Comment on "The concept of music education from a philosophical perspective"
Li Pan[1]
Commented article: LIU, Z. Y. The concept of music education from a philosophical perspective. Trans/Form/Ação: revista de filosofia da Unesp, v. 47, n. 5, “Eastern thought 2”, e02400161, 2024. Available at: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/15083.
Education includes school education, family education and social education, and music education reform belongs to the category of school education. As a paper on the reform of music education, Liu (2024) tries to draw on philosophical theories to provide practical solutions to the reform of modern music education. This helps the academic circle to promote the philosophical theory of the guiding value of music education while keeping up with the pace of The Times, the self-perfection and innovation of music education sounded the alarm.
If we talk about urban music education, we have to mention the profound influence of postmodern philosophical theories on popular music (noise) (Luigi; Robert, 2004, p. 89). French noise musician Pierre Chefe, through a series of natural sound collections and collages, formed a unique modern urban music landscape. French noise theorist Jacques Attali, in his book Noise: The Political Economy of Music, has made a comprehensive analysis and criticism of the sound scene of modern society from all aspects of politics, economy and society (Jacques; Brian, 2009, p. 111). Chinese urban noise works worthy of attention, such as Yan Jun's "Noise Music the End of the World" (Yan, 2020), Liang Wendao's "Noise" (Liang, 2016) and Jiang Yuhui's "Black Noise, White Noise and Ghost Sound" (Jiang, 2024), all carry out a thorough liquidation and review of music from the perspective of the urban cultural landscape. Therefore, as an important urban music landscape, noise plays an important role in music education reform, which can not be ignored (David, 2013, p. 34).
On the one hand, the structure logic of the full text needs to be further optimized. Liu (2024) begins by summarizing the essence of philosophy and music, laying the groundwork for the subsequent section of the philosophy of music to emerge. However, the three theories that follow–heteronomy, self-discipline, and practice—are directly summarized as the dominant conception of music in the context of Chinese music education, which lacks proof. Heteronomy and self-discipline, as long-standing philosophical views, can be traced back to Kant at least. The source of the concept reference should be clarified. In addition, Ji Kang's theory of "sound without sorrow and joy" mentioned in the article in the period of Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties is different from the meaning of the theory of self-discipline, so as a case interpretation of self-discipline theory, it is not very appropriate.
Then look at the second title of the second part: Music education concept, respectively, aesthetics, functionalism and aesthetic education theory three aspects. From a logical point of view, it is difficult to see whether the relationship between the three is parallel or progressive. Fortunately, Liu (2024) makes a distinction between practical philosophy and aesthetic philosophy of aesthetics, which naturally reminds readers that functionalism should belong to the category of practical philosophy, while aesthetic education theory should belong to the category of aesthetic philosophy. Therefore, the relationship between the three is total division divisiveness, aesthetics includes functionalism and aesthetic education theory, and the latter two are parallel relations. This serves as the introduction to the article's third section. The problem, however, is that children are the target of aesthetic education at the beginning of the introduction while regular schools are the target of music instruction here. It could be easier for readers to comprehend if we could come up with a definition of educational reform that is largely consistent.
The third part is the focus of the whole paper's innovative views. Whether it is the suggestion of reflective music training or the idea of music game design, it is particularly worth looking forward to. What can be further improved is, on the one hand, how to implement the practical positioning, preparation and planning, scenario implementation and teaching evaluation of the author's four songs into the practice teaching of music, and effectively improve students' sense of knowledge acquisition and enhance students' awareness of reflection and criticism. On the other hand, although the setting of music games can be an important measure of music education reform, how to set up, what content to set up and how to test the teaching effectiveness can be further developed to improve the feasibility of the program.
On the other hand, there are still some details to be further optimized and improved. When discussing children's education and higher education, for instance, the term "student development" should be used when referring to either college students or toddlers. While demonstrating the limitations of traditional music education research, Liu does not elaborate on the content of the limitations, and how this limitation is related to "national melodic factors" and "genetic code." Because if the correlation is not strong, or the logic is not clear, then some cases can be deleted. In addition, when demonstrating the contradictory relationship between philosophy and music, some arguments are too radical and do not fully conform to reality. Putting decisive words in a euphemistic form may be a better choice. In this way, the most controversial topics can be handled with flexibility. At the same time, it can also leave room and space for future discussion for readers who are interested in the text.
Liu (2024) makes innovative suggestions on the various problems arising from music education in the post-epidemic era, and also explores and envisages the real and virtual teaching environment from the perspective of students as the first subject. However, it has been a while after the era of COVID-19. It may be inappropriate to use this as a time point to reform teaching tools. It is also possible that politically sensitive topics will be addressed, or that even without the online courses of the COVID-19 era, the iteration of AI will accelerate the obsolescence of traditional teaching methods (Joanna, 2010, p. 9). Because of the reform of modern teaching methods, it has become an inevitable trend of teaching reform. However, there is no doubt that the online courses during the epidemic period have intensified the contradictions so that the realistic topic of reform has no place to hide (Michael et al., 2012, p. 71).
In the conclusion, Liu does not deeply explain the influence of the traditional philosophical thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism on music education, except for the mention of Ji Kang's theory of no sorrow and music in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. After emphasizing the necessity of pedagogical practice, Liu (2024) dived straight into the extensive use of dialectics. It is suggested to change from practice to theory and add cohesive statements as bedding, otherwise it appears inconsistent in content. Besides, it is advisable to add some content of the new mode of music education system to enable the credibility and feasibility of the conclusion.
References
JACQUES, A.; BRIAN, M. (translator) Noise: The Political Economy of Music. University of Minnesota Press, p. 111-120, 2009.
JIANG Y. H. Black Noise, White Noise and the Voice of Ghosts. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2024.
JOANNA D. Listening through the noise: the Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
LIANG, W. D. Noise. Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 2016.
LIU, Z. Y. The concept of music education from a philosophical perspective. Trans/Form/Ação: revista de filosofia da Unesp, v. 47, n. 5, “Eastern thought 2”, e02400161, 2024. Available at: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/15083.
LUIGI, R.; ROBERT, F. (translator) The Art of Noise (futurist manifesto, 1913). New York: Something Else Press, p. 89-95, 2004.
MICHAEL, G.; BENJAMIN, H.; PAUL, H. Reverberations, The philosophy, aesthetics and politics of noise. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012.
YAN, J. Noise and the End of the World. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2020.
Received: 15/08/2024 – Approved: 19/08/2024 – Published: 30/09/2024
[1] Associate professor. School of Music and dance, Mudanjiang Normal University, Mudanjiang, 157000 - China. ORCID: 0009-0006-6596-1277. E-mail: 0502017@mdjnu.edu.cn.