Musical Identities

Music is a tremendously powerful channel through which people develop their personal and social identities. Music is used to communicate emotions, thoughts, political statements, social relationships, and physical expressions. But, just as language can mediate the construction and negotiationof developing identities, so music can also be a means of communication through which aspects of people's identities are constructed. Music can have a profound influence on our developing sense of identity, our values, and our beliefs, whether from rock music, classical music, or jazz. Differentresearch studies in social and developmental psychology are beginning to chart the various ways in which these processes occur, and this is the first book to examine the relationship between music and identity. The first section focuses on Developing Musical Identities, and deals with the ways in which individuals involved in musical participation develop personal identities that are intrinsically musical. Chapters include: 'The self identity of young musicians', 'Musical identities and the schoolenvironment' and 'Personal identity and music: a family perspective'. The second section deals with Developing Identities Through Music and contains chapters on 'Gender identity and music', 'National identity and music' and 'Music as a catalyst for changing personal identity'. This is the first book to deal with musical identity from a psychological perspective, and will be fascinating and important reading for postgraduate and research psychologists in social, developmental, and music psychology. The book will also appeal to those within the applied fields of healthand educational psychology, music education, and music therapy.

Raymond MacDonald has been lecturing and researching in the psychology of music for a number of years, currently at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has also been Artistic Director for a music production company, Sounds of Progress, working with individuals with special needs, and is an experienced jazz saxophonist. David Hargreaves is Professor of child Development at the University of Surrey Roehampton and Visiting Professor of Research in Music Education at the University of Gothenburg Sweden. His publications which have been translated into 13 languages, include 'Musical Development and Learning: The International Perspective'. Dorothy Miell, Department of Psychology at the Open University has research interests in the study of close personal relationships, with recent work in two areas - the discursive analysis of accounts of identity development through relationships, and studies of the effects of relationshihp level and communication patterns on the nature of children's collaborative working, especially in creative tasks such as music making.