There is a long history of debate over what opera is. Since it's more or less formal beginning in the sixteenth century as a reconstruction of ancient drama, opera as an art form has been controversial. The received understanding--emphasized by the genre's founders and in periodic efforts at reforming the standards of composition and…

The author states that among the various approaches to music education, her dialectical and epistemological view offers a way of thinking about music and education and deciding how to go forward in teaching and learning music. In this article, she shows how this particular philosophical perspective can play out in teaching for the development of…

Based on a conception in which a musical composition determines aesthetic-normative properties, a distinction is drawn between two notions of performance: the "autonomous", in which a performance is regarded as a musical work on its own, and the "intentionalistic", in which it is regarded as essentially of a particular work. An ideal…

The essence of what the author had to say in this paper was that creative artists frequently use words like honesty and truth in describing themselves at work, that honesty and truth are at the core of what they are doing in art. (Author/RK)

In this study the author attempted to demonstrate an approach to musical understanding derived from the field of musical aesthetics. (Author/RK)

The author reviews several perspectives on the relationship between the composer and the performer of a musical work. Specifically, he examines the boundaries of that relationship, seeking to define the extent to which the performer may creatively interpret a work without violating the composer's intentions or established musical tradition. (SJL)

Using Bob Dylan's three somewhat different versions of "It Ain't Me, Babe," the author investigates the variables of Dylan's performances and how they alter the meanings of his songs, and suggests that the more we know about popular song the more we will understand the songs we subsequently encounter. (KC)

The author attempts to briefly review the current state of music education; relate this situation to theoretical elements of the musical experience; describe the educational strategies required to deal with the complexity of musical experience; and suggest a possible pedagogical and theoretical orientation to the problems of professional music…

In this essay, the author describes her view of the concept of the aesthetic in music education as "essentially contested" and subject to reinterpretation. She attempts to expand "traditional" notions of the aesthetic in music education beyond a view of the aesthetic transaction as "passive," focused on audience-listening for traditional…