A Developing Discourse in Music Education: The selected works of Keith Swanwick

243 Pages·2016·3.326 MB·English

by  Swanwick, Keith

A Developing Discourse in
Music Education
In the World Library of Educationalists series, inter na tional experts compile
career-long collec tions of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts
from books, key articles, salient research findi ngs, major theore t ical and prac-
tical contri bu tions – so the world can read them in a single managea ble volume.
Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work
contrib utes to the devel op ment of the field.
Since the public a tion of A Basis for Music Education in 1979, Keith Swanwick
has contin ued to be a major influ ence on the theory and prac tice of music educa-
tion. The inter na tional appeal of his insights into the funda ment als of music and
music educa tion is recogn ised in invita tions from more than twenty count ries to
give keynote present a tions, conduct work shops and advise as a consult ant.
These include such diverse places as Kazakhstan, Colombia, Iceland and Papua
New Guinea. During 1998 he was Visiting Professor at the University of
Washington, USA.
In this collec tion, Swanwick brings together twelve of his key writ ings to
present an overv iew of the develo p ment of his own work and of the field of
music educa tion. The text allows the reader to consider Swanwick’s approach
to music educa tion and how it is chara c ter ised by a concern for musical, and to
some extent wider artistic, processes, shaped by his experi ence as a teacher and
perform ing musi cian in a variety of settings, and also by the influ ences of philo-
soph ers, psycho lo gists and soci olo gists.
Keith Swanwick is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education, University
College London, UK, previ ously Professor of Music Education and Dean of
Research. He is editor of Music Education (Routledge 2012), a four-volume
collec tion of signi fic ant work in the field.
World Library of Educationalists series
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Richard Aldrich
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The selec ted works of Michael W. Apple
Michael W. Apple
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The selec ted works of Stephen J. Ball
Stephen J. Ball
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The selec ted works of James A. Banks
James A. Banks
In Search of Pedagogy Volume I
The selec ted works of Jerome Bruner, 1957–1978
Jerome S. Bruner
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The selec ted works of Jerome Bruner, 1979–2006
Jerome S. Bruner
Reimagining Schools
The selec ted works of Elliot W. Eisner
Elliot W. Eisner
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The selec ted works of John Elliot
John Elliot
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The selected works of Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner
Constructing Worlds through Science Education
The selec ted works of John K. Gilbert
John K. Gilbert
Making Sense of Learners Making Sense of Written Language
The selected words of Kenneth S. Goodman and Yetta M. Goodman
Kenneth S. Goodman and Yetta M. Goodman
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The selec ted works of Ivor F. Goodson
Ivor F. Goodson
Education and the Nation State
The selec ted works of S. Gopinathan
S. Gopinathan
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The selec ted works of Mary E. James
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The selec ted works of Peter Jarvis
Peter Jarvis
Education, Markets, and the Public Good
The selec ted works of David F. Labaree
David F. Labaree
Politics, Policies and Pedagogies in Education
The selec ted works of Bob Lingard
Bob Lingard
A Life in Education
The selec ted works of John Macbeath
John Macbeath
Overcoming Exclusion
Social Justice through Education
Peter Mittler
Learner-Centered English Language Education
The selec ted works of David Nunan
David Nunan
Educational Philosophy and Politics
The selec ted works of Michael A. Peters
Michael A. Peters
Encountering Education in the Global
The selec ted works of Fazal Rizvi
Fazal Rizvi
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The selec ted works of Sally Tomlinson
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Corporatism, Social Control, and Cultural Domination in
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The selec ted works of Joel Spring
Joel Spring
The Curriculum and the Child
The selec ted works of John White
John White
The Art and Science of Teaching and Learning
The selec ted works of Ted Wragg
E.C. Wragg
Landmarks in Literacy
The selected works of Frank Smith
Frank Smith
Multiculturalism in Education and Teaching
The selec ted works of Carl A. Grant
Carl A. Grant
Thinking and Rethinking the University
The selec ted works of Ronald Barnett
Ronald Barnett
China through the Lens of Comparative Education
The selected works of Ruth Hayhoe
Ruth Hayhoe
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The selected works of William F. Pinar
William F. Pinar
Faith, Mission and Challenge in Catholic Education
The selec ted works of Gerald Grace
Gerald Grace
Dysconscious Racism, Afrocentric Praxis, and Education for
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The selected work of Joyce E. King
Joyce E. King
A Developing Discourse in Music Education
The selec ted works of Keith Swanwick
Keith Swanwick
Struggles for Equity in Education
The selec ted works of Mel Ainscow
Mel Ainscow
A Developing Discourse in
Music Education
The selected works of Keith Swanwick
Keith Swanwick
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa busi ness
© 2016 K. Swanwick
The right of K. Swanwick to be iden ti fied as author of this work has been
asser ted by him/her in accord ance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprin ted or repro duced or
util ised in any form or by any elec tronic, mech an ical, or other means, now
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any inform a tion storage or retrieval system, without permis sion in writing
from the publish ers.
Trademark notice: Product or corpor ate names may be trade marks or
