cfa mu 777 ol music education i: philosophy and history of music education vicky boucher serious vs...
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CFA MU 777 OL
Music Education I: Philosophy and History of Music Education
Vicky Boucher
Serious vs PopularSerious vs Popular
Serious vs PopularSerious vs Popular
• Definitions and connotations
• History and validity
• Impact on music education
• Recommendations
Serious MusicSerious Music
Serious MusicSerious Music
Art music
Classical music
Folk music
Romantic, Folk, Popular, Modern
ContemporaryClassical + Romantic +
=Serious music
PopularPopular MusicPopular Music
PopularPopular MusicMusic
Mass-disseminated music of recent centuries. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the development, chiefly in Europe and America, of a genre distinct from both folk and classical or art music. It differed from the form in being composed and notated and in developing a musical style not distinctive of a certain region or ethnic group. Though many early pieces of popular music shared general features with classical music of the day, they were briefer and simpler, making fewer demands on both performer and listener.
– The New Harvard Dictionary of Music
• Mass audience• Short “life spans”• Simple forms and structure
Serious vs PopularSerious vs PopularConnotations Connotations
their music
elitist
upper class
older people
then
requiring subsidy
our music
populist
lower class
younger people
now
commercial
Opera
What’s Opera, Doc?
Apocalypse Now
Jazz and beyond
Ragtime Blues
Music lies on a spectrumSerious music is used in pop culturePopular music has the potential to be
serious musicThe lines that are drawn between styles
are generally arbitrary and self-serving
Serious vs PopularSerious vs PopularConnotations Connotations
their music
elitist upper class older people then
requiring subsidy
our music
populistlower classyounger peoplenow
commercial
a variety of music
from a variety of people
from different times
for different uses
Music EducationMusic Education
• Student disconnect
• Teacher bias
RecommendationsRecommendations
• Start with what they know
• Mix relevance with history
• Use popular music and serious music interchangeably to teach concepts
• Eliminate the global use of the term “classical music”
References
Blacking, John. 1981. Making artistic popular music: The goal of true folk. Popular Music 1: 9-14.
Booth, Gregory D. and Terry Lee Kuhn. 1990. Economic and transmission factors as essential elements in the definition of folk, art, and pop music. The Musical Quarterly 74, no. 3: 411-438.
Elliott, David J. 1995. Music matters: A new philosophy of music education: Oxford University Press.
Gorbman, Claudia. 1987. Unheard melodies: Narrative film music. Bloomington, Indiana: University Press.
Griffiths, Dai. 1999. The high analysis of low music. Music Analysis 18, no. 3: 389-435.Hamm, Charles. 1986. Popular music. In The new harvard dictionary of music, ed. Don Michael
Randel:646-649. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Lowe, Melanie. 2002. Claiming amadeus: Classical feedback in american media. American
Music 20, no. 1: 102-119.MacCluskey, Thomas. 1979. Peaceful coexistence between pop and the classics. Music
Educators Journal 65, no. 8: 54-57.Parakilas, James. 1984. Classical music as popular music. The Journal of Musicology 3, no. 1:
1-18.Rieger, Jon H. 1973. Overcoming the phoniness/stuffiness/jeweled-dowager syndrome with
young people. Music Educators Journal 59, no. 9: 29-32.Ross, Alex. 2003. Rock 101: Academia tunes in. The New Yorker.________. 2006. 2006 school of music convocation address. Northwestern University.Sweeney-Turner, Steve. 1994. Trivial pursuits? Pop music: Is it serious to be silly? Asks steve
sweeney turner. The Musical Times 135, no. 1814: 216-219.Witkin, Mitzi. 1994. A defense of using pop media in the middle-school classroom. The English
Journal 83, no. 1: 30-33.