by Johannes Voit

The field of music education has long recognised the value of new music. Dieter Zimmerschied in his now standard work “Perspectives in New Music” (1974) spoke of the diametrical opposition between “the growing number of scientific and pedagogical publications in the area of new music” and the lack of “preparedness to listen closely to this music” which existed at that time (Zimmerschied, p 7). Now, 30 years later, the field of music education has become richer through the publication of such works as “Communicating New Music” by Bäßler, Nimczik and Schatt whereas the situation at German school has hardly changed. Those learning about new music react mostly unfavourably to unusual sounds they perceive as being disconnected to their everyday life while teachers, initially enthusiastic, lose motivation to allow adequate coverage for the disagreeable new music within the curriculum. This already difficult situation is compounded by the fact that handouts dealing with music of the last few decades aren’t readily available nor do text books commonly encourage intensive involvement with recent music. The school syllabus in Saxony-Anhalt includes 20th and 21st century music (from the 10th class) but doesn’t further differentiate this area. Therefore it isn’t surprising when ‘modern classical’ music receives preferential treatment in class due to its age (presumably the parents of the children being taught weren’t yet born at the time the music was written) and degree of cultural establishment which allows for easy inclusion in the context of the museum which today’s music classes have become.

The lack of motivation in dealing with new music stems not least from the increased demands it places on the listener due to its renunciation of conventional musical models and structures which, in turn, contribute to the myth of incommunicability. If the communication of aesthetic/cultural phenomena already presents a hurdle in the class room then this problem is compounded when it comes to new music as Gertrud Meyer-Denkmann verified already in 1972 in her book “The Structure and Practice of New Music in Class”:

Music Education is confronted with the dilemma of using atomising and systematising methods of analysis which threaten to level every didactic approach: particularly in the area of new music where the compositional matter resists a simple, formulated approach to uncovering its functions” (Meyer-Denkmann, p 61).

Teachers, along with students, tend to often shy away from penetrating into the aesthetic of a contemporary work choosing instead to focus on ‘structural moments’ with the result that a sensual experience is lost on all. Focusing here on the new and the associated attempts at classification may give the impression that we are losing sight of the fact that we are actually dealing with music. “In this sense the scholastic handling of new music in many places has become exemplary for a de-sensualised school (Horst Rumpf)” (Bäßler/Nimczik, p 11). Ortwin Nimczik, publisher of the journal “Music and Education”, has been campaigning for the teaching of new music and has described repeatedly the inadequate situation in this part of music education. For one thing cognitive approaches dominate with regard to new music: the teaching of terms, observation of form in the scores as well as an over-strained, distant analysis. The explosive energy of new music along with every other ambiguity is – consciously or unconsciously – banned from the classroom. For another thing the focus on structural complexity in new music is overemphasised which is why it is often reserved for older students. Opportunities for improvisation, interpretation and creative forming, which some contemporary works offer to large extent, are de-emphasised. The consequence is obvious: new music is relegated to a remote area, isolated from ‘real’ music, where it scrapes out a meagre living (cf. Nimczik, p 14).

References

Bäßler, Hans / Ortwin Nimczik: Neue Musik vermitteln. In: Dies. / Peter W. Schatt (Hrsg.): Neue Musik vermitteln, S. 9-20.

Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: Struktur und Praxis neuer Musik im Unterricht. Experiment und Methode. Wien 1972.

Nimczik, Ortwin: Neue Musik in der Schule! Ein Plädoyer in musikpädagogischer Absicht. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 4/2002, S. 12-18.

Zimmerschied, Dieter (Hrsg.): Vorwort. In: Ders. (Hrsg.): Perspektiven Neuer Musik. Material und didaktische Information. Mainz 1974, S. 7.

Lehrpläne für das Gymnasium: Musik. Hrsg. v. Sächsischen Staatsministerium für Kultus. 02.04.2006. <http://www.sn.schule.de/~ci/download/lp_gy_musik.pdf>.


This article was translated from German by Simon Barber.

Last Update 2007-11-20 | Copyright© Johannes Voit 2006 | |