Listening Reconsidered

Abstract

Historically, music listening became a part of music education curricula when broadcasting and recording made both live and recorded performances widely available to school students. David Elliott claims that the most expert form of listening is listening within the act of making music. This chapter explores where Elliott places music listening in the context of the praxial philosophy he articulates in his 1995 book Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education, the implications of his writings about music listening for music educators and music students, and other models and thinking that can contribute to the professional dialogue about music listening. Throughout his book, Elliott emphasizes actions — specifically, the actions of making music, which he labels “musicing”. He states that listening is “a covert (or internal) form of thinking-in-action and knowing-in-action that is procedural in essence”. One of the challenges in reading Elliott's work with respect to listening is that procedural knowledge is not the equivalent of music making.