Reflecting upon the relationship between people and music, the author is led to adopt a new position on musical education. His ideas are based on the work of the philosopher Hannah Arendt, the pedagogue and paediatrician, Janusz Korczak, and the composer R. Murray Schafer – all of whom focus upon the ‘dialogue’ of education. From Korczak is borrowed the idea of the child as ‘a present-state being’ rather than a ‘future-state being’; from Arendt the concepts of labour, work and action; and from Schafer his ‘Wolf Project’ for a musical community. On the basis of these three influences, the author advocates a ‘new manner of enacting music’ instead of ‘simply enacting new music’, basing pedagogic practice on a psycho-analytical approach to education. The pupil–teacher relationship turns on identification and projection. Teachers must nurture pupils' aesthetic choices and opinions as well as their commitment, so that ethical and aesthetic considerations can be brought together in the same musical act. Only in this way can musical education be worthwhile.