Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change
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Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change

Creativity, Diversity, and Integration

Edward W. Sarath, David E. Myers, Patricia Shehan Campbell

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eBook - ePub

Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change

Creativity, Diversity, and Integration

Edward W. Sarath, David E. Myers, Patricia Shehan Campbell

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About This Book

Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity, Diversity, Integration takes prevailing discourse about change in music studies to new vistas, as higher education institutions are at a critical moment of determining just what professional musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life. The authors examine how music studies might be redefined through the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration. which are the three pillars of the recent report of The College Music Society taskforce calling for reform.

Focus is on new conceptions for existent areas—such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic history and theory, theory and culturecourses, and music education coursework—but also on an exploration of music and human learning, and an understanding of how organizational change happens. Examination of progressive programs will celebrate strides in the direction of the task force vision, as well as extend a critical eye distinguishing between premature proclamations of "mission accomplished" and genuine transformation. The overarching theme is that a foundational, systemic overhaul has the capacity to entirely revitalize the European classical tradition. Practical steps applicable to wide-ranging institutions are considered—from small liberal arts colleges, to conservatory programs, large research universities, and regional state universities.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2016
ISBN
9781317303183
Subtopic
Music
Edition
1

1
The Lay of the Land

Patricia Shehan Campbell
This book seeks to take the prevailing discourse about change in undergraduate music studies to entirely new vistas. In response to the sheer range of music that exists and is accessible to societies across the globe, the book emphasizes the need for new strategies for navigating this expanse, and elaborates on the gulf that—even after decades of reform appeals—is still apparent between much of what happens in most music schools and the broader musical landscape beyond these schools. If the preparation of undergraduate music majors is to become relevant to the work they will be required to do in the world, not only is a wholesale shift in music studies needed, but also in the deliberations that guide the change process.
At universities, colleges, and conservatories, four-year programs of study are at a critical moment of determining just what professional musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life. Following the appearance of the documentary report of the Task Force on the Undergraduate Music Major within The College Music Society in October 2014, we—as three agents of that Task Force of eight members of university faculties in music—have been heartened by the widespread response to that provocative document. We present this “Manifesto” in this volume, along with justifications for it and clarifications of what it might mean in various higher education contexts. We are acutely aware of the need to not only continue, deepen, and extend this conversation, but also to offer guidance regarding its practical manifestations. In examining the relevance of undergraduate music major studies through the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration (the three pillars of the documentary report), not only do new conceptions for existent areas—such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic history/theory/culture courses, and music education coursework—come into view, but so also do areas off the beaten track, that is to say, the more traditional routing of higher education music studies. These areas include late-breaking attention to music technology, the mixing of media, contemplative studies, and an attendant and continuing consciousness of communities living locally and globally. The identification of new areas to be added to the existing model, however, is neither new to change conversations, nor is it—in itself—adequate to the kind of change needed. What must complement this approach is the identification of new premises that help guide individuals, institutions, and the field at large toward new ways of apprehending this broader spectrum as an integrative, self-organizing whole. In short, the time has come for the foundational rebuilding of the field from its conceptual and curricular core on up. Recognition of this has been lacking in change conversations, and is a key contribution of the Manifesto that has eluded recognition even among supporters of the report. We see the primary purpose of this volume to be the elucidation of these unique elements of the Manifesto and elaboration on how they may be operationalized.

