Mwic in education
THE ROLE OF MUSIC
IN GENERAL EDUCATION
by
L. GELBER, Directress, Musical Education Secretariat, Malines, BelgiumMusic education has a threefold aim:To discipline physical and pychical actions and reactions. The educational
value of any subject is measured in terms of its disciplinary power over
the pupils and its effectiveness depends on the right interpretation of
the formative purposes it serves.
The more unalterable the laws which govern it, the greater its
influence will be because it will require a well-defined attitude on the
part of the pupils. The more this point is stressed in teaching, the more
the pupils will be obliged to contract habits which are stable and hence
decisive in the moulding of the personality as a whole.
By its very nature music is order, regularity, harmony, cohesion,
balance and proportion. It is accordingly one of the three perfect intel-
lectual disciplines, the other two being religion and mathematics.
To the question how this property of music is to be exploited, an
answer can readily be found by considering, from the educational point
of view, the three main forms which ‘music’ may take-singing, play-
ing an instrument and listening to music.
Singing forces the pupil to realize in himself the laws of music in
general and melody in particular. When he sings, he is at once the
potter and the clay. Mastering the movement of music obliges him to
master himself.
Playing an instrument, on the other hand, allows music to be
received passively, thus appreciably reducing its disciplinary power.
This involves a real danger-playing may degenerate into a mere study
of technique, entirely divorced from aesthetic and intellectual values.
With the initial aim thus lost sight of, the final outcome is that music
reproduced mechanically replaces the usually indifferent efforts of the
pupil himself.