Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What is music education, and what ought it to be? By challenging narrow
and inadequate conceptions of the field, Estelle Jorgensen raises the
possibility of alternative views that can dignify the teacher's task,
enrich and enliven the profession, and validate an exciting range of additional
ways in which music education can be undertaken in the contemporary world.
One of the most respected leaders in music education, Jorgensen emphasizes
world music and ethnomusicology as equal partners alongside the more conventional
sounds and styles that have dominated the classroom. Exemplifying sound
scholarship, thorough research, and compelling argument, In Search
of Music Education will be especially welcome wherever teachers strive
to deal with requirements for responsible music education.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xvii)
• 1 In Search of Music Education (p. 1)
• 2 On Spheres of Musical Validity (p. 33)
• 3 A Dialectical View of Music Education (p. 71)
• Notes (p. 95)
• Index (p. 117)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Jorgensen's modest volume brings into focus some of the key issues facing the field of music education. She believes that North American music educators have too narrow a view of the ways in which music is learned and even what makes up the musical experience. Her first chapter discusses and compares different modes and settings in which music has been learned in cultures around the world: schooling, training, eduction, socialization, and enculturation. The second chapter explores the nature of what she calls "spheres of musical validity" and how they have developed under the influence of the family, religion, politics, the music profession, and commerce. In the final chapter, Jorgensen considers the implications of her previous discussion, suggesting a series of dialectics in relation to which music educators might formulate the best ways to teach in their own situations. These include the balance between musical form and content, "great" versus "little" musical traditions (involving but superseding the question of classical versus popular music), and making (composing, performing) versus receiving (listening to) music. Jorgensen does not claim to have answers to the daunting questions that face today's music educators, but her observations are a valuable place to begin confronting issues of vital importance to both current and future music educators. The book's style and vocabulary will be difficult for most undergraduates. K. R. Dietrich; Ripon College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Estelle R. Jorgensen, a professor of music at Indiana University, Bloomington, is the editor of Philosopher, Teacher, Musician: Perspectives on Music Education.