Woodford (p.8) talks about how music education in the early 20th century was a way to "make cultural use of leisure time." He goes on to point out that music education was a way to "indoctrinate students to the works of the great masters. (p.9)" He points out that this is highly undemocratic and against the writings of Dewey.
I work in a school district that has two WCC graduates running the choral program. The program has thrived on "Western-tilted" concerts. While we believe it is important to sing music from many parts of the world, we do not lose sight of the historical significance that Western Music plays in our society. Much of the later part of the 20th century in music education was a reaction to the years of the "Western-music-only" philosophy of the early part of the century. This reaction has come to the point where our district is one of the very few left with the ability to program sacred music in addition to other multi-cultural pieces. While I'm sure we all believe that there should be a good balance of music for our students, how much is too much?
Dovetailing this with our readings, in order to be democratic in the classroom, I should be involving students in the process of choosing repertoire. Has anyone done this? This is something I would love to try if feasible.
So much to think about!
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I was lucky enough to be enrolled in a (somewhat) democratic music class in high school. At the end of each year, my show choir (yes, show choir) was asked to form our own small groups and devise next year's program. We presented to each other and included our rationale, ideas for repertoire, costumes, etc. After we heard every presentation, the class voted and we proceeded the following fall. Our teacher had some influence, as she tried to recycle already purchased music and had a different view of our potential than we did. However, overall, our program felt like our own.
Yes, I do allow my students to make repertoire suggestions. These come from many areas. One of the best resources (very unexpectedly) is coming up from our Concert Chats. [I require every student to attend one concert per quarter and schedule a concert chat with me.] They have learned to take detailed notes during the performance and have great ideas for our choirs from what they have observed.
My students also bring in music from other choirs they are in--church, community and former school choirs.
It's been a very positive experience overall. Although, just before coming out here, I had a frosh mother slip me a 70's musical that she thought was simply glorious....it's dreck and I need to figure out a diplomatic response.
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