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Matthew D.Thibeault1
Abstract
The author argues that concerts create pressures on the music curriculum similar to those high-stakes tests generate
on the general curriculum. Three similarities are presented and discussed using the example of a concert the author
organized: first, teaching to the test and the narrowing of curricular goals; second, evaluation by a single source of
evidence; and, finally, absence of student voice and choice. A critical difference between concerts and high-stakes tests,
however, is that music teachers design their concerts.The last half of the article presents ideas to take advantage of this
difference in order to confront the commonly found pressures.The ideas focus learning around ensemble experiences
through general music practices. Many of the examples take advantage of technology and multimedia to afford students
opportunities to work with repertoire in new ways.
Keywords
high-stakes tests, concerts, curriculum, technology, music education
The kindergarten and first-grade students voices were
joyously in tune as they enthusiastically sang and danced
through a concert that included a Hebrew round, a Shaker
hymn, a Spanish Puerto Rican carol, and an Orff arrangement. There were solos, selections featuring a single class,
and others featuring all students, as well as dances, gestures, and the playing of percussion instruments. Parents
even joined in for the final sing-along. Following the
standing ovation, the music teacher received several bouquets of flowers, and the concert titled Peace Around the
World was considered a success.
The next few days saw the arrival of nearly a dozen
letters from parents and the school superintendent. All
agreed the concert was a crowning educational achievement to be celebrated and a high point for the schools
music program. However, one person considered the concert to be a low point in these students music education.
That person was me, and I was their music teacher.
Common sense holds that the quality of a music program
is audible: Good concerts signify good music education
programs, and vice versa. If we attend a concert by the
San Francisco Symphony, our ears can tell they are worldclass musicians, and our ears have the same power of
discernment when listening to a local music program.
There is certainly some truth to the notion that a performance reveals much about the musicians, but the links
between concerts and education are often tenuous. Alternately, it may be the case that an unintended consequence
of good concerts is the neglect of many music education
goals, as concerts can easily crowd out the aims and goals
for the class. Not only does a good concert not guarantee
good music education, but also it may be a source of
problems.
This article explores some often unexamined aspects
of a performance-based curriculum from the standpoint
of the general music practitioner. I begin by invoking
high-stakes tests, which I argue have many of the same
problems inherent in music programs that focus on
concerts. I then discuss practices and projects that have
emerged from partnerships with ensembles over the past
few years at the University of Illinois. These partnerships
aim to synthesize general music programs with ensemble
programs and may serve as models for general practitioners and ensemble directors.
Corresponding Author:
Matthew D. Thibeault, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
School of Music, 1114 W. Nevada Street, Urbana, IL 61801
E-mail: mdthib@illinois.edu
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Thibeault
I began to prepare my concert I focused on those things
that would be publicly exhibited. Although I would normally have students explore the meaning of lyrics, now
I focused solely on their memorization. Although before
I believed it to be critical for students to understand a
musical culture, a composer, or a historical period in
some way, the pressure of the concert ended these explorations. There wasnt time to teach everything, so only
those things that would end up on stage mattered.
Related to the idea of teaching to the test is the
narrowing that can occur when concerts function like highstakes tests. With my own concert approaching, I neglected
or jettisoned activities that would normally have a place
in the classroom. If it wouldnt be on the stage, it wasnt
in the classroom. When teaching to the test, I focused only
on the performance aspect of the pieces that I taught.
The curriculum also narrowed by excluding whole kinds
of activities.
This problem has been identified for decades, perhaps
most famously in the MEJ article Is the Curriculum the
Scoreor More? (Mercer, 1972). The author found
himself unable to continue an interview-based study about
the curriculum because so many band directors viewed
rehearsal techniques or the score as the curriculum.
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Thibeault
Figure 1. Four aligned visualizations depicting Michael Praetoriuss Viva la Musica: standard music notation, the round as sung in
three parts, a three-voice visualization with each part colored, and a MIDI piano roll with pitches colored by solfege function.
Students receive a paper copy for exploration and analysis.
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Figure 2. From a capella arrangements to video game levels and visualizations, tomorrows concerts can showcase learning
in expansive ways.
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Thibeault
In addition to using video for interviews, students also captured and chronicled the learning in the technology class
and in the ensembles. One student, taking a university
course called Writing With Video, submitted a final project
for that class that represented the learning experiences surrounding the performance of the Tchaikovsky symphony
and our digital projects. He interviewed the horn player
about getting to play the solo she had learned as an excerpt
for years. He talked to the section leader and concert mistress for their viewpoints on playing the piece, and he also
spoke with students in the technology class about their
own work on the project. The resultant video was posted
to YouTube and to the Tchaikovsky project Web site, and
a link to this Web site was included in the program when
the Philharmonia Orchestra performed the symphony.
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Tomorrows Concerts
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Thibeault
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research and/or
authorship of this article.
References
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scores, ruin the schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Bio
Matthew D. Thibeault is an assistant professor at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses in general music, music education technology, and research methods.
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