The Lay of the Land

Context is everything, such that the circumstances for the kind of transformation of undergraduate music major studies advanced in the Manifesto can be understood through the prism of elements of reform at large and historically within the field of music. In this chapter, I reveal “the lay of the land,” insights into the need for deep reform in the education of musicians in tertiary level programs. My aim is to offer perspectives on reform at large, across fields and in all levels of education, and in the roles and functions of music at various levels of formal learning. The chapter embraces the notion that innovation and change are processes of introducing improvements developed through study and experimentation and thus are both natural and intentional. Reform is natural in that it happens in agreement with the human circumstances that surround music as a creative art that is in perpetual motion, adapting and responding to societal change. Reform is intentional in that it involves dynamically thoughtful musicians of all manner and form—creative and re-creative improvisers, composers, performers, scholars, and educators—who strive to fashion the very best education and training for their students at a time when an unprecedented skill set is required that derives from a broad array of musically expressive practices from across the world.
A contextualization of higher education music reform requires a backdrop of historical and contemporary perspectives on reform beyond music—in business, the sciences, medicine, and education. A review of reform efforts in music at all levels of education, too, will offer insights on the half-century of gatherings and projects that include the development of standards to express goals and outcomes of musical education of children and adolescents that prepare them for tertiary-level music major learning (as well as to prepare music majors for their work with aspiring young musicians in schools and communities). With my adept and ardent coauthors Ed Sarath and David Myers, I wish to raise questions as to why, rather than following the call for reform, the content and method of music teaching and learning continues its conventions decades past recommendations for reform (even as I wonder whether this present call for reform will convert to action or remain rhetorical only). In my effort to contextualize the Manifesto, I follow with a chronicling of the work of The College Music Society’s Task Force on the Undergraduate Music Major in 2013–2014, and briefly convey something of the early response to the Manifesto. I recall the substance of our work during the vibrant period of exchanges with five other members of the Task Force during this period, and I build further meaning into declarations of the Manifesto that have emerged since then from our three-sided contemplations, our interpretations, and our context-specific experiences in putting ideas to actions. Finally, I offer an organization chapter by chapter of the contents of this volume, and make the case for delving deeply into the content and method of contemporary practices in undergraduate music major programs and also their limitations from the standpoint of the three pillars, as construed anew in the Manifesto, of creativity, diversity, and integration.

The Nature of Reform

Inquiring into the nature of reform as it occurs internationally and across a wide span of systems and circumstances sheds important light on reform efforts in music studies. It is a human penchant to want to improve, redress, and amend elements of a system that appear unfit or unsatisfactory for the people it purports to serve. Reform results from the observation and study of components that are out of tune, out of time, and out of touch with the needs of people. For systems that have functioned well at one time but turn out of alignment with present needs, reform efforts span a spectrum of change from fine-tuning selected components to the revolutionary effort to overthrow the system in full. Contemporary efforts for change are evident in struggles with electoral reform, tax reform, and land reform. As the world turns, reform is evident in the sciences, the medical world, commerce and the corporate system, and education. People find the need for revising the vision of their work, and they are committed to finding the best practices that take their intellectual energy to develop ideas into action.
Reform is supported by notions of innovative action that seek new ways of thinking, being, and doing. Innovation appeals and is arguably intrinsic to the human psyche, and innovators in various fields enact ways of improving, modernizing, and shaking up the established pathways by advocating and advancing original and effective approaches in ways that reform the field. As a catalyst to growth, innovation requires a careful study of the field, a certain latitude to imagine and collectively brainstorm the “what if” potentials, and the courage to trial solutions that break out of conventional ways of doing things. Innovation in action requires critical interrogation that is often absent for reform circles, so that not only can ideas for change be implemented but the results of implementation can be reviewed, challenged, and refashioned again until reform is right for the field. As we glimpse the many kinds of reform occurring across disciplines, distinctions between surface modifications and deep, paradigmatic shifts, of which the Manifesto advocates for music studies, become evident.

