The creative music project: A cantometric analysis of fifth grade student composition.

There is an emerging consensus that the integration of creative activities in the music classroom facilitates student engagement in the process of music learning. Research is beginning to provide evidence that children are not only fully capable of creating authentic musical compositions, but that they enjoy and benefit from engagement in creative musical activities (Barrett, 1996; Davies, 1986, 1992, 1994; Marsh, 1995; Upitis, 1990, 1992). A complex issue in the study of children's musical creativity, however, is that of assessment. How does one measure the success level of a child's creative product? Several different approaches have been used, ranging from the quantitative and highly influential approach utilised in the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1974) to more qualitative methods such as that used by Gladys Moorhead and Donald Pond (1942). In the present study, we examine a method of music assessment called 'Cantometrics,' created by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1976), in order to determine whether it might present a feasible method tor identifying and profiling the most creative musical compositions of children.