I have been thinking hard today about Music, the academic subject.
It seems to me, as both a music teacher and musician, that this country has everything the wrong way round. We say we want children to grow up with a love for music and seem to think that, as everyone has a voice everyone can, indeed, make music. Yet how many times do you hear the government trumpeting about how wonderful music and music education are? All I hear is a deafening silence, with the occasional drip around election time about general funding for 'The Arts' - whatever that august height of culture might be.
This country has been responsible, in its day, for some of the most influential changes in music. When the Western world comprised only Europe, Britain (or rather England) was a world leader. Where is it all now? Even in the Baroque period, we had Purcell and the German import Handel and we were the leaders of the known world. At this time, America had no voice of its own and all music was either that of the West (though by now it was mostly dominated by the Austrians, Germans and Italians (in order of precedence) with a few inconsequential Frenchmen thrown in.)
Then there was a 300 year gap where the English had a talent desert. It wasn't until the early 20th century that we start to see a new renaissance in English music. Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams and Britten (amongst a number of others and in no particular order of preference or importance) reignite the prowess of English music.
This is short-lived, but at the end of it we find the rise of new music from America and Africa which lights up the ears and distracts from serious 'classical' music. Andrew Lloyd Webber is arguably this country's greatest living composer. Yet his music can hardly be described as cerebral or intellectual. Indeed many people sneer at his music as being too popular and lightweight. Not me! If I could earn his money, I'd be well content. Classical music (small 'c' despite the capitalisation) needs to rub along beside the 'modern' music in order to survive. I'm not talking about a fusion either. That is as much a dead end as the ophicleide. We need modern musicians to accept that without the access to classical music tradition that both the black and white musicians in the US had, modern popular and blues based music would not now exist. Classical musicians need to stop being snobby about the newer music and accept that much of it is actually good and that much of their Romantic and 20th century repertoire has been influenced by the American struggle to have a music of their own.
What has this got to do with anything, you ask? Well, it has to do with a lot. If music is to have a place in schools, other than just as a hobby or a filler between all the science and maths and PE and English, then it has to have a broad base, with some depth, so that children understand how things are related to each other. That is important.
They need the basic vocabulary of the subject so that they can permanently write their music down so they can share it. (And possibly make money out of it.)
They have to have confident teachers who can be free to inspire their pupils to do more with their gifts - because they have a thorough knowledge of the subject content - and who can improve access for those who are not gifted in the subject.
They deserve to have much more money spent on the subject in school budgets so that they can have a wide experience of music from their own culture as well as other cultures.
As far as the basics go, there is no substitute for learning the stuff. All this 'experiential' twaddle is just plain rubbish. I think we'd find that if pupils were made to learn their English and Maths (grammar, punctuation, times tables etc) they would be better communicators and get more satisfaction from these subjects, but for some reason we have become wary of making children do the things we know are good for them.
I must admit I am not an egalitarian. I do not believe that everyone can 'do' music. Music is like other gifts. It is distributed unfairly and unevenly in the population and you've either got it or you haven't. It becomes particularly obvious in the Western world. The reason for this is because in most other cultures, music is an integral part of everyday life. In the west, it is just another commodity. You can buy it in the supermarket. However, the numbers of people whose music you can buy in the supermarket is surprisingly small compared to the size of the population. Why is this? Quite simply it is because a few people get a lucky break; only a very few people can perform or compose well enough to become popular; the general standard of expectation of music in the West is dreadfully low.
Listening is another much underrated skill in the West. Listening to complex music takes effort and, sadly, most westerners are not prepared to put in the necessary work. Hence the success of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Most of his stage music does not require analysis. it is accessible to most people and has easily memorable tunes and enjoyable harmony. Most popular music has easily memorable tunes and fixed (mostly) harmonic patterns that have developed over the last century or so. We are talking about the difference between popular music and experimental, boundary-pushing music. We are talking about wallpaper music and challenging intellectual music. We are talking about throw-away utilitarian music and moving, affecting music that can touch people both individually and collectively. In each pairing above, the former seem to have value in society, that latter, sadly do not. And yet without each other, they each have less value and will spiral down towards banality.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I could postulate that the government wants it this way. "Bread and circuses!" "Give them what they want and they will be happy and not give us any trouble." The masses want undemanding music and this keeps them content, if not necessarily happy. Call anyone who disagrees an elitist fascist and then carry on regardless. I am beginning to think that the current plans for state education are doing just that.
With the tories in charge of education now, we see how they are deliberately and calculatingly removing access to Music and the wider Arts from the working classes. Access to higher education now comes with a price that far too many poorer people do not want to shoulder. We hear of schools removing Music and other Arts from the curriculum and even from their extra-curricular offering. In their view, working class people should be too busy working to have time to appreciate the Arts. Give it a few more years and there will no longer be any access to music in state schools. The only places where you can have a musical education will be in private schools. It's happening now. The Ebacc is the death of Arts education in the state sector. Don't say you weren't warned.