Music for Music’s Sake

 

While there are many great reasons for students to be involved in music for its ancillary benefits in helping boost performance in other academic areas, is that the only reason music should be part of the curriculum in K-12 schools?

We don’t approach English classes by telling students that reading Shakespeare will help students in their algebra class, or that studying quadratic equations will help students in their history class (and I’m not just pulling those examples randomly, I think a case can be made for both!). So let’s take the ancillary out of the equation for now and let’s look at reasons why music should be studied for its own sake.

Probably the biggest hurdle in advocating for any of the arts (music, literature, visual arts, theatre) is that far too many people don’t see a “practical” application. By this they usually mean that they don’t see an immediate financial benefit. This is the perennial debate when it comes to funding school programs. Subjects and activities that appear to have an immediate financial benefit, or that leads to one (i.e. a job) then it is seen as valuable. If it does not appear to have an immediate financial benefit or leads to one, it is seen as less valuable. This has led to the elevation of STEM subjects over everything else. (If you are not aware, STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) To me, the fundamental problem with this approach is outlined by Theodore Roosevelt, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” STEM subjects are excellent at teaching facts, and processes. What is missing is the element of morality. The humanizing elements of education  do not happen in STEM; they happen in the liberal arts, the liberal arts that American society labels as useless, pointless, and a waste of time and money. However, that is exactly the point of morality and human compassion: you cannot quantify their value. What is the value of a human life? What is the value of learning empathy and compassion? In my estimation those are the two elements missing most in our society. The arts teach empathy endemically.

In their introduction to The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond write that “at the turn of the twentieth century, it was still recommended that young men aquire what used to be called ‘polite arts’, so that they might behave like gentlemen, even if, like Tolkien, the recipient was not born to wealth.”[1] We even get the term “liberal arts” from this concept. In this context ‘liberal’ has nothing to do with politics, especially not American politics. Rather it referred to the ability of the wealthy having the means to explore and obtain an education. They had liberal wealth, or means to pursue the ‘polite arts.’ The ’polite arts’ included music, art, and literature. These were the civilizing subjects that taught morality and compassion.[2] How do they do this?

Human beings love stories. This love starts with children. My own children loved bedtime stories. As they grew older we would read chapters of books each night. In this way we read the Chronicles of Narnia, Bridge to Terebithia, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and other classics. Human beings now love movies, television, and even complex role-playing video games. Why? Because we are invited into a story where we can empathize with the heroes and despise the villains. Even sports are a type of story that we can immerse ourselves in. Every point scored is a small victory for our chosen heroes, every game won is a triumph for our chosen side. We celebrate a home run as if we had hit the ball ourselves instead of watching it happen from our seats. We feel elated when the Death Star blows up because we empathize with the ongoing story of good triumphing over evil. We feel vindication at the end of The Scarlet Letter when Hester Prynne turns out to bear the letter A as a mark of her being an angel of mercy rather than an adulteress, and the pastor Arthur Dimmesdale who should have been the wise and good advisor in the story, turns out to be the villain. Why do these stories matter? Because we learn how to empathize with other human beings. Their struggles become our struggles. To quote a passage used frequently in my own religion, we “bear one another’s burdens that they may be light.”[3] When our team loses we commiserate with each other.

So that is a roundabout way to get to the point that stories help us understand another’s perspective. But if we only expose ourselves to one genre, one type of story, then our ability to empathize with others is severely limited. We cannot grow beyond our own small sphere. We must be willing to consider things we have never considered before, and learn things we thought we did not need to know.

As an educator one of the most difficult lessons I try to teach students is that they don’t know what they don’t know. Younger students especially struggle with understanding this concept. I tell people that I have a doctorate. I am presumably an expert in my field. But the one thing I have learned in obtaining that advanced degree is that the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. There is a great quote from Sir Isaac Newton: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Newton understood that there is always more to learn, more to discover. We see this playing out in the sciences today. Our understanding of the fabric of the universe continues to expand the more we learn. The quest to find the “Theory of Everything” is a futile one, I think, because there will always be more to discover and learn. I find that idea exhilarating. I can’t imagine a cessation of learning in my own life, which is why I don’t understand people who resist learning, or even worse, think they already have everything figured out. Why wouldn’t we want to learn more, to understand more? I love the 1990s comedy Designing Women. In one episode the character Charlene comes up with a trivia factoid. Mary Jo asks her, “Why do you know that?” To which Charlene responds, “I love knowledge. In fact I yearn for it.” This throwaway quip in a sitcom is never really alluded to again in the show, but I think it’s a great motto for life.

