medicine, psychology and politics. An example is the
research of the Australian Terrence Hays and Fernández Mayo, who
state that beyond the time, customs and borders, choral music has the
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evocative effect or the display of sensitivities of emotions and
memories when hearing it; and the fun and sharing in group
provoking enjoyment as a tool of preventive medicine.
Materials and methods
In the initial evaluation, the call for the choir was launched by the
UArtes' social linking direction with the reception of older adults in
a registration form and audition of voices to select the types of voices
by tessitura. A survey was made at the beginning of the program and
later selection of choral arrangement of musical works that promote
values and rights. Two of the works to be performed were made by
the students of the subject "Cátedra Libre" of the Musical Arts
career. Subsequently, we began with the rehearsals for the learning
and interpretation of the selected works.
The methodology to be used in the research is descriptive and
exploratory where a linear and longitudinal structured follow-up of
the cognitive processes and musical skills for the socio-emotional
development of older adults will be established in order to shape
ideas on human rights and verification of behaviors of the age we are
addressing.
The research instruments included semi-structured surveys that
included the identification of the respondents in terms of age, sex,
occupation, educational level, choral experience, follow-up files,
record of musical aptitudes and evolution in the learning of choral
works. The voices were classified into three groups: first, second and
third voice. The sample is composed of 20 participants from a female
choir mainly because there are only two men.
In the technical training of the choir, different types of exercises
were performed, such as: relaxation, breathing, vocalization,
concentration, memory, rhythm, expression to develop intonation
and expressiveness and integration into the group. The following are
some examples of exercises performed with the choir of older adults
at the UArtes facilities:
Exercise 1: Procedure aimed at: Muscles of the face and shoulders
Massage the neck with the fingertips.
Rotate the head sideways.
Move the arms forward while breathing in and slowly lower them
while breathing out.
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Exercise 2: Procedure aimed at: The muscles of the back and
abdomen
Rotate arms in circles up and down, bring arms up and down.
Tighten and release the hands.
Moving around the classroom vocalizing
Exercise 3: Procedure aimed at: Execute rhythmic patterns with the
breath.
Hold your breath and slowly exhale in time with crotchet, quaver and
sixteenth notes.
Inhale in 4 beats and exhale in 4 beats.
The procedure was then repeated more quickly.
Exercise 4: Procedure aimed at: Relaxation of the face
Make exaggerated grimaces, as if we were chewing gum.
Repeatedly.
Exercise 5: Procedure aimed at: The expression
Say a word and relate with gestures its representation with the body.
Examples of words: air, rain, fire, house.
Exercise 6: Procedure aimed at: Classification of intonation pitches
Say a phrase while singing with different intonation. We will go
from low tones to high tones. Example: The blouse is green.
Exercise 7: Procedure aimed at: Concentration and rhythm
Make two groups and each one clapped a rhythm, to establish a
polyrhythm in the group.
Exercise 8: Procedure aimed at: Group integration
Groups of 5 people are made and each group has to represent an
animal only with onomatopoeic sounds and sung melodies.
Exercises 9: Procedure for auditory and rhythmic training
In vocalization, exercises are done for the development or
maintenance of skills when we listen to different voices sung at the
same time, thus developing the harmonic ear.
Results
From the scope of life projects for the elderly, the analysis of the
rehabilitation processes of vocal, rhythmic, attention, coordination
skills, as well as social relations, is assumed for the conformation of
their individuality. From this consideration, these processes and
relationships with society are perpetuated in their personal self-
realization project. We were able to verify that there is a presence of
99% of women as for men and the ages oscillate between 65 and 70
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years old, with a professional educational level mostly and a very
marked previous choral experience.
In the case of post-pandemic rehabilitation of general skills, there is
evidence of a progressive improvement in the performance of
exercises; at the physical-motor level, sensory stimulation was
reinforced and relaxation and stress were promoted. At the socio-
emotional level, self-esteem and communication skills were
improved.
The cognitive level stimulated short-term memory through the
learning of songs, orientation in reality. In the behavioral part, it
improved the quality of life in the spiritual and existential sphere,
leaving as products the recordings of a choral piece made by the
student Misael Bacasela of the subject Free Chair of Musical Arts of
the UArtes conducted by Professor Rafael Guzmán with a focus on
rights through the content of the work, an Ecuadorian song La bocina
of the Inca fox genre by the Ecuadorian composer José Rudecindo
Inga Vélez and the Latin pop song Somos uno by the singer Axel
and Abel Pinto.
Discussion
The concepts of development and aging have been presenting
variations over time. Stereotypes, myths and negative prejudices
regarding old age have also changed, however, these populist
progressions must change and foster inclusive, equitable and quality
education based on human rights and lifelong learning.
The research was able to demonstrate in general terms, that music
education for older adults represents the possibility of improving
their quality of life, and thus delaying the deterioration of
biopsychosocial processes, but at the same time emphasizes that they
not only need recreational or leisure activities but also an integral
attention of intervention and prevention from the exercise of social
responsibility and methodological planning, through a systematic,
responsible and integral vision.
Although singing in a group is not the solution to all daily problems,
it can be an accessible tool to alleviate the social reality in a society
that shapes its identity from logical, aesthetic, ethical, metaphysical
and vital values.
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