Music and the Teaching of Music History as Praxis: A Reply to James Maiello

  • Thomas A. Regelski Distinguished Professor of Music (Emeritus), SUNY Fredonia NY; Docent, University of Helsinki (Finland)

Abstract

The idea of music “praxis” has received considerable attention recently in philosophical circles. It has a long, distinguished heritage reaching all the way back to Aristotle, who distinguished it from “theoria” and “techne.” Regarded as praxis, music takes on a decidedly social value that distances it from the concept of ‘works’ that are savored only in special moments. Instead, as praxis, music is among the most important social forces in a culture. While the study by historians and theorists of ‘works’ reveals much of interest and value, music’s role in and contribution to the wider social context is stressed with praxial theory. Given the change of emphasis from the ‘in-itself’ character of autonomous ‘works’, praxial theory draws from philosophy, social theory, sociology and social psychology of music, and from ethnomusicology, and anthropology. The study of music, too, takes on an action dimension (“action” being the most typical translation for “praxis”). What is to be learned is learned through action with music as praxis and is related to typical in-life uses, whether of musicians, teachers, or the music-loving public. Music, then, is not simply a canon of ‘works’, and so the study of music history will include the ‘doings’ that are, first of all, most directly relevant to being musically informed; and, secondly, that are learned by engaging in the activities, the praxis, that informs history. 

Author Biography

Thomas A. Regelski, Distinguished Professor of Music (Emeritus), SUNY Fredonia NY; Docent, University of Helsinki (Finland)

A graduate of SUNY Fredonia, and a former public school music teacher, Thomas A. Regelski took his Masters degree in choral music education at Columbia University, and his PhD in Comparative Aesthetics at Ohio University. He taught choral conducting, secondary school music education methods, and foundations courses to undergraduate and graduate students at SUNY Fredonia.  He has taught at Aichi University in Nagoya, Japan, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland (where he had a Fulbright Award in 2000), Helsinki University, and was a research fellow at the Philosophy of Education Research Center at Harvard University.  He is the co-founder of the MayDay Group, an international/interdisciplinary society of scholars interested in music, music education, and cultural studies and, from its inception until 2007, editor of its e-journal, Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. In addition to over 100 published journal articles, he is author of Principles and Problems of Music Education (1975), Arts Education and Brain Research (1978), Teaching General Music (1981), Teaching General Music in Grades 4-8 (2004), and co-editor (with J. T. Gates) of Music Education for Changing Times (2009).  He is presently a docent at Helsinki University, teaching courses in scholarly writing, and he lectures occasionally at the Sibelius Academy.

 

Published
2013-05-22
Section
Articles