So, getting back to the question: WHY MUSIC?

Music is one of the ‘polite arts.’ It civilizes us. Human beings are the only species on the planet that create music for music’s sake. Bird song, whale song, all of it is for communication. They do not ‘sing’ as an artform. Humans do. So music sets us apart from other animals on the planet. Aristotle taught the concept of “the music of the spheres” meaning that celestial objects in the night sky created their own music as they dances across the sky. Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” If humans are the only species that creates music as art, and, as Hugo says, music expresses that which cannot remain silent, then those two ideas should be reason enough for all students to study music to some degree in order to participate in a civilized society. Often people say that music is the ‘universal language.’ I’ve never decided if I agree with that statement or not. Every human culture on the planet creates music as an art form. Some cultures’ music is so wildly different from the Western tradition I have spent my life studying that I don’t understand it very easily, and I have a doctorate in music. I am an expert in my field. So if I want to understand other cultures, I need to make the effort to study and understand their music. The same can be said of studying and understanding their visual arts, and their literature. If I want to continue on my quest to empathize with other human beings, to “bear one another’s burdens,” then I need to understand their cultural context. Why does their art look or sound the way it does?

In his excellent article Why Music? Defining Who We Are Through Music, Frank Fitzpatrick discusses how music can help us discover who we are. I have seen that happen firsthand as a music teacher – students discover themselves through music. He also discusses a tribe in Africa with a very interesting tradition. For this tribe music is the very essence of identity. “When a woman there decides she wants to have a child, she goes off and meditates until she hears the song of the child she will conceive. She then teaches that song to the father-to-be and, together, they share the song as they make love. Once pregnant, they teach the song to their community to sing as the mother is giving birth, welcoming the child in to the world with its own song. Later in life, if the child ever goes astray, the community sings the song to help the child remember who he/she really is, as a guide to a deeper connection of inner or higher self. When a couple is married, they sing their songs and, finally, when it comes time for a member of the tribe to transition from this life, the village sings their song for them.”[4] What a beautiful tradition to help each member of this society stay grounded, and to know that they are loved and valued by their community from the moment they are born until they depart this life. What would our own society look like if each person bore this sense of value and belonging through their lives?

Fitzpatrick concludes his article with this: “I believe it is important that we give our children exposure to a wide range of music so they can build their own preferences and identities. A broader musical palette can open them up to a wider range of life experience and larger sphere of friendships and associations. Helping them to recognize how they can use, or even create, the music they come to love, to resonate more deeply with their own spirit and the world around them, provides them with a tremendously powerful tool for facing challenges in life, communicating their emotions and reconnecting when the world around them feels too overwhelming or disconnected.”[5]

When my kids were smaller we frequently introduced new foods to them. More often than not we were told “I don’t like that!” Our response was always, “you can’t know that until you try it.” (I’m sure every parent can relate to this!) I have heard this same sentiment from students, and others. “I don’t like classical music. I don’t like opera.” I would ask, “have you ever seen an opera?” Almost never did the student (or other adult) say that they had seen an opera, or attended an orchestra concert. How can you know you don’t like something if you haven’t tried it?

Akin to this sentiment is one I have run into as I have traveled outside of the United States. As an LDS missionary I lived in England for two years. Americans frequently express surprise when they realize that other countries do things differently, or have devices, or situations that are different than what is common in the United States. Often their reaction is to say, “that’s stupid!” No, it’s not stupid, it’s just different. Different doesn’t equal stupid, or bad, or wrong, different is simply different. Human nature reacts to new things with fear. And so human nature reacts with statements such as “I don’t like that” or that’s stupid.” We react that way when we don’t understand something, and we are unwilling to learn. Being unwilling to learn is not how we learn the ‘polite arts’ and become contributing members of a civilized society. Being unwilling to learn is how we devolve into tribalism, partisanship, and the “othering” of people we don’t understand. In other words, being unwilling to learn leads to the dissolution of a civilized society.

