Contemporary knowledge of what music 'is' and 'does' and the implications for music education

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2003 Mandy StefanakisThis study investigates whether current music components of arts education rationale statements adequately reflect contemporary understandings of what music ‘is’ and ‘does’. This is in order that this knowledge informs the structure and content of contemporary music curriculum. An analysis is conducted of rationale statements in the series of Victorian and national Australian arts curriculum frameworks developed since 1988. The analysis compares the statements of the defining features of music and the arts and determines whether these features are reflected in the learning models and the frameworks developed from them. A review of contemporary literature is then undertaken to investigate whether there are commonalities in the theories of the purposes and distinctive features of music put forward by researchers from a range of disciplines including philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and music. What might be considered unique aspects of the perceptive process in the arts and music are also reviewed. The study finds that there is an interrelationship between the purposes and defining features of music and common features in the perceptive process of the arts, and music as an art form. The conclusion is also drawn that the definitions in three of the four analysed arts curriculum frameworks emphasise the expressive, communicative purposes of music. The review of literature suggests that music is an holistic experience fulfilling a range of purposes. The study determines that there is, therefore, a need to revise music rationale statements within an arts context if they are to reflect contemporary knowledge of what music ‘is’ and ‘does’. The study also finds that a greater logical progression in the development of arts frameworks is required for the statements of definition and purpose to be reflected in the development of a statement of learning, art education goals and the learning model. Therefore, a re-modelling of an arts curriculum statement is proposed