Bach, Beethoven, Bourdieu: ‘cultural capital’ and the scholastic canon in England's A-level examinations

Abstract

This article applies Bourdieu's notion of ‘cultural capital’ to historical, documentary research which investigates the construction of a scholastic canon within England's A-level music examinations. A digest of the ways in which this canon evolved between 1951 and 1986 is presented in support of the idea that examiners’ responses to emerging trends in historical musicology were characterised by a high level of caution. An analysis of the examiners’ unreceptive approaches to avant-garde works and to music written by women is employed not only to suggest an underlying conservatism within examiners’ practice, but also to contend that this scholastic canon is part of a cycle of reproduction which serves to exclude certain groups of students from higher education. Effects of this cycle on social mobility are discussed both in relation to the historical period under investigation and in light of contemporary debates about the prescription of canonic works within secondary school curricula. The article's conclusions challenge the ‘disinterestedness’ of prescription within the curriculum and identify important factors which should be among the foremost considerations of those planning national programmes of study, both in music and beyond.

Keywords:

• Bourdieu
• canon
• cultural capital
• curriculum
• examinations
• music A-level

Notes

1. The documents surveyed for this research were written by boards based in England. During the period of investigation the A-Level examinations of these boards could be taken by pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland operated a separate examinations system. The influence that the A-Level syllabuses in question had on the music curriculum of England is likely to have been mirrored by a similar influence on the curricula of schools in Wales and Northern Ireland. The documentary evidence considered here includes no record, however, of the extent to which the examinations of English boards were adopted beyond England itself.

2. Researchers may be interested to know that this collection of examination papers and associated documents, assembled by the DCSF and its predecessors, comprises the publications of most of the major examining bodies. The earliest publications date from 1907, while the latest additions were made in the mid-1990s. Some material from organisations dealing with vocational qualifications, such as City and Guilds, is also included. The collection was donated to the Institute of Education in October 2007 and is yet to be fully catalogued.