Instruction in music has a long and rich tradition. In school settings in the United States, this instruction has evolved to one dominated by the performance of music. Musical performance instruction has achieved exceptionally high levels with school bands, choruses, and orchestras performing with quality that surpasses many professional organizations of the past. Since Lowell Mason's successful efforts to have music adopted as a regular part of the curriculum in the elementary schools of Boston in 1838, singing has formed the foundation of music instruction. In this century, as music instruction became more accessible to students in elementary and secondary schools, music instruction was expanded to include instrumental music. Today's typical music program begins with singing for all children in the elementary levels and progresses to musical performance ensembles that display exceptional virtuosity and musicianship at the secondary level.
Data from the U.S . Department of Education ( 1988) indicate the status of enrollment and participation in today's music classes. Fewer than 20 percent of the current high school student population participate in instrumental and vocal music classes nationwide. Furthermore, participation in general music classes throughout students' secondary years declines nearly 40% from approximately 48% in grades seven and eight to only 9% in grades 11-12. This "participation crisis" in music education is demonstrated even more dramatically upon examination of the decline in enrollment in music classes from elementary (grades K-6) to middle/junior high school (grades 7-8). Data show that while nearly 80% of all elementary students nationwide receive general music instruction from a music specialist, only 48% of students in grades 7-8 receive similar music instruction. In addition, many elementary music specialists teach over 1,200 students each week. Because of traditional scheduling patterns, classroom teachers for these students use music class as desperately needed preparation time, leaving music relegated to only the time the music specialist is present. For music education to become integrated throughout the regular curriculum, changes in our notion of the role of the specialist and the classroom teacher must occur.
Music is everywhere in our society - and access to its multitude of styles and performers has never been greater. Yet, the music taught primarily in schools is not that which most students interact with in life, nor does the performance-oriented music instruction provided in schools include subject matter and skills that allow students to make informed judgments about music. High quality music performance programs have come with a price. That price has been fewer and fewer students participating in music classes at each succeeding grade level. This performance emphasis limits participation to students with ever higher levels of musical talent for- continued participation. As a result, music teachers, administrators, and those responsible for preservice music education have begun to question the viability of today's music education programs in meeting the life-long needs of all students.
Since the emergence in 1987 of K- 12 discipline-based art education (DBAE) programs facilitated by The Getty Center for Education in the Arts through its national advocacy efforts, interest has grown for the consideration of a similar discipline-based conceptual framework for music instruction -- discipline-based music education (DBME). Among selected higher education teacher preparation institutions, state departments of education, music education researchers, music specialists, school administrators, and classroom teachers fluent in DBAE, the need for a conceptual framework which balances performance, improvisation, and composition with music history, aesthetics, and music criticism for all students has never been greater.
Evidence of interest in the development of a discipline-based conceptual framework for music is substantial. In 1989, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Southeast Center for Education in the Arts received unprecedented funding and support for a five-year research and development project, The Southeast Institute for Education in Music (SIEM), to design and implement a discipline-based music education framework for music specialists and classroom teachers in the southeast.
Since 1989, SIEM has worked collaboratively with nationally-known leaders and experts in music education, music history, aesthetics and criticism to create and implement a discipline-based conceptual framework for music education. SIEM's curricular structure and approach have been based on the pioneering efforts of The Southeast Institute for Education in the Visual Arts (SIEVA) established at UTC in 1988 as one of six staff development and curriculum implementation regional sites funded by The Getty Center for Education in the Arts.
Discipline-based music education is not a curriculum - it is a conceptual approach to music instruction in a K- 12 general education setting. It is a conceptual framework for the instruction of all children -- not just those with talent or promise in musical performance. A variety of subject matter is applicable for instruction in discipline-based music education settings. Various teaching techniques and methodologies can be used in discipline-based music instruction. A unique characteristic of discipline-based music education is how student instruction is conceptualized.
Discipline-based music education provides systematic instruction in four basic ways that contribute to our understanding of a musical work: we produce the work by composing, improvising, and/or performing; we place it in historical context; we determine its aesthetic qualities; and we make informed judgments about it. Thus, discipline-based music education involves musical production, history, aesthetics, and criticism. Each of these "disciplines" provides a different perspective that contributes to a fuller understanding of a musical work. The disciplines of music education are not to be taught in isolation, but are to be related and integrated to provide students with a balanced understanding of music.
Inherent in discipline-based music education is the goal that children learn to interpret and derive meaning from works of music. This requires an on-going interaction with music throughout a child's schooling so that the subtleties of understandings can be acquired. Each of the four disciplines contributes to a deeper understanding of music studied. The nature of each work studied determines how each of the four disciplines increases student understanding.
Discipline-based music education makes several assumptions about how children learn music. First, children expand their capabilities, knowledge, and skills from both internally working out musical problems and from externally guided experiences. Performing, composing, improvising, discussing, and writing about music are ways to help students interpret and derive meaning from works of music studied.
