SYSTEMS OF MUSIC EDUCATION

LOGICAL AND LOCALIZED SYSTEMS

To music teachers is sometimes appear that the system with which they are most familiar is the
universal way—the only way—for musically educating children and youth, when in fact the curricular
aims, materials, and methods have been developed to fit the social and cultural contexts within
which they work. The societal philosophy and principles of a nation, region (state or province), and
local community direct the course of educational design and delivery, and the efforts within a
classroom, school, and school district reflect explicit and implicit values of the society to which the
schools belong. What works for “us” may not work for “them.” Of course, an obvious question is this:
Just what does work for us within the realm of music teaching and learning in school programs for
children and youth? And what components of other approaches to music teaching and learning, in
other nations, could be successfully applied to enliven, enrich, and extend the musical education of
students in our own system?

Through examination of the school music practices and policies of a variety of nations, from China to
South Africa, teachers can learn more about avenues and options for adaptation and use in the
familiar system of music education. Break points follow descriptions of national systems and are
intended to call up components of the most familiar system (the home system) for comparison with
the less familiar system (the distant system).

FAMILIAR TERRITORY

Within your familiar “music education territory,” what do you know about the national policy for
music in elementary and secondary schools? Are there national standards, or laws in effect, that
regulate the place of music and the arts in the curriculum? Are there even tests intended to uphold
those standards? Discuss the strengths of the national policy of music in schools, and project the
possibilities for ways to strengthen music’s curricular position.

This chapter examines the music education systems of eleven nations. The countries vary in
population and size, economic development and activity, government ideology, and philosophical
systems. They are scattered across the globe, with three in Europe (France, Hungary, and the United
Kingdom), two in Asia (China, Japan) and in South America (Argentina, Brazil), one in Africa (South
Africa), two in North America (Canada and the United States), and one in the Pacific region
(Australia). Some have long considered music as critical to in-school education, while others applaud
and nurture the informal processes of music learning that exist outside schools (sometimes to the
point of wondering whether music needs to be taught in the school curriculum, since it is already so
widespread). The preservation of traditional music may be central to some national systems of
education whereas Western classical music is the prominent feature in others. An emphasis may be
given co one or several of four domains: performance, listening, creativity, and musical knowledge
(history/theory/ culture). The meaning of music to a nation and its culture(s) may well influence its
curricular emphasis as well as the pedagogical approaches to teach it, so that some countries may
value specifically musical aims (performance and aural skills, for example), while others may see the
value of music as part of a child’s personal development, or as a reflection of the sociocultural
principles by which the nation stands.

These international sketches describe different but equally logical means of musically educating
young people. In making comparisons, teachers can see what is constant across national systems,
why there is variance, what works well (and what does not operate at all) under the wide music
education umbrella, and what principles and techniques might have application at home.

ARGENTINA

Music education in the southern South American nation of Argentina began with “Law 1420.” Passed
by the national parliament in 1884, this law decreed that music—particularly singing—was to be a
mandatory subject in the primary (elementary) schools, and thus classroom teachers would
themselves be trained in singing so they could teach children. Music education in Argentina was
already established during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Jesuit missions, where
Indians and mestizos performed in choirs and small orchestras, and religious services and processions
mixed Indian and European expressions. The Catholic services in the cathedrals and churches were
also centres for artistic and cultural life, where young people learned to perform Gregorian chant
and polyphonic song. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits, when an independent Republica
Argentina was declared, opera flourished with spectacular performances at the Teatro Colon in
Buenos Aires. When the Conservatory of Music of Buenos Aires was founded in 1893, music
education in Argentina was well established for those who aspired to be professional performers as
well as for those who were taught music in schools as part of their collective knowledge.

The National Ministry of Education regulates the music education system throughout the twenty-
three states of Argentina. National, provincial, and municipal taxes provide a free education for
young people in primary and secondary schools, and for those who progress to the conservatories.
Financial support for equipment and resources has been difficult to come by, however, since the
1950s, although a national law offers support for not only the implementation of new requirements
but also the means to achieve them. The ministry issued aims for music education several decades
ago that are still maintained today: to develop the skills, capabilities, and habits of students to
participate as singers, performers, readers, listeners, and creators of music. There is also interest in
developing students’ capacities to discern the relationship between music, literature, and the arts,
and in increasing students’ knowledge of Argentinian music and musicians.

