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Introduction
Øivind Varkøy
Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance has gained popularity over the last years. The theory is essentially a critique of modern society, particularly of the way that modern life has become increasingly disconnected from meaningful, authentic experiences. Resonance is proposed as an alternative framework for thinking about well-being, meaning, and social connection. Rosa highlights that a good life requires being connected to something beyond ourselves – a two-way movement between the individual and something else out there, in the world, as other people, nature, history, ideas – or music. Resonance is about being affected by something outside ourselves in a way that makes us respond in some form. Resonance is thus a profound yet elusive connection that shapes both ourselves and the world around us. In recent years Rosa’s concepts, thinking and discussions have received increased attention in the field of music education research.
In this panel the participants will shortly present his/her/their work in progress, texts for an upcoming anthology called Music and Resonance (Cappelen Damm Akademisk, 2026). Thus, the individual papers below are points of departure for the discussions in the panel. In this discussion the participants understanding and applications of Rosa’s thinking and central concepts related to music education will be the center of attention. The discussion among the panel participants will be moderated by Øivind Varkøy (who is one of the editors of the Music and Resonance book, before the discussion with the audience.
Individual papers
Carl Holmgren & Cecilia Ferm Almqvist
From Dissonant to Resonant Situations in Higher Education of Western Classical Musicians – Exploring Instrumental Teaching and Learning Through Hartmut Rosa’s Lens
Higher education for Western classical musicians often prioritizes technical mastery, hierarchical teacher–student relationships, and narrowly defined, competition-driven career trajectories. While these may produce skilled instrumentalists, they also risk fostering dissonance—where music and education become mute, indifferent, or controlling. This chapter asks: What does it take to move from dissonance to resonance in higher music education for Western classical musicians—for whom, under what conditions, and through what pedagogical practices? Drawing on Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance as both an analytical lens and a normative orientation, we offer a philosophically grounded reimagining of such teaching and learning.
Through two contrasting vignettes, we illustrate how pedagogical relationships, engagements with traditions, and connections to audiences and the wider world can either enable resonance—understood as mutual responsiveness and transformation—or consolidate dissonance. These portrayals highlight what is at stake in pedagogical choices and institutional arrangements.
We then anchor this analysis in prior empirical and philosophical work. This analysis shows how dissonant structures manifest in HME, and how Rosa-aligned arrangements could instead cultivate resonant educational situations. Central to this shift is a pedagogical stance grounded in the principle of uncontrollability (Unverfügbarkeit), where educators prepare, orient, and invite without seeking to control outcomes.
Finally, we offer invitations to reimagine teaching practices inspired by Rosa’s concept of resonance, with implications for curriculum, staff development, and institutional culture. This leads us to discuss the challenges, preconditions, and implications involved in realising such reimaginings. Such an approach could enable HME to cultivate more resonant educational spaces in which musicians become reflective, relational, and attuned to the world—potentially creating ripples beyond HME into professional practice, communities, and the wider cultural sphere, and ultimately contributing to the conditions of a good life.
Gaute Storsve & Mari Ystanes Fjeldstad
Aesthetic affinities and critical dissonance: Dialogues with Rosa from posthumanist perspectives
Our chapter in the upcoming anthology takes the form of a dialogue between two researchers who approach Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance with curiosity, critical distance, and a desire to think-with theoretical concepts.
Rosa’s framework has gained traction in music education research as a counterpoint to alienation and acceleration. As musicians, we find it particularly relevant to engage with his book When Monsters Roar and Angels Sing (Rosa, 2024), where resonance is explored through heavy metal. In doing so, we discuss the possibility of expanding resonance from a metaphor to a figuration, attending to its physical, musical, and material dimensions.
Drawing on empirical excerpts from a study with electric guitar and bass students, we explore how resonance emerges through volume, feedback, vibration, and bodily engagement. Through Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction, we read Rosa’s resonance theory alongside posthumanist perspectives, asking how interference, distortion, and friction might generate new understandings of learning, gender, and relationality in music education. Rather than rejecting resonance, we diffract it, stretching its meaning toward the more-than-human, the material, and the dissonant.
Eirik Sørbø & Catharina Christophersen
Resonant pedagogy
Rosa’s theory of resonance builds on a critical diagnosis of late modernity, where the accelerating pace of technological, social, and individual processes creates pervasive experiences of alienation. Rosa introduces resonance as a counter-concept: a way of relating to the world that may create meaningful connections. From this broader societal critique, resonance pedagogy was created as a relational orientation where students, teachers, and subject matter are invited into responsive encounters.
Resonance pedagogy, then, seems to propose micro-level responses to societal and structural challenges. While acceleration is a systemic condition, resonance describes an experience. Further, alienation marks an ongoing disturbance in our relation to the world, while resonance is episodic—a moment of relief in the middle of a disaster—and thus risks slipping into a kind of fleeting escape. Although Rosa’s sociological critique explicitly engages power, access, and inequality—showing how institutional and economic structures constrain the conditions for resonance—the concept of resonance itself often abstracts from these dimensions.
