THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INNOVATORY IDEAS AND ENDURING VALUES IN MUSIC EDUCATION Susan Evelyn Kendall Submitted in part-fulfilment of requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of York Department of Music September 1989 TABLE OF CONTENTS page TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 DECLARATION 7 ABSTRACT 8 INTRODUCTION 10 PART I SUNDRY VIEWS OF MUSIC AND THE ARTS 16 IN EDUCATION Perceptions of music: 17 - Mathematical 17 - Ethical 18 - Liturgical 23 - Educational 24 - Ritual and ceremonial 28 - Recreational 30 - Enjoyable 32 Attitudes to the role of music in 34 education EMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE 1865-1950 43 The state of music education 43 'Rhythms which inspire ...' 46 'The attempt to give life and reality 50 to music education ...' Observations 53 1 e ZOLTAN KODALY 1882-1967 57 Historical and personal background 58 The need for reform of Hungarian musical 63 education The means of reform 69 '... to replace ... the mechanical 72 playing of instruments with music from the soul and based on singing' - Reorganisation of music education 75 in schools Achievements of reform 78 Significance 82 JAMES MURSELL 1893-1963 90 Background 90 His attitude to music education 92 - Teaching music and teaching children 94 Particular aspects of music education 97 - Music as an individual experience 98 - Music as an emotional experience 100 - Active experience 101 - Music as social opportunity 103 - Music as an agency for growth 105 - Music as a moral force 109 - Methods in music education 110 - Music and the class 114 - Music and the school 117 - Music and the teacher 118 - The preparation of teachers 123 - Standards 125 Musicianship and human quality 127 Observations 129 SHINICHI SUZUKI 1898- 131 - Prefatory note 131 Introduction 131 Background 133 Philosophy of life 136 - Children 137 Education 141 - How, then, to educate? 143 Observations 155 JOHN PAYNTER 1931- 160 Background and books 160 The nature of change 163 Change in attitudes to music 165 Change in attitudes to musicality 169 Change in attitudes to the role of 171 music teachers in schools Change in attitudes to musical activity 173 in the classroom Change in attitudes to the justification 184 of music in the curriculum Observations 188 MATTERS OF MUSICAL SIGNIFICANCE 192 PART II JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 1746-1827 203 FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 1782-1852 225 3 RUDOLF STEINER 1856-1925 242 Background 242 Philosophy of man 243 Childhood 247 - The first seven years 247 - The middle years 249 - After fourteen 250 Temperament 251 Education 252 Teachers 254 The organization of schools 257 Music in Steiner education 261 What Steiner has to offer music 265 education today MARIA MONTESSORI 1870-1952 276 Background 276 ... a new education based on aiding 279 the inner powers of the child ...' The teacher's function 283 Observations 291 JEAN PIAGET 1896-1980 297 Introduction 297 From molluscs to genetic epistemology 300 Knowledge and learning 307 - Stages of cognitive development 312 - The processes of learning 316 - Education, teachers, and teaching 322 'The research has not necessarily produced any definite answers, but it has certainly changed the questions' 328 PART III Foreword 334 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INNOVATORY IDEAS 336 AND ENDURING VALUES IN ALL KINDS OF EDUCATION '... conceive of yourself as a 338 process in the cosmos, which is the reality.' Should education be concerned with 341 visionary ideas, with innovation? - ... to lead the child to 341 resemble the typical adult of his society ...' - '... men are more remarkable 348 creatures than most societies ever allow them to be ...' - 'An experience that is an under- 356 going of an environment and a striving for its control in new directions is pregnant with connections.' Afterword 359 REFERENCES 362 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to S. Martin's College, Lancaster, whose generous Scholarship award made this venture possible. I am grateful to Professor John Paynter, for his sustained support in supervising my work, despite long periods when for personal reasons I have had to lay it aside; and for allowing me to use material from the first chapter of his book Sound and Structure while it is still in press. Of the many people whose influence over the years has contributed ultimately to the conception of this thesis, I would particularly like to acknowledge my gratitude to the following: my mother, Barbara Carter, who taught me her love of music from the earliest age; the late Eleanor Zackman, Richard Lloyd, Peter Noke and Helen Krizos, for their musical wisdom and inspiration; Gerard Doyle, Roger Cann and Peter Moore, for widening my acquaintance with music; David Urwin and Ian Bliss for encouraging the pursuit of ideas; John Savage for constructive criticism of my earlier writing; the staff and pupils (at various times) of Settle Middle School, and especially John Armitage and Christine Wilson who allowed me space, in more than one sense