The issue of whether music deserves a place in the general education and why music matters have been extensively researched by previous philosophers. Music can be examined a diverse human practice that results to ground-breaking philosophy of music education and provides critical perspectives on the nature and importance of performing, listening, creativity, musicianship and the development of education curriculum. Many past philosophers have paid little attention to many aspects of music and music education, and Elliot, through his philosophy, provides a useful analysis and multidimensional concept of music. Elliot illustrates why music-making and listening are a unique means of thinking that human beings can achieve. Music deserves a central place in education throughout the whole society. By examining the distinctive concept of curriculum as a practicum that illustrates the way music educators can fulfill their educational mandate, Elliot gives a unique philosophical through about music and its role in society. The paper focuses on the music education philosophy of Elliot with key areas of music, listening, creativity, music education, and the value that music education has on the curriculum and overall benefits of music education in schools.
What is Music?
Music can be viewed as humanly organized musical sounds and silences in a designed melodic, rhythmic, and textural pattern. Music is aesthetic in its nature and value. While the aesthetic as a concept had been previously used to refer to beauty, many philosophers have since used it in the field of art and music. Based on the aesthetic concept, music, poetry, and other forms of art are referred to as aesthetic objects that can create an aesthetic perception ( Elliott, 1995 ). The result of music is to achieve a special form of experience known as an aesthetic experience. Music is mainly distinguishable from other forms of art by its non-conceptual qualities. Music is accessible as knowledge and can be used as a subjective expression of feelings. Music is not a product-centered art, but a performance art that is a powerful form of social, political, and moral expression in society. Previously until the 18th century, music was viewed as performance art that is directed towards the functional demands of the wealthy people and institutions. However, this whole concept has since changed, and music has become a form of expression, either moral, social, or political.
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What is listening?
Listening can be defined as a process of giving attention to sound. Sounds usually come with the information that people need to enhance accurate understanding. The ecological theorists hold that listening entails all forms of perceiving and direct pick up of the information from the environment. Information usually arises from being conscious by means of attention, and therefore, listening entails attention to select, sort, retrieve, organize, and then evaluate the information. However, human consciousness engages in a continuous process of making a selection on where to direct the attention. The process of human listening is, however, never direct or immediately. Listening process is cognitive, and people become cognizant of the piece of information they receive. Listening is thoughtful and knowledgeable, and personal understandings and beliefs usually mediate the auditory process ( Elliott, 1995 ). People can act appropriately in an environment because they make inferences about what they hear, which is determined by their perception about the information. Alternatively, listening can be viewed as a covert form of thinking-in-action and knowledge-in-action.
What is a Musical Work?
Musical work is defined as an expressive form that can yield an experience of subjectivity. It is an expression in a way that can open a variety of possible ways of feeling. Musical works usually entail the performance and or interpretation of the musical design of the composer. The audible characteristics of musical works entail specific standards and traditions of the music practice. Musical work normally involves various interrelated dimensions of the musical information where the performer either uses the music to teach or express moral, social and political views with the view of creating a feeling and an experience to the listeners ( McPherson & Welch, 2012 ). Musical work can express emotions or represent in a sense and characterize the subjects, people, or things that are being described. The musical work used by the composer usually entails the apprehension of the cultural and ideological information of the society. Musical works have a design dimension that is made up of a pattern of rhythm, melody, and texture used to produce an aesthetic experience to the music listeners. The pitch and rhythm in the music are used by the composers to create a musical movement and completeness.
What is Creativity?
Creativity is the use of original ideas to create something with a unique and appealing outcome in music works. Creative is a term used to refer to a concrete accomplishment that can be acknowledged and judged by people as being important, unique, and appealing in the context of making. Creativity is highly connected with originality, innovativeness, and uniqueness of the work. The work is original if it is not familiar with other musical works. For a work to be referred to as creative, it has to be original on its self. Some composers divert from the traditional way of musical works to come up with a unique outcome. The departure from the previous works can be associated with originality. However, creativity cannot be separated from the previous achievements of the composer. This is so because creativity is never a product of a single individual, but rather a product of the three major forces; social institutions, cultural domains and the individuals who bring in new changes to the existing domains (Elliot, 1995). Therefore, previous achievements in the musical work form the main domain of creativity, and individuals can only change the domain that already existed and preserved through social institutions and cultural contexts, which are then moved to the next generations.
What is Music Education ?
Music education is an area concerned with teaching and learning of music. The field focuses on all the domains, including the development of skills, cognitive domain, and knowledge acquisition, which is an essential area for the learners. The teaching of music has gained more importance over the recent past, with educators considering it as a significant aspect of education. As a result, calls to include music education in the school curriculum as part of learning. As more need for people to learn music because of its perceived significance, curriculum developers are now considering to have taught of music in schools. Various cultures across the world have different approaches to music education, and this can be attributed to different histories and politics, which have a great impact on the musical work used by the composers of music ( Regelski, 2016 ).
Value of Music Education in School Curriculum
Including music education in the school curriculum can have importance to the learners. It will allow the students an opportunity to learn music, which can help them to systematically develop a form of intelligence through cognitive experiences that are not available in other ways. Music education creates a larger realm of meaning and aesthetic experience that is of value to the music learners. Music, as distinguished by its sonic feature embodied in its expression form, helps educate and refine the feelings of an individual ( Costanza & Russell, 2017 ). Having the cognitive ability to function musically is a significant aspect of intelligence. It helps the learners to understand the forms of expression and expand their cognitive abilities through aesthetic experience and enhanced creativity. It also allows the music educators to organize the music programs in methods that are congruent with the values and nature of music in a diverse human practice. The music education programs can be made to be reflective of the musical practicum.
What should be the focus of Music Education in Schools ?
Teaching and learning of music vary depending on the cultures and thus the need to have multicultural music education in schools. The focus of music education in schools should be to make the teachings congruent with the values cultures of the learners using a multicultural approach. The teachings should be reflective of the values of music education, and this can be achieved by getting a highly skilled and diverse music educator (Yoo, 2017). Good music educators are those with a high degree of musical sensitivity and pedagogical experiences. The focus should also be to enhance a feeling of aesthetic experience, enhanced expression, and need to promote cognitive intelligence amongst the learners.
Conclusion
Music is one of the most significant forms of art that can be used for expression of moral, social, and cultural views in the society. Music listening is increasingly becoming significant as the listeners select what message to take in and the one not to pay attention to. Since the 18th century, composers use various musical works to make an expression of the music, and the choice of the music work varies depending with the cultural backgrounds and social institutions that transfer the musical forms from one generation to the next. A good musical work is one with the highest level of creativity determined by originality. Due to the increasing value of music, music education is also becoming an important area of focus, especially the need to include music education in the curriculum.
References
Costanza, P., & Russell, T. (2017). Methodologies in music education. In Critical Essays in Music Education (pp. 255-266). Routledge.
Elliott, D. J. (1995). Music matters a new philosophy of music education.
McPherson, G. E., & Welch, G. F. (Eds.). (2012). The Oxford handbook of music education (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
Regelski, T. A. (2016). Music, Music Education, and Institutional Ideology: A Praxial Philosophy of Musical Sociality. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education , 15 (2).
Yoo, H. (2017). Multicultural choral music pedagogy based on the facets model. Music Educators Journal , 104 (1), 34-39.
