Democracy and Music Education: Liberalism, Ethics, and the Politics of Practice

Abstract

In 1796, Jean Baptiste Leclerc presented an impassioned polemic to the French National Convention on the importance of music for the moral and social development of the populace. The paper was redundant for practical purposes at the time, since the convention had already approved the institution of national music under the direction of Bernard Sarette the previous year; it remains, however, a fascinating document of beliefs about both music and politics at a particular historical moment. It is possible that musicologists two hundred years from now will be making similar statements about Paul G. Woodford’s Democracy and Music Education. The book aims to develop a vision of music education inspired by the ideas of John Dewey. This would ‘reclaim a democratic purpose for music education by contributing to wider intellectual and political conversations about the nature and significance of music in our lives’ (p. xi). Accordingly, Woodford starts by outlining Dewey’s philosophy of education, and then broadens his argument into a more general defence of the Enlightenment ideals of liberalism and abstract reason. He then focuses more specifically on music education, developing a manifesto for what he believes it should be contributing to the public good.