Teachers have considerable freedom in planning the curriculum for their students in every subject.
Today there is no required musical study, nor is music treated as an elective course in most secondary
schools of Argentina. In the primary schools, singing remains a prominent goal, with all children
singing together with their classroom teachers. Music specialist teachers at some schools form select
choirs, provide ear-training and sight-reading exercises, and may teach skills in instrumental
performance as well. Recorders and guitars are used in class instruction, both for musicianship
exercises (such as developing music literacy skills) and for preparing children to perform for their
parents. Children learn music appreciation through recordings, radio and TV broadcasts, and live
concerts. Eurhythmies, the practice of learning music by responding through bodily movement to
concepts such as rhythm, melody, and form, has been important in the primary grades since at least
the 1950s. The pedagogical approaches of Carl Orff, Murray Schafer, Maurice Martenot, Edgar
Willems, and Zoltan Kodály have also inspired the teaching of music specialist teachers. Preschool
and kindergarten music is seen as vital to young children’s development, and instruction typically
features singing, movement, and listening experiences.

There is growing interest among teachers in exposing children to the music of contemporary
composers, particularly those living in Argentina, and the folk songs and instrumental music
traditions of Argentinians, including the indigenous peoples, the Spanish, Italian, and Jewish
communities, and other immigrant groups who have contributed to the multicultural society of the
nation. Creativity is another developing area of classroom practice, with small-group and individual
compositions facilitated by teachers. Leading Argentinian music educators have contributed much
to teacher education in music in conservatories and universities, including Rudolfo Zubrisky and Ana
Lucia Frega, both of whom were influential leaders in the International Society for Music Education.

AUSTRALIA

Australia has a strong history of music and arts teaching across its nine education authorities or
districts. There is national unity on the importance of fostering the self-expression of children and
youth through music education experiences that are holistic and grounded in creativity. In 1994, the
Australian

Curriculum corporation published A Statement on the Arts for Australian Schools and The Arts—A
Curriculum Profile for Australian Schools. Particular thrusts of these statements were that music
could contribute to the children’s aesthetic development through sequential instruction in
performance activities, musicological analysis, and aural skill development.

Within their curricular policies and directives, music teachers in Australia are free to choose
repertoire for performance and study, pedagogical methods and techniques, and types of
assessment. Music is required through school years seven or eight, and it is assumed that all schools
will make music available to children across the thirteen years of schooling. The arts (music, dance,
drama, visual arts, and media) are collectively a Key Learning Area within the curriculum. In the
primary grades (equivalent to the K-6 grades or elementary school in North America), a general music
education is integrated in the curriculum so that music is often combined with lessons in language
arts, social studies, and physical education. Secondary school music study is more directly focused
an ensemble performance, creative composition, aural/listening skills, and musical analysis. A strong
band movement is in place in secondary schools, and various instrumental solo and ensemble
competitions are held at the state and national levels. Orchestras are rarely found in secondary
schools, but choirs are common both in school and in the community.

At the primary level, music instruction has evolved through three stages since he 1950s, from music
appreciation, to performance-based learning via Orff and Kodály instructional approaches, to
student composition. The current view on composition focuses on musical understanding rather than
a final product, music specialist teachers direct student composers toward musical understanding by
manipulation of musical elements and structures, particularly at the secondary level. In composition
activities, students may imitate a model, provide few accompaniments to familiar pieces, or work
pre-existing material into new expressions.

An awareness of the multiculturalism of Australia’s population has led to the inclusion of a broader
repertoire as a source of illustrating musical concepts. Music syllabi in several states differentiate
between world music cultures and “Australian music from diverse cultural backgrounds”—for
example, Greek or Vietnamese music—that have been brought to Australia, taken root, and
undergone transformation. Students have practical experiences in these musics—from singing and
dancing the music to instrumental performance—and learn cultural analysis of such music as the
Balinese gamelan. (After all, Bali is just north of Australia.) The study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander music is important to Australian music education, and developments are in progress for
understanding the connections between the music and the musicians who express and own it.
Developments in teacher education are expected to increase access to materials and community
resources, including singers, dancers, and artists, so that this music can be brought more fully into
the curriculum.
 Generalist, all-subject classroom teachers are often charged with teaching music in Australia’s
primary grades, although private schools may employ specialist music teachers. Secondary schools
have specialist music teachers almost exclusively, as the musical study is more rigorous and demands
a teacher’s comprehensive and extensive musicianship. Music specialist teachers are trained in
programs leading to a four-year undergraduate degree or postgraduate teaching certification.

BRAZIL

In the Federative Republic of Brazil, a nation that covers almost half the land area of South America,
music has been a prominent fixture in society throughout its documented history. It is a valued school
subject, and yet the availability of rich informal and outside-school musical activities prompts some
policy makers to question the necessity of keeping music in the curriculum. With these opposing
views, there is not a united position on music in schools, and there is an absence of continuity across
time. As elsewhere in South America, the Jesuits educated indigenous peoples and millions of African
slaves in the Portuguese language, the moral code of Roman Catholicism, and skills in the
performance of European music. Opera houses appeared in Brazil as early as the seventeenth
century, and community choirs and orchestras flourished, especially for performances in churches.
With the proclamation of the Republic in 1822, music education was no longer in the hands of the
Jesuits even though European music and music education practices became enmeshed in the
country. The Music Conservatory of Rio de Janeiro was established in 1847 as Brazil’s earliest attempt
to establish music as a profession.

