http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1192419

Development and trial in a junior and senior high school of a two-year curriculum in general music

This research produced and tried a syllabus for junior and senior high school general music classes. The course is based on (1) a study of the current status of such classes and suggestions for improving them, (2) a particular aesthetic position about the nature and value of music and the means for realizing music's value, (3) relevant principles of course construction and pedagogy from the curriculum reform movement in american education, and (4) combining the above points in an attempt to satisfy the requirements of present needs, a consistent and well-accepted philosophical position, and current thought about educational strategy. The major objective of the course is to develop the ability to have aesthetic experiences of music. Such experiences are considered to contain two essential behaviors--aesthetic perception and aesthetic reaction. The course materials are designed to systematically improve the ability to perceive the aesthetic content of music, in a context which encourages feelingful reaction to the perceived aesthetic content. The basic components of the course are (1) verbal material about music's aesthetic nature and structure, (2) activities which make tangible the conceptions in the material, and (3) listenings which illustrate the nature of music and which foster keener musical perception and deeper musical reaction. The basic method is a constant movement from synthesis to analysis to synthesis. The major conception of the course--that music is a means for exploring and understanding human feeling--recurs throughout the material in progessively more sophisticated settings. (The course syllabus and instructions for using it comprise the major part of this document.) (Author).

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