Are there qualities of sound and the experience of listening that educators can extrapolate to inform the philosophy and practice of music education? In this essay, I imagine a music education where sound--how it behaves and how we experience it--serves not only as the subject of study, but generates the framework of the pedagogy. A sonic music…

At present, instrumental music education, defined in this paper as the teaching and learning of music through wind bands and symphony orchestras of Western origin, appears embattled. Among the many criticisms made against instrumental music education, critics claim that bands and orchestras exemplify an authoritarian model of teaching that does…

Although much has been written about Nietzsche's views on education over the years and much has also been written about Dionysus the god of wine and ecstasy, very little attention has been given to the meaning of, and need for, a Dionysian education. This article is an attempt to begin that project. Drawing Nietzsche's articulation of…

In this essay, a quintet of values in doing philosophy of music education are examined: the need for a broad view, a personal perspective, a constructive vision, a relevant plan, and the courage to speak about important issues in music education. The following questions frame the analysis of each, in turn: What do these values mean? What…

This paper is an evaluation of a selection of writings by Frede V. Nielsen and their significance for the philosophy of music education. The terms "Didaktik" and "Bildung," which played a central role in Nielsen's writings, will be introduced, situated within the historical context of classic theories of…

In this article, the authors link the discussion of differing musical experiences to Frede V. Nielsen's exploration of music as a multifarious universe of meaning, which, in encounter with the listener's receptive consciousness, presents different layers of musical meaning. The focal point of the article is that which Nielsen refers to…

The article addresses "Bildung" from a Finnish perspective and asks: Are there specific meanings of Bildung that are typical of a certain time and place? The author applies a multi-layered theory of critical positivism, adapting its three-level structure to music education and the concept of "Bildung." First, she discusses…

Among other things, the work of Frede Nielsen gradually took the form of an analytical clarification of the integration between subject matter and pedagogy; in other words, how the reciprocal relation between musical subject matter and pedagogy can be unfolded in an inner (that is nondualist) state of things? This issue is ascribed key importance…

Is the most important function of education to provide students with basic skills and useful knowledge in order to eventually become employable? In many parts of the world knowledge league tables and policy documents inform us this is the case. As the question of what should form the educational content seems to be answered, teachers can…

In the face of globalization, speed communication, and the mashing up of once clearly drawn borders, it seems both pertinent and constructive that music education philosophers make use of comparative frameworks to make sense--and make new sense--of educational and musical events, products, and interactions. However, comparison that is merely…

This article serves to extend a critique initiated by Allsup and Benedict in their 2008 PMER article, "The Problems of Band." Using the work of Michael Foucault as a theoretical and methodological basis, I consider ways in which today's large ensemble paradigm, particularly that of the wind band, has resulted in an ongoing antinomy in school music…

This essay interview with Joan Tower is a meditation on the importance of composing, understood as a process larger than the making of new sound combinations or musical scores, suggesting that the compositional act is self-educative and self-forming. Tower's musical life, one of teaching and learning, one of composing and self-composing, is an…

This article attempts to bridge the philosophical gap between Western music education philosophers and practicing Suzuki music teachers. Specifically addressed is Estelle Jorgensen's critique of Suzuki-trained educators who may rely too heavily on rote pedagogical methods without careful reflection of the philosophical principles underlying their…

The basic thesis explored in this paper is that rather than seeing spirituality as a byproduct of music, the other arts, and religion, music, the other arts, and religion might be seen as a byproduct of spirituality--hence, the proposition that music is a language of spirituality. If that is the case, there are twin dangers: talk of "wholism" can…

In this paper I retrace the line of thought that led me to the position of a praxial philosophy of music education, from a perspective 20 years after the inaugural meeting of the International Society for the Philosophy of Music Education. I discuss how I conceive of the general project of the philosophy of music education and recapitulate some of…