On the Question of Values in Music Education

Author(s): Mary J. Reichling

Source: Philosophy of Music Education Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall, 1993), pp. 115-127
Published by: Indiana University Press
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 On the Question of Values in Music Education

Mary J. Reichling
University of Southwestern Louisiana

The importance of educating toward value The Context

formation is argued in many journals connected
with music and the other arts. Nearly every In historical context, music education has
issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education been concerned with the question of "why" teach
speaks to the relevance of value formation, music, stressing the value of music in the human
particularly with respect to multiculturalism.1 conditioa William Channing Woodbridge, in
While researchers have identified countless his lecture "On Vocal Music as a Branch of
listings of values issuing from music education Common Education," argues for music in the
in general and multicultural music education in public schools based on the social, moral, and
particular, there appears to be little written that physical value music held in the educational
focuses on a theoretical framework for value development of childrea This view of music's
inquiry in our field. Such a framework is need- value persists through most of the nineteenth
ed not only to bring order and synthesis to the century.2
work already undertaken, but also to direct value Then in 1934, James Mursell published his
inquiry for the field in light of various political, book, Human Values in Music Education, the
economic, social, and other interests that are first, and as far as can be determined, only book
pressing upon music education today. It is on the subject. Here it is worth noting that
imperative, then, that music educators address Mursell emphasizes the notion of human values
the question of values in music teaching. learned through music. While he stresses music
Focus here is on two considerations. First, as a social experience and moral force, he also
several possible reasons and their consequences points to the opportunities for contact with a
will be suggested respecting why music educa- wide range of cultures that music affords.
tors seem to be teaching in a milieu that has Although this statement was made nearly sixty
given rather uneven attention to the question of years ago, it is one that might be read today and
values, as well as inconsistency and even dis- reflects current thought in multicultural music
agreement among the educators respecting the educatioa
values themselves. To accomplish this task, an Also pointing to the future, we find in
abbreviated chronological look at the historical Mursell's book the importance of music as an
context of values in music education is undertak- individual experience. Perhaps Mursell is re-
en with greater attention given to the current flecting the influence of John Dewey and the
situation. Second, discussion centers on the progressive education movement Here too, from
question of value in itself, suggesting various the concept of individual experience emerges
elements that music educators might consider embryonically the notion of music education as
toward developing a framework for a theory of aesthetic education, or the development of re-
value inquiry. sponsiveness.3

© Philosophy of Music Education Review 1, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 115-127.

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 1 1 6 Philosophy of Music Education Review

Leonard Meyer in his essay, "Some supports the position that music has little to do
Remarks on Value and Greatness in Music" with intellectual development In addition, by
(1959), believes that many educators avoid setting music apart in this way as something
questions of value as do the positivista, or toss "other" than the rest of the educational enter-
such questions into the arena of cultural context prise, we are now finding the arts isolated and
as do the social scientists. Hie latter, he holds, alienated, alienated particularly because they are
evade the question by labeling all music as seen as non-cognitive. Why would someone
equally good, each according to its own kind. want to include a subject for study in the curric-
Meyer himself makes a distinction between a ulum that is non-cognitive? I suggest that music
musical work as having value in itself, that is, may be on the periphery in education today
intra-musical value or value that is embodied or because we have relegated it to an autonomous
syntactical, and value that is associative or realm. We need to place music in the fore-
referential. A work may be great in itself and/or ground by giving equal weight to the cognitive
be valuable for didactic purposes. He seems to capacity of art.8
suggest a hierarchy of values.4 Also, perhaps as a kind of reactionary
Music education as aesthetic education is stance, late twentieth century focus in music
taken up by the Tanglewood Symposium (1968) teaching seems to center on two values: music
and soon after by Bennett Reimer (1970), and education as multicultural education or the
needs no elaboration here.5 Aesthetic education development of values associated with coming to
becomes the central value in music teaching of appreciate cultures other than our own, and
the mid to late twentieth century. music making or performance based instruction
In today's society, the inherent difficulty which values experiencing music over studying
with such an approach is that it assigns music a about music. Neither excludes the other, and
place in education that is not associated with the other values already identified persist with
so-called "cognitive domain" or serious academic greater or lesser vigor.
subjects such as history, mathematics, or the With respect to multicultural music educa-
sciences. Valuing music as creative self-expres- tion, Patricia Shehan Campbell and William
sion where everything and anything students do Anderson, for example, list several values which
is good and acceptable because it is an expres- they believe to be particularly congruent with a
sion of oneself, leaves us valuing what may be multicultural perspective in music teaching.
valueless, or supporting a kind of anti-intellectu- These include developing understanding and
alism.6 sensitivity to people, recognizing the inherent
More recently, Growing Up Complete: The worth of efforts of different cultural groups, and
Imperative for Music Education (1991), address- tolerance and respect for a multiplicity of opin-
es findings on the value of music for learning: ions and approaches. They hold the view of
both intrinsic value and contributions beyond, "equal but different" in teaching multicultural
such as developing "self-esteem, self-discipline, musics.9
and creativity; enhancing the development of But as was suggested earlier, the "equal but
academic and personal skills; and providing different" stance can be a means to avoid the
powerful means of integrating other areas of the difficult question of musical value. John Black-
curriculum/*7 ing writes that within cultures such as the Venda,
By conceiving music education as the for example, people still choose between good
development of feeling with the desired outcome and bad singers, appropriate and inappropriate
that students cultivate responsiveness, we have songs, well-performed music, and music badly
presented another view of music which also realized. Differences may obtain among cultures
as well. For example, Indian art music is valued

