Post-War Modernism and the Music Classroom

Abstract

During the late 1960s, music educators introduced the idioms of post-war modernism (otherwise known as the avant-garde) into British classrooms. As a result, creative music making, composing and improvisation, became an established part of the curriculum. However the actual idioms of musical modernism have largely vanished from schools. The writer explores the reasons for this decline, while acknowledging that some positive features of modernism may still have much to offer teachers and pupils.