Philosophy

Beyond Praxialism

What is a philosophy?

The sustained, systematic, and critical examination of belief (Elliot 6 /Reimer 2)

Philosophy works to render the implicit explicit. (Bowman/Elliot 7)

Balance criticism with systematic understanding (Elliot 7/Reimer)

Characteristics of Philosophic inquiry (Elliot 8):

Concerned with the big picture
Concerned with issues that can not be addressed by observation, description, or experimentation.
Resulting in new perspectives on assumptions, beliefs, meanings, and definitions.
Synthesize and criticize past philosophical thinking.
Justification for teaching and learning music exists at the deepest levels of human value (Reimer 2)

Purpose:

leads to the central goals that guide practice, suggesting the aims and goals for music teaching and learning. (Elliot 13)
A system of principles for guidance in creating and implementing useful and meaningful music education programs. (Reimer 2)
Offer reasonable explanation of what music education is and why it matters (Elliot 12)

“Without a prior sense of the nature and significance of music, it is impossible to justify the place of music teaching an learning in any educational scheme.” (Elliot 13)

“The need to feel that life is significant, that actions do matter, that good causes can be served and good influences felt, can be met more effectively and immediately by a sound philosophy than by any other aspect of education. (Reimer 3)

A good philosophy of music education provides teachers with an aerial view of the relationships among music, teaching, education, and schooling. (Elliot 13)

From what we have learned about rationalism of the Greeks and the change in philosophic thought of the Enlightenment, what do we consider as what qualifies for the role of music in human experience?

Mursell – the value of music lies in the capacity of musical sound patterns to re-present or objectify human feeling.
Broudy – we perceive music to grasp the sensuous characteristics. Performing ought to be viewed as a means to musical understanding rather than as an end in itself.
Leonard – the basis for music education is the development of people’s responsiveness to the aesthetic qualities of a musical work. Music bears a close similarity to the forms of human feelings and is the tonal analogue to the emotive life.
Schwadron – music education should concern itself with the development of aesthetic perception and with fostering aesthetic experiences.
Swanwick – music education ought to be primarily concedrned with the aesthetic raising of consciousness. Musical sounds can be charged with affective meanings that resemble human movements and the characteristics of musical patterns.
Peters and Miller – musical meaning is the result of perceiving and reacting aesthetically to the formal and technical qualities of musical objects
Langer – Education is the education of feeling. Music is a symbol in sound representing general forms of human feeling (through tension and resolution, motion and rest, rise and fall) To perceive and respond to the aesthetic qualities of musical works (or other works of art) is to gain a special kind of knowledge or insight into how feelings go.
Meyer – emotion is aroused when a tendency to respond is inhibited and that musical affect is aroused when a listener’s musical expectations are frustrated.
Reimer – Music education is the education of human feeling, through the development of responsiveness to the aesthetic qualities of sound.
Reimer (6) – The philosophy of most direct relevance for music education are aesthetics.

“What people think of as music” and “What people tend to think of music as”

Idealism (music and its expression does not exist as an entity, but within the mind [soul?] of the listener, performer, etc. In other words, music is expressive because we feel it is so or is a representation of a feeling of the composer. “Taste and aesthetic enjoyment requires a combination of exposure, mastery, and understanding...careful studying of the characteristics of music and the background.”

Realism. Music is within the composition itself, or in the act of performing (creating through performance). Experience is more important thatn knowing about. “The realist feels that playing an instrument (performance) is important for the development of mature appreciation and cultural taste. They are primarily interested in the acquisition of specific information and skills considered necessary (for performance).”

pragmatism. . The usefulness of music learning. What can they do with it after your class. More focused on the process of learning, than on the content. “The teacher is not so concerned with the content that has been learned, but rather how material was learned. “

Aesthetic education in music attempts to enhance learnings related to the distinctive capacity of musical sounds to create and share meanings only should structured to do so can yield. Gaining its special meanings requires direct experience with music in any of the ways cultures provide, supported by skills, knowledge, understandings, and sensitivities education can cultivate.

Formalism – The nature and value of music can be found in autonomous, self-sufficient musical works. Music is a product of composers and performers, which means it also reflects the lives, times, beliefs, aspirations, intentions, genders, races, religions, and so forth, of those humans… But those matters should disappear, leaving sound strictly as sound… they make sense musically be cause of the ways they relate to one another in whatever musical relationship system is being used.

Philosophical Foundation	Lifelong Goals
The Arts as Communication
In today’s multimedia society, the arts are the media, and therefore provide powerful and essential means of communication. The arts provide unique symbol systems and metaphors that convey and inform life experience (i.e., the arts are ways of knowing).	Artistically literate citizens use a variety of artistic media, symbols and metaphors to independently create and perform work that expresses and communicates their own ideas, and are able to respond by analyzing and interpreting the artistic communications of others.
The Arts as Creative Personal Realization
Participation in each of the arts as creators, performers, and audience members enables individuals to discover and develop their own creative capacity, thereby providing a source of lifelong satisfaction.	Artistically literate citizens find at least one arts discipline in which they develop sufficient competence to continue active involvement in creating, performing, and responding to art as an adult.
The Arts as Culture, History, and Connectors
Throughout history the arts have provided essential means for individuals and communities to express their ideas, experiences, feelings, and deepest beliefs. Each discipline shares common goals, but approaches them through distinct media and techniques. Understanding artwork provides insights into individuals’ own and others’ cultures and societies, while also providing opportunities to access, express, and integrate meaning across a variety of content areas.	Artistically literate citizens know and understand artwork from varied historical periods and cultures, and actively seek and appreciate diverse forms and genres of artwork of enduring quality/significance. They also seek to understand relationships among the arts, and cultivate habits of searching for and identifying patterns, relationships between the arts and other knowledge.
Arts as Means to Wellbeing
Participation in the arts as creators, performers, and audience members (responders) enhances mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.	Artistically literate citizens find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual stimulation, meaning, and other life-enhancing qualities through participation in all of the arts.
The Arts as Community Engagement
The arts provide means for individuals to collaborate and connect with others in an enjoyable inclusive environment as they create, prepare, and share artwork that bring communities together.	Artistically literate citizens seek artistic experience and support the arts in their local, state, national, and global communities.