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 Mary J. Reichling 117

by some for its tonal complexities and intrically tures for our study are equal, just different, again
structured melodic patterns. In comparison, avoiding the question of values. Perhaps even
Western art music is viewed as rather simplistic more importantly, today's society has reduced
in its melodic treatment and pitch resources.10 value to only moral value. Consequently, any
This suggests that "equal but different" does not mention of values is suspect as religious indoctri-
suffice. nation and calls forth censorship. We need a
Music making or performance based music broader view of value inquiry.15
education, the praxialist position, grounds in- Another major reason why many music
struction in experiencing music through perfor- educators find themselves in a milieu that has
mance, such as playing the folk music of a given little attention to the question of values is
culture or singing such songs in choral groups. the grounding of our field in positivism. The
In so doing, students approach the understanding positi vistic research paradigm in music education
of a given culture and its music at a somewhat subscribes to a value-neutral methodology. Facts
superficial level. It is specious to think that one are accepted over feelings, emotional expres-
can know the culture and music from such an sions, and personal attitudes. Valuative expres-
incomplete experience. Music involves many sions are stripped of cognitive validity as well as
complex thought processes.11 One might also normative force. "Empiricism succeeded in
consider the varying degrees of participation delegitimating and marginalizing theoretical
possible in a musical experience from total value inquiry."16 Music educators are confronted
involvement of an entire culture in music mak- by two opposing categories: facts or values, and
ing, such as the Balinese, to no participation at the latter appear to be unacceptable in the scien-
all as in some of the works of Milton Babbit tific research paradigm.
Certainly, the art of music is of value as a Yet several writers refute this assumption.
dynamic, practical activity, including perfor- Jay Bernstein suggests that the attack on positiv-
mance, and can assist in understanding other ism followed the publication of The Structure of
cultures, but music is not a "unitary phenome- Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Efland
non."12 It is important to recognize the limita- relies on Popkewitz to report that many scientists
tions of any single approach to music education. acknowledge highly intuitive thought processes
Advocates of the praxialist view, for example, as well as reliance on the development of elabo-
seem to be less concerned about a conceptual or rate imagery, neither of which is found in manu-
theoretical framework than with students1 ability als on research methodology. Still many main-
to make music; both are essential for a musically tain the fiction that science is wholly objective.
educated person.13 Value in research, writes Roger Shepherd, is
As various paradigms emerge in music below the threshold of theory construction and
education, it is helpful to cite Arthur Efland's description. It is found at the level of obtaining
warning concerning the stresses within a field social scientific data where the observer neces-
during such occurrences. He writes that para- sarily brings a set of background convictions
digms "often act as norms which impede the saturated with value elements including basic
consideration and generation of new ideas" since value orientational categories.17
we form a commitment to the established con- Culture is dynamic, not static; it changes
structs.14 over time. Witness the development, mainte-
Further, various examples of relativism and nance, decay, and also the renewal of cultures,
reductionism are found with respect to culture such as those in Eastern Europe. Cultures, that
and to values operative today. E. D. Hirsch is, the people constituting a culture, adapt and
advocates a reductionist view of culture by change. Ethnic minority groups may also vary
having everyone conform to his one supreme and from one group to another. Further, any attempt
dominant culture. Others suggest that all cul- at describing a culture must necessarily include

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 1 1 8 Philosophy of Music Education Review

how it is perceived by the people living in it18 attempt to look more broadly at the question of
Thus several factual and normative approaches to values for music education.
a dynamic entity, hardly befitting the positivistic
research paradigm, are identified. The Question
In summary then, many values have been
identified through looking at music education in In an effort to sort out this complex and
historical context. Some values seem to be multi-faceted question of values, it is important
central to the music itself while others point to first that an examination of the concept of values
values beyond the music. "What music is valu- itself be undertaken: What is a value? What
able for is not [necessarily] what is valuable in does it mean to value? Then, how are values
music."19 In some instances, a value hierarchy is developed? And finally, what elements might
suggested. While many of the values are associ- music educators consider in developing a theoret-
ated with the views of individuals, others are ical framework for value inquiry. I turn to an
established by the profession. Often the latter examination of John De wey1 s writings to assist in
finds itself in competition with other subjects and the investigation.
justifies music in the curriculum in terms of the In his Theory of Valuation, Dewey distin-
values that accrue to it These values then might guishes "value" as verb and as noun. As an
be viewed as a series of separate elements that abstract noun, value designates a particular
somehow taken together suggest a sum that is object, attitude, or quality that is prized in the
the total value of a musical work. sense of held precious or dear, a valuable. As
An unfortunate situation results as the list verb, to value is to appraise. In the first sense,
grows and the claims increase until a somewhat value as something prized, cherished, or appreci-
disjointed inventory of values compromises ated, is more personal in nature than the second
music. John Dewey warns about curriculum and generally involves feeling or an emotional
justifications that parcel out special values to aspect The second meaning of value as verb
segregated studies. The subject with the largest includes the act of estimating or evaluating,
number and greatest variety of values wins the assigning worth to something. It is more objec-
race. The result is an educational disintegration. tive, includes criticism and judgment, and repre-
He suggests that educators focus instead on how sents the more reasoned side of value.22
various subjects reenforce each other in an But, as Dewey points out, these dual facets
enriched temper of mind rather than constituting of value as noun and verb, the object prized and
ends pursued at one another's expense.20 the act of apprizing, fee emotional and cognitive
Rather than form a mere listing of values, sides of value, are complementary and a matter
it appears that there is a need to search for of emphasis rather than separate considerations.
synthesis or a more inclusive view, a sense of Value as holding something dear brings the two
the whole, that allows for these values as constit- ideas together since "dear" includes both the
uents of music education without reducing music concepts of something prized and the act of
or music instruction to any one of them.21 In apprizing.
attempting to avoid the pitfalls earlier identified, Not once throughout his Theory of Valua-
the field of value inquiry can be a connecting tion, does Dewey offer an example from the arts.
force, spanning various paradigms that have been Yet his extensive writing about them testifies to
advanced, and relating music and music instruc- the importance he gives them in human experi-
tion to the rest of the curriculum and human ence.23 I suggest that neglecting the arts may be
experience in a vital way. What follows is an due in part to the supremacy he attaches to
scientific method and his inability to place the