Fields of Reform

It is difficult to imagine a domain in which the topic of reform in one form or another is not among the most central, if elusive, to be dealt with. In the corporate world, there is a complex set of policy, legal, and institutional conditions that govern activities and that require review and reform. There are institutional arrangements within businesses that influence the way key actors and authorities operate. Companies and corporations pronounce long-standing golden rules to follow and legacies of integrity to build and preserve. For the benefit of the organization and its employees, there is periodic need to seek out change in accomplishing more effective products, technologies, or services. Occasionally, that change happens through break-away developments, as in the case of the evolution of Fairchild Semiconductor. Well known in the Silicon Valley in the late 1950s as having pioneered the manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits, the company was a development of the need for change that could be better accomplished on the outside. Fairchild Semiconductor’s strength was its innovative ideas, even as many more small businesses resulted from similar break-away and start-up actions that would allow reform and innovation to be nourished. Businesses that thrive do so as they foster positive change that meet the challenges of a time, even as dissatisfied employees whose new ideas are out of sync with older conventions pack up their ideas and shift into corporate situations that will accept and foster them.
Medical advances are coming at lightning speed, which applies pressure to reforms in hospital, clinical, and out-patient care, and to the needs for transforming the medical education. A major advance soon after the millennium was the mapping of the human genome so that the complete set of human genetic information could be understood, thus bringing about the development of preventative medicine and a cut of rapidly accelerating medical costs from increasingly expensive treatments. Heart disease deaths have dropped by 40 percent in 25 years, stem cell research has given new hope for regenerative medicine, and new drug therapies have been advanced for the cure of cancer and extended lives of HIV victims (Acton, 2012). Sophisticated imaging techniques, including the fMRI process, are now in use to trace the working of neurons by tracking changes in the oxygen levels and blood flow to the brain.
Reform efforts have been stepped up in medical training so that the training of physicians, nurses, and technicians can be advanced. University students in the health sciences are receiving training in the newest technological inventions in order to administer relief to cancer patients and clients with heart disease, diabetes, HIV, and a vast span of ailments and health challenges. They are learning the uses of medication to treat disease and to promote healthy functioning. They are learning through coursework that alongside the scientific understandings and technical developments in the field, medicine remains “a calling, not a business” with the need for animating professionalism through altruism, respect, honesty, integrity, honor, and accountability. The mission of medical education is in high gear in the reform of residency training that is based on learning patient-centered, high-quality care and geared to achieving benchmarks of clinical competence overall. Indeed, many teaching hospitals and clinics associated with medical programs are undergoing substantial redesign all in an effort to meet the rapid changes in scientific research and societal needs.
Reform is apparent in education, in all fields and at every level, and reform both within and across disciplines is apparent and necessary (Klein, 2005). Clark Kerr (1991) posited three historic periods in the transformation of American higher education. The first encompasses the founding of Harvard and William and Mary with principles of autonomy, diversity, flexibility, and competitiveness present in the newly emergent American way, even while the classical curriculum was adopted from Oxford and Cambridge. A second wave of change came in the post–Civil War period, ca. 1870–1910, when the influence of the German university model brought science to the fore, and land-grant universities rose up to serve society through agriculture and industry programs. By the early 20th century, the older aims of preparing students for the fields of medicine, law, and teaching (and theology) were rapidly expanding, and universities were growing Ph.D. degree programs in the emerging research universities such as Harvard, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and Stanford University. The third historic period was the period of 1960–1980, when the student population rose exponentially from 3.5 million to 12 million, public education increased to 80 percent of all colleges and universities, and comprehensive universities replaced small colleges and many professional fields from engineering to business administration met the demands of societal and student-expressed needs.
Within university colleges and departments of education, where change agents are committed to relevant teaching and learning, those of professorial rank quite naturally want to improve existing programs as well as to personalize their contributions. There are both global pressures and local realities that require the continuous attention of faculty and students, administrators, and policymakers (Cloete et al., 2006). Among the critical issues of reform are the accelerated pace of technology, the improvement of digital literacy, the blended learning that features formal and informal experiences as well as on-screen and in-person strategies, and the challenges of engaging learners of identities that vary by gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic circumstances, religion, lifestyle, and other cultural facets. Emerging technologies and culturally diverse populations of school-age students demand in-depth study and active reform with implications for policy, leadership, and practice. While the hub of reform activity in education typically locates itself in tertiary-level institutions, the scope encompasses primary and secondary school curricular practices.
Generic efforts to develop fresh perspectives on teacher education have come and gone over the decades. The Holmes Group, a consortium of deans in colleges of teacher education at the leading research institutions in each of the 50 states, was one such effort (Labaree, 1992). Thoughtfully committed to developing a more intellectually solid education of teachers, the report rose up and settled down in the 1980s, and is now an historical moment in the reform of the teaching profession. The pendulum swings between traditional back-to-basics education that emphasizes rote learning and teacher-directed activity and progressive education practices that attend to student needs and interests. As well, the attention to educational standards and its concomitant focus on assessment has resulted in waves of reform too. Movements such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are names assigned to recent attempts at change that are intended to ensure that children test at acceptable levels of competence in scholastic areas deemed of value, especially math and language arts. Transformations across fields and disciplines happen, but the pace is slow and emergent, and changes may be subtle rather than substantive. At times, efforts at transforming institutions and programs can even recede and regress, often as conservative reactions to what may appear radical to them. To be sure, there is an ebb and flow to improve upon the past. Perseverance, creative energy with a continuing momentum, and dialogue can bring about mutations, modifications, and even a metamorphosis within a field.

