Does Embodied Musical Experience Remain in Children's Memory?: A Study of Longitudinal Analysis of Japanese Junior High School Students

This study analyses whether embodied musical experience remain children’s memory. To find out whether this premise is true, we examined the case of Japan's most famous classical music festival Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto. Every year, this festival invites students of 70 junior high schools in the local area for opera performances. Every year, around 6000 students get to attend the excellent opera performance, free of charge.

We used an experimental design to collect data. Surveys were carried out three times in some schools, before and after the opera performance, and after six months. About 600 responses were collected who answered all three times. The survey questionnaire tries to gauge students' attitudes in the performance, their musical or cultural interest, and their consciousness to music education or school learning. We analyse these variables related to their media environment, school achievement, family background, and economic and cultural situation.

According to our analysis, we observed the increase of the interest of opera just after the performance; however, this effect was diminished for many students after six months. But some students remain these interests for opera or classical music. The cause of the difference derived from the method of teaching to embody musical memory. That is to say, some teachers succeed that students embody musical experience through the lessons held before and after the opera performance. We will indicate these causes and effects by the longitudinal quantitative analysis and the interviewed voices from school teachers.