Second, acquiring musical skills is complex and frequently subtle in nature. Performing, composing, and improvising are not the only result of music instruction, but help further understanding.
Third, the learning of music is related to how children develop. The delivery of musical information, activities and experiences should be developmentally appropriate. However, works selected for study should be works rich in interpretation and meaning, regardless of grade level. While some works may be more appropriate for older students because of text or complexity, teachers should consider a wide variety of great works of music.
Fourth, all music instruction tasks must have meaning for students so the tasks can be internalized. Tasks should be tied to the "big idea" behind works studied, not just technical exercises for their own sake.
The following Organizing Principles for DBME helps to clarify how the approach contributes to student understanding and teacher implementation.
"Create and interpret" means creating works of music, writing, discussing, and bringing into play the contributions of aesthetics, history and criticism as they relate to the work(s) studied.
II. DBME is based on a rationale for music education.
Works of music educate children about the world - how people live and think now and in the past, and how we come to understand the nuances of worlds past and present are important contributions music education makes to the general education of all children. The importance of works of music in music education can be seen in three ways:
Works of music are the content for DBME. Works of music include student work and the works of others (composers, performers and other students).
IV . DBME encourages teachers to select music for study that will be meaningful for students.
Music that deals with "big ideas" or "themes" is encouraged. Musical works that touch on ideas such as self and others; people, places and events in time; quality and character; place in society; the future; or works that are intriguing or interesting to students can help to show students the connection music makes to the world. The questions which follow may clarify the nature of "big ideas" or "themes."
What Are The "Big Ideas" or "Themes" That Relate To Music? - What Kinds Of Themes Can Be Used?
The interpretation of works of music is key to the implementation of a DBME approach. In music, "interpretation" has two meanings: First and most importantly for DBME, interpretation refers to how students come to know about and understand a work of music. A second meaning of interpretation, used in reference to performance, refers to the performance interpretation of a musical score. In DBME, the first definition is a primary objective in student learning. The questions which follow may help to clarify the important role of interpretation in DBME:
What Is The Role Of Interpretation?
A DBME curriculum should be tied to works of music that educate. Instructional strategies for delivering content in DBME may vary depending on the grade level taught.
VII. DBME requires a support network for successful implementation.
To ensure that DBME becomes an integral part of the basic education for all children, DBME requires a support network which includes a school team (principal, classroom teacher, and specialist), a school administration committed to improvement, staff development and long-range planning and support, school board and parent/PTA support, and access to and effective use of local, state and regional arts resources.
All of these activities are interrelated and lead back (or forward) around a circle toward all the others. Performance leads to composition which leads to the generation of more musical utterance which leads to composition or improvisation or both which lead to performance or back to a genesis, and so on.
The "product" of production is some time filled with sounds. All musical products are only this. A musical artifact is only a chunk of time. It is not a score, or a recording. It is a segment of time experienced in a unique way.
Said more formally, production is an unbroken chain of creative events that lead to a music-filled time. The chain includes originating moments and developing moments. Developing moments may lead to spontaneous creations, or more considered creations. Developing moments may lead to presenting moments, in which there is formal communication of developed original gestures to listeners. The result is a time filled with music.
Children should be provided with all of these experiences. Through musical production experiences, the child practices and develops a variety of important cognitive skills. The child acquires through these experiences the capabilities of determining the appropriateness of the musical performance. Without first-hand experience with a musical work, the child cannot appraise the work. While musical production experiences are extremely important for a child's developing musical understanding, it must be incorporated as one part of the instructional process. The other three disciplines form substantive and integral components.
Goals for production:
History provides information important to understanding a musical work: who created the work, what functions the work served, in what cultural context the work was created, and how the work has changed over time. From such information, children develop understandings of how music reflects cultural values, how music can be influenced by the beliefs of a culture, and how music makes contributions to the life of the culture.
Goals for history:
Goals for aesthetics:
Goals for criticism:
Eco, U. (1992). Interpretation and Overinterpretation. New York: Cambridge University Press. Eisner, E. W. (1988). The Role of Discipline-Based Art Education in America's Schools. Los Angeles: The Getty Center for Education in the Arts. Getty Trust. (1985). Beyond creating: the place for art in America's schools. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust.
Ms. Christie Cundiff, Consultant, Chattanooga, TN
Dr. Sally Hagaman, Chair, Art Education, Purdue University
Ms. Dorothy Kittaka, Director, The Southeast Institute for Education in Music, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dr. Jeffrey Patchen, Lyndhurst Chair of Excellence and Director, The Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dr. Peter Temko, Professor of Music, Composition, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dr. Brent Wilson, Chair, Art Education, Pennsylvania State University; Cross-site Evaluator, The Getty Center for Education in the Arts
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