Blog Prompt #3
- Should music educators be experts in jazz or American folk
music?
- What American songs should all students know?
I
have a certain hesitancy in responding to this prompt that I hope will be met
with some understanding on the part of the reader. Let me first state that I believe music
educators should find whatever means necessary to build their student’s aural
understanding of music, and if this endeavor can be met through the teacher’s
use of American popular music, traditional or otherwise, I applaud such an
endeavor. We, as music educators, should
be able to involve students musically on a level that students can relate to,
and with many of our students American popular music will provide such a
medium. However, as music educators we
need to engage all our students, no matter what their nationality, in a musically
meaningful manner. In this endeavor I
believe that the nationalities of each of our students should be put on equal
footing, and be explored in such a manner.
I relate passionately to a performance I took part in last fall (October
2013) at the Worthington-Hooker School in New Haven, where folk-songs, stories,
and dances from nations all across the seven continents of the world, each
represented by students in the various classes, were presented on stage. One of the songs all students learned for the
performance was the German round Froh zu
sein, which they first sung in solfege with hand syllables, and then with
the German text in canon. This is just
one of the songs I believe the students benefited from learning, not just
musically, but culturally in general.
I
bring this situation up because I believe that “American” music definitely has
something special to offer the music classroom, however for certain students
Indian folk music, or Italian folk music, or Chinese folk music, or Brazilian
folk music, might have equal meaning in that it provides the vehicle for those
students to become better musicians.
Finally I must relate the story of my wife, a music educator born in
Germany, who took a job as a string teacher in a relatively rural community in
Connecticut with a string program of twenty students at the time, and has built
it to a program with well over two hundred.
Some of her most devoted students can tell the story of her listening to
a recording of the Indian national anthem on YOU-TUBE and then writing a
four-part version for her orchestra to play.
The strength of her program definitely comes from her sensitivity to
cultural diversity, as well as her plain passion for music.
Well, done Oliver. I really appreciate your emphasis on cultural diversity - but, are you suggesting that we play an equal amount of Italian or Indian folk songs as we do American? I don't know, I'm on the fence here. Of course, it's excellent to celebrate the heritage of our students, and by all means we should be sensitive to their diversity, and teach them to celebrate it as we do. But does not putting an equal emphasis or more on American music stunt their development as Americans? I think music is great at instilling a sense of allegiance and belonging to our country. But; of course our students must be aware and proud that their country is a melting pot of cultures. So, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteIs Diversity a trait we are required to teach? How do we balance depth and breadth?
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