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 Mary J. Reichling 119

arts within that sphere, or he may not consider The intrinsic value of music as intensified priz-
the arts within the purview of this discussion. ing or appreciating conforms to Deweyfs concep-
Elsewhere, he considers appreciating with respect tion of end as consummatory or fulfilling, that is,
to the arts "an intensified prizing, not merely a as terminus. On the other hand, instrumental
prizing." He distinguishes such prizing as the value, using music didactically, follows Dewey's
prime function of music and the other arts, and idea of end as contributory, a means to another
describes it as an "enhancement of the qualities end. Appraising generally applies to means
which make any ordinary experience appealing, while the thing prized pertains to ends in a kind
appropriable-capable of full assimilation-and of means-ends continuum. However, Dewey
enjoyable."24 Whatever his reasons, lack of points out that the relational character of objects
discussion of the arts within a theory of value is that are used as means does not preclude their
a serious omission. I shall provide examples as also having their own immediate, inherent value.
discussion unfolds. It is a fallacy to suggest that ends have value
The distinction between what is prized and apart from valuation of the means by which they
the act of apprizing corresponds to that some- are reached.27
times made between intrinsic and instrumental I turn now to a consideration of how these
values.25 In application to music then, the object two faces of value harmonize with Dewey's
prized and cherished suggests the musical work theory of value formation. J. E. Tiles finds in
as an object of value in and for itself. The act of Dewey's theory of valuation a kind of three-step
apprizing it applies to valuing a composition in process in the shaping of values. A person
the sense of judging it to be useful for teaching moves from an unreflective impulse of prizing or
form, awareness of another culture, developing rejecting something, to reflection on consequenc-
head tone, etc. Judgment also includes music es, which transforms the impulses to values, and
criticism. finally to subsequent inquiry that may bring
In Dewey's view, there can be no instru- about revision of the values.28
mental value unless there is first intrinsic value. Tiles, I think, has struck something impor-
The young boy who discovers a bright smooth tant here, but he does not go on to mine the
stone does not estimate its value to him or care cache. Doing so within the context of music
for it until he first treasures it.26 But this does education may offer insights toward a theory of
not necessarily seem to apply to music. If a values for the field. However, a cursory exami-
work is good for something, it does not have to nation suggests that the process is far more
be intrinsically good. A rather mediocre piece complex than Tiles implies. While he does not
might offer a very fine example of the prepara- identify the process as a series of steps, clearly
tion and use of a German augmented sixth chord an ordering is indicated in his writing. Subse-
therefore having instrumental value without quent analysis shows that the process may move
intrinsic value. in phases which overlap or even reverse; the
In application to music education, it follows second step is especially complex. Tiles does
that music may have inherently musical values describe reflection and transformation as a
(prized-as an end, a valuable) and at the same "dialectical spiral," which I think is an appropri-
time instrumental value (appraising-as means) ate designation.29
toward the teaching of other values. On the First, let us examine the idea that valuation
other hand, one might not prize a composition at begins with an unreflective impulse to prize or to
all and yet recognize its value as a means toward reject something. Dewey defines this as a kind
an end. of aversion to what is and attraction to what
Further, each of these two aspects of value, might be. This phase deals with disliking and
I suggest, correspond to Dewey's notion of liking at the level of a rather simple emotional
means and ends, so central to his philosophy. response that is perhaps capricious. A kind of

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 1 20 Philosophy of Music Education Review

