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Contemporary Issues

Music Education and Classical Music

Scottish composer James MacMillan recently wrote a scathing article about what he called the “dumbing down” of a new music syllabus in Scotland. In his discussion of “serious music” ,and “popular culture” he calls for a renewal of challenging the notion that “there is no meaningful difference between high art and low art”. An article written in response reiterated some of MacMillan’s ideas and offered other opinions on the syllabus. The discussion of what is or is not “serious music,… Read More »Music Education and Classical Music

From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….

How has music education dealt with hip hop culture or rap music let alone issues of race and class when discussing listenership? Baakari Kitwana author of the recent book “Why White Kids Love Hip Hop”wrote a recent article in the Village Voice that looked at the fact that most “conscious” hip hop shows ( non-commercial and politically progressive) are attended predominantly by white youth. Some people might observe that more often than not, there tends to be a disassociation between… Read More »From Conscious Hip Hop to Racism in the Jazz Age….

X Boxes, And Playstations and gameboys oh my!

Forget students asking you to play the latest movie theme music, soon you are going to get requests to play video game theme songs at your next concert. How do you feel about that? You can get a taste of what it might be like when the Detroit symphony orchestra plays its “Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy” concerts this summer. Has anyone had their students create video game music? If so was it done with/for electronic instruments or computer?… Read More »X Boxes, And Playstations and gameboys oh my!