Nearly a century later, in 1932, composer Hector Villa-Lobos implemented a singing movement in
Sao Paolo through teacher-training programs and mass concerts for children, and the quest for music
education spread throughout Brazil. This movement, sponsored by the Superintendency of Musical
Artistic Education, stipulated that music be required in the school curriculum and that it involve the
study of (and experience with) Brazilian artists and composers. With the departure of Villa-Lobos
from this government-sponsored council in the 1950s, music fell away from the curriculum. The
methods of Dalcroze, Orff, Kodály, and Willems were brought into specialized schools about this
time. John Dewey’s liberal view of child-centered education and Brazilian Paulo Freire’s stance on
the “pedagogy of the oppressed” were influential in the design and delivery of music in those schools
that could hire specialist teachers. Freire’s work was important to the Brazilian belief in a cultural
democracy, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, where the individual experiences of students were
woven into strategies to help them understand real-life problems. Thus, their knowledge of popular
music (bossa nova, baiao, Tropicalia) was honored in schools and many youth organizations.

Music does not often hold its own as a curricular subject in Brazilian schools today, although it is
very much in evidence in the festive celebrations and special events of school calendars and agendas.
New educational guidelines were introduced by law in 1996 and included the recommendation that
music be taught within school programs, and there is a consensus that, at the very least, music is
important in schools for nonmusical purposes. Where school music does occur, it is more likely in
the primary schools where weekly thirty- to forty- five-minute lessons are offered in singing,
rhythmic activities, and experimenting with vocal and instrumental sounds. Musical study at the
secondary level is seldom an option. The presence of music in the community—samba (and samba
schools), capoeira (a choreographic style of martial art that is accompanied by the one-string
berimbau), carnival music, and music for worship and ritual—is currently the most effective means
of engaging Brazilian children and youth.

Music teachers are trained in either a general arts or music education course or in a course that mixes
performance, composition, and conducting. The general arts course is geared more extensively to
education and pedagogy, but with less depth of musical knowledge and skill development; the latter
emphasizes musical training but with little pedagogical instruction in working with young people in
introductory and general music classes. The Music Specialists Committee of Brazil’s Ministry of
Education has produced documents for raising the quality of university music courses, with the aim
of influencing the preparation of music teachers that might in turn lead to the musical education of
children and youth in schools.

CHINA

From ancient times and into the twentieth century, the Chinese viewed music as a means of knowing
morality, beauty, and goodness. The Confucian ideal of virtuous living was believed to be attained
through learning music, which could cultivate honesty, love, and filial piety. Enormous political and
social changes came to China through the ruling Communist Party in the mid-twentieth century; the
value of music in an educational system geared toward socialist principles is stated in the State
Education Commission report of 1994: “to nourish pupils’ love of country, work, science, socialism
and unity,” “to cultivate pupils’ wisdom and aesthetic sense, so as to grow with physical and mental
health,” “to develop their reading ability in music,” and “to nourish pupils’ national pride and self-
confidence through the teaching of representative Chinese folklore.” In the first part of the twentieth
century, emphasis was on the study of Western music theory and group singing (of songs from
Europe, North America, Japan, and China). After 1949, the revolutionary communist government’s
links with Soviet Russia brought about an elitist approach that offered music lessons to the talented
in specially designed institutes of music. However, no music instruction was provided to the masses
in their general education. The Cultural Revolution of 1966-69 closed all schools and sent musicians
out of institutes, conservatories, orchestras, and schools into re-education farms and factory jobs.

With the re-opening of schools and then the rise of a foreign policy of peaceful co-existence in
the 1980s, the Chinese were introduced to music methods and music education literature from other
nations and cultures. Kodály, Orff, and Dalcroze approaches were modelled by invited music
educators, and their techniques were worked into music instruction in the primary grades. A
Proposal for Improving School Music Education was signed in 1985 by leading musicians, composers,
and music educators in China and received a positive reaction from government officials who
financed teaching materials and musical instruments, especially keyboards.

Singing by rote is still the most frequent school music activity, although children are also learning
to read both Western staff notation and jianpu, a cipher notation system based on the movable doh.
Music is prescribed in the secondary school curriculum, too, but because of the time that is devoted
to academic subjects (as well as a shortage of music teachers), few secondary schools are able to
offer a music course. There is considerable disparity among schools as to the presence of music, the
availability of equipment (including musical instruments, computers, and music books) and well-
trained music teachers on staff. Shanghai and Canton schools have excellent school music programs;
rural schools often have little to no music education opportunities.