Reform in Music Teaching and Learning

It goes without saying that the music curriculum in higher education will always need to change in order to keep pace with changes in society, musical practices, and local circumstances (Conway and Hodgman, 2008). Reform efforts in education and schooling at large have impacted undergraduate music major programs, too, and research on music cognition and learning offers valuable insights for program content and instructional process. Faculties of music are responsible for shaping the critical skills and understandings that allow music majors to survive and thrive in a changing world. A solid attention to societal realities and research results informs an understanding of creativity, diversity, and integration as foundational to current work, encompassing as they do all subdisciplines within music and, at the same time, music’s relationships with the larger arena of knowledge and skills essential in a 21st-century global-technical society. Whether one focuses on advances in new understandings of the interior dimensions of how human learning takes place, or on the ever-widening exterior gulf between music studies and the explosively diverse musical landscape characteristic of today’s global society, the need for change—and as we argue, fundamental reconceptualization—in music studies has never been more self-evident, or urgent.
Since the mid-20th century, a number of events have been organized in response to this imperative that would examine possibilities for change in the ways that music is taught and learned in formal institutional settings, at all levels. Symposia, short- and long-term projects, and documents have arisen since the mid-20th century in music and music education circles, with particular attention to reform at the elementary and secondary school levels, with implications, if not direct ramifications, for music programs in higher education. Not surprisingly, university programs in music education have responded to calls for reform with curricular changes to pedagogical methods courses, while courses in music theory, history, and performance have remained largely steadfast in continuing long-standing canonical repertoire and instructional processes.
The Yale Seminar transpired in 1963 as a reaction to the national concern for competition with the Soviet Union in all levels of education, from the sciences to the arts. The Seminar came on the heels of the Ford Foundation’s fostering in 1959 of the Young Composers Project, which placed free-agent and university-affiliated composers into school systems; this program changed names in 1962 to the Contemporary Music Project. Despite the potential for the horizontal influences of composers into academic and applied studies at the tertiary level, few accommodations were made for university students to study compositional processes (not even when their theory courses may have been taught by composers). An awareness of the need for changes in music education at all levels spurred the organization of the Yale Seminar that, chaired by musicologist Claude Palisca of Yale University, convened a group of 31 participants, including half of whom were composers, theorists, and musicologists, the other half constituting one performer, two music critics, two jazz musicians, three college-level music educators, one school administrator, five public and private school music teachers, and the educational advisor from the White House. There was an east coast/Ivy League coloring to the gathering, as only six arrived to the Seminar from elsewhere in the U.S. (Werner, 2009). Seminar recommendations were multiple, and included the following: an adherence to the development of student musicianship through K–12 curricular programs, the featuring of a repertory of contemporary compositions and historic gems of the standard Western concert literature, a guided listening to Western masterworks, school offerings in vocal and instrumental performance (aside from marching band and stage band), and the placement of professional musicians, composers, and scholars in schools. Over 20 federally funded school music projects sprang out of these recommendations, all with the intent of addressing the development of basic musical understanding and not (just) performance technique. One of these projects, the Julliard Repertory Project, was a compilation of Western and “non-Western” art and folk music that were important in expanding the K–12 school music repertory. Despite the preponderance of theorists and musicologists at the Yale Seminar, however, it was frequently university faculty in music teacher education who creatively implemented change in the music and method by which it was taught. The potential for the transformation of ...

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