The Importance of Music: A Study of the Importance of Music in our Society
and School System
Music is threatened every year by school faculty and department heads. In our day, music does not seem to be as important in the education system as it once was. This has become a huge issue between music teachers and school administrators who are concerned with how funding should be allocated.† The result often leads to cutting music out of schools in order to support other school activities. The real question needing answered is, “Why is Music important?”
As a student about to graduate from the Department of Music at BYU-Idaho, this has become a common question for me.† Perhaps I should have thought of this much earlier in my education when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. Maybe the answer would have made my education here more meaningful. Knowing the answer to this question might have caused me to work harder in my classes. Before, music was just a fun hobby that I thought would lead to eternal happiness in my life. Now, as I come to the end of my education, I find myself asking this question a lot more throughout my studies. Perhaps it is because I am about to embark into the real world where I will have to answer this question to an unmotivated student, or a parent who wishes to withdraw their child from voice lessons because of the harshness of the economy. No matter what the reason, I realize that by knowing the answer to this challenging question, I will become a better person for it. I will become a better teacher in that I will be able to pass my knowledge to others. I will become a better musician in that I will be able to share the power of music with an audience.
So why is music important? Throughout my education at Brigham Young University-Idaho, I have found that music is much more than a hobby. Studying music was hard and complex. I ended up taking an Ear Training course three times! Why would I struggle through taking that class three times? If music was not important and was a mere hobby, I can guarantee that I would not have taken that class as often as I did. I probably could still have enjoyed music without the class. I could have spent that time on something more enjoyable, like learning new music. Therefore, music must have some sort of hidden importance that keeps one studying such complex and difficult material.
What is music exactly? If one does not know what music is, it is hard to seek any sort of importance in it. How do you define music to someone who has never heard or experienced its power? Some may say that music is just a group of pitches and rhythms put together to form something pleasing to our ears. However, if music was just that, I think I could have passed my Ear Training class the first time! My studies have taught me that music is complex. Music is a science, a history, a language, and therapy for the soul, disabled and ill. Since studying what music truly is, I have developed a desire to talk about the conflict between keeping music in our schools and in our society.
First, I would like to attempt to explain what music is. As stated before, music is a mixture of combinations. One combination within music is the arrangement of sciences. Music includes the study of biology, and physics.
As a student at BYU-Idaho, I have had the opportunity to take a class that features the study of the human body, and techniques we can experiment with. The voice is a complex instrument that requires a lot of knowledge on the body and how to use it correctly. Every breath of air, every note sung or played, requires the use of certain muscles within our bodies. When playing any instrument, having a balanced body position, correct breathing, and a relaxed manner of holding your instrument can help impact the quality of the sound and the performance. If one does not know how to use the body properly, damage can be done. If a violinist doesn’t hold a bow right, she/he can obtain carpal tunnel. If a singer does not use her vocal folds correctly, she/he runs the risk of damaging her/his voice forever. Knowing the body and its design prevents such damage.
Physics is also an important component in music. In music, it is important to understand the science of sound and acoustics to make the music beautiful to an audience and yourself. Knowing the study of physics will help you understand your instrument better and what kinds of sounds are pleasing to an audience.
Music is considered to be a study of history for a variety of reasons. Plato once said, “In order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or society, one must mark the music.” You can learn a lot about the people of a time period from the music they listened to and enjoyed. For example, Stephen Foster is considered one of the father’s of American Music. He wrote a lot of plantation songs in the 19th century. One of his most popular songs at the time was a song called, “Massa’s in de cold, cold ground.” The words are…
“Round de meadows am a-ringing
de darkey’s mournful song,
while de mocking bird am singing,
happy as de day am long.
Where de ivy am a-creeping
O’er de grassy mound,
dere ole Massa am a-sleeping,
sleeping in de cold, cold ground…” (Morris 815)
Just by reading the words of this song, you can get a sense of the history of this time. The words have a very unique language that clearly exposes the uneducated state of the plantation workers. The words also depict the kind of life the plantation workers lived. Often they would sing songs much like this one. Expressing what was important in their lives was important to plantation workers. Their songs are usually either full of sorrow, hope, or religion,
Music also depicts and retells stories of historical moments. “Ring around the Rosie” is a great example of this. This song retells the horrible effects of the Bubonic Plague. One of the symptoms of the bubonic plaque was a red or rosy rash in the shape of a ring. Many believed that pockets of flowers or herbs of some sort prevented the illness from passing to them. After someone died from this horrific epidemic, they were cremated. Cremation gave hope to those that the plague wouldn’t spread. The plaque nearly wiped out half of Europe by the end of the 14th century.
Music is an international language. Music can be performed for a wide variety of audiences and can communicate hope, peace, security, religion, and much more. Music often tells stories to convey a thought, or to express a feeling. Have you ever attended a concert, where it was obvious that the music was speaking or conveying something hidden to you? I have been to too many concerts, where I almost felt like I was required to say something back. Most of my testimony of the truth of the Church of Latter-Day Saints comes from listening and singing along to the hymns.
