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…

Musicians, like athletes, daily face the stark reality of physical and psychological health issues that can negatively affect or end their careers. Research shows compelling reasons for making changes to the value systems and in the educational process under which musicians are trained to help alleviate these problems. Changes would include…

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 paper aims to examine how specific aspects of Bakhtin's theoretical perspective might inform our understanding of improvisation. Moreover, it outlines the possible educational implications of such a perspective. Specifically, a sketch of a Bakhtinian conception of improvisation is proposed, a sketch which emphasizes the cultivation of an…

This essay offers a critique of the dominant music education paradigm by challenging the myth of the musician as the locus of music making. Exploring the concept of the "musician" through three different ways of conceptualizing the arts, the essay offers a strategy for recasting the fundamental assumptions that underlie music education as a…

What professional musicians say and do affects the attitudes and actions of music educators in the classroom. One example comes from influential conductor/composer, Gunther Schuller, who, in his controversial 1997 book, "The Compleat Conductor", defines, espouses, and recommends his own "philosophy of conducting." An examination of his ideas and,…

It is important to create a framework in the education of professional musicians, whether these musicians are students of music education, performance, composition, musicology, ethnomusicology, or conducting, in which the political dimensions of their lives can be critically examined. Lise Vaugeois argues that creating such a framework would…

Music education occupations in the U.S. have been segregated by gender and race for decades. While women are most likely to teach young students in classroom settings, men are most likely to teach older students in all settings, but most particularly in wind/percussion ensembles. Despite gender-affirmative employment practices, men constitute a…

In this article, the author examines the intersections of three concepts, form, feeling, and isomorphism, in the work of Susanne Langer, as they are fundamental to an understanding of her aesthetic theory and to the construction of a philosophy of music and music education. These three concepts hold meanings that differ among musicians and…

The name of Manos Hadjidakis is probably unknown to contemporary musicians and music educators. After all, the Greek composer achieved his international fame back in 1961 when he won an Oscar for his soundtrack of the movie, "Never on Sunday." Numerous other awards followed from England, Krance, Germany, and of course, Greece. After his six years…

Manos Hadjidakis and his work are like his song, "O Mythos," for they take you from reality to fantasy and bring you back again. In Magnus Eroticus, the combination of lyrics and music is at the highest level of sensibility and the musical style of each song is superb. Music follows the verse to express its deepest meaning while maintaining its…

There are two issues that struck the author, Jason Helfer, as essential from his consideration of Miralis' paper and the ideas of Manos Hadjidakis: Eros as a pedagogical idea and learner interactions in the music classroom. These ideas developed from his interpretation of Miralis' paper, from his experiences in teacher training, and teaching in…

Humans are all one species with one brain and neural system, yet consciousness about their existence is highly contextual. Any culturally transcendent view will still be limited to one's personal experience, analytical capabilities, and cultural shaping. Nevertheless, looking beyond humans' narrow perspectives is essential if they are to find…

Musicians make music; that is, the performance of music involves applied knowledge or know-how. Can a discursive understanding of what the musician does be attained, and does the attempt to achieve this put at risk the very art it aims to capture? In other words, what can be said of the nature of performance and does what is said turn a living…

Presents 44 entries from a modern composer and music professors' journal, culled from 1993 to the present. Includes comments and criticisms of composers and musicians, as well as philosophical and practical observations. (MJP)