THE FUTURE OF MOVEMENT EDUCATION

With the music education system as it is now, there are many things that need to be changed for advancement to happen for both future musicians and music academia as a whole. One of the main things that must happen the dismantling of the racist framework that our education system, and music theory specifically, is built off of. One thing that should be at least talked about is the fact that Heinrich Schenker was a literal nazi. This alone adds to the discussion of how much of music history and theory is left out the music canon and ignored in favour of what a specific set of people deem “good” enough to learn, and how prevalent their biases are. The repercussions of some people’s deep-rooted hatred is still felt today and is actively effecting students educators, which needs to change for the future. 

Adam Neely mentions in his video the theory of both European and Indian classical music and how it is incredibly similar, yet there is specific terminology for each of that does not make sense to use in case of the other. Within that statement alone, there is a lot to unpack. If that is just from two types of classical music, there has to be specific theory for each type of classical music that must be used for it. This is something that should be added to the school music curriculum in the future. Something else that Neely mentioned is what makes music good in different cultures. For example, in Africa dance is one of the primary factors in considering what is good music. When considering that, European classical music would not be considered good by those standards, since it is harder to dance to. Again, this only touches the surface of what makes music good in other cultures. Research on this should be added to the curriculum and taught to students so they have a universal understanding of what makes good music and how that changes from culture to culture. 

When considering the quote “the practice that neutralizes the common sense intuition of the most privileged members of society as objective knowledge” to my instrument, there is a lot to discuss. I am a singer who primarily focuses in musical theatre, there is often a lot of emphasis put on straight, white men. It leads to a very one-sided view of what is considered “high art” in the industry and benefits those who are already privileged instead of opening up the way to new artists. For example, the first lesbian story ever be on Broadway was Fun Home, and that was only in 2015. Broadway is more focused on making money than allowing the art form of musical theatre to advance and allow for diversity and creativity. There is change happening, as can be seen with the success of Hamilton, but there is still a long way to with representation on Broadway. In both music education and the professional world, there need to be changes made to grow from and dismantle the racist framework the industry was built off of and remove the barriers caused by elitism in the field.