The task, then, is to connect the two: to recognize the structural pressures that produce acceleration and alienation, and to design pedagogical practices that cultivate resonance without losing sight of the broader inequalities that shape who can experience it, when, and how. We analyse two main themes that are related to Rosa’s conceptualization of resonant pedagogies, and the problems of the systemic condition in relation to individual solutions: transparent education and educational predictability. As a way to forge this connection, we introduce the explicit as both a diagnostic and a pedagogical tool, informed by readings of Byung-Chul Han and Gert Biesta.
Morten Stene
“I cannot sing”
A young teenage boy enters the music classroom, exclaiming: “I cannot sing!” The drama teacher assigned him a singing role in a school music theatre play. So, this is precisely what is expected of him: To sing. But he will not. Standing before me, his hands shiver as they cling to the sheet of music I have just given him. His voice is mute. Nothing had prepared me for this encounter. How can I teach him to sing his song? And why?
The concept of resonance entails how a subject is open to being touched by “something out there” and transformed by it. Resonance implies uncontrollability. It calls for vulnerability and the willingness to be vulnerable. Thus, resonance allows for responsivity and transformative relationships between the subject and the world. A relevant point of critique is that resonance and uncontrollability may become ideal types, elusive and pure concepts. In contrast, life itself or music making in a music classroom may sometimes be fragmented, alienating and contradictory experiences. Therefore, it is crucial to explore how music making unfolds through the dialectic of resonance and alienation to face up the complexity of teaching music in the late modern society.
The concept of improvisation in teaching and education is regarded essential for professional development and understood as a central skill to be mastered by teacher students and teacher educators alike. However, I will take a different approach by exploring improvisation in the music classroom as a resonance event, focusing on the concepts of resonance and alienation, uncontrollability and voice. In my panel contribution I will explore, through the lens of resonance theory, how music education can be conceptualized as an uncontrollable site for individual and social transformation. Thus, ethical and relational dimensions of music education are also highlighted and discussed through a resonance theoretical perspective.
Ellen Stabell
“This is when I’m most me – where I can play out my true self”
According to Rosa, experiences of art can provide both horizontal and vertical axes of resonance or even “resonance of alienation”, between performers, between performers and listener, between listener and the music, and between performer and the music performed. I will discuss such resonant experiences from the viewpoint of the classical performer.
Becoming a classical musician is a demanding endeavor and requires endurance and systematic practice over several years from an early age. This project starts with a wonder of why some individuals put down remarkable amounts of hours on practice, rehearsals, performances, courses and orchestra work in pre-college and college years that makes a professional career possible. What rewards do musicians currently find and did they experience during their childhood and teenage years in and through music? And how can it be, that many of them does not even experience it as hard work? In the paper, I will discuss whether Hartmut Rosa’s concept of resonance can shed light on the deeper reasons or motivations for musical achievements on a professional level.
I will provide an alternative entrance into understanding how or even why musical excellence is achieved, as most studies seeking to explain musical excellence have been concerned with issues such as amounts of deliberate practice, the nature of their goals or self-regulation strategies or psychological, individual factors.
Furthermore, a critical perspective will be addressed through looking at the musicians’ experiences of being alienated from the profession, from peers or the audience, of feeling distant or not belonging. Another critical perspective is a discussion of how the ability of resonance is often associated as the core element of having musical talent, and the consequences for what kind of family background and early life experiences this then requires.
Randi Clausen Aarflot
It's important to me, but I don't know if it's important to you!
In my chapter for the upcoming book, I aim to explore how Hartmut Rosa's theory of resonance can enhance our understanding of the potential impact of children's choirs within the Church of Norway.
Since the introduction of the Faith Education Reform in 2003, the importance of these choirs has remained ambiguous. Although the reform allocated funding from the Ministry of Church and Culture to ensure that all baptized children and youth aged 0 to 18 received Christian education, ongoing activities like children's choirs were overlooked. As a result, church musicians and choir leaders felt their efforts were undervalued and perceived as less significant than other educational activities. This led to considerable dissatisfaction with decision-makers and ignited internal conflicts within congregations.
Since the implementation of the reform, church musicians have actively campaigned for the recognition of children's choir work as a form of religious education. As a choir leader, I have been deeply involved in this effort, participating in numerous meetings with Church Council staff, presenting seminars, and contributing to publications that advocate for recognizing children's choirs as religious education. However, over time, my perspective has evolved, leading to mixed feelings about this endeavor. Describing children's choirs solely as religious education is akin to reducing a delicious meal to its nutritional components – it may be accurate, but does it truly capture the essence?
In my text, I aim to explore how children’s choirs can foster resonance and delve into the critical yet challenging role of uncontrollability in this process. I will also reflect on how choir activities can be viewed as musical, diaconal, and relational activities that potentially facilitate both existential and religious experiences. Furthermore, I will discuss how defining children´s choirs solely as religious education might lead to an overly instrumental perspective on music, potentially harming the field of church music and restricting opportunities for resonance experiences.
