RESEARCH INTO MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE OF A CHILD OUTLINE OF THE PROBLEM IN THEORY AND RESEARCH PRACTICE

This paper presents various models of understanding and defining musical intelligence through cognitive, behavioural, and social-cultural approaches. The previous research, whose results are referred to in this paper, adopted either a quantitative (Joseph Matare) or qualitative strategy (V.Krishnan, KA.Machleit, J.J.Kellaris, U.Y.Sullivan, TW.Aurand). Regardless of the strategy, the previous research focused on intellectual processes (the cognitive aspect of musical intelligence), behavioural aspects (in the qualitative studies, improvisation was regarded as the indicator of musical behaviour, whereas in the quantitative ones, it was whistling or tapping one's feet as the respondents' reaction to music) as well as affective aspects (i.e., what one experienced while improvising in the qualitative studies and emotional reactions to music in the quantitative ones). The main difference between the two research strategies is that the qualitative studies have helped to better understand the attitude to improvising the characteristics of musicians representing different cultures (i.e. either the culture of the western countries or that of Africa) but their results cannot be generalised as they are culture specific, whereas the quantitative (psychometric) studies have led to developing the nomological model of musical intelligence. This model may be applied to clarify both the role of various factors and their interdependence as far as the functioning of musical intelligence is concerned.