A paper presented at Winston-Salem State University for the International Education Seminar and K-12 Workshops entitled
"Music: The Tie That Binds Global Society"November 9, 1996
Music as Subject to Music as Agent in K-12 Instruction
by Constance L. McKoy
I am very pleased that this seminar and workshop series has included a focus on the teaching of world music in the public schools. As a music educator, the content of my instruction is obviously focused upon the structure of music, yet it is the characteristic of music as a global phenomenon that makes it an ideal medium through which to foster cultural understanding. This has become increasingly obvious with the growing focus on world musics by the music education profession, and the teaching of music to diverse populations. Though the focuses are slightly different, each case demonstrates an interrelationship between music as subject (or teaching about music) and music as agent (that is, teaching through music, or achieving certain outcomes through the use of music). My intent this afternoon is to share with you my perspective regarding this dichotomy as it relates to several aspects of the teaching of world musics. ( I ) the historical and philosophical underpinnings of multicultural music education as it relates to the teaching of music of other cultures and the teaching of music to diverse populations, as well as (2) instructional applications and implications for public school music teaching.We know that the transmission of music tradition among peoples of different cultures has occurred from the moment that groups began to distinguish themselves from one another. On this continent, as on others, the native peoples' education of their young in music occurred through apprenticeship, and as a consequence of living, so closely related was the music to the essence of the culture. The influence of European tradition on native peoples began in the missions and reservations, and on the musics of the displaced people of African descent as early as the colonial era.
As far as formal instruction about music of other cultures is concerned, one account dates back to 1916 when Satis Coleman at Columbia University utilized music and instruments of other cultures in a class in creative music. The decades between 1939 and 1960 saw the formation of such organizations as the International Music Council and collaborative efforts between the Music Educators National Conference, and the Music division of the Pan-American Union for purposes of cultural exchange between educators and musicians of North and South America (Jordan, 1992). During this same period of time in the United States, however, segregation effectively made any professional exchange among music educators of differing cultures difficult, if not impossible. The merger story of North Carolina's professional music organizations is a case in point. The North Carolina Music Educators Association has existed as an integrated body for only about 26 years. Prior to that time, the North Carolina Music Educators Conference was the professional organization representing the state's white music educators, and the North Carolina State Music Teachers Association, and the North Carolina Band Directors Association had as its members the African-American segment of the music education profession, though the members of all three organizations were dues-paying members of The Music Educators National Conference (MENC). The three organizations merged around 1969 with Mrs. Hortense Reid Kerr serving as the organization's first African-American president (Kerr, 1990).
The changes that were described in the North Carolina merger story reflected the social changes occurring in society at large. . .changes involving the need for multicultural awareness and the celebration of diversity which would come to inform discussions in various symposia on music education in the 60's and 70's. The Music Educators Journal, the official journal of the MENC published its first issue focusing on music of world cultures in 1972, and subsequent issues focusing on multicultural education have been published in 1983, and 1992. In 1990, a symposium on world musics was sponsored by MENC prior to its biennial National Conference in Washington, D.C. A further indication of MENC's growing recognition of the importance of world musics in the music classroom was the publication in 1994 of a document entitled The School Music Program: A New Vision, which was based on the results of an effort by the National Committee for Standards in the Arts. The document contains 9 voluntary national standards for K-12 education in music. The ninth standard indicates that students should have an understanding of music in relation to history and culture. More specifically, a call for the restructuring of music curricula acknowledges, among other objectives, the need for students to study musics of diverse genres and styles as may be seen in the following passage taken from the document:
The musics studied should reflect the multimusical diversity of America's pluralistic culture. It should include a broad range of genres, styles, and periods, including music from outside the art music tradition, music from the various cultures and ethnic groups that comprise American society, and authentic examples from the various musical cultures of the world. Many communities and many schools themselves are already smaller versions of the global village. The school music program should reflect that fact. (p. 3-4)What, then, constitutes the philosophical basis for multicultural music education? The answer takes into account two common misconceptions about American society and the nature of global musical expression: ( I ) that America is a cultural melting pot and (2) that Longfellow's description of music as "the universal language of mankind" connotes a symbolic mode of communication that is universally understood. In the former case, the "melting pot" analogy has been replaced by the more accurate analogy of a patchwork quilt or mixed salad, simultaneously emphasizing both the distinctiveness of cultures and their contribution to the "whole" that is American society. In the latter case, although music-making as a form of human expression is a global phenomenon, world musics do not necessarily convey identical meanings across cultures, nor are they immediately accessible to every listener, as would be expected with a universal mode of communication. Yet it is possible for the cultural outsider to learn, understand, and perform a music within its cultural framework. Thus, given these interpretations as a conceptual foundation, the thrust of multicultural music education is two-fold: ( 1 ) to promote understanding of the structure of world musics and/or musics of other cultures, and in so doing (2) promote understanding of the peoples of other cultures, whether those cultures represent a thread in the fabric of American society, or our global society. Ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl (1992) lends support for this approach in the following quote:
As educators in the field of music, we must undertake a mission new to some of us: to lead students to an understanding of music as a world-wide and varied phenomenon which will help them to comprehend all kinds of music and provide an entry into understanding other things about the world's cultures. . .( p. 4)The importance of this mission becomes apparent when one considers the growth in diversity in the backgrounds of the students in our primary, intermediate, and secondary school classrooms, although it should be noted that multicultural music education is important for all children, not just those in schools with a concentration of students from various cultures or ethnic groups. Interest in the teaching of musics of other cultures has been demonstrated primarily among those who teach music on the primary and intermediate levels where general music instruction tends to be the foundation of the music program. Additionally, a small, though growing number of teachers overseeing primary and intermediate music programs are seeking ways to go beyond the "Christmas Around the World", cultural buffet style of exposing children to the musics of other cultures. Their desire is to offer instruction in music that is effective and geared toward providing more authentic musical experiences that demonstrate not only an understanding of varying aesthetic value systems among cultures, but are presented in cultural context. Although the performance-dominated secondary school music programs have been slower to incorporate musics of other cultures (Negro spirituals and jazz ensembles notwithstanding) proponents of multicultural music education are making efforts to identify performance literature that is more representative of other cultures. An interesting side note to the discussion of multicultural performances in secondary schools is the formation of gospel choirs by African-American students that has been occurring in high schools over that last few years. The establishment of these choirs demonstrates the role of music as agent in that it assists in the reaffirmation and celebration of cultural identity, and in some cases, represents an informal attempt to broaden the music curriculum.
