Philosophy of Music Education

Abstract

and suggest practical applications of their philosophies in the orchestral classroom, especially in the context of ear training and improvisation.From these philosophies, I will develop my own personal philosophy of music education, most broadly defined by the claim that music is key to experiencing and understanding feelingful experiences.Feelingful experiences refer to the abstract and physical experiences of emotions; not, for example, the emotion of 'love' itself, but what we experience as love, both in our bodies and in our minds.The Jacques-Dalcroze Method, often referred to as "Dalcroze Eurhythmics," is an educational approach based on the philosophy and research of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, a Swiss pedagogue born in 1865.Eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation are the three main components of his pedagogical approach, which incorporate most prominently movement, kinesthesia, and high-order, imaginative thinking.Jacques-Dalcroze believed that music was an outlet for emotional and feelingful expression; he spent a large portion of his professional life inventing a multitude of ways in which music students can connect to and utilize music as introspective individuals.His research in physical movement was aimed towards "freeing his students of conflicts between mind and body, between feeling and expression." 2 Many music students 3 lack the emotional literacy necessary to intimately recognize their feelings, as well as the physical ability to express those feelings through music.To combat this, Jacques-Dalcroze utilized movement and kinesthetic awareness of the body to develop skills in analyzing, interpreting, and experiencing music in an emotionally and physically natural 1 Reimer, Bennett.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2013 · DOI ↗