Shaping music education from a global perspective
by Huib Schippers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
USD24.95 / UKP13.99. Purchase a copy from the publishers.
Facing the Music investigates practices and ideas that have grown from the rise of 'world music', developments in ethnomusicology, and a growing awareness of the need for cultural diversity in music education over the past five decades. Based on over thirty years of hands-on experience at various levels of music education, Professor Huib Schippers provides a rich resource for professionals interested in learning and teaching music in culturally diverse environments; from those working in classrooms and studios to those involved in leadership and policy. In seven chapters that each approach the topic from a different angle, he unfolds the complexities and potential of learning and teaching music 'out of context' in an eminently readable and accessible manner, and comes to a coherent model to approach musical diversity with sense and sensitivity, providing lucid suggestions for translating the resulting ideas into practice.
Reviews
"Facing the Music is ground-breaking work on cultural diversity at the seams of music education and ethnomusicology. It is cutting edge in its study of the ways and means of diversifying music in schools, in higher education, and in community contexts. It fills a long-standing need to know not just the music of the world’s cultures, but the processes by which it is acquired, transmitted, preserved, and developed; for it is these processes that help us understand musical meaning at its most deeply human level.
Educators, ethnomusicologists, and students of music and education at large will be well-served by the accessible and articulate presentation of complex ideas that are illustrated with a broad sampling of artist-teachers cases from across the musical world."
Professor Patricia Shehan Campbell, University of Washington
"By innovatively exploring the dynamic nature of cultural diversity into music education, Huib Schippers makes a careful weave of theory, practice and reflections which connect issues of central significance for music education in the twenty-first century."
Dr Pamela Burnard, University of Cambrige, Editor BJME
"Facing the Music is both practical and wildly, exuberantly, unabashedly idealistic. It bristles with examples of a transnational world of music. Schippers thinks big, all the time, but has an ethnographer's eye for telling details. He doesn't shy away from dysfunctional and problematic musical encounters, nor does he idealize how music can teach new ideas about community.
This book is about teaching and 'getting untaught'—a process of defamiliarization and learning that ethnomusicologists will recognize as the transformation at the heart of the ethnographic exchange. Schippers challenges us to rethink the core values of music transmission and offers a framework for sustainable musical futures. The appendix titled "Emergency guidelines in case of world music" is worth the price of admission alone!"
Professor Deborah Wong, President, Society for Ethnomusicology
"This book provides a world view that transcends existing texts. Schippers knows the literature, and builds on it, but unlike most works in the field he always tests theory against practical, real-life examples. This gives his argument a real 'authenticity' – if I can use one of his much-discussed terms! I know of no other book which deals so thoroughly and clearly with the topic."
Professor John Drummond, University of Otago, (former President International Society for Music Education)