Tanglewood Symposium - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Tanglewood Symposium was a conference that took place from July 23 to August 2, 1967 in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. It was sponsored by the Music Educators National Conference

MENC: The National Association for Music Education

MENC: The National Association for Music Education is an organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education and as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States...

(MENC) in cooperation with the Berkshire Music Center, the Theodore Presser Foundation, and the School of Fine and Applied Arts of Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

. The purpose was to discuss and define the role of music education

Music education

Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...

in contemporary American society and to make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of music instruction. Participants included sociologists, scientist

Scientist

A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

s, labor leaders, educators, representatives of corporations, musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

s, and people involved with other aspects of music.

The Symposium

Position papers had been published in the March and April, 1967 issues of the Music Educators Journal. The papers served as the bases for discussion at the 1967 MENC divisional conferences and for the Tanglewood Symposium. The sessions were moderated by Max Kaplan, Wiley L. Housewright, Allen P. Britton, David P. McAllester

David P. McAllester

David Park McAllester , an ethnomusicologist, was Professor of Anthropology and Music at Wesleyan University, where he taught from 1947-1986. He made seminal contributions to the development of the field of ethnomusicology, and helped establish the ethnomusicology department and the World Music...

, and Karl D. Ernst. Three broad questions were considered:

What are the characteristics and desirable ideologies for an emerging and postindustrial society?
What are the values and unique functions of music and other arts for individuals and communities in such a society?
How may these potentials be attained?

The Tanglewood Declaration

The Tanglewood Symposium is summarized in the statement entitled "The Tanglewood Declaration," which provided a philosophical basis for future developments in music education. Of particular importance, the Declaration called for music to be placed in the core of the school curriculum.

a. Music serves best when its integrity as an art is maintained.
b. Music of all periods, styles, forms, and cultures belongs in the curriculum. The musical repertory should be expanded to involve music of our time in its rich variety, including currently popular teenage music and avant-garde music, American folk music, and the music of other cultures.
c. Schools and colleges should provide adequate time for music programs ranging from pre-school through adult or continuing education.
d. Instruction in the arts should be a general and important part of education in the senior high school.
e. Developments in educational technology, educational television, programmed instruction, and computer-assisted instruction should be applied to music study and research.
f. Greater emphasis should be placed on helping the individual student to fulfill his needs, goals, and potentials.
g. The music education profession must contribute its skills, proficiencies, and insights toward assisting in the solution of urgent social problems as in the “inner city” or other areas with culturally deprived individuals.
h. Programs of teacher education must be expanded and improved to provide music teachers who are specially equipped to teach high school courses in the history and literature of music, courses in the humanities and related arts, as well as teachers equipped to work with the very young, with adults, with the disadvantaged, and with the emotionally disturbed.

The Symposium

The Tanglewood Declaration

See also

Further reading