Historical Perspective of Music Education Philosophy – Part III

While aesthetic education began to take form in music education, other ideas and philosophical thoughts began to emerge. Other music education philosophers, such as David J. Elliott, began to question how aesthetic education could not respond appropriately to other non-Western music teaching. Concurrently, as educators began to debate and re-evaluate music education philosophy, the development of music education organizations continued. Various monumental music education meetings, such as The Yale Seminar (1963) and the Tanglewood Symposium (1967), began to take place. Music education philosophical reform came to the forefront as music educators begin to seek answers as to why “public school music programs had not produced a musically literate and active public.” (1) Active philosophical debates increased with the surfacing of Elliott’s “praxial” philosophy which emphasized music value through performance rather than the aesthetics’ music value through listening. Music educators were challenged in their aesthetic education view as Elliott published his critique of aesthetic music education in his 1991 book, Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. To repudiate Elliott’s critical proclamations on aesthetic music education, Reimer notably updated and revised A Philosophy of Music Education in 2003 to reflect his most recent views on music education. To date, both music education philosophies are found in the music classroom, moderately utilized in a dichotomous web.
From this brief historical background, one can observe how two seemingly different music education philosophies have evolved over the past 100 years. Both philosophical views present admirable teaching and learning aspects of music education that can provide a student with a developed music curriculum, and consequently a music learning environment, that promotes the value of music. It is at this point that the two philosophies break away from each other, as they begin to define what gives music meaning: feeling or cognition.
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1. Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2007), 399.