Interrupting the symphony: unpacking the importance placed on classical concert experiences

ABSTRACT

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra presents a series of youth concerts each year to introduce and attract younger audiences to the symphony. Music teachers often attend these concerts with students, and the importance of such experiences is frequently emphasised and normalised. This article explores the historical roots of the following relations, attitudes, and practices: (1) the tendency of teachers to privilege Western European music in the curriculum; (2) the attitude that classical music is somehow ‘good for’ students; (3) the race relations that operate within a youth symphony concert; and (4) the normalisation of Western classical music in music programmes and concert-going choices. Drawing on Asante’s [1991. “The Afrocentric Idea in Education.” The Journal of Negro Education 60 (2): 170-180] concept of Afrocentric education, I look to pedagogical choices made by participants of a multiple case study in Toronto, Canada to make implications for how music educators might (1) select a wide range of music that include, but are not limited to, classical music; (2) situate such experiences within a broader global, sociopolitical context; (3) consider these Western classical concert experiences as one musical possibility of many; and (4) unsettle the power hierarchies embedded in classroom musical choices.

KEYWORDS:

• Symphony school trips
• school music
• race
• contextualisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Juliet Hess is an assistant professor of music education at Michigan State University's College of Music, where she teaches secondary general methods in music education, principles in music education, and philosophy and sociology of music education. Her prior experience includes an appointment as assistant professor of music education at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University with a dual appointment in the School of Education. Juliet received her PhD in Sociology of Education from the department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She received her master’s and bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include anti-oppression education, activism in music and music education, music education for social justice, and the question of ethics in world music study. Juliet formerly held a position teaching elementary and middle school vocal, instrumental, and world music at a public school board in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada.

Notes

1. By social justice education, I mean an education praxis centred on equity following tenets of both anti-racism education (Dei 2003) and critical pedagogy (Freire [1970] 2000).

2. These names are pseudonyms.

3. See http://www.tdsb.on.ca/community/modelschoolsforinnercities.aspx for details on the Model Schools for Inner Cities programme.

4. The Ontario Arts Curriculum consists of a set of expectations or standards to be achieved by the end of each grade. Curriculum documents vary greatly from province to province in Canada. The Ontario document is similar in some ways to the new National Standards in the United States.

5. Notably, by 1925, the group expanded their notion of ‘good music’ to include African-American music – the music of their heritage (Whitesitt 1997, 78).

6. See Chapter 6 for further detail.

7. ‘Music Makes You Smarter’ was a past campaign of the Coalition for Music Education in Canada (http://musicmakesus.ca). Similar campaigns can be seen on music education advocacy sites across the United States (see, e.g., the advocacy statement from the NAMM Foundation at https://www.nammfoundation.org/educator-resources/why-learn-play-music-advocacy-brochure-0).

8. This series claims:

Number 6 on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums in 1999, this recording offers quality time for bonding with baby. Music for Playtime: Bring out joy, stimulate, and actively engage your baby. Whether bouncing baby on your knees or playing pat-a-cake to music, you can help build skills for language development and physical coordination. (see http://www.mozarteffect.com/OnlineStore/MERCProductd.php?d=4306 for further detail)

9. See chapter 3 for further discussion.

10. Whitesitt (1997) cites Mrs William H. Myers, president, Morning Musical Club of Fort Wayne, Indiana quoted in Record, 46 (page 66).

11. Whitesitt (1997) cites Mrs S. S. DeLano, president, Tuesday Musical Club of Detroit, Michigan, quoted in Record, 59 (page 66).

12. Whitesitt (1997, 68) draws on Beach’s (1898) commentary in ‘The Woman's Club a Factor in General Music Culture’.

13. Amanda was also the teacher who did not take students to the symphony that year.

14. In metropolises where that is possible.