Takeaways from my reading on Reimer and Elliott...

The biggest take-away for me from the readings I have done is how much Reimer adapted his philosophical belief system from 1970 to 2003, the year his third revision of A Philosophy of Music Education was published. From the reading of the 3rd edition, we are really given a blending of the two philosophies (aesthetic and praxial) yet, we may not have necessarily understood the implications of the blend. It seems that Reimer is quite humble in his estimation that his former writings do not quite hit the mark on cultural orientation for the music experience, but I am sure that we can all agree that he definitely exemplifies his acceptance of social and cultural contexts in the 3rd edition.

As for Elliot, I am still not sure that I can walk away knowing that I have indeed reached the level of “musicer.” I realize that Elliott is trying to establish a hierarchy, but I think that perhaps the high inclusion of cognitive challenge to establish music as experience limits his philosophical position.

When Reimer rephrases Ryle: “Your capacity to understand (and therfore estimate properly the value of) my musical thinking-in-action is one in type with knowing how to think musically in action yourself (Reimer, 57) it opens a very large window of questioning for me. For example, does this mean that we can say that someone is not a good enough music in knowledge to be a good enough listener of “my music” or “your music?” I.e. is this a way to justify “bad” music – in that we only need to say that the listener just isn’t experiences/knowledgeable enough to understand. This could lead to a few less grammy nods…

The take-away from a teaching perspective is that, as educators, we can go beyond the knowing areas of the music educator – beyond the sufficient – and explore outside the constraints of one’s background. Therefore, observed from a learner’s perspective, this means that one can initiate both technique and creativity at the onset of learning.

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Reading sources:
Bennett Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision (2nd ed. Prentice Hall/Person Education: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002), 11.

David J. Elliott, Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 33.