Issues in Music Teaching

Chris Philpott, Charles Plummeridge, Chris Philpott, Charles Plummeridge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134560103
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Issues in Music Teaching stimulates critical reflection on a range of topics related to the teaching and learning of music in both the primary and secondary school, including:

• the place of music in the curriculum
• the nature of music and music education
• ICT and music education
• music education and individual needs
• continuity and progression in music education

The book prompts the reader to be analytical and critical of theory and practice, and to become an autonomous professional and curriculum developer.

Part I Part I The nature of music and music education

1 Teaching music in schools Some historical reflections

Gordon Cox

DOI: 10.4324/9780203005699-1

On 24 April 1998 The Times Educational Supplement carried the headline ‘Primary music in decline’. A ‘horrifying’ survey had uncovered that one in five primary schools in England and Wales were cutting down on music, and some were dropping the subject altogether. There was no doubt about the culprit: it was the government's insistence that schools concentrate on the teaching of numeracy and literacy. The Times Educational Supplement (TES) mounted a campaign to save music in schools entitled Music for the Millennium.

This crisis prompted me to chart historically the continuities and discontinuities in the teaching of music in schools in order to understand more clearly the shifting alliances and struggles which have characterised the process of music ‘becoming a subject’ (see Goodson, 1994). In order to place my thinking within a wider context I found Kliebard's (1995) categorisation of the four major influences on the American curriculum helpful: first, the humanists, who were the keepers of the tradition, tied to the finest elements of the Western canon, and committed to the traditional skills associated with it; second, social efficiency educators who looked upon the curriculum as directly functional to the adult life-roles of future citizens, they applied the standardised techniques of industry to the business of schooling; third, the developmentalists, who were committed to a curriculum in harmony with children's real interests; fourth, the social meliorists who maintained that schools and the curriculum should act as major forces for social change and justice. I shall refer to these curriculum traditions in my conclusion.

Through reading the TES columns relating to Music for the Millennium, I identified three main questions that I wanted to pursue historically with the intention of discerning some underlying patterns: how have the aims and justifications for the teaching of music changed and developed? What have been the principal innovations in the music curriculum over the years? What do we know about music teachers and the teaching of music in classrooms in relation to these aims and innovations? Change and continuity have been examined by comparing press coverage of music education at 25-year intervals over a span of seventy-five years, commencing in 1923–24, through until 1998–99. The journals selected for consultation I have taken to be representative of music teachers' reading during these years, and include: The Times Educational Supplement (1998–99), Music Teacher (1923–24, 1948–49, 1973–74, 1998–99), Music in Education (1948–49, 1973–74), School Music Review (1923–24).

I shall discuss the three main questions through snapshots taken at these four 25-year intervals. In comparing the accounts no doubt at times my chosen themes will elide, at other times they will collide. Each particular year will necessarily contain different emphases. Finally, I shall present a conclusion which will point to some of the main currents and conflicts I have identified.

1923–24

The justifications for the teaching of music in the early 1920s ranged from the idealist to the pragmatic. We read of a high-minded view in a critique (School Music Review, July 1923) of a book by Ernest Hunt entitled Spirit and Music (1922). Hunt believed that music should be valued as a subject, not merely as a part of life, a means of earning a living or of relaxation, but also more importantly as ‘a manifestation of the divine spirit’ (ibid.: 51). Music in schools, particularly folk tunes and dances, could provide an outlet for the emotions, and stimulate imaginative play. Consequently, it might be socially regenerative:

the prosaic life and surroundings of the slum child are sufficiently deadening and the new mental picture this gives are in the nature of windows opening on new vistas of life. They suggest views that could come to the child's mind in no other ways.

(ibid.: 97)

This rhetoric contrasts with the more down-to-earth advice given to music teachers as regards classroom principles by Walter Carroll, the music adviser of Manchester (School Music Review, February 1924). He outlined eight aims for elementary schoolchildren up to the age of 14. These included the cultivation of a love of music for its own sake; good breathing habits; a sweet voice with forward tone and no breaks or registers; a sensitive ear for pitch and rhythm; a facility in reading simple tunes from staff notation; a large number of good songs; an appreciation of music through rhythm, melody and harmony; and knowledge of music literature through hearing standard works performed well. The relation between such statements of rhetoric and practice did become closer in some of the curriculum innovations of these years, particularly in tune building, musical appreciation, and concerts for children.

Walford Davies was convinced that the majority of children could be tune-builders (Music Teacher, January 1923). However, he observed that remarkably few children in schools were taught the simple rules of the game of melody, although he emphasised that like any game it was not enough to be merely taught in books and classrooms. While one-third of a music course might be found in instruction books, the most exciting two-thirds should be spent in the activity of making music. Davies believed in the simple truth that ‘melody is our real mother-tongue’ (ibid.: 194), and consequently the tune building of the pupils may enable them to inhabit ‘the little creative heaven of sound’ (ibid.). Davies was to preach this gospel not only through the gramophone, but increasingly through the wireless: in 1924 he presented the first schools broadcast on the BBC.

Perhaps the most significant innovation, however, was music appreciation. It was Carroll's opinion (School Music Review, February 1924) that school music needed both action (music by doing) and contemplation (listening), but in his opinion the latter received much less attention than the former. Appreciation certainly raised the profile of listening. However, the apostle of the new movement, Stewart MacPherson, in an article entitled ‘The Position of the Appreciation Movement’ gave a warning: there was a danger that the aesthetic element in general education could be too loose and debased (Music Teacher, January 1923). He welcomed the fact that musical appreciation had caught on, but like all new movements it also suffered from ‘the zeal, untempered by discretion, of not a few of its supporters’ (ibid.: 203). Appreciation should certainly not be the province of every teacher, its purpose was not to amuse or provide anecdotes. Much of the teaching associated with it was, in MacPherson's opinion, profoundly bad. The teacher needed enthusiasm — ‘it is impossible to kindle a fire from an icicle’ (ibid.) — but, above all, a deep appreciation and grasp of the art of music itself. Whilst the primary school teacher might deal with the rudimentary stages of class singing and ear training well, appreciation work needed specialised teachers.

