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The Place of Music in
Basic Education
Mr. Kerman is associate professor of music, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley. iis article on
music is one of the chapters by eighteen authors
Joseph Kerman in the book, "The Case for Basic Education,"edi-
ted by James D. Koerner, and sponsored by the
Council for Basic Education. Published by Atlantic
Monthly Press-Little, Brown and Company.
(Copyright 1959, Council for Basic Education.)
R ECENT PRESSURE in favor of basic education and ideas but of emotional and spiritual states. To spread
against "frill" courses has somewhat agitated those this knowledge is part of the business of basic education.
concerned with high school music. Attacks have Philosophies of art differ, but respect for the funda-
capitalized on the fact that although music is well en- mental seriousness of art, along such lines as suggested
trenched in the schools, its role in secondary education in the above paragraph, distinguishes all modern thinking
has never been quite securely rationalized. This role on the subject. No longer do we hear much talk of art as
should be continually under assessment. The first thing merely amusement or recreation, or as some frill of so-
to make clear is that music, properly understood, is not ciety. A striking sign of this modern revaluation is the
a "frill" in the company of cookery, driver education, steady inclusion of the arts into the so-called liberal cur-
and the like, but a "basic" together with mathematics, ricula of the universities of Europe, England and Amer-
languages, history and literature. ica over the past hundred years. That music and the
These black-and-white terms are not the most mean- visual arts have taken their place alongside literature is
ingful, certainly, and we could wish that they did not also a relatively new development. According to a sort
stick so fast to our subject. However, there may be some of artistic general field theory, it is thought that the poet
virtue in putting the case blatantly as a start, before expresses his vision through words, the painter through
shading off into more subtle grays. The case rests on the visual forms, and the composer through a complex organ-
idea that the schools should do more than simply teach ization of time by sounds. In their individual ways, the
the student how to read, write and reason. Secondary quartets of Beethoven and the paintings of Michelangelo
education, we believe today, should go some considerable comment on life as profoundly as the plays of Shake-
way towards acquainting the student with his civiliza- speare.
tion. It therefore should include the form and evolution
of American institutions, history, languages, sciences
and the arts as well. The student can gain no compre- ART IS ALSO PRECIOUSas self-expression or as personal
hensive insight into Western culture without a serious solace; undoubtedly so. But as far as educational theory
introduction to imaginative literature, the visual arts and is concerned, these aspects are secondary. The important
music. fact is that art tells something vital about man, his prob-
For the arts occupy a special, important area in what lems and possibilities, and his modes of response. Con-
we loosely call our heritage. Like the scientist, the artist sequently we do not judge a man educated if he is igno-
deals with experience and tells about it. But unlike the rant of the arts; and we may as well accept the responsi-
scientist, he is not primarily concerned with observation bility of this judgment. Courses in literature, visual art
or speculation; in the work of art, he expresses his re- and music should be required, not elective, in all secondary
action to experience, articulating and conveying to others schools. The conduct of such courses should be in prin-
his sense of what it feels like to be alive. We speak cor- ciple the same. They should expose students to the great
rectly enough of the "message" of a great symphony, works of art; they should explain artistic techniques
even though it is a message that we cannot write on a and principles as specifically as possible; they should
telegraph form. And though a book of poetry does not train and encourage students in imaginative response.
give us factual information as a textbook does, none- At this point, however, those who know the field are
theless it conveys a definite attitude, or mood, or inter- clamoring with skeptical questions. Can people be taught
pretation set down by the poet. Art, then, is the depository to understand music who do not play instruments or sing?
of a kind of knowledge-knowledge not of things and Does cultivation of the imagination belong to the sec-