In international music competitions, Chinese musicians have often emerged at the top of the ranks.
Some of them find their way to Western conservatories and later to positions in Western orchestras
and on faculties of conservatories and universities in China and abroad. The Central Conservatorium
of Music in Beijing and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music are among the most competitive places
for Chinese musicians to study. They are associated with key primary and secondary schools where
musically talented young people receive comprehensive and intensive training on piano, violin, and
various Western orchestral instruments. Beginning as early as five years old, children are auditioned
on standard repertoire by Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin into these conservatory-sponsored
programs; if accepted, they may have music training throughout their school years and into
postsecondary school conservatory education—and on to a career of competitions and
performances.

Music is proclaimed by national policy as compulsory to the education of young people in China, yet
it is still given less importance than math, languages, and the sciences. Even teachers trained in music
look to opportunities to teach other subjects, given the greater social stature that this brings to them.
Still, guidelines on music curriculum are in the process of study and revision, and there is a serious
movement among professionals in music and in education to offer children experiences in musical
creativity and child-centred learning that include opportunities for them to engage in musical
explorations and experimentations. Some believe that a philosophical change may be in the wind
that would provide music education for all and not just the talented few.

FRANCE

From Paris to the Pyrenees in the far south of France, education in the arts is directed by the French
ministries of National Education, Culture and Communication, and Sports as part of the general
education of children and youth. The three ministries cooperate closely with local school board
authorities, and with the National Inspectorate and the Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs, to
ensure that the “life rhythm” of children and their childlike ways of learning are respected in the
development of all activities within their school day. The French perspective on education is to teach
the next generation the important values that have produced French culture, and the study of
philosophy and rational thought plays deeply into this view. Rooted in a history of Cartesian ideals
where an intellectual ideas-based curriculum is valued, the arts are seen as mostly outside the
scientific parameters of logic and reason and more within the realm of expressive experiences in
“beauty.” The general French public questions the usefulness of education in the arts as anything
more than recreational in nature. Still, the ministries signed a protocol on arcs education in 1993 that
reaffirmed the fundamental role of the arts in education, and this has renewed attention to bringing
the study of music, the arts, and culture into children’s daily educational plan.

For children from ages five to eleven, music and the visual arts are compulsory (if “minor”)
subjects in France to be experienced and studied from six to eight hours per week. French children
frequently learn to play an instrument in their music classes—recorders and keyboards but also
orchestral instruments. They learn to listen analytically to music of different historical periods, to
memorize and identify musical compositions of progressive difficulty, and to develop the
terminology to describe the music they hear. Classroom teachers are more often than not charged
with teaching music as well as all academic subjects, but some primary school programs enhance
these class sessions with artists who provide performances and workshops and may even be hired
to organize and direct choirs and instrumental ensembles. These enhancements are typically funded
by local authorities or private donations rather than the national ministries.

Music is still required study for French youth ages twelve to fifteen, where the “colleges” (schools)
commit one hour per week to a listening analysis curriculum. For students from the ages of fifteen
to eighteen, there are five artistic disciplines from which to choose as a “required elective”: music,
visual arts, theatre, cinema, and art history. They can enrol in one of these courses as a compulsory
subject in the literature-arts section for four hours per week or take it as an optional subject for three
hours per week. Assessment is more rigorous for students who study music as a compulsory subject,
and this subject prepares some for specialized music study in the university. Cultural classes are
offered by some schools to lead young people to experiences with artists or culture-bearers from a
heritage sector, often at the site of the community and its living culture (for example, a dan bao or
dan tranh player in a Vietnamese neighbourhood in Paris or a rustic village band of hurdy-gurdy and
vielles outside of Dijon). For French students at all levels, there are also cooperative arrangements
between schools and national orchestras, theatres, and museums that allow them to visit, observe,
and interact with professionals in their particular artistic forum.

HUNGARY

Mention Hungary to a music teacher and the name of Zoltan Kodály immediately leaps to mind, as
does the “the Kodály method” of music literacy. Yet Hungarians call their pathway “the Hungarian
method,” which they maintain to be the composite tools and techniques that develop in children a
comprehensive musicianship—that quality that begins with the singing of Hungarian folk songs, leads
through ear training, and culminates in a musical independence producing people who can sing,
frequently play an instrument, and continue to deepen their relationship with music because they
understand its structure. The Hungarians will also remind you that (a) Kodály was the inspiration and
spokesperson for a rigorous system of music education, but that his students and colleagues forged
the pedagogical method; (b) not all Hungarian school settings are able to provide the sequential
system of music instruction, as local contexts bring varied philosophies on curricular time and
emphasis; and (c) with the end of the communist era (and the passing of Kodály as chief advocate of
music) came decided changes in the nation’s priorities, diminishing somewhat the importance of
music as a curricular subject. Still, Hungary’s reputation remains as having one of the most musically
educated populations in the world, and it continues as a mecca for music teachers to visit in search
of schools where music is valued and purposefully taught.

