Letters: Contemporary Music and Education

Dear Editor,I was very interested to read Raymond Deane’s article on music and education in the May/June issue of the JMI. It is certainly the case that the inclusion of contemporary music in the Leaving Certificate syllabus was effected with a tedious...

Dear Editor,

I was very interested to read Raymond Deane’s article on music and education in the May/June issue of the JMI. It is certainly the case that the inclusion of contemporary music in the Leaving Certificate syllabus was effected with a tedious sense of duty rather than any real understanding of the importance of this music. It is doubtful whether these criticisms will penetrate the consciousness of departmental officialdom, which obviously regards contemporary classical music as some kind of fossilised relic of academia.

I think that one cannot confine criticism to the secondary school system, as the same tendency to dissect music is replicated at higher levels. We have a tendency to elevate universities, but in my opinion it is a mistake to think that they are an improvement on secondary school. I think that they are also open to criticism and recent articles in the JMI could perhaps open up a much wider debate about musical education. As a graduate of music from two distinguished music departments, I found myself rarely challenged by the university system to study, analyse or listen to Irish contemporary music. This situation would have not been quite so bad if I had been able to find the relevant musical scores of composers that I wished to study in the collage library, but as I discovered that was not the case.

My experience of libraries at University Collage Cork and Queens University Belfast has left me with the feeling that academic authorities completely overlook Irish contemporary music. It is surely the case in other countries that musicologists devote time and effort to the works of their follow countrymen. However, in Ireland we seem more interested in debating cultural identity in terms of nationalism, rather than engaging in a creative way with one of our most important cultural products. Of course, we expect this to take place in universities, but there is little indication that this is happening in Ireland. One gets the impression that there are not many academics willing to supervise the study of contemporary music. Therefore, Irish students generally have to go abroad if they wish to specialise in contemporary music.

For the last seven months I have been living in Germany and I have found out that there is a lot more respect granted to contemporary music here. For example, the public library in Essen has a huge collection of works by composers from the Ruhrgebiet area. As a public resource, it far exceeds in quantity both the libraries I have already mentioned. How can students in Ireland study contemporary music when the educational institutions fail to buy the music? In the absence of a comprehensive resource there is this tendency to apply what Deane calls ‘sound byte listening’ and many students are only familiar with Irish contemporary music from the free sample CDs issued occasionally by the Contemporary Music Centre. In my opinion Irish universities should also examine their commitment to music as a living art form and not relegate it entirely to history.

Rory Braddell
Overbergstr. 16
45141 Essen
Germany

Published on 1 September 2003

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