Author: Monk, Dennis C.

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Abstract:

I think I owe the reader a clue about what is to follow so that an intelligent decision may be made whether or not to read on. For a long time I have felt, along with many others I am sure, that an essential ingredient has been missing in the teaching of music. I know that I am not alone in my earlier thinking that the missing link had to do with how much is taught (at all levels of the teaching food chain) rather than what is being taught. That of course assumes that they can be separated. My most recent thinking, however, has convinced me that the latter is causing the problem. In the following paragraphs, I would like to illuminate my view that it is the what that is the radix of the problem, and of course that has much to do with the how as well. The missing what is in my current view the hedonic quality of music, and I hope that it does not strike the reader as excessively self-indulgent that I shall take my time in elaborating upon that somewhat mysterious element. I wish to consider the view that the hedonic element was once the entire raison d'etre for music, not to mention the other arts, and to speculate on why that element has disappeared. I then wish to propose how this aspect of musical experience might be restored so that not only the experience of music might once again be construed as pleasurable, but the learning of it as well.

CONTENTS
Caveat.
Opposing dualisms.
A new dualism.
The teaching of teaching.
Anhedonic music.
Western and non-Western music.
Gifts of the Greeks.
Dionysus and Dionysism.
Bias toward the rational.
The biology of music.
Music Education.
The good teacher.
Universal principles.
What the teacher teaches.
Notes.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education