Mr. Murray Schafer, listen, they are talking about you: a systematic review of the conceptual representations of your ideas in the context of 21st-century education

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the different conceptual representations of R. Murray Schafer’s ideas in scholarly literature and their relevance within framework of transversal competences as a perspective of education in the 21st century. A systematic review of the literature was carried out using the PRISMA guidelines as a reference. Five multidisciplinary databases were searched between 2000 and 2024 in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The 29 scientific papers included in the review present perspectives from four continents, diverse areas of knowledge and different educational focuses and levels. The results show the relevance of three concepts: listening as a disposition, creative music education as a procedure and soundscape as an interdisciplinary resource. These concepts are approached from the artistic-musical and transdisciplinary fields, and represented from different perspectives: inclusive, aesthetic, social and economic. It is concluded that M. Schafer’s ideas are characterised by their topicality due to the transversal approach they promote, where creativity, social and environmental commitment, and the participation of all in musical learning are coherent with the challenges of musical education and training to which we aspire.