The topic I have chosen to write about is the state of elementary general music education in America. Mainly I hope to address a lack of continuity between music educators, an overall restructuring of both the types of music being taught, and the amount of music experienced, and the use of movement to teach the form and structure of music in addition to melodic contour (which it is already largely used for.) The main reason this comes to my attention is largely due to several methods classes both specifically related to elementary music classes, which would be elementary methods, and the classes that inadvertently tend to touch on the subject, such as General Choral Methods, And Teaching Music to Disabled Students in Inclusive Settings. These classes have shown me a few things about general music, one being that every teacher views what should be done in a different way and sets about reaching those goals in a different way, and two that every teacher feels that certain core principals of music are more important than others. This is largely what led me to want to discuss this topic, In classes such as english or math a very straightforward and often specific curriculum is laid down by the school. In this way we can be assured that students are receiving at the very least the same information, however it is approached by a teacher. However, in many states, the curriculum for music is much less defined, schools generally only want to see an inclusion of the National Standards of Music Education as part of a lesson plan. This is, in part, a blessing because it always the teacher freedom to arrange curriculum in the way they feel most comfortable, however, it is simultaneously a curse for students because from school to school children will be taught different concepts in different ways. The main problem with this is that some children will receive a better education than others and the goal of education is to grant everyone a free and appropriate education with the highest possible benefit to the students.
In order to research this topic I spent much of my time in the music library searching series texts for lessons involving twentieth century music, in particular, the composer Arnold Schoenberg who nearly singlehandedly changed the way we in the classical world hear, experience and write music. In all the shelves and shelves of textbooks I found only two texts, both for eighth grade, that had one page each of general information on Schoenberg, both of them presenting it in different ways, and recommending different pieces to listen to. (the recordings of which are cited below) This had the effect of both saddening and angering me, Schoenberg is viewed by many as one of (if not the) most important composers of the twentieth century in both a historical and compositional capacity. From there I searched the music index on EBSCOhost and searched for articles that included the lack of continuity between music educators, as well as different approaches to teaching music of any kind through movement or other methods. My main resource for the theory of music in the twentieth century is a book entitled “Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice” by Vincent Persichetti. This book is one of the best efforts to cover every type of harmony used in the twentieth century. I mainly hope to use it as a guide as to which types of harmonies will be accessible and understandable to students of a young age. My other resources are recordings of the two pieces listed in the series textbooks and the interview conducted with General Music specialist Dr. Laura Ferguson.
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