"I-see-it; Hike-it; I-want-it" without any consid- in of the full scope of a situation." One is able
eration of the means to obtain it or the conse- to consider "existing liabilities and potential
quences of having it. For example, the high resources." Dewey suggests that growth in
school student who decides to join the chorale maturity necessitates considering the consequenc-
may not initially think of the practice and audi- es if certain means are acted upon rather than
tion required (means), or possible ostracism by immediately indulging an inclination.32
peers who consider such music elitist (conse- How one selects among various means and
quence). consequences is by using imagination. Perhaps
In this phase, according to Dewey, there is this defines one aspect of the teacher's role: that
conflict in need of resolution. But must conflict is, to assist students in imagining all eventualities
necessarily be present? Certainly one could possible to insure that the desired consequences
prize, enjoy, and desire to possess a beautiful will actually result and be prized when they do
rose without experiencing conflict There is occur. Learning through experience then may
merely something present, the rose, that calls our also include experience that is imagined. While
attention without a feeling of frustration and to teachers cannot impose values, they can help
which we may or may not choose to respond.30 students to see the results of their actions or
Dewey views this as a kind of pre-valuing dispositions if they are able to envisage the
because reflective thought has not yet occurred. consequences.
Still this seems to me to be the concept of value Henry Aiken makes a distinction between
as noun, a prizing or holding dear. what he terms "real" or what I label "existential"
Should a person elect to respond, then value and applies it to any realized end be it an
another phase toward valuing is entered upon intrinsic or instrumental value (an end or a
wherein a person looks at the means required to means-end). He reserves the term for consum-
obtain the object, and the end or object itself. matory activities or enjoyments. "Ostensible"
Here the word "object" may include an event, value he subscribes to objects of desire, the
situation, disposition, or whatever constitutes the projected end in view, or what I designate as the
initial inclination. This is a phase of reflective "imagined" end as rehearsed in imagination.33
activity involving imagination, feeling and The process which occurs imaginatively is
thinking, and contextual or relational consider- a "distinctively intellectual act-an operation of
ations among other factors. comparing and judging-to evaluate." This
To begin, there is a need to project and to intellectual factor is described by Dewey as a
appraise the consequences that will result if factor of inquiry that is present whenever there
certain means are employed. One must foresee is valuation. The process of imagining is a kind
and examine alternative ends that may follow the of intellectual realization of means, ends, and
use of different means. This is a kind of 4<look consequences. Dewey stresses the importance of
before you leap" approach. Such a process is intelligent judgment in value decisions lest
undertaken when a person lacks a full and direct prejudice result because values will be based on
experience from which to judge, and by imagin- tradition, self-interest, customs, prevailing condi-
ing the various possibilities of a situation can tions or other factors.34
determine which is preferred. There occurs a Along with the intellectual is included the
kind of "dramatic rehearsal in imagination" as aspect of criticism, a method of discriminating so
the projected means and ends are considered, that what was called an end is in fact a value.
weighed against various options, and rejected or The underlying concern here may include a
accepted.31 theory of criticism. One selects or discriminates
Engagement of the imagination, according among possible means and ends on the basis of
to Dewey, permits "a warm and intimate taking their consequences and conditions. It is a kind

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 Mary J. Reichling 121

of critical thinking in imagination. Dewey intrinsic or extrinsic. These mutually exclusive

writes that the content of the end as held in view categories negate the sense of connectedness.
is intellectual while the outcome or end as Further, the distinction between means and
consequence is existential. Further, a value is ends is temporal and relational; it is not possible
final (though not immutable) as a conclusion of to confer value on something independent of
this analytic process.35 context. Part of the nature of historical and
The projected means and ends, writes cultural anthropology is the knowledge that many
Dewey, are a subjective interpretatioa But values are determined by customs. Certain
valuation is more than subjective; it is "a rela- classes or groups of people maintain privileges
tion between a personal attitude and extra-per- and advantages over others. Witness, for exam-
sonal things/' "A 'value' is then affirmed to be ple, the plight of women composers and per-
a 'feeling'." If one joins to this final value formers of the past such as Clara Schumann and
described as a feeling the initial feeling of es- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Institutions and
teeming or holding dear which generated the traditions, likewise, may persist in sustaining
valuing process, we find feeling at the beginning values that are in need of revaluation. The
and end of valuing. In the middle occurs the consequence is often to impose limitations on
reasoning process of evaluating, judging, and others in shaping their desires, and ultimately
criticizing.36 Further, thinking and feeling merge thereby their valuations. I suggest that our
as aspects of valuing converge. The process is multicultural move in music education needs
not as neat and orderly as this discussion may systematic investigation, not in the sense of
suggest. isolated study, but related along some of the
In his Theory of Valuation, as in other ideas mentioned here.39
writings, Dewey abhors dichotomies and argues Similarly, Christopher Knight, in his analy-
for the integration of ideas and emotions or head sis of Barbara Herrnstein Smith's essay on the
and heart. He writes that the division between "Contingencies of Value," speaks of a network
the affective and the cognitive is likely "one of of relationships stating that the essence of the
the chief sources of the maladjustments and value of a work of art consists of all those
unendurable strains from which the world is related factors that are usually stripped away:
suffering." The joining of thinking and feeling sentiment, history, experience, etc. The claimed
through prizing and apprizing are fundamental to neutrality of scientific method is not possible and
the process of valuing.37 to assume it may falsify results. There is a need
Dewey also draws attention to the relational to look toward history, sociology, anthropology,
aspects of valuing and italicizes the word "rela- psychology, and other fields so as not to com-
tion" in the statement quoted earlier. The prob- promise value inquiry.40
lem with relational theory in respect of value Yet none of these writers addresses the
theory, states Dewey, is that one incorrectly relations among composer, performer, and listen-
identifies value as a relation between mind or er as part of the context of value formation. For
consciousness, a subject and object, or an organ- example, the notion of connectedness assists in
ism and object. He argues for relations, the explaining how a work poorly performed can be
plural, since connections occur across spaces, a source of great enjoyment (value) depending
times, things, and persons.38 upon circumstance. The inferior rendering of
I suggest that values may also transcend Bach's Christmas Oratorio in a particular context
present space and time connections-not that may still have aesthetic value for the listeners.
values lie somewhere waiting to be ingested-but Further, the sense of relatedness suggests that
that values of a group or culture may have been beauty is not something static. Listeners at the
held for years. This illustrates one reason for first performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
eliminating identification of values as either did not judge the work beautiful. These factors

