Music education as a systematic and complex process of transmitting knowledge and skills, as well as cultivating mental, intellectual, and artistic abilities, referred to a specific cultural result of an apprenticeship system. Music is also inextricably linked with the cultural and national identity of individuals as it offers a sense of self within a social context. It symbolizes and offers an experience of collective, social, and cultural identity. This study, through the analysis of the pertinent literature in a descriptive way, will try to prove that the position of music must be fundamental in education and therefore in the formation of human personality. The main conclusion of the chapter is the significant importance of the expression of children through music, the ability to express their musicality with the help of his body and voice, the perception of the concepts of music, as well as the development of a positive image and attitude towards music.
TopIntroduction
According to Plato, “Education in music is an urgent need because more than anything in the world, rhythm and harmony affect the innermost part of ourselves and each of us must know how to curb it.” (Konstantinidis et al., 2006), while Rousseau in his work “Emil” stated that children's musical involvement should begin at a very young age, because it helps their psychological, emotional and social development. The use of music in general education has more of a moral than cognitive effect (Yudkin, 2008).
The multi-layered, multifaceted, continuous and broad function of music in society and especially in education is non-negotiable. In particular, school music education, through the development of various skills (listening, performance, composition, musical sense, etc.) aims at the comprehensive musical development of the child (Konstantinou, 2014).
According to Adorno, music plays an ideological role within the society (1996: 350). The 20th century British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in his book National Music praises the art of music as the supreme art form for expressing the soul of the nation (1934, as reported by Bohlman, 2011: 67). The musical work could be characterized as multifaceted, because the interpretations that the musical text is capable of are neither stable nor categorical. Despite its immediacy and emotional impact, music remains a fluid and controversial language, due to its non-representative character, its vague expressive content that on the one hand obscures the aesthetic and ideological intentions, but on the other hand is forged for the purposes of nationalist representation, for the sake of the plasticity of the musical text (Bohlman, 2011: 58).
The Goal of The Article
Through this article, which will be a narrative review of literature, we try to prove that the position of music must be fundamental in education and therefore in the formation of human personality. Going even deeper, we find that the relationship between music and education is strengthened by other related sciences such as music-motor education through which children experience through the body and its movement, the laws of music, metrics, speech or space (Zerva, 2004).
Particular reference in this article will be made to the important role that the music teacher plays in achieving the goals of music education. This is the main factor of music education which with its personality and training can determine the achievement or not of the desired goals. Music originates from man and must concern various aspects of his existence. It must therefore be related to what one learns and be nurtured by every other educational space. Only in this way will the inexhaustible possibilities of communication emerge, with the aim of upgrading education from a mere sum of specialties, to a space of initiation into the deepest sense of humanity.
Methodology
Τhe descriptive review to some extent follows the methodology of the systematic review but omitting certain stages and having a more narrative character. Bibliographic reviews are secondary publications and aim to present already published data in a consolidated way, in order to investigate an object from different perspectives, to compare and group the results of different researches and to highlight the specific issue in all its dimensions, according to international bibliography.
The descriptive review to some extent follows the methodology of the systematic review but omitting certain stages and having a more narrative character. In this article, we followed the method of descriptive review, searching on google scholar and google search about music education, music and nation, national identity, cultural identity. The articles found were summarized and checked for their relevance with the topic discussed, and then notes were taken in order to create the descriptive analysis of the articles.
Literature Review
The following paragraphs aim to assess the pertinent literature, as expressed in the methodological paragraph, with the use of the descriptive review method. The review will consist of analysis of theories referring to music and education, the relationship between music and national culture, and the role of music education.