1st Edition
Creative and Critical Projects in Classroom Music Fifty Years of Sound and Silence
Creative and Critical Projects in Classroom Music is both a celebration and extension of John Paynter and Peter Aston’s groundbreaking work on creative classroom music, Sound and Silence, first published in 1970.
Building on the central themes of the original work – the child as artist, the role of musical imagination and creativity, and the process of making music – the authors and contributors provide a contemporary response to the spirit and style of Sound and Silence. They offer reflections on the ideas and convictions underpinning Paynter and Aston’s work in light of scholarship developed during the intervening years. This critical work is accompanied by 16 creative classroom projects designed and enacted by contemporary practitioners, raising questions about the nature and function of music in education and society. In summary, this book aims to:
- Celebrate seminal work on musical creativity in the classroom.
- Promote the integration of practical, critical and analytical writing and thinking around this key theme for music education.
- Contribute to initiating the next 50 years of thought in relation to music creativity in the classroom.
Offering a unique combination of critical scholarship and practical application, and published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sound and Silence, themes from Paynter and Aston’s work are here given fresh context that aims to inspire a new generation of innovative classroom practice and to challenge current ways of thinking about the music classroom.
Part 1 Introductions
1. Purposes and Parameters
2. John Paynter – Thinker
John Finney
3. Voices
Part 2 Critical Issues in Creative Music Making
1. Sound and Silence Recontextualised
John Finney
2. Conceptions of the Creative Process in Music and Arts Education
Chris Philpott
3. Giving Value to Musical Creativity
Victoria Kinsella and Martin Fautley
4. Creativity as Ideology
Gary Spruce
5. Being and Becoming Musically Creative: A view from early childhood
Susan Young
6. The Pedagogies of the Creative Classroom: Towards a socially just music education
Gary Spruce
7. Music and the Making of Meaning
Chris Philpott
8. The Role of Community in Defining 21st Century Creative Practice: A design-led approach
Ambrose Field
Part 3 The Projects
1. Shapes into Music, Music into Shapes
Lis McCullough
2. Rhythms, Rhymes and Beats in Time
Ally Daubney and Ollie Tunmer
3. Propaganda, Protest and Politics
John Finney and Elizabeth MacGregor
4. Making Music for a Space
Rebecca Lewis
5. Music and Place
David Ashworth
6. Soundscapes of the Self
Micheila Brigginshaw
7. Music Technology and the Loop Sampler
Tim Palmer
8. Exploring Musical Sketchbooks
Elizabeth Hastings-Clarke
9. Repeats and Refrains
Elizabeth MacGregor
10. Concurrent Design
Ambrose Field
11. Musical Revisionism
Elizabeth MacGregor
12. Layering and Repetition
Emily Segal
13. The One-Minute Solo
Tim Palmer
14. Rain
Nancy Evans
15. Eccentric
Nancy Evans
16. Desh and Dionysus
Susan Young
Epilogue
Biography
John Finney taught music in secondary schools before teaching at Reading University, Homerton College and the University of Cambridge, where he led the postgraduate secondary course in music education. He has published widely on the interface between public policy and classroom practice in music education.
Chris Philpott is Reader in Music Education at the University of Greenwich, London. He has written and edited books, articles, online texts and resources that are widely used in initial teacher education and academic music education programmes.
Gary Spruce began his career as a secondary school music teacher. He is now subject leader for the pre-service music teacher education course at Birmingham City University. He has published widely on music education, particularly focusing on the relationship between music education and social justice and the professional development of teachers.