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 1 22 Philosophy of Music Education Review

suggest only a few of the complexities present in values: aesthetic, political, moral, scientific,
value inquiry in music and challenge its study at spiritual, recreational, economic, as well as
a simplistic level.41 several thematic concerns that might exemplify
The relational property of value also in- some of these values: love, hate, life, death,
cludes the important question of multicultural freedom, power, patriarchy, matriarchy.46 For
values in music education.42 John Rahn, with example, Beethoven's Fidelio expresses political
reference to Bruno NettTs studies, points out that values emphasizing the theme of freedom.
contemporary musical culture is polyvalent in Okeghem's Missa Caput exemplifies structurally
that many different cultures may be present. the Renaissance value of mysticism. The work
Music's value then is also social, as an "emblem does not use the structural devices generally
of ethnicity" it promotes cultural identity and employed in music at that time. This renuncia-
cohesion.43 tion parallels mysticism in that the latter also
The connectedness advanced by Dewey is emphasizes renunciation; both "lack the usual
further confirmed by Blacking who writes in his means of rational articulation." Haydn's music
essay, "The Value of Music in Human Experi- might be said to express social values as he
ence," that the value of music cannot be separat- brings peasants into the palace and at the same
ed from its value as an expression of human time transports the lords onto the land through
experience. Discovering these relationships is incorporating folk melodies in many of his
the ultimate task of ethnomusicologists.44 works.47 George Gershwin presents social and
Blacking maintains that all music is folk economic values in Porgy and Bess as well as a
music since it cannot have meaning or be trans- union of musical values, specifically jazz and art
mitted without associations between people. It music. The work contains fugues, canons,
must be studied in context or serious misunder- counterpoint, and a mensural canon, as well as
standings may result. For example, an African hit songs such as "Summertime," "I Got Plenty
song, "Hayi Abant* Abamnyama" by Tyamzashe, of Nuttin'," and "It ain't Necessarily So."
may be rather crudely fashioned but is a work of Yet, values shift over time, just as perfor-
art, whereas many beautiful African carvings mance values change. Gershwin's work is an
which Westerners admire are not works of art in example of one which has recently lost favor.
the context of African culture. Another example, Valuing involves a dynamic relationship since,
the theme and variations in the Venda national for Dewey, art is not removed from life but is a
dance, are, according to Blacking's research, part of it. One both influences and is influenced
social and not musical events.45 by the culture. Because such values are not
The ramifications for music education are static entities, teachers, musicians, and members
obvious. If the value of multicultural music is a of society are also architects of these values.
criterion for its selection in music study, teachers This notion of changing values brings us to
face the difficult task of ascertaining whose the third and last phase of value formation:
values determine the choice: the culture's, the subsequent inquiry and possible revision of
Westerner's, their own, the students, someone values leading to new values. To recapitulate,
else's, or some combination of these. the first phase, building on Tiles, began with an
However, while it may be advocated, it is unreflective impulse of prizing. This is followed
not necessary, I maintain, to turn to multicultural by the second phase, reflection on consequences
music as defined in the literature today, to give which included many sub-phases. Dewey writes
students the opportunity to experience another that a value is final only in that it is the conclu-
culture. Western art music is also music of a sion of a process, not, I suggested earlier, as
given culture, time, and place, and relates to something immutable.
human experience. We might identify several

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 Mary J. Reichling

Nothing is more contrary to common sense, method to encompass these concepts, or is

Dewey holds, than the idea that we are incapable Dewey contradicting himself?
of changing and revising our value orientations Tiles levels strong criticism at Dewey
based on subsequent knowledge and experience. stating that he betrays objectivity for when we
The end (value) actually reached becomes both intertwine feelings in our search for truth we risk
a means to another, future end (value), and a corruption. He writes: "If we let our values mix
"test of valuations previously made." "Ends" in with our science, we shall only obscure the
this context, according to Dewey, may more former and destroy the latter." He faults Dewey
appropriately be identified as "values."48 for including experience in his concept of nature
In this sense, then, values have a generative and requiring that scientific inquiry, at crucial
quality. Existing valuations may spark other points along the way, take account of questions
desires and interests. These become the instru- of value.51
ments of forming new values which again follow Yet the problem with such inquiry as Tiles
the phases of investigation already discussed. describes, especially in the field of music, is to
Consequently, Gershwin's work may no longer limit accessibility to that which is measurable.
be desirable, Stravinsky's ballet may now be Music study is simplified to a nearly technical
deemed a work of art, and so forth. Certainly treatment that supports primarily a formalistic
the process argues against linearity because there stance. To claim objective analysis in our field
is no easily defined beginning and ending to based on observable and measurable data is an
value formation; we are constantly restructuring illusion, and takes no count of feelings, imagi-
our values. The generative quality along with nation, and particularly, values. The problem is
the other phases of value inquiry suggests that far more complex than it is often portrayed.52
the process taken as a whole is indeed that of a But I maintain that precisely those things
dialectical spiral.49 on which Dewey is criticized constitute his
Finally, this investigation into values and strengths. He succeeds in combining the more
value formation would not be complete without subjective, personal, and attitudinal aspects of
tackling Dewey!s closing statement in Theory of valuing, that is, holding dear, esteeming, and
Valuation that gives supremacy to scientific prizing with the more objective factors of means,
method in determining values. ends, and consequences. While the value judg-
ment itself is normative, its manifestation in
On the other side, the science that is put
to distinctively human use is that in behavior is probably observable and so factual.53
which warranted ideas about the nonhu- If one follows Dewey, at least two other
man world are integrated with emotion as fields, philosophy, particularly aesthetics, and
human traits. In this integration not only sociology, contribute to and demand a more
is science itself a value (since it is the
profound and extensive investigation of value
expression and the fulfilment of a special
human desire and interest) but it is the
inquiry in music study.54 These fields address
factual and normative issues, matters of particu-
supreme means of the valid determination
of all valuations in all aspects of human larity and universality, and the individual and
and social life.50 relational aspects of value study. As a result,
value theory in music may be viewed across a
In examining Dewey's various writings on value
continuum of inquiry that takes cognizance of
theory, one encounters many terms that seem to
music study as a total phenomenon. At the same
defy scientific methodology: "desire," "feeling,"
time attention is given to constituent parts with-
"imagination," "foresee," "holding dear," "possi-
out, as I said at the outset, reducing music to any
bilities," "projected," "end-in-view," "personal
single element.
attitude," "head and heart," "intellectual realiza-
Such inquiry is suggested by Dewey him-
tion," and the like. Is it possible for scientific
self. He writes of the need for science to inte-

