Bridging Pre-College and Post-Secondary Music Education: Introductory Remarks
10.6092/issn.2039-9715/10176
application/pdf
2039-9715
10176
en
Pierpaolo Polzonetti
Musica Docta
Bridging Pre-College and Post-Secondary Music Education: Introductory Remarks
Text.Serial.Journal
https://musicadocta.unibo.it/
9
Editoriale
2019-12-20
2019-12-16
2019-12-20
2020-02-19
IX-X
MD
Pierpaolo Polzonetti
2019/12/20
10.6092/issn.2039-9715/10176
IX
Davis, California
2039-9715
en
X
Bridging Pre-College and Post-Secondary Music Education: Introductory Remarks
https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/download/10176/10013
9
         Musica Docta. Rivista digitale di Pedagogia e Didattica della musica, pp. IX-X




             C. MATTHEW BALENSUELA - PIERPAOLO POLZONETTI
                       Greencastle, Indiana - Davis, California

    BRIDGING PRE-COLLEGE AND POST-SECONDARY
     MUSIC EDUCATION: INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

     It was a pleasure for us to help organize the conference Music as Cultural
Education: Building New Bridges between Pre-College Schools and Universities (Bologna,
Palazzo Marescotti Brazzetti, June 22-23, 2018) and work with colleagues we
met on that occasion to produce the collection of essays published in this issue
of Musica Docta, which, we hope, will contribute to the ongoing discussion about
what kind of music teaching effectively contributes to a well-rounded education
from the first to the last day of school. More than fifty years ago, one of the
most prominent musicologists, ethnomusicologists, and music educators in U.S.
history, Charles Seeger, in an article titled “Music Education and Musicology”,
denounced the opening of a dangerous gap between the ivory tower of academia
and public schools, concluding that “music education and musicology have
everything to gain and nothing to lose by getting together”.1 The gap widened in
subsequent decades, repeatedly denounced by music educators, and Seeger was
joined by other scholars, such as Alderman, Seay, and Norton.2
     The importance of closing the gap between divergent approaches to the
study of music in primary and secondary schools was the major impetus for this
conference. In the previous meeting of the International Musicological Society’s
Study Group on the “Transmission of Knowledge as a Primary Aim in Music
Education”, held at the Juilliard School in June 2015, Jim Davis emphasized that
in public schools, the general music curriculum ignores music history,
notwithstanding the high quality of music teachers. Davis showed how the lack
of continuity between secondary and post-secondary education in music is
apparent in pedagogy research journals, with the result that the study of music
as culture is virtually absent before college.3 At the same symposium, Lorenzo
Bianconi denounced the “vanishing of the notion of history and culture from


     1  C. SEEGER, “Music Education and Musicology”, Music Educators Journal, XXXIII,
n. 1, 1947, pp. 10-11.
      2 C. SEEGER, “World Musics in American Schools: A Challenge to Be Met”, Music

Educators Journal, LIX, n. 2, 1972, pp. 107-111; P. ALDERMAN, “Musicology for the
Music Educator”, Music Educators Journal, XLIV, n. 1, 1957, pp. 27-28; A. SEAY,
“Applied Musicology for the Music Teacher”, Music Educators Journal, LIII, n. 4, 1966,
p. 47; and D. B. NORTON, “Musicology Serves the Music Educator”, Music Educators
Journal, LVIII, n. 2, 1971, pp. 41-42.
      3 J. DAVIS, “Music History Pedagogy on the Ground Floor”, this journal, VI, 2016,

pp. 19-26, https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/view/6562 (last accessed, 30.10.2019).




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ISSN 2039-9715
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X                        C. Matthew Balensuela - Pierpaolo Polzonetti




the horizon of music educators” and music making as an end in itself, which is
the result of “devaluing the historical multiplicity that characterizes the
expressions of musical art”.4 Students who might see value in the appreciation
of opera, but who do not go to college, may not have access to a wide range of
music literacy, affecting their senses of belonging, identity, and dignity, resulting
in the erosion of a sense of cohesion and solidarity in society at large.5
      These contributions have been published in Musica Docta. Among journals
in the field, such as the Journal of Music History Pedagogy, the International Journal of
Music Education, The History Teacher, Teaching History, and Music Educators Journal,
Musica Docta is to date the only venue addressing issues of music education from
the primary school to university courses, sending a positive message about the
need to study music as culture, conferring to music the same educational value
as literature, language, history, philosophy, mathematics, or science.
      It will take time and determination to promote change in the role of music
in pre-college education in a way that will positively contribute to the
improvement of educational quality by bridging pre-college and post-secondary
education. We hope to pursue the long-term goal to make music an allied study
to the disciplines in the core curriculum by providing music educators more
tools, resources, and opportunities to contribute to the education of students,
both in science and in the humanities. The present collection of essays and long-
term collaboration promote the goal of bringing international co-operation and
discussion to topics of music history teaching. As the subject of how we teach
music history becomes increasingly well-researched by teachers worldwide, the
organizers of this conference are excited to see the range of countries, the
breadth of teaching situations, and the variety of teaching methods presented in
this issue of Musica Docta. It is our sincere belief that dialogue and cooperation
will help bring together the worlds of teaching and academic study of music, and
further the international cooperation in music pedagogy.
                                                                          balensue@depauw.edu
                                                                        ppolzonetti@ucdavis.edu




     4 L. BIANCONI, “ISME and the Twilights of History”, this journal, VI, 2016, pp.
39-49, https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/view/6565 (last accessed, 30.10.2019).
     5 P. POLZONETTI, “Don Giovanni Goes to Prison: Teaching Opera behind Bars”,

this journal, VI, 2016, pp. 99-104, https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/view/6574 (last
accessed, 30.10.2019).




Musica Docta, IX, 2019
ISSN 2039-9715