Music is often therapy to the soul and to those that are disabled or ill. “Music therapy has the potential to reduce pain and suffering of children and thus helping the family.” (Lindenfelser 333) As a senior in high school, I participated in a show choir. I had a family friend that loved to come to our concerts and hear the choir sing. During the Christmas season, he was unable to make it to our concerts because he was dying of leukemia. I asked his wife if it would be alright if the choir came to his house to sing our Christmas songs for him. She excitedly agreed to a private concert in their home. When the choir arrived to his home, we learned that he was too weak to get out of bed, so we sang Christmas songs from below the balcony of his stairs. Although we were not able to see his face, I was later told that he was thrilled to have us there, and after we had sung, he had commented on how beautiful the music was and how much better he was feeling. Our music also provided therapy to his family. The music comforted them, and they were able to face their adversity with greater strength.
Now that we can clearly define what music is and why it is important, another big question that must be asked when addressing this issue is why people think music has little importance in our lives. A lot of people enjoy music, but don’t consider it as having much importance in their lives. Or perhaps we, as a society just fail to realize how often we have music within our lives. “Music may be so common, so expected; we may not appreciate its value and thus its role in our lives.” (Kelly 63). In all reality, music is found everywhere and has a lot to do with how we live day to day. Music is listened to on the radio on the way to a location, it is used in the military, it is used in our churches, in the celebration of holidays, and in shopping malls. Music is found in movies, commercials and T.V. shows. Could you imagine a world without music? Could you imagine celebrating Christmas without singing Christmas Carols? Or a sacrament meeting without a sacrament hymn?
To a lot of people in our society, music is just to be enjoyed and a mere hobby. I myself believed this to an extent throughout my education. When I decided to study music in my college education, I did it because I thought it would be fun, easy and beneficial for when I had a family. I loved to sing and listen to music. I even loved learning new pieces of music. Once I took some challenging classes involving music, I often found myself complaining. I would say things like, “Why do I need to know this? Can’t I just sing?” Unfortunately, many people see music this way. A big reason schools are banishing music from their curriculum all together is because music is viewed as a luxury that the school cannot afford. Students learning how to play an instrument can often feel this way in private lessons as well. Learning the circle of fifths over and over again was not how I pictured my lessons going.
However, by cutting music out of the school system, we limit our students, children and society. This limits our children from having choices and discovering hidden or known talents. If music is not an option at school, students may not discover that they really love music and may not consider it an option for a career choice in the future. We also limit their progression by not allowing them to develop their talents day to day.
Cutting music out of the school system limits our society. “Lowell Mason, often called the father of music education…believed that music contributed to the well-being of the individual: It united that person with God and created better homes, and better citizens, and happier human beings.” (Collins 40) In other words, music helps society in that people are more loving, happy, and law abiding. Why would this be? Is it a coincidence that our society is having such a hard time with crime, broken families, and depressed souls? I think most people could agree that music these days is not appreciated as it was before. “The signs are rife: a wobbly CD market, symphony orchestras struggling to find money and audiences, the press and the Internet fretting over the music’s fever chart. The public radio stations that were once the mainstay of classical music broadcasting have been replacing music of any kind with talk, talk, talk.” (Kramer 1)
Another reason people may be biased toward the importance of music could be because of the American culture. “At present, the nation’s cultural and musical diversity represents a significant challenge to those seeking to provide a unifying philosophy for the music education profession.” (McCarthy 23) Part of this problem is due to the effects of World War II on education. Because of the emphasis on the war effort at this time, there was a scarcity in music teaching personnel. Schools had to start using regular classroom teachers teach music, to alleviate the problem. After the war, music teachers returned to the classroom but didn’t teach as often. They would normally only teach once or twice a week. Today, music teachers are still attempting to restore their importance in music education as the primary informant of music instruction. (Collins 41)
During this time, science also became real important to the education system. In a time of atomic bombs and constant talk on the topic of nuclear wars, teachers, school administrators and government were motivated to lead the youth in a great study of science. Today, science is still very influential to our society and has caused music to seem less significant.
That being said, music is taught much differently in our school systems than it was in the past. Today, students simply learn how to play their instrument at school and perform it to an audience. Before, music theory, ear training, and music literature were involved in developing the “whole child”.
If music were being taught as it were in the past, would it be as easy to abolish because of financial considerations? To make myself understood, I believe that Science, English, Mathematics, History, Physical Education, and Music are very important courses that must be taught. However, they are presented the best when each of them are taught together in a curriculum. Each course can teach us something about another course. For example, knowing mathematics helps us understand science, while learning English can help us understand history and music. Each course goes hand in hand, and once you take away one of them, you are losing a bit of knowledge that could help you in another course.
In conclusion, music is important to our society and education. It reinforces our studies in other courses, and speaks to the soul. Music counsels and can give us peace during the hard times of our lives. If we are to be truly knowledgeable, we should have music in our lives as well as other courses. Because of the influence music can have on our lives, we need to learn more of it rather than treating it as if it were a mere hobby or luxury. If we are to have true knowledge, we can use what we have gained to inspire and lift others. As Napoleon Hill, an American Author of the 19th century would say, “Knowledge is potential power!”
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