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 1 24 Philosophy of Music Education Review

grate emotion, and that it is in this integration longer what Dewey designed it to be? Given
that science is most valuable. Desires, emotions, Dewey's penchant for synthesis and continuity I
the ability to project ends-in-view, are some of hold the latter view.58 Perhaps a more thorough
the traits that mark us as distinctly human. We and careful reading of Dewey on this matter is in
cannot isolate such traits, holds Dewey, in scien- order. At the very least, the challenge is for
tific inquiry. Further, he writes specifically that philosophy and science to work more closely,
empirical theories do all that is possible to and for science to recognize in its methods the
construe values as purely subjective.55 But how distinctively human traits identified by Dewey.
these matters can be included in scientific inqui- Finally, what are some factors music educa-
ry is not clear. tors might consider in developing a theoretical
One would wish that Dewey had been more framework for value inquiry? Such inquiry takes
specific, but that he considers the integration of account of both faces of value: prizing and
these human traits with scientific inquiry is apprizing. It necessarily includes the affective as
without doubt He does state that philosophy well as the cognitive. Values are generative and
and science must work together and that at times may lead to the development of other values; in
they merge.56 As we have observed, not all of this sense they are also continuous. Lastly,
Dewey's language fits the paradigm of scientific philosophy and science, along with other relevant
method as we know it today.57 Could it be that fields, work together since value theory recogniz-
he has contradicted himself? Or is it possible es the relational nature of all values.
that scientific method as defined today is no

NOTES

An abbreviated version of this paper was delivered at the 5. Robert A. Choate, ed. Documentary Report of the
biennial meeting of the Music Educators National Confer- Tanglewood Symposium, Washington, D. C: Music
ence, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 1992. Educators National Conference, 1968. Bennett
Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education (Engle-
1. The word "multiculturalism" is ambiguously used in wood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1970), 2nd ed. 1989.
the literature as various models obtain. One refers to 6. This view is discussed in detail by Arthur Efland,
the "melting pot" theory in which a kind of cultural "Curricular Fictions and the Discipline Orientation in
synthesis emphasizing sameness is valued. Another Art Education** Journal of Aesthetic Education 24
position advanced is a kind of cultural pluralism in (Fall 1990): 67-81.
which cultural differences are maintained and en- 7. Growing Up Complete: The imperative for Music
hanced. The issue is complex and beyond the scope Education, Report of the Commission on Music
of this paper. Education (Reston, VA: Music Educators National
2. For a discussion of Woodbridge's lecture see Estelle Conference: 1991), xiv.
R. Jorgensen, "William Channing Woodbridge's 8. Jay M. Bernstein, "Aesthetic Alienation: Heidegger,
Lecture 'On Vocal Music as a Branch of Common Adorno, and Truth at the End of Art** in Life After
Education,' Revisited,** in Studies in Music, Universi- Postmodernism: Essays on Value and Culture ed.
ty of Australia, 18 (1984): 1-32. John Fekete (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987),
3. James Mursell, Human Values in Music Education 86-119. Because music is cognitive does not mean
(New York: Silver Burdett and Company, 1934). On it is necessarily discursive. Bernstein suggests that
the suggestion of music education as aesthetic aesthetic practice may lack discursiveness to a degree
education see especially 49-50. similar to which reason lacks the capacity to engage
4. Leonard Meyer, "Some Remarks on Value and with sensuous particularity. Most recently, Bennett
Greatness in Music,** Journal of Aesthetics and Art Reimer has argued for the cognitive capacity of the
Criticism 17 (June 1959): 486-500. arts in "Langer on the Arts as Cognitive,** Philosophy
of Music Education Review, 1 (Spring 1993): 44-60.

