Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity, Diversity, and Integration

Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity, Diversity, Integration takes prevailing discourse about change in music studies to new vistas, as higher education institutions are at a critical moment of determining just what professional musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life. The authors examine how music studies might be redefined through the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration. which are the three pillars of the recent report of The College Music Society taskforce calling for reform.

Focus is on new conceptions for existent areas―such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic history and theory, theory and culture courses, and music education coursework―but also on an exploration of music and human learning, and an understanding of how organizational change happens. Examination of progressive programs will celebrate strides in the direction of the task force vision, as well as extend a critical eye distinguishing between premature proclamations of “mission accomplished” and genuine transformation. The overarching theme is that a foundational, systemic overhaul has the capacity to entirely revitalize the European classical tradition. Practical steps applicable to wide-ranging institutions are considered―from small liberal arts colleges, to conservatory programs, large research universities, and regional state universities.

EDWARD W. SARATH is Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, Director/Founder of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies, and President/Founder of the International Society for Improvised Music. Active as artist and scholar, his previous book―Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: Jazz as Integral Template for Music, Education, and Society―is the first to appropriate to music principles of an emergent worldview called Integral Theory.

DAVID E. MYERS is Professor of Music Education and Creative Studies in the School of Music at the University of Minnesota, where he served as the school’s director from 2008-2015, and an administrative consultant for music at Augsburg College. He founded the Center for Educational Partnerships in Music at Georgia State University and is the American consultant for a joint European Master of Music degree for New Audiences and Innovative Practice.

PATRICIA SHEHAN CAMPBELL is Donald E. Peterson Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where she teaches courses at the interface of education and ethnomusicology. She is chair of the Advisory Board of Smithsonian Folkways and consultant in repatriation efforts for the recordings of Alan Lomax to communities in the American South. Author of Teaching Music Globally, Music in Cultural Context and Musician and Teacher, she is recipient of the international Taiji Award for the preservation of traditional music.