registered trade marks, and are used only for iden ti fic a tion and explan a tion
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A cata logue record for this book is avail able from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Swanwick, Keith.
A devel op ing discourse in music educa tion : the selec ted works of
Keith Swanwick / Keith Swanwick.
pages cm
1. Music—Instruc tion and study. I. Title.
MT1.S692 2016
780.71—dc23
2015004363
ISBN: 978-1-138-90643-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69549-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 The arts in educa tion: dream ing or wide awake? 10
2 The para met ers of music education 26
3 The model in action 39
4 What makes music musical? 55
5 The sequence of musical devel op ment: a study of chil dren’s
compos i tion 68
With June Tillman
6 Musical devel op ment: revis it ing a generic theory 99
7 Music education in a plur al ist society 128
8 Intuition, analysis and symbolic forms 141
9 Musical know ledge in action 157
10 Musical value 172
11 Principles of music education 189
12 Music education: closed or open? 210
Index 223
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The follow ing articles have been reprod uced with the kind permiss ion of the
respect ive journ als
Swanwick, K., & Tillman, J. (1986) ‘The sequence of musical devel op ment: a
study of chil dren’s compos i tion’, British Journal of Music Education, Vol. 3,
No. 3, pp. 305–339. © Cambridge University Press 1986. DOI: 10.1017/
S0265051700000814. Published online: 18 December 2008.
Swanwick, K. (1999) ‘Music education: closed or open?’ Journal of Aesthetic
Education, Vol. 33, No. 4, Special Issue: Musings: Essays in Honor of
Bennett Reimer, pp. 127–141. © Board of Trustees of the University of
Illinois 1999.
The follow ing chapters have been repro duced with the kind permis sion of the
respect ive publish ers
Swanwick, K. (1983) ‘The arts in educat ion: dream ing or wide awake?’ Special
Professorial Lecture at the Institute of Education, University of London,
November 4, 1982. Published 1983 and in 2012 by Routledge in Music
Education, Major Themes (Vol. 1, pp. 16–35). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1979) ‘The para met ers of music education’, in A Basis for Music
Education (pp. 40–58). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1979) ‘The model in action’, in A Basis for Music Education
(pp. 59–80). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1988) ‘What makes music musical?’, in Music, Mind and
Education (pp. 45–59). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (2011) ‘Musical develo p ment: revis it ing a generic theory’, in
R. Colwell & P. R. Webster (Eds), MENC Handbook of Research on Music
Learning, Volume 1: Strategies (Chapter 4, pp. 140–172). New York:
Oxford University Press. By permis sion of Oxford University Press, USA.
Swanwick, K. (1988) ‘Music education in a plur al ist society’, in Music, Mind
and Education (pp. 102–109). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1994) ‘Intuition, analysis and symbolic forms’, in Musical
Knowledge (pp. 26–44). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1994) ‘Musical know ledge in action’, in Musical Knowledge
(pp. 45–61). Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1999) ‘Musical value’, in Teaching Music Musically (pp. 1–18).
Abingdon: Routledge.
Swanwick, K. (1999) ‘Principles of music education’, in Teaching Music
Musically (pp. 38–60). Abingdon: Routledge.
INTRODUCTION
I am greatly priv ileged in being approached to make a selec tion of my work and
in doing so to review my efforts over the years in a single book. The chosen
public a tions are organ ised accord ing to the devel op ment of my think ing and are
mainly, though not entirely, chro no lo gical. The selec tion has been mainly from
books, but begins and ends with a public presenta tion. These were initially oral
present a tions and there fore differ in char ac ter from the more intense and
‘academic’ written chapters. I suspect that this makes them easier to read, and
placing them at the start and finish seems to round off the writ ings in an
approach able way.
My approach to music educa tion has been char ac ter ised by concern for
musical and to some extent wider artistic processes. It is shaped by my experi -
ence as a teacher and perform ing musi cian in a variety of settings and also by
the influ ences of philo soph ers, psycho lo gists and soci olo gists, includ ing my
colleagues at the Institute of Education. In partic u lar and at various times
histor ic ally these influ ences have included Piaget’s Play, Dreams and Imitation
in Childhood (Piaget 1951), Susanne Langer’s Philosophy in a New Key (Langer
1942), Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation (Koestler 1964), Ernst Cassirer’s
An Essay on Man (Cassirer 1944) and Karl Popper’s Objective Knowledge
(Popper 1972). A little more recently Small’s Musicking (Small 1998), and
Vygotsky’s Mind in Society (Vygotsky 1978) entered the frame and since then
there have been countl ess other influ ences, often from general litera t ure rather
than academia, for example, Pirsig, Proust and Steinbeck (Pirsig 1974; Proust
1913/1983; Steinbeck 1939). Along the way there have been minor skirm ishes,
some times with soci olo gists (Swanwick 1984). Throughout I have been inter-
ested in the nature of the transa c tion between student and teacher in the medium
of music.
It seems importa nt at the outset to provide a little context. Music education
is a field in which there is a consid er able amount of published mater ial, ranging
from the justi fic at ory to the criti cal, from advice on pedagog ical prac tice to
provoc at ive altern at ive paradigms and a host of specific teach ing meth od o lo-
gies. In academic and research terms, music educa tion is a lively and growing
field with both well-established and relat ively new journ als, along with
numer ous profes sional and special interest magazines. In the UK there are two
inter na tion ally recog nised music education journ als, The British Journal of
Music Education and Music Education Research. In the USA music educat ion