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 Mary J. Reichling

9. William M. Anderson and Patricia Shehan Campbell, Press, 1958); and Efland, "Curricular Fictions;"
eds., Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education Roger Shepherd, "The Imagination of the Scientist,"
(Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference, in Imagination and Education, eds. Kieran Egan and
1989), 'Teaching Music from a Multicultural Per- Dan Nadaner (New York: Teachers College Press,
spective" by Anderson and Campbell, 1-7. 1988), 153-85.
10. John Blacking, How Musical is Man? (Seattle: 18. Many sources on the definition of cultures might be
University of Washington Press, 1983). Walter cited. Those used here include "Multicultural Educa-
Kaufmann, The Ràgas of North India (Bloomington: tion: Problems and Issues" by Gajendra K. Verma
Indiana University Press, 1974). The latter is cited and Christopher Bagley in Race Relations and
and discussed by Peter Kivy in Sound Sentiment: An Cultural Differences, eds. Verma and Bagley
Essay on the Musical Emotions Including the (London and Canberra: Croom Helm and New Yo±:
complete text of The Corded Shell (Philadelphia: St. Martin's Press, 1984), 1-11; Estelle R. Jorgensen,
Temple University Press, 1989), 89. "In Search of Music Education," unpublished paper
11. Some of the complex thought processes involved in available from the author, Indiana University, Bloom-
constructing, performing, and listening to the musical ington, IN, 1991; and Robert Walker, "Music and
symbol are discussed in my essays, "Susanne Multiculturalism," International Journal of Music
Langer's Theory of Symbolism: An Analysis and Education 8 No.2 (1986): 43-52.
Extension," Philosophy of Music Education Review 19. John Rahn, "What is Valuable in Art, and Can Music
1 (Spring, 1993): 3-17, and "Imagination and Musi- Still Achieve It?" Perspective of New Music 27 No.2
cal Understanding," The Quarterly Journal of Music (Summer 1989): 7. I purposely avoid using the
Teaching and Learning 3 No.4 (Winter 1992): 20-31. terms "intrinsic" and "extrinsic" value because of the
For other complexities particularly with respect to dichotomous nature of these words. If the values
music in non-Western European culture, see issue from the music, then what is extrinsic must
Blacking, and Bruno Netti, The Study of also somehow be intrinsic. If labels are to be of-
Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts fered, I suggest "intrinsic" and "instrumental."
(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983). Further, I add "necessarily" to Rahn's statement to
12. Concerning the praxialist position see especially allow for instances, which his statement excludes,
"Aesthetics of Music: Limits and Grounds" by when what music is valuable for (instrumental) may
Francis Sparshott in What is Music? An Introduction also be what is valuable in (intrinsic) music. This is
to the Philosophy of Music ed. by Philip Alperson particularly true if music is viewed as a symbol
(New York: Haven, 1986), 33-98; and "Music as system following Susanne Langer's thought
Culture: Toward a Multicultural Concept of Arts 20. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York:
Education" by David Elliott in The Journal of Collier Macmillan Publishers, The Free Press, 1966),
Aesthetic Education, Special Issue: Cultural Literacy 240-48. Dewey writes that we are misguided in
and Arts Education 24, No.l (Spring 1990): 147-66. attempting to assign various sorts of values to differ-
In the latter, Elliott uses the words, "unitary phenom- ent subjects. A given course of study may have any
enon," to describe music as more than a mere prod- kind of value depending upon the situation; "to state
uct or object (p. 147). the amount of each value which the given study
13. Keith Swanwick suggests that it is discriminatory possesses emphasizes an implied educational disinte-
nonsense to say that we cannot understand something gration" (p. 245).
of a culture's music without understanding the 21. The "sense of the whole" is an idea I have adapted
culture. See Music, Mind, and Education (London: from Philip H. Phenix, Realms of Meaning: A Philos-
Routiedge, 1988). ophy of the Curriculum for General Education (New
14. Efland, "Curricular Fictions," 70. York: McGraw-HilL 1964), 3.
15. E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy: What Every Ameri- 22. Dewey, Theory of Valuation International Encyclope-
can Needs to Know (Boston: Houghton Miftlin dia of Unified Science, ed. Otto Neurath, vol. 2,
Company, 1987). On the reduction of axiology to No.4 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939),
moral value see Fekete, Ufe After Postmodernism, published separately, 4-5. See also Dewey, "The
"Introductory Notes for a Postmodern Value Agen- Field of "Value*" in Value: A Cooperative Inquiry,
da," i-xix. ed. Ray Lepley, (New York: Columbia University
16. Fekete, Life After Postmodernism, vi.
Press, 1949), especially n.8, p.75 in which Dewey
states mat his earlier writings may have emphasized
17. See Bernstein n. 8; Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of
too greatly the separation of these two sides of value
Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chica-
rather than viewing them as a matter of emphasis.
go Press: 1962); Fekete, "Introduction," Ufe After
Postmodernism, especially p. vii; Mortimer J. Adler,
23. See especially Dewey, Art as Experience (New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons, A Wideview/Perigee Book,
Reforming Education: The Schooling of a People and
1980).
Their Education Beyond Schooling (Boulder: West-
view Press, 1977), especially chap. 4, 61-73; Michael 24. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 237-38.
Polanyi, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post- 25. Ibid, 238. I leave untouched here the old chestnut of
Critical Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago philosophy: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? If

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 1 26 Philosophy of Music Education Review

