Introduction

We are proud to introduce the proceedings for the 4th conference of MERYC, the European Network of Music Educators and Researchers of Young Children. The aim of MERYC is to create a forum for European research and practice in early childhood music education and to encourage greater communication and collaboration between researchers and practitioners across European countries. We are particularly concerned to create an environment where the strengths of European work - its heritage of methods and approaches, its particular philosophies and theoretical ideas – might be fostered and flourish. And to create an environment where the challenges of European work - the diversity of our many nationalities, languages, cultures and politics and rapidly changing societies - might be discussed and debated to lead to better understanding. As you read through this book of proceedings we hope you will agree that it represents a big step towards achieving those aims and ideals. The proceedings contain some papers that are strongly rooted in practice, some that discuss theoretical and philosophical ideas and some that report on experimental studies. It is always a challenge for education to integrate these many different dimensions so that they are heard in equal balance, with equal status, and can inform one another. Again, this is an aim of MERYC. The participants of MERYC2009 are educators and researchers representing many European countries including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and UK. MERYC2009 also had a special aim, to promote the participation of researchers and educators from the Eastern European countries, by network relationships and economic support. The abstracts were reviewed by a European Panel composed of 26 experts in music education, psychology of music, and the other topics offered by the Conference. This panel too was widely representative of many European countries and European expertise. We are grateful to the panel for their time and attention in reviewing the submissions. The MERYC network has wider international connections. It links with the ISME Early Childhood Commission, with the main organisation of ISME-International Society of Music Education, with SEMPRE-Society for Education, Music and Psychological Research, and with ESCOM-European Society for the Cognitive Science of Music. The 4th MERYC Conference is hosted by the Faculty of Education, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna. The Faculty of Education trains professionals who will work in the fields of school and extracurricular education. In the field of music education, the Faculty specialises in the training of nursery school practitioners, for which the Faculty has initiated the first and only programme of teaching in Sonic Education in Italy, specialises in training kindergarten and primary school teachers, and has initiated in several Erasmus exchanges and research projects. For all these reasons, the Faculty is the ideal venue for the MERYC2009. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna for the economic support; SEMPRE for the economic support given to some participants; ESCOM and ISME for the cooperation; the Department of Music and Performing Arts for the valuable collaboration in the Administrative organisation; the Dept. of Educational Science and the Dept. of Languages for the collaboration. We thank our colleagues of the MERYC Board and José Retra for their support; the reviewers of the European Panel, the Local Organising Committee members and the Faculty secretary for their hard work; Sandro Marrocu for his collaboration in providing editorial support for the Proceedings. We thank the Italian students who give their support and assistance during the Conference. We offer special thanks to the Faculty of Educati...