So much of our current society and culture delights in death and destruction, and not just our predilection for movies and television that portray endless explosions and battles. We delight in the destruction of our political and social enemies. We lack empathy for the hardships of people whose “lifestyles” we “don’t agree with.”[6] People say they want to be part of a more compassionate, unified society. It starts with empathy for those you do not understand, or don’t agree with. Music can help us understand the perspectives of others because it is a ‘polite art’ that helps us be a civilized society.

I have taught music appreciation for many years, the general education course that nearly every undergrad needs to take in order to graduate.[7] When I introduce each time period I always allude to the literature, the visual art, the architecture, and the socio-political events from the same time. All of those elements influence the music that comes out of each period. We cannot fully understand the human experience through history if we do not understand all of its elements. Civilization is far more than just technological advances. An outside observer could look at our own level of technology. They would see instant, global communication, the ability of medicine to extend life, machines and devices that give access to information instantly. But none of that tells the observer what sort of people we are. If you’ll forgive me for falling back on the old trope of a comparison to the Nazis, I will give an example. Nazi Germany made advances in medicine and technology. Nazi Germany enjoyed clean cities, reliable public transportation, industrious factories, and a high standard of living. From that perspective Nazi Germany was a desirable society. If Nazism had arisen today, they would use flat screen televisions, laptop computers, iPhones, have fully equipped hospitals, and a robust public infrastructure. It all sounds great, but none of it tells the observer what sort of people the Nazis were. It is only in looking at their cultural values, reflected in their literature and art, that we see who the Nazis really were. Music helps us see who people really were and are. Music helps us express who we are, and who we strive to be. Music expresses what words cannot do on their own. Making music in a group helps us reach outside of ourselves and experience community in a way that no other activity can do in such a way. In music everyone wins and there are no losers. Music helps us learn to be vulnerable in front of, and with others. Music is an act of creation. Creation is the highest, noblest act human beings can engage in. For those who are believers, the act of creation is a godly activity. God is the Great Creator, and any act of creation we can engage in brings us closer to Him. To me this might be the strongest, best case for music.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

---

[1] Scull, Christina, and Wane G. Hammond. “Introduction.” Introduction. In The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien 1, 1:xiii–xiii. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2024. I would parenthetically add that in the twenty-first century we would use more gender inclusive language, but in the early 1900s women were already seen to be the more civilized of the sexes, and in order to attract, and woo women men needed the ‘polite arts’. There are, of course, the ever-present issues of ongoing misogyny, women’s suffrage, and everything wrapped up in those issues, but I am not going to touch that topic with a barge pole in this blog post. P.S. Yes: I am an academic and I cite my sources. And in music we cite using the Chicago/Turabian style book. If you don’t like it, get your own discipline and cite your courses any way you like. P.P.S. I know my family are rolling their eyes because it only took me two blog entries to refer to J.R.R. Tolkien. All I can say is: get over it. There will be plenty more where that came from, and if you don’t like it, start your own blog.

 

[2] In The Lord of the Rings I always loved Aragorn. He was a formidable warrior. But he was also a historian, and a poet. He was well-read and was equally comfortable in the company of the High Elves of Rivendell and Lothlorien (and highly respected by them) as he was comfortable sitting in a provincial inn drinking beer with rustic hobbits. He was the epitome of what we would call a Renaissance Man.

[3] The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:8-9: “[that ye] are willing to bear one another’s burden’s that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort . . .” I told you, I’m an academic. I cite my sources.

[4] Fitzpatrick, Frank. 2013. “WHY Music? Defining Who We Are through Music.” HuffPost. July 8, 2013. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-music-defining-who-we_b_3543504.

[5] Ibid.

[6] I put those phrases in inverted commas because I detest the mindset behind how those phrases are used, but that is a discussion for another time.

[7] Courses that should be included in a general education are constantly up for debate. And the perennial (and extremely annoying) question that students raise is, “why do I need to learn this? When am I ever going to use this in real life? But students don’t know what they don’t know, nor are they wise enough, or clairvoyant enough to know what they will or won’t use in real life. What they forget is that it’s all real life. And what they don’t realize is how bloody obnoxious it is for someone who only learned how to do their own laundry last week seems to know what is and isn’t important in real life.