A Century of Change in Music Education: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Practice in British Secondary School Music

by Stephanie Pitts

Overview

Published in 2000. Education in our schools is a constant feature of media headlines, often blamed for many of society’s ills. Perceived throughout the ages as civilizing force, music has a fundamental role to play in education, yet the last twenty years have seen a consistent erosion of the time and money made available to music teachers in our schools.

This book is a timely reminder of how we have arrived at the current debates and challenges of music education. Stephanie Pitts charts the history of music teaching in British secondary schools over the course of the twentieth century. Each chapter looks at a significant period of music education history in which the ideas and practices of a generation were established, and refined. The main educational publications of each decade are examined, from the early by MacPherson, Somervell and Yorke Trotter to the more recent thinking of Paynter and Swanwick.

The shifting perceptions of music in the school curriculum are nowhere better highlighted than in the changing focus on children’s engagement with music, from the musical appreciation lessons of the 1920’s and 1930’s to the post-war concentration on performance and the 1970’s emphasis on improvisation and composition. There and many other trends are discussed in the book, allowing today’s music educators to see their own practice in its historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138323896
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/23/2019
Series:	Routledge Revivals
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.62(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1. Music Education for All: 1900s – 1930s 2. Tradition and Exploration: 1940s – 1950s 3. ‘The Use of Noise to Make Music’: 1960s – mid 1970s 4. Models of Musical Learning: Late 1970s – mid 1980s 5. Questions of Assessment: Towards the GCSE 6. Music in the National Curriculum: Policy and Practice 7. New Directions, New Perspectives: Late 1980s – 1990s 8. Ideals and Opportunities: A Century of Music Education.