“Kindergarten,” prescribed for children ages three to six years, is the beginning of the musical
education of Hungarian children. Here teachers intersperse periods of music and musical play
throughout the day and children will learn by heart fifty or sixty songs or chants before they leave
kindergarten. In standard elementary schools, children receive music lessons twice weekly. From the
fourth year onward, they have required choir rehearsals where two-part singing and canons of up to
four parts are regular features.

There are also schools with specialized music training that add daily music instruction to regular choir
rehearsals. In either type of school, the students experience songs as exercises in the development
of aural skills and music reading capabilities, while the choir rehearsals offer opportunities to learn
repertoire all the way to the level of a polished performance. Singing is central in Hungarian music
education, and Kodály convinced his communist comrades that the voice was the most accessible
musical instrument for leading students to knowledge of their cultural heritage.

Secondary school music instruction is much like that of standard and specialist music schools. Vocal
music is emphasized, and choirs perform standard literature by Hungarian composers and others
from Europe and the world. Instrumental music is pursued voluntarily by students in special
afternoon music schools, where from the ages of six through twenty-two students receive two
private lessons weekly as well as ninety minutes of solfege/sight-singing. Chamber music and music
history are also options from which to choose. These afternoon music schools are a part of the
general public educational system of Hungary, and all students are eligible for admission. For those
with high interest and talent in music, there are fifteen conservatories where students between the
ages of fourteen and twenty-two can study instruments, voice, music theory, choral conducting, and
composition either as they attend high school or following their high school graduation.

The major Hungarian university for the study of music is the Ferenc Liszt University of Music which
offers degrees in performance, conducting, composition, and music education. Pedagogical Colleges
for general classroom teachers in grades 1-5 offer specialized study in music; music specialist
teachers receive training at the Liszt and other universities. Teachers of the special afternoon music
schools are trained at one of several music teacher training colleges.

In the same year that Hungary published the country’s national standards, the Ministry of Education
published in 1998 a list of basic musical instruments and equipment for all schools. Music theory
classrooms that comply with these stipulations are equipped with five computers and assorted
programs, digital instruments, and musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) systems and
sequencers. An adequate budget for equipment and salaries comes jointly from the national budget
and local governments, but fund-raising activities have become increasingly important in recent
years to aid the realization of locally determined musical goals. Hungary has shifted gears to a free
economy and a society that is recognizing its own diverse population of not only Hungarians but also
Romanians, Slavs, Roma (Gypsy), German, and other nationalities. As such, curricular content and
method will continue to shift to accommodate these economic and social transformations.

JAPAN

Japan, an island nation in northeast Asia, has imported arts from elsewhere in Asia, and yet the
Japanese have succeeded in forging a uniquely Japanese identity where sameness, unity, and
sensitivity to and reliance on the group are valued in the music that is made and taught in schools.
Music was used to promote patriotism in the years leading to World War II. In the post-war years,
music education became joso education, in which music was taught for its own sake to elevate
students’ aesthetic and moral sensibilities. The single activity of singing was then expanded to
include instrumental study, composition, appreciation, and theory. By 2002, however, the Japanese
Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture put into effect a new National Curriculum
Standard intended to develop students’ musicality through performance and appreciation. Rather
than cultivating national heritage and allegiances exclusively, the current curriculum is intended to
promote children’s expressive and creative abilities through compositional activities. The repertoire
for listening and performance is often Western or mixed Western and Japanese, although there is a
movement to put greater emphasis on Japanese traditional music and music of the world’s cultures.

A general classroom music education is provided to children in the elementary grades while band,
orchestra, and choir are extracurricular club activities. The National Curriculum Standard sets the
contents of textbooks and instructional activity. The music to be taught and learned is prescribed, as
are specific concepts and musical symbols, and they encompass Western art repertoire and
traditional folk songs from not only Japan but also other parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the
Americas. Expectations of the number of standard units or lessons per grade level that all students
must have are uniform across all schools. Government-sponsored workshops, as well as those
funded by private organizations, have aided in-service teachers in implementing the required
curriculum through the presentation of materials and model lessons. These have been particularly
important in clarifying the nature of creative music making and sound composition influenced by
successful British models. Despite the uniform way the curriculum has been explained and
demonstrated, the ministry has recently allowed for greater flexibility in the content and method of
the lessons.

