So it is a tad long, at least for a blog post; but I thought it might be an interesting share. I hope it helps you understand music (or at least how I understand it) a little bit better. I thank God for the gift of letting me teach it everyday.
"When a child is producing music by
playing or singing, either alone or in a group, and when his technique is being
used in the service of producing sounds expressively his understanding of the
musical content of the piece he is performing can be very strong and very
immediate."
"The laboratory-like atmosphere of a
performing group, in which the living stuff of music is right there to be
handled, to be examined, to be manipulated, to be shared, is so educationally
rich that it can be considered the best example of what meaningful education
can be."
/Bennett Reimer
"Art is the result of man's need to
transform his experience symbolically."
"The only sound basis for music
education is the development of the natural responsiveness that all human
beings posses."
/Charles Leonhard and
Robert. W. House
The
study of music is an ancient endeavor, and its study has been an academic
matter since the evolution of Western academics. Wherever humans are found,
there music will also be found, and the study of our musics is a study of
ourselves. In this digital and global age, music is at its most accessible and
cheapest peak it has ever experienced, and yet very few really understand its
ubiquity. This is the purpose of the music educator, to seek understanding in
music through its function, machinations, importance, and contribution to and
in the human life, then share these discoveries with others.
What
is music? This is the question that many have tried to answer, and the question
that plagues many floundering music programs in the schools today. An
acceptable answer must be sought to this question before any amount of real
music teaching can be had, though I am not personally certain that one's answer
to this question will remain static throughout his or her lifetime. If music is
a reflection of life, then our understanding of it will too grow as we come to
experience more and more of the human condition. However, some things can be
readily understood about music at the start of the journey. The ancient Greeks
included mousikos as part of their
classical quadrivium directly from their observation of the world around them.
They observed the stars above them, moving in perfect harmony with each other;
they called this the music of the spheres. They observed the rhythm of the
body, the pulse of the heart, and the activity of the emotions, and they called
this the music of the soul. Of course, to them this was not music in our sense
of the word "music." To them there was a life-thread that bound the
world together in harmony and dissonance, and it vibrated vibrantly wherever
humans cared to look for it. This was the design of the world. This was music.
What we played on instruments and sang with our voices was our aural interpretation
of this vibrant life-thread.
When
we listen to Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony, or Davis's "Kind of
Blue," or Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" we are listening
to an interpretation of some facet of life. This is what we term the aesthetic
experience of music. All art (all expression) is some sort of aesthetic
rendering of someone's viewpoint of the world (that is, the sensory experience,
though the aesthetic term includes also the sense of the intellect). The visual
arts appeal to the eyes and the heart and mind, the aural arts appeal to the
ears and the heart and mind, and then there are those arts that appeal to all
three, and then to the performers, touch (and even smell and taste) can find
its appeal. So music is that which appeals to the ears, and thus through the
ears to the heart and the mind (it is the sense of the heart and mind we term
interpretation).
And
thus the study of music is the study of the world. However, in teaching music,
we also have the gift of studying performance, interpretation, and thus
creativity. It is one thing to hear a great piece of music, it is another to
understand it, and it is yet one more thing to create it. In music education,
we strive to open the minds of our students to the world of creative thinking.
This is the goal of performance in music education, and it is only through
performance this last part of music can be taught. The teaching of performance
is thus two-fold: first, we must teach our students how to unlock the
instrument, then we must teach them then to unlock the music with the
instrument (this includes the voice as an instrument). We must include both
aspects of teaching in performance education if the student is to learn fully
the art of music, especially as the students' journey with us as the teachers
will find its end, and the student will be left to continue the journey on his
or her own. Our responsibility is to set that journey up for success.
The
final level of creative interpretation to be sought after and refined (for we
never fully achieve any level of musical understanding) is that of original
creativity. To write music, and especially to create it spontaneously
(improvisation), is something every musician should constantly practice. At
this stage the musician is finally aesthetically interpreting his or her
immediate world, and is refining his or her understanding of it by giving it
musical meaning. This does not mean the composer has a full grasp of the
meaning of life, but it does mean the composer knows how it feels to grasp at
the meaning of life. As music educators, our job is to help our students figure
out how to find this destination on their musical journeys (even though we have
not quite made it either; we have just moved farther along). This final part of
musical understanding can only be fully realized in performance.
We
can teach our students how to become great musicians only by providing them
with the best music, for this will be their model in understanding. If we give
them poor music, they will have a poor and shallow understanding of aesthetic
interpretation; if we give them great music, they have the opportunity to
develop a deep and rich understanding of aesthetic interpretation. Even in
teaching beginners, we must not forsake the quality of the music. A good piece
of music is one that is shallow enough for toddlers to wade in, yet at the same
time deep enough for elephants to bathe in. A good piece of music will continue
to demand thoughtful questions and provide thoughtful answers for the musician
among multiple stages of growth. This is easier to achieve in an academic study
of music (there is, in fact, no excuse for the study of poor music in an
academic setting), but it is also not impossible at the elementary performing
level. Creative interpretation must be taught from the very beginning.
Additionally,
the music used in education should be as diverse as the humans who use music.
To only experience one type of music is to only listen to one people group of
the world, and since education is the liberation of students' minds, this
approach is criminal. If we are to teach our students how interpret their
experiences of life, we must give them the interpretations of others life
experiences, and our Earth is larger than the West. Musics of all ethnicities,
cultures, modes, and theoretical systems must be taught in the classroom, and
if possible, students should also have the opportunity to properly perform
them. After all, a music is a reflection of an individual, and an individual is
a product of a culture, so to offer these different musics to our students is
teach them humanity in an entirely creative and aesthetic way that is
unavailable to any other academic discipline.
The
wind band has its place in the school curriculum, just as the choir, the
orchestra, jazz, and the piano programs do. Of course, with smaller districts
with less money, decisions might have to be made as to which ensembles will be
capable of being sustained, but the band is hugely important to the American
school. The town band has been a long-time American tradition, beginning with
the inception of this country. It has become an expectation for any respectable
town, and the modern century has seen the town bands move into the schools.
While serving as an educational medium for the practical study of music, it
also serves as a servant to the community, providing music where it is needed.
The band is easily accessible to most students, as most students will be able
to find his or her niche within this ensemble. The importance for a plurality
of musical ensembles is noticed when those students are found without a niche
in the band, for every person has a niche in music, for every person is a
musician.
As
for the extra-musical effects of music education and performance education,
they are valuable and well-known. However, they are not a sound basis for this
discussion of music education, and so will not be further discussed. The focus
of this discussion has been musical, and a proper justification of music in the
academic curriculum should and can be found therein. The study of music is the
study of our experience of life, it is a study in the design and function of
this world, and in thus it finds its natural justification. Any educator with
his or her salt will understand and heed this value.