The third development during these years was related to musical appreciation, and provided an expansion of opportunities for children to hear music outside the school. On 29 March 1924, the inaugural concert for children promoted by Robert Mayer was presented at Westminster Central Hall (School Music Review, May 1924):

In spite of strike difficulties some 1500 children were present … Mr Mayer had in mind the children's concerts conducted by Mr Walter Damrosch in the United States and desires to arrange a series along similar lines in London.

(ibid.: 333)

This movement gained momentum fast. Manchester City Council approved a series of municipal orchestral concerts with 500 seats reserved for elementary and secondary school pupils, while official recognition had been given to children's concerts by the Board of Education, with the proviso that local education authorities (LEAs) had to provide the money.

These innovations helped to develop creative music making, and to reinforce the effectiveness of musical appreciation by affording masses of children the opportunity to listen to music played by professionals on the gramophone and wireless, and in real life.

But the conditions for implementing such innovations in schools were not ideal. In an article entitled ‘Appreciation in an Elementary School’, E.R. Lewis (Music Teacher, August 1924) informs us that of the three classes in his school, two numbered 65 pupils each, while the third had 40 pupils. Each group was assigned two half-hour periods weekly for music. Much of the time was taken up with vocal training in tonic sol-fa and staff notations. This work was regarded as difficult by both teachers and pupils. Appreciation was therefore a welcome innovation, but it had to be approached circumspectly. At first it comprised one in six lessons, and later was extended to include a short piece of pianoforte music played three days a week to the whole school assembly, while on a fourth morning a gramophone record was played.

There were, however, more highly favoured schools which blazed the trail of musical excellence. One of the key centres for developing the music curriculum in secondary schools was the Mary Datchelor School in Camberwell, London, the subject of one of the Board of Education's pamphlets (School Music Review, July 1923). A special grant had been awarded to the school from 1919. It provided for a two-year course of further study for those girls who, having reached the standard for the General School Certificate Examination, demonstrated that they possessed special musical ability. These pupils spent between twenty and thirty periods per week in music. Eventually most of them took up music professionally, and some entered teaching. But the school laid the foundation of this advanced course early on in the curriculum. In a demonstration of the musical work of the school to the Music Teachers Association (Music Teacher, January 1923), it is evident that improvisation and composition played a key role. This was a scheme which provided hope for the future, and enhanced the status of the subject.

Questions of status and professionalism and training were in the forefront of music teachers' concerns at this time. Proper training was one of the keys to enhanced professionalism. There was a need for a new diploma (School Music Review, June 1923) which would ensure that teachers, who otherwise had had little musical experience apart from that gained in training college, could both improve and update themselves in order to cope successfully with the host of new developments in the teaching of music which were on the horizon. The School Music Teachers Certificate was reckoned to be too narrow, too tied to a textbook. Perhaps LEAs could increase the musical scope of qualifications: why not an LCC (London County Council) Diploma of Music? The dilemma was that the LRAM was too difficult. A relevant diploma needed to cover ear training, sight singing, rhythmic movement, musical appreciation, history, musical form and harmony. The School Music Review reported the following month that the Tonic Sol-fa College had set up a special committee ‘instituting a new diploma for school teachers whose needs will be specially remembered in the light of modern developments in school methods’ (School Music Review, July 1923: 29–30).

1948–49

A thoughtful reassessment of music teaching in the post-war years was provided by A.H. Radcliffe in an article entitled significantly ‘Education through Music’ (Music in Education, January–February 1948). He expressed concern about the institutionalisation of music: ‘while school education is handled as a thing apart, as it all too often is, while it is undertaken in a social vacuum, it can strike children only as unreal and completely non-vital’ (ibid.: 165). If education was a process, rather than merely having content, it followed that a music teacher's concepts of education were at least as important as his or her musical capacities. The problem with music was that its objectives in schools were ill-defined and ill-considered: we had lost sight of education in our concentration on pure technique.

In some ways this theme was developed by one of the pioneers of the Percussion Band movement, Louie de Rusette. She believed in the importance of the present moment. The child should be encouraged to express himself or herself through rhythm, melody and harmony (Music in Education, May–June 1948). Mere imitation killed initiative, forestalled nature and dwarfed the personality. She asked, why should music be different from art in schools? Children were encouraged to paint and draw according to their present powers of observation and experience. Too often in school music, children were penalised because they were not felt ready to produce accurate sounds. On the contrary, de Rusette declared: ‘We shall not become a musical nation until music is treated as a creative art in the Primary school’ (ibid.: 62).

If such views were growing, they were still not generally representative of the majority. More characteristic was Reginald Hunt's (Music Teacher, June 1948) listing of the four essential aims of school music teaching: to ensure musical literacy; to afford practical experience of music and music making; to promote a knowledge of and liking for the best music; ultimately to bring about a cultivated and urbane outlook on life, as a result of musical training.

Instrumental teaching was clearly in the ascendant. Area and youth orchestras began to represent unrivalled opportunities for children to take part in music. The National Youth Orchestra made its first appearance in 1948 (Music Teacher, June 1948), while at a more local level Elizabeth Lumb wrote about ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction to the series
• Introduction
• Part I The nature of music and music education
• Part II The content, design, implementation and development of the music curriculum
• Part III Professional development in music education
• Index