National Conference on the Future of Music Education in Malta

26th-29 October 2010

A More Extended Idea of Music Education

Underneath the discussions I hear among music educators, I detect the same mutilated concept of “music” that circulates among practical musicians. Music educators need a broader view.

Music is not just an art (painting is, poetry is, but not music)! It is almost offensive to call it  “art,” because it is much, much more than that. In fact, music—or, to put it better, the "social use of sound"—is “nature” long before it becomes “culture.” Moreover, it is an area of intellectual endeavour in which all the sciences of nature and culture converge (mathematics, physics, psychology, neurology, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, aesthetics, etc.).

In other words, to believe that teaching kids how to "play or sing" equals "music education" is a dangerous fallacy. Music-making ability is not, per se, proof of acquired education. The great Beethoven provides a good instance in this respect. He was a man of genius, but not a musically educated person—not by any stretch of the imagination—because he knew nothing about the meaning, role, and function that music, including his own, had in society. Awareness of that would have been an indicator of "education."

When we overstress music-making as an important part of education, we automatically weaken its cultural status. Let us consider, for instance, the high rank that literature holds among our values; yet no one in their right mind would claim that, in order to bring students to literature, they need to write poems or novels or be able to act in plays by Tennessee Williams or Pirandello.

“To study literature,” therefore, does not mean writing novels or acting in a theatre at all. Regretfully, in our everyday parlance, “to study music” is instead taken as a synonym for “studying an instrument.” In other words, literature is approached as “culture,” while music is approached only as a “craft.” Teaching how to sing or play can be wonderful, but it has little to do with “music education” per se. What music education consists of is "helping students understand what music means to people, and why".

Delivered on October 28th, 2010.