Where music is a part of secondary school curriculum, the content is more Western than Japanese,
emphasizing analytical listening to symphonic forms, choral masterpieces, and chamber works of
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart. The aims and activities of the music curriculum differ
between the lower grades (7, 8, and 9) and the upper grades. For the younger adolescents, some in-
school music programs consist of group lessons in Japanese traditional instruments, a development
from earlier appreciation courses that could be taught by nonperformers. In recent years, teachers
are being encouraged to lead students in learning to sing and play Japanese instruments as well as
other instruments of the world’s cultures. The “creative music making" lessons at this level also
demand more of a teacher’s musical expertise than in the past, so that teachers can clarify the details
of the compositional process through the performance of suggested techniques as well as completed
student models. Music in the upper grades typically is considered an elective subject within a period
of integrated arts study and may consist of courses in traditional Japanese music, music technology,
and even music of the Kabuki and Noh drama. There are instrumental and choral ensembles that
rehearse at school but outside of class time (for example, after school and on Saturdays) as
extracurricular activities, and some ensembles are stunning examples of highly regulated training
where nothing less than performance perfection is demanded and delivered.

Some Japanese children learn music through privately funded Suzuki programs, where the very
young learn to play on pint-sized violins (as well as on piano, cello, flute, and other orchestral
instruments) through teacher demonstration and student imitation. The Yamaha Corporation is also
significant in the musical education of Japanese children who learn keyboard, note-reading, and
improvisation skills (on Yamaha pianos) outside school. The phenomenon of karaoke, the style of
singing to pre-recorded instrumental music, has motivated some young people to develop their
voices independently and outside of school for solo pop-song singing. Finally, culture schools offer
after-school and weekend lessons to young people in some of the music, dance, and drama forms of
traditional Japan. These outside-school experiences have influenced teachers and curriculum writers
to include in school programs music and music education methods that are relevant and meaningful.

SOUTH AFRICA

More than most African nations, South Africa has had a long effort in the formalized musical
education of its students. Colonization led to the oppression of traditional ethnic cultures in South
African society and its schools, and the creation by the Nationalist Party in 1948 of a policy of
apartheid forced the separation and unequal treatment of ethnic groups. There were limitations to
the students who could study music as well as the types of music that could be studied; music
education was for nearly a half-century chiefly a curricular offering in Western classical music for the
all-white students enrolled in private independent schools. Yet even in those times music permeated
the lives of black South Africans and other people of colour, where participation in singing and
dancing (and sometimes instrumental play) was not only encouraged but expected as part of the
personal and social development of every child—and still is. The resonant South African choral sound
is a development of early European Christian missionary influence, buoyed also by influences from
African-American spirituals and gospel songs. It is distinguished in its own vibrant way of including
movement and dance, and improvisation atop rich textures. Singers are as comfortable reading the
sol-fa notation as they are in producing the full chordal harmonies. Popular styles such as
isicathamiya, mbube, mbaqanga, township jazz, and kwaito (African rap) emerged when South
African musicians raised their voices and instruments in protest against the social inequities of the
society. When music was not an option in the schooling of most South Africans, it was still a deep
and abiding presence in their family and community lives.
The South African government supported the practice of musical and cultural traditions among black
South Africans during the apartheid period, which perpetuated their segregation and prevented
them from modernizing. With the election of Nelson Mandela as president in 1994 came the end of
apartheid and the transfer of governance from the white minority to the black majority through
democratic elections. Along with changes to social structures came the development of new
education policies, and the government moved to redistribute funding to address the needs of
youth—mostly underprivileged black Africans—whose schooling to that point had been severely
under supported. The full implementation of curriculum structures in 2005 includes music for the
first ten years of schooling as one of the targets for transforming South African society according to
its new constitution.

There are eight learning areas in the curriculum, and music is integrated with dance, drama, and
the visual arts in an Arts and Culture Learning Area. There are recommendations for teaching music
in an arts-integrated fashion as it would be experienced in black African cultures, but it can also be
studied for its subject-specific knowledge, skills, and techniques. Specific outcomes are identified for
musical learning: the development of music-making skills, the use of creative processes for
developing social and interactive skills, an understanding of the origins and functions of music, the
ability to reflect critically on musical experiences, the use of music to develop self-esteem and
promote healing, and the acknowledgment of historically marginalized musical practices. These and
other outcomes are spread across the arts and are intended to move beyond the Western paradigm
of music and to see music as a cultural expression largely anchored in community activities.

