Nonmusical Outcomes of Music Education: Historical Considerations

Abstract

Abstract Undoubtedly, people have always studied music in informal settings for the pleasure it has given them. For the purpose of this chapter, however, a distinction is made between informal and formal music education in order to focus on nonmusical outcomes of the study of music in formal education systems. In the context of this chapter, nonmusical outcomes are those that serve any purpose other than developing the learner’s sensitivity to the aesthetic component of music. The subject of nonmusical outcomes of formal music education is rich in historical roots, embracing the opinions and theories of educators, religious leaders, civic leaders, philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and others. It has continually, for millennia, referred to behavioral conformity, effects on intelligence, skill development, and religiosity. The literature on this subject is so broad and embracing that one who is familiar with it might well ask what purpose music education serves other than nonmusical values. Although music educators have probably never been insensitive to the sheer joy of music, it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a widespread philosophy of music education, based on extensive research and reflective thinking, recognized the value of music education as knowledge and appreciation of the music itself. That philosophy, aesthetic education, will be discussed later in this chapter.