In A Philosophy of Music Education, Bennett Reimer proposes for a music education system that is rooted in aesthetic education. Reimer’s philosophy uses a synergistic process of bringing in different aspects of musical value (such as music creation, cultural impact, and meaning to name a few) together to give students opportunities to experience music’s aesthetics in a way that a performance based education doesn’t.
In Chapter 3, Reimer goes on to discuss music’s ability to produce feelings (an extension of emotions). Music’s power to make people feel is one of its “most defining characteristic” but is also one that has been suppressed the most in education as it’s the most difficult to explain. Reimer goes on to argue that this unique quality is the very reason we should continue to promote music in educational settings. As he states “Music allows us to create and share experiences available in no other way.”
What would a purely aesthetic education look like in today’s classrooms? Compare students who have the opportunity to perform music in school to those who just take a music appreciation or music history course. Does Reimer suggest that the students who are learning about music aesthetics are more likely to be engaged in the art and therefore more likely to have a lifelong connection to it than the students who spend much of their developmental years actively involved in the creation (performance) of the art?
I believe where these ideas are headed is a philosophy that approaches music education with a “both, and” approach rather than an “either, or.” Reimer’s arguments for an aesthetic based curriculum is valid and important but shouldn’t be used in a vacuum. A praxial philosophy of music education, with its greater emphasis in performance, isn’t itself the solution either.