Most teachers in South African schools have come from university programs steeped in Western
European art music and Euro-American music education methods; one of the key challenges for
them is to learn to teach music as it can best be learned. Children and youth of every cultural
experience are capable of learning to read music notation, but literacy may not be relevant in
learning all music. In teaching much of the music of Africa, South African teachers need to be able to
facilitate the orality, co-creation, and improvisation processes that authenticate the experience.
Repertoire is more easily changed than transmission and learning, and yet the inclusion of African
“materials” will become meaningful when the appropriate process is carefully studied and applied
by teachers in their classrooms. University programs in teacher education are undergoing reform to
ensure that students develop the sensitivity and skills to begin using culturally sensitive (and
musically authentic) pedagogical practices.
THE UNITED KINGDOM

Partly motivated by the desire to improve congregational participation in churches, music in the form
of group singing was introduced to the primary' schools of the United Kingdom (England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) early in the nineteenth century. The development of singing and aural
training was furthered through the pioneering efforts of John Hullah, Sarah Glover, and John Curwen,
whose tonic sol-fa means of solmization met with widespread acclaim throughout the kingdom. The
syllable system of Glover, modified by Curwen, was adopted in Europe and North America, and their
hand signs form the basis of the “Kodály hand signs” today. By the mid-nineteenth century, the
British government was encouraging singing classes in schools, and instruction in instrumental music
was rising along with the formation of choirs and orchestras as extracurricular activities for those
with a special musical interest. Curricular and extracurricular music instruction continues today,
although the in-school instruction has expanded far beyond the one-time emphasis on singing.

The arts—music, the visual arts, dance (within physical education), and drama (within English)—are
included in the National Curriculum as foundation subjects, funded and supported by the
Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the National Arts Council. This curriculum was
introduced into the schools of England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland operate their own
related atonal systems. The arts in the National Curriculum are compulsory study for students in Key
Stages 1-3 (ages five through fourteen) and optional for students in Key Stage 4 (ages fifteen to
sixteen). The music curriculum set into action in 2000 stipulated that “listening, and applying
knowledge and understanding are developed through the interrelated skills of performing,
composing, and listening.” Four content areas are named: (a) controlling sounds through singing and
playing—performing skills, (b) creating and developing musical ideas—composing skills, (c)
responding and reviewing—appraising kills, and (d) listening, and applying knowledge and
understanding.

For children in the first three key stages that encompass primary school and the lower secondary
school grades, instruction in performance and composition are central to classroom activities.
Singing and playing classroom instruments are common occurrences, as is listening to recorded
music and live performances of visiting artists and each other’s music. Composition is a featured
curricular component throughout the United Kingdom, partly due to the considerable influence of
British composer-educator John Paynter as early as the 1960s. It manifests itself in song-writing and
sound explorations of the voice, the percussive sounds of the body, available instruments, and
“found sound” objects within the environment. From the earliest grades, children are led through
experiences of increasing complexity intended to suggest elements, themes, and structures they can
experience and manipulate for their own expressive purposes. By the time they reach Key Stage 3,
ages eleven through fourteen, children in sequential programs of music study are developing full-
fledged and sometimes sophisticated compositions that they can perform, notate, and replicate on
call. The presence of Kodály, Orff, and Dalcroze practices in British classrooms is not widespread,
largely because music in the lower grades is often taught by classroom teachers with minimal training
in music. With grants from local authorities as well as Arts Council England and its regional councils,
residencies by artists and composers are important components of school music programs.

When students reach the age of fourteen, the school curriculum in music parallels the demands
of school-leaving examinations. The music content of programs at this level is increasingly remote
from students’ interest in popular music, as music-specialist teachers devote continued attention to
activities in performing, composing, and listening to the Western art music that comprises the bulk
of the exams students take at age sixteen for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).
For two additional years, students specialize in more intensive study of selected subjects, and those
with a particular aptitude for it will select music. The course is an intensive program of harmony,
counterpoint, history, analysis, and performance—again with an emphasis on Western art music,
which culminates in an Advanced level (“A” level) examination.

Choirs, bands, orchestras, and other ensembles are organized in some schools but are less often a
part of the curriculum than they are after-school opportunities. Sometimes on the school premises,
but also in other community venues, the activities of ensembles and private and group instrumental
instruction are appreciated as important to the general ethos of the school climate and the holistic
development of children and youth. Trained music teachers, musicians without pedagogical training,
and “community musicians” teach and rehearse students in recorder ensembles, jazz bands, steel
drum ensembles, and percussion groups. Increased activity, supported by government funds, is
found in the development of community programs that offer instruction and coaching in
popular/rock music. Along with wind bands, the British brass bands draw young people into youth
and mixed-age performance opportunities, while youth choirs and orchestras are assembled in
various cities and communities throughout the United Kingdom. A particularly British route for the
musical education of youth has been its tradition of choir schools, in which a rigorous approach to
musicianship frequently features daily practices for chapel and church performances of Evensong
and Sunday services.

Conservatories, universities, and colleges of higher education in the United Kingdom offer three- or
four-year undergraduate courses in a variety of musical fields, from performance and academic
music (history and theory) to a wide spread of fields that include ethnomusicology, the psychology
of music, music therapy, popular music, and community music. For some music teachers, a one-year
postgraduate diploma in teaching follows their undergraduate music degrees.

