Music education is a social act oriented around interactions between people in public spaces. These spaces provide opportunities for what Hannah Arendt calls natality, which we interpret as new and unexpected actions that arise in a shared space. Drawing from a range of ideas and experiences of Arendt, bell hooks, Joan Baez, Martha Nussbaum, and…

Issues of desire in music education are integral and anathema to the profession. Constituted of and by desire, we bodily engage music emotionally and cognitively; yet references to the body are limited to how it may be better managed in order to produce more satisfactory (desired) sounds, thus disciplining desire as we focus on the content of…

Within music heard, there are two distinguishable factors. The first is the relation of the music to its seeming emotionality-the relation, for example, of the wedding march to its joyfulness. The second is that seeming emotionality itself-the sorrowfulness, for example, of the second movement of the Chopin Sonata. The author looks for an answer…

In her response to Mary Reichling's article "Intersections: Form, Feeling, and Isomorphism, Anne Sinclair believes that the exploration of form, feeling, and isomorphism in the writings of Susanne Langer accomplishes its goal to examine and elucidate aspects of these concepts. Sinclair finds several of the ideas presented very engaging. Musical…

At the onset of the essay by Alerby and Perm, musicality is described as emotional or cognitive phenomena. In this response, Fung questions what role a psychomotor phenomenon plays in musicality. Alerby and Perm describe "motor knowledge" in the context of Merleau-Ponty's "maximum grip." Does this mean that "motor knowledge" or "maximum grip" in…

David Stevenson's thoughts regarding Reichling's essay are offered in this article, and he begins his response by saying that Mary J. Reichling's essay regarding the three concepts, form, feeling, and isomorphism, is lucid, well structured, and aptly supported by research of other music education philosophers. He points out that Reichling states…

Western culture has developed a concept of knowledge as divided into discrete categories, which are reflected in the disconnected subjects of school curricula and the titles of university faculties. However, June Boyce-Tillman believes that music should be intimately bound up with the wider curriculum, particularly in the areas of personal,…

Claudia Gluschankof begins this article with two confessions. First, music was not her favorite class at school. She cannot even recall what was done there. It did not at all connect with the powerful, meaningful place that music had in her private life, where she loved to sing with family, and play and sing in ensembles in classes at a private…

Analyzes excerpts from the soundtrack of the movie, "Paradise Road: Song of Survival," to demonstrate that music not only arouses emotions; but also, aroused emotions can be specific and focused. States that a service learning course can connect the empathy aroused from music to the real world. (CMK)

Examines the way education in the United Kingdom is organized around the idea of passing on received wisdom, suggesting education is for life. Presents a model of the musical self to examine a range of musical experiences within the music curriculum. (CMK)

In this response, Brown finds solid points of agreement with Eva Alerby and Cecilia Perm, starting with their premise that music learning is most effective when taught within a context. While some students prefer learning in a linear, rule-oriented setting, more often than not a musical concept will be comprehended best if it is first experienced…