"Ich spiele zum ersten Mal Klavier": A Musicking Ethnography

Instrumental Lessons with Unaccompanied Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Young People

Abstract

This article shares experiences, considerations, and recommendations from musicking activities with young unaccompanied refugees and asylum seekers in Lucerne, Switzerland. I focus on the context of individual instrumental lessons, which the young people sought out or requested. Based on observations and ongoing discussions during lessons, as well as more formal interviews, I examine how teaching, making music, and talking about music with each person offered a glimpse into their lived experiences (both musical and otherwise), while also revealing how music-related issues mirror larger-scale issues such as access to resources, cultural participation, and understandings of empowerment.

Beyond discussing these issues, drawing conclusions about the impact of this type of musicking, and offering recommendations for future directions, I discuss two methodological approaches that define my work. First, I propose a “musicking ethnography” and explain how this approach shifts the balance of ethnomusicology’s traditional participant-observation from participation as a means of observing and understanding musicking, to musicking as the avenue for participation in the lives and stories of my interlocutors. It is therefore an ethnography not of but through musicking. I also critically evaluate the case-study nature of this work and argue for the benefits of focusing on individual stories within the context of forced migration, drawing on work in prosopography and its application in ethnomusicology (e.g., Shelemay, 2022). These aspects come together to highlight how the way in which one conducts this type of work and how one frames it is as important as the work itself.