NORTH AMERICA: THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

In the North American nations of Canada and the United States, music in school programs can be
traced to the interactions between church and community. The Roman Catholic clergy organized
choirs in Quebec as early as 1626, and singing and piano lessons were offered in convents. Singing
schools arose in the American colonies early in the eighteenth century, when traveling singing
masters would come to town for a few weeks of intensive vocal training and the development of a
repertoire of sacred music tor church services. The first instances of public school music,
spearheaded by Lowell Mason in Boston in the 1830s, were oriented toward group singing and the
formation of choirs. Vocal and choral music remained prominent in Canadian and American schools
through the first several decades of the twentieth century, after which instrumental music became
more popular. In the last several decades, a more equitable balance between choral and
instrumental music has been reached, even as new musical offerings have come forward.

Instrumental music training in North America was first offered in Protestant-backed music schools,
beginning with the first community music school established in Montreal in 1789. Private academies
in the United States offered lessons in violin, cello, and piano. Instrumental music appeared in the
school curriculum in the late nineteenth century, as the popularity of small-town bands and
orchestras was brought to the attention of school boards who saw the extra-musical outcomes of
school spirit and entertainment as a convincing rationale for including instrumental instruction in
schools. With the return of bandsmen from World War I, coupled with the sponsorship by instrument
manufacturers of contests and festivals, bands and orchestras rivalled and even surpassed vocal and
choral music activity in schools. Americans established a national school band competition, which
also contributed to the rapid expansion of instrumental music. In Canada, the establishment of local
music examinations based on the practices of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in
London ensured that students were guided toward high performance standards.

A “general music” curriculum was developed for elementary schools, emerging from the once all-
vocal music practices to encompass listening, movement, classroom instruments, composition, and
improvisation. Listening experiences came to classes of music for children as the technology evolved
to include RCA Victor gramophones, and music education through eurhythmic movement arrived in
the 1920s with the influence of the European Dalcroze and modern dance techniques. European
imports, including the Orff and Kodály methods, have been embraced by American and Canadian
music teachers since the 1960s, and the certification of teachers in these pedagogies is deemed
highly desirable for those who teach children. (Another import, the Suzuki method approach to string
education, has steadily grown in the elementary school instrumental curriculum.) There are
occasional cases of creative composition activity (more so in Canada than in the United States), and
improvisation has begun to surface beyond jazz ensembles and Orff-based levels. Group keyboard
and guitar instruction offer alternatives to the standard school ensembles, as do drumming,
marimba, and steel drum ensembles. A recognition of the multicultural populations of cities like
Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Miami, New York, Houston, and Vancouver, as well as the legacy of
the First Nations/Native American peoples, have brought an expansion of music materials and
repertoire in the last several decades.

Musical study in American and Canadian schools has gained and lost ground since its first inception
and is often dependent on whether the times regard the arts as necessary—or not—to children’s
development. Its presence is also linked to the federal, state, and local tax base, so that the arts are
maintained during periods of financial stability but are reduced or cut altogether when funds are
low. Schools are locally controlled for the most part, and so curricular decisions are often in the hands
of school boards and even the site groups for each school. The justification for music in schools in
North America has run the gamut from “music for music’s sake” to its role in developing citizenship,
building team spirit, providing leisure time skills, and supporting achievement in academic areas.
Competitions continue to drive much of the performance activity, as music programs train their
marching bands, concert bands, choirs, orchestras, jazz bands, and jazz, show, and swing choirs for
interscholastic adjudicated festivals and appearances in select performance venues.

Although no nationally mandated curriculum exists in Canada or the United States, the National
Standards in the Arts were drawn up as guidance for American music teachers in 1994. These
standards followed the national movement in the early 1990s to assess student competence in the
core subjects of math, English, science, history, and geography. The passage of Goals 2000: Educate
America Act brought such attention to world-class standards in the arts that they were at least
recognized as a fundamental academic subject. The National Standards made recommendations for
the knowledge, skills, and understanding that all students in grades K-12 can acquire in the four arts
disciplines—music, visual arts, theatre, and dance. Three groups by grade level (K-4, 5-8, 9-12) are
considered, with attention given to stages of human musical development as well as curricular
content in elementary and secondary schools. For grades 9-12, when not all students elect to study
music, “Advanced” levels of achievement are identified for those who choose specialized courses
while “Proficient” levels are expected for those without further training. The National Standards for
the Arts document is widely used by state and community groups to develop guidelines and
benchmarks.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Campbell, P.S. 2008. Musician & Teacher. An orientation to music education. New York: W.W Norton
& Company.