With the growing focus on multicultural music comes a concomitant growth in the number of issues of concern related to it. The majority of issues that have emerged in the discourse in the music education community may be grouped into three main areas: ( 1 ) issues relating to the learner, (2) issues relating to the teachers, and (3) issues relating to the educational institution (Palmer, as cited in Jordan, 1992). Issues relating to the learner and the teacher include questions of the capacity to understand and perform within the contexts of more than one musical system, and questions of the practicality of encouraging a musicianship that allows individuals to practice one or more musical systems as either a performer or a listener. Additionally, there are issues relating to learner and teacher attitude, which affects motivation. Issues relating to multicultural music education programs and the educational institution include teacher preparation, selection of specific musical traditions, methods and materials, feasibility, and practicality. At this point, I would like to address only one of these concerns: the selection and evaluation of materials.
Finding appropriate materials can be a problem for music educators trying to find effective means to implement a multicultural music education program. Judith Cook Tucker ( 1992), music educator and founder of World Music Press, offers assistance for teachers through the development of the following checklist of considerations in evaluating multicultural music materials:
1. Material should be prepared with the involvement of a culture bearer.2. Materials should include biographical information about the contributors including their personal comments on each selection.
3. Each piece/work should be set in cultural context, including the source, when it is performed, by whom, circumstances, etc.
4. Materials should include historical/geographical background, maps, specific locale (not identified only by continent--give example of video at Lewisville)
5. Materials should contain original language with pronunciation, literal translation, interpretation of deeper meanings.
6. Photographs, illustrations (preferably by someone from the culture). Musical transcription if possible.
7. Musical transcription if possible.
8. Recording of material in the collection using native singers or their long-time students, and employing authentic instruments and arrangements.
9. Games include directions
10. No sacred materials in a collection intended for casual school/community use. ( p 38)
I would like to emphasize that, even with more materials at our disposal, we as music educators may still only succeed in approximating the music-making of other cultures for our students. Bringing in culture bearers to share music with students is one way to provide more authentic experiences for them, and we as teachers are certain to be enriched ourselves.
After all is said and done, the final question I'd like for us to consider today, is what is it that we want children to gain when we offer them the opportunity to encounter the musics of other cultures? Several outcomes are desirable:
1. Students will gain new musical experiences and an extension of their means of expression through the enlargement of their vocabulary as they use scales, rhythmic groupings, tone colors, textures, and structures that were unfamiliar to them before.2. They will achieve an appreciation of diversities and, at a deeper level, of similarities.
3. They will participate in different ways of making music together. spontaneity and improvisation will play more important roles, and composer and performer will often be the same person.
4. Students will see the relatedness of the arts. . .that divisions between music, dance, and other arts are less strong, or are nonexistent, in many cultures.
5. Students will gain the intellectual stimulus that working within new musical systems gives.
6. Students will develop respect and tolerance, leading to an attitude that, it is hoped, will find expression in their relationship with people of other races, cultures, and geographic areas. (Dodds, 1983, p. 33-34)
I would like to conclude with a quote which I believe speaks to the urgency of reframing our music curricula for the future. The following is by Anthony Seeger, curator at the Smithsonian Institution, and former president of the Society for Ethnomusicology:
Contemporary music is already multicultural; it is our music education that is predominantly Eurocentric. Our students come from many different traditions, wear clothes made m many different countries, eat food from many different cuisines, and have families with roots in many different places. Just as spicy salsa has joined ketchup as a national condiment of choice, so have Caribbean-born reggae, Afro-pop, Indian film music, and hundreds of other genres found a place in the entertainment centers of American homes. . . we must address this new reality in our classrooms. Not every member of an ethnic or cultural group will prefer the music, cuisine, and culture of his or her ancestors. The exposure to a variety of traditions is, however, a central part of education for the twenty-first century, a century certain to be filled with complex cultural choices and increasing international and intercultural interdependence. (1996, p. x)
REFERENCE LIST Dodds, J. P. B. (1983). Music as a multicultural education. Music Educators Journal, 69 (9), 33-34.
Jordan, J. (1992). Multicultural music education in a pluralistic society. In R. Colwell (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning. Reston: Music Educators National Conference.
Kerr, H. R. (1990, November). The merger story: North Carolina professional music organizations. Paper presented at the meeting of the North Carolina Music Educators Association, Winston-Salem, NC.
Music Educators National Conference. (1994). 'The school music program: A new vision. Reston: Author.
Nettl, B. (1992). Ethnomusicology and the teaching of world music. International Journal Music Education, 20, 3-7.
Seeger, A. (1996). Foreword. In Anderson, W. M. and Campbell, P. S. (Eds.), Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education. Reston: Music Educators National Conference.
Tucker, J.C.(1992). Circling the globe: multicultural resources. Music Educators Journal 78 (9), 37-40.