music has intrinsic value, it would suggest that 40. Christopher J. Knight, "Smith, Stein, Picasso-And
beauty is in the object and does not rest solely in the Contingency of Value," Journal of Value Inquiry
our perception of it Then aesthetic education, 21 No.3 (August 1987): 217-18. His citation is from
defined as developing responsiveness seems appropri- Barbara Herrnstein Smith, "Contingencies of Value,"
ate. On the other hand, what does our perception of Critical Inquiry 10 (September 1983): 14.
an object have to do with "seeing as" or finding a 41. Consider "An Empirical Method for Measuring the
work beautiful while someone else has no interest in Aesthetic Experience to Music" by Clifford K.
the same composition. The concept of intrinsic value Madsen, Ruth V. Brittin, and Deborah A. Capperella-
seems to confound the question. Sheldon in Journal of Research in Music Education
26. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 38; Democracy and 41 (Spring 1993): 57-69. The study takes no cogni-
Education, 242. zance of some of the points made here resulting in
27. These two different notions of "end" are suggested serious questions of validity. Given the multiple
from a reading of Dewey, Art as Experience 55, and definitions advanced of an "aesthetic experience" one
Experience and Nature, 2nd ed., (LaSalle, Illinois: is not certain precisely what is tested. But if, as the
Open Court, 1929), 323. researchers suggest, the experience involves a person
28. J. E. Tiles, Dewey (New York: Rouüedge, 1988), both emotionally and intellectually, one wonders how
166. participants in the study could be involved in the
29. Ibid, 167. aesthetic experience and at the same time be outside
of that experience manipulating a CRD1 dial. Cer-
30. This view is supported by Henry David Aiken who
tainly the split in focus while responding questions
writes that "the active arousal of a disposition need
the reliability of the study as well.
not presuppose conflict*' Rather, there is simply
present a stimulus to which one is called to respond. 42. Some of these values were identified earlier in citing
Such response may be approval or disapproval Campbell and Anderson. These include developing
without anything overtly done about it. See "Reflec- understanding and sensitivity to people, recognizing
the inherent worth of efforts of different cultural
tions on Dewey's Questions about Value" in Value:
A Cooperative Inquiry ed. Ray Lapley (New York: groups, and tolerance and respect for a multiplicity
Columbia University Press, 1949), 16-17. of opinions and approaches. They hold the view of
"equal but different" in teaching multicultural mus-
31. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 29-32, 42; Democracy ics.
and Education, 249; Reginald D. Archambault, ed.
43. Rahn, "What is Valuable in Art?» 7.
and introduction, John Dewey on Education: Selected
Writings (New York: Random House, The Modern 44. "The Value of Music in Human Experience." reprint-
Library, 1964), xx. ed from 1969 Yearbook of the International Folk
32. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 236; Theory of Music Council, ed. Alexander L. Ringer (N.p., 1969),
59.
Valuation, 29-30, 32.
45. Ibid., 64-66; How Musical Is Man, x-xi. Numerous
33. Aiken, "Reflections on Dewey's Questions about
Values," 36. examples outside the Western Art Music tradition
may be found in Anderson and Campbell, especially
34. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 34, 44; William S.
chap. 5, "Sub-Saharan Africa," by Barbara Reeder
Sahakian, Systems of Ethics and Value Theory (New
Lundquist who identifies various power-gathering
York: Philosophical Library, 1963), 325.
emblems in the music of the culture.
35. Dewey writes: "if these propositions enter into the
formation of the interests and desires which are 46. Dewey also address the concepts of Tightness and
goodness that Sparshott develops concerning valuing.
valuations of ends, the latter are thereby constituted
But while the latter categorizes these notions, Dewey
the subject matter of authentic empirical (emphasis
sees them as complimentary. He writes "that value
added) affirmations and denials." Theory of Valua-
in the sense of good is inherently connected with that
tion, 30, 42, 45, 48. I draw attention to the objection
which promotes, furthers, assists, a course of activity,
that might be raised here respecting the supremacy of
and that value in the sense of right is inherently
scientific method but will deal with it later. Experi-
connected with that which is needed, required, in the
ence and Nature, 321. On the cognitive capacity of
maintenance of a course of activity is not novel."
imagination see my essay "Imagination and Musical
Distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong,
Understanding: A Theoretical Perspective with
etc. are classifications that surreptitiously support an
Implications for Music Education," The Quarterly
existing social order. Theory of Valuation, 6, 57, 63.
Journal of Music Teaching and Learning 3 No.4
(Winter 1992): 20-31. 47. Rose Trahey Brackenridge points out Bukofzer's
description of Machaut's Mass in her essay "History
36. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 36-37.
and Culture in the Study of Works of Art: The
37. Ibid., 65.
Question of Aesthetic Relevance," Contributions to
38. Dewey, "The Field of ■Value," 69.
Music Education No.8 (1980), 55-71. Blacking
39. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 45, 58-59, 61, 64.

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 Mary J. Reichling 127

offers the Haydn example in "The Value of Music in

Human Experience."
48. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 31, 43; Experience and
Nature, 321.
49. Dewey, Experience and Nature, 321; Theory of
Valuation, 60. Susanne Langer also speaks of values
as generative. See Philosophy in a New Key: A
Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), 8. On
the idea of linearity see Knight, "Smith, Stein,
Picasso," 219.
50. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 66.
51. Tiles, Dewey, 161.
52. This view is well articulated and strongly supported
by Ivo Supiftd, "Science on Music and Values in
Music," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 28
(Fall 1969): 74.
53. Aiken offers criticism of some of these points,
"Reflections on Dewey's Questions about Value," 18,
30.
54. Ibid., 74.
55. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, 66; The Quest for
Certainty (New York: Putnam's Sons, Capricorn
Books, 1929), 258.
56. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 324; Experience
and Nature, 322. On this point and the divorce of
theory and practice see also Quest for Certainty, 280.
57. A more extensive analysis of this view is provided
by Konstantin Kolenda, "Rorty's Dewey," Journal of
Value Inquiry 20 No.l (1986), 61.
58. Only recently I found this view expressed by another.
H. G. Callaway writes "Dewey exists, too often, only
in superficial caricature, bland imitations, and pale
academic tradition. A new consummation of Ameri-
can experience and values is some way off, but
Dewey shows emphatically the chief direction efforts
need to take: he provides a basic value orientation.'*
"Democracy, Value Inquiry, and Dewey's Metaphys-
ics," Journal of Value Inquiry 27 No.l (January
1993), 26.

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