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ERIC Number: EJ1358234
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Aug
Pages: 21
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2745
EISSN: EISSN-1945-2292
Concerto for Classroom: Teaching with Classical Music and Opera as Historical Sources
Young, Clinton D.
History Teacher, v55 n4 p615-635 Aug 2022
The purpose of this article is to give the history teacher who is interested in or passionate about music--but nervous about transforming that passion into a useful classroom lesson--some resources, tools, and ideas to begin incorporating music into their teaching. It will focus on what is arguably the most difficult musical genre to teach with: the European tradition of art music, including opera. Such music is often regarded as being far away from the world of contemporary popular music, and art music may be the genre students are least likely to casually listen to. However, it is an incredibly rich resource for classroom instruction, and the underlying principles can be applied to more popular forms of music or to non-Western musical traditions. The dramatic principles inherent in opera provide another way to combine audio and visual sources to drive student discussion. Music is yet another method of reaching students by engaging them with something they are likely to have opinions about and have at their fingertips (given the ubiquity of streaming services and unlimited smartphone storage); and since music is used to market goods, enforce informal social boundaries, and serve as a marker of identity, training students to think as critically about music as we train them to think about texts and visual media is a vital part of equipping them to live in the modern world. Finally, classical music will be attractive to students who are interested in the arts and in musical performance who might otherwise find history a little remote. Historians and history teachers ignore the power and potential of music at their peril.
Society for History Education. California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840-1601. Tel: 562-985-2573; Fax: 562-985-5431; Web site: http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A