of the word, to experiment. Without the unreasonable patience and forbearance of my family, and in particular my husband Ted, I should not have been able to undertake this research. I thank them very much. 6 DECLARATION Material included in the chapters concerned with the work of Pestalozzi and of Froebel first appeared in The Harmony of Human Life: An exploration of the ideas of Pestalozzi and Froebel in relation to music education, in The British Journal of Music Education Volume 3 Number 1, March 1986 (Cambridge University Press). The chapter dealing with the work of John Paynter is included in reluctant defiance of his recommendation. A composite chapter, such as he suggests, to consider the work of a group of modern composer-educators, has proved unsatisfactory for the following reasons: it is in itself unbalanced by the unavoidable preponderance of evidence derived from Professor Paynter's work; and it is out of character with the approach adopted throughout the thesis, which is to look at the work of specific innovators whose influence has extended significantly beyond the country and context of origin. The responsibility for including the chapter, as well as for its short-comings, is entirely mine; to omit it would, in my view, seriously weaken the coherence of the thesis, as I hope will be apparent to the reader. 7 ABSTRACT The thesis draws on the work of a number of music educators and general educators whose innovatory ideas have influenced educational thought and practice well beyond their countries and contexts of origin; and on related insights from genetic epistemology, philosophy, psychology, history, economics and physics. It seeks to establish factors which are of enduring value in visionary ideas in education, and to consider what significant indications these imply. It presents evidence that perception of a need for change provokes visionary ideas, and that universal principles inform the culture-relative innovatory procedures which are developed to translate these ideas into practice. It argues that the most valuable resource of education is the potential powers of human beings; that education is concerned with human values and with the intrinsic values of the educative medium; that the significance of innovatory ideas in education exists in enduring principles; that these principles concern the nature of human beings, of knowledge, of learning and - in the case of music education - of musical experience; and that these principles are consistent with principles inherent in the nature of the universe itself. 8 It suggests that if education is to promote human and social well-being, it must derive its values not from the reflection of transient social conventions and opinions, which hinder the development of human potential, but from the enduring principles which define reality and enable the realisation of that potential. It suggests further that the basic resources which children need in order to function fully as individuals and as members of society are values and attitudes, as well as technical communication skills. It proposes that education in schools should give first priority to the cultivation of these sustainable personal resources in pupils; and that music education should make a distinctively valuable contribution to this end. 9 INTRODUCTION Lifetimes could be spent investigating innovatory ideas in education without encompassing every aspect and occurrence which could be considered relevant. The possibilities are endless. They are also relatively unresearched except in particularities. Some particular ideas judged to be significant to education excite a volume of critical interest, and attract disciples who devote themselves with varying degrees of dedication to the propagation or/and practice of the idea. Such ideas tend to be regarded in relative isolation, as means or ends in themselves rather than as stages or linkages in a larger concept of education. The impossibility of covering the ground adequately in a comprehensive sense is one factor which hinders consideration of innovatory ideas in a wider context. On the one hand it seems temerarious to make the attempt. On the other, to neglect to make a partial map of a fascinating region just because it is impossible to include all of it seems un- necessarily defeatist. In any case, a partial map provides a beginning from which the same or other cartographers may make further expeditions. The tendency to seek absolute conclusions to inquiries if they are to be academically respectable is also a hindrance. Since the area is too large to cover, such conclusions are inherently impossible. Even if the validity of a partial study is acknowledged, its findings have to be regarded as 10 indicative rather than conclusive, provisional upon findings which may or would accrue from further investigations. The present study is undertaken and presented, therefore, as a venture in which the integrity of the search is paramount, and validity is sought in qualitative terms in relation to the development of human beings, rather than on a statistical basis.