Rose, L. S., Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning ‘the elements’: How students talk about music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. 12(3), 45-64. http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/RoseCountryman12_3.pdf
There were many things about this article that perplexed me. It was a very difficult read, in the sense that I had many things to say about it, and often they did a poor job in convincing me to agree with their argument. However, I will begin my unpacking of this article with the positives. I do appreciate the fact that they challenged the societal norms of what should be taught in music education. I agree that as a creative subject matter, music shouldn't be brutally compartmentalized as it is meant to be an art form. It was interesting to think of trying to teach music without the go-to list of musical terms, such as tempo, dynamics, etc. However, I think the biggest problem I had with this article was it's inability to convert me over to their side. I felt as though the article was a lot of opinion without actually backing up anything relevant. They used many citations, but they never fully went into depth to unpack the information they were stuffing into the article in order to deeply root themselves in their argument. I felt like a lot of information was being thrown at me, but none of it was being talked about. It felt as though all they kept saying was "my opinion is that the elements of music are bad, and... I'm right because this is wrong." The facts they tried to debunk didn't work in their favour, as I agreed more with the scholars they were challenging than with them. This ultimately led to a dry article that frankly felt like an opinion piece rather than a fact based research paper. Most of all, I think what bothered me the most was the article's denial to address the overlying issues in society that cause discrepancies in music education. The article suggests that the elements of music are the cause for lower enrolment in senior level music and the Eurocentrism of the curriculum. However, I disagree. I think there is a much larger issue that trickles down to effect music education. Lower enrolment is not solely because of the elements of music and the "bizarre misfit between classical skills and conventions taught... in music education institutions and the 'real worlds of music'." (Rose & Countryman, 2013, pp. 50). There is a much larger societal issue in that music education is not treated as a subject as important as science, or math, etc. Is it really fair to place blame on a music curriculum based on the foundations of what music is, for a problem created by our society? Nothing of that really has to do with music, and for me, I am uncomfortable with the elements of music being used as a scapegoat to this problem. The same is true of their handling of Eurocentric music. How can you blame the elements of music for creating an elite, discriminatory learning of music, when the elements of music (such as tempo, dynamics, etc.) can be used in the context of non-Western art music? The article suggests that it is impossible to do so, but it is definitely possible. Or is it that because it's not Western art music, we can't describe the music with words that fall under the large encompassing umbrella of the music elements? Not only that, but how can we blame Eurocentric music teaching on the elements of music when all education is painfully Eurocentric? Why is "history" class about European cultures and there are separate specific classes for "Middle Eastern History" or "Chinese History"? Surely, we can't blame the elements of music for that, can we? The authors seem to ignore the obvious societal problems that bleed into education in order to try and prove their point, which is dysfunctional from the start. I would urge them to consider the societal implications about what they're saying before they start pointing fingers at who to blame. They've painted a small picture I don't appreciate, when there are so many more complex ideas that go beyond music in their argument. It is quite ironic, since they want music to be so much more than a standardized list.
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Carole PalattaoI'm an 18 year old studying classical voice at Western University. I'm also a hardcore mental health advocate, and I do creative writing on the side for fun!
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