This inquiry focused on the initial implementation of the National Curriculum for music in primary schools. The findings – from 39 schools in different parts of England – indicate that although some teachers are confident about introducing the new curriculum, many perceive problems implementing the programme as presently formulated. In particular there is a reluctance to teach music history and notation to the extent specified and concern is expressed by class teachers over their ability to cope with all the requirements. Successful implementation wold seem to depend on the presence of supportive head teachers, proactive subject coordinators and appropriate INSET programmes.

On Monday and Tuesday July 4 and 5,1994, a national conference was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, concurrently with the annual National Festival of Music for Youth. Organised jointly by Music for Youth and the newly renamed Music Education Council, and supported by the Times Educational Supplement, it aimed to address questions of support and provision for music education and the maintenance of quality in music education in the light of changing national structural and funding circumstances in the UK. This report outlines the platform speakers' contributions in precis form, together with an overview of the emerging themes and issues identified during both presentations and question/discussion sessions.

The increasing interest in children and young people as composers, as evidenced by the growing literature on the subject in recent years, has tended to overlook at least one important aspect of young composers' development: their sense of tonal thinking, its emergence and consolidation. This article traces these characteristics through the compositions of one boy, showing how he ‘progressed’ from pre-tonal operations to fully-established tonal procedures. The discussion of his development is deliberately limited to the examination of harmonic thinking, which manifests itself before long(er)-range tonal planning (in the form of tonality or key schemes) becomes a focus of concern.

Teachers describe work with pupils aged 10 to 15 which explores the connection between listening, appraising and composing and other aspects of listening as a learning process. These case studies provide evidence of how a group of Berkshire teachers make connections that were envisaged by the architects of the National Curriculum but not necessarily encountered in practice.

The teaching of musical notation is now a legal requirement of the National Curriculum for music in England and Wales. Far from settling the debate over the desirability, or otherwise, of teaching notation, this aspect of the legislation seems to make a review of the problem imperative.

This article examines theories of music as a language analogous to the spoken or written word, and then considers the practical and sociological arguments for and against the teaching of staff notation.

During the academic year 1992–93 HM Inspectors of Schools (HMI) inspected 1208 class music lessons in maintained schools in England. These included almost 400 lessons attended by pupils in their first, third or seventh year of statutory schooling, that is pupils to whom the National Curriculum applies. HMI found a wide range in the quality of the practice in both primary and secondary schools. However, the proportion of lessons which HMI judged to be satisfactory or better in at least one of three important dimensions was substantially higher in primary schools. Primary class teachers often under-rated the quality of their music teaching. Some principles for developing good practice were identified.

Recent teaching with PGCE secondary music students has revealed that conducting ensembles is a musical activity in which they have variable knowledge, skills and experience. It is a general expectation, nevertheless, that music teachers still conduct choral and instrumental ensembles as part of their job in schools, and some may also undertake such roles in the wider community. This paper seeks to identify from research literature aspects of effective conducting that warrant greater attention. This forms part of a research project which is exploring definitions of effective conducting and making an analysis and case for more structured teaching in this area within higher education.

Music curriculum courses for generalist primary and early childhood teacher education students have tended traditionally to be heavily skill-intensive and instruction-based and reflective of the pedagogical methods of prominent music educators. In such learning experiences emphasis is generally placed upon the acquisition of skills dealing with notational and historical precedents and the development of some expertise in the areas of singing, playing and listening. Whilst these experiences provide students with valuable insights into traditional music education pedagogy, students who have a limited formal knowledge of music and who do not consider themselves to be musically articulate or literate frequently find such experiences alienating. Furthermore the teaching practices modelled through such programs tend to conflict with those advocated in other curriculum areas.

In an attempt to redress this situation an action research study was undertaken in which compulsory music curriculum units for generalist primary and early childhood teacher education students were re-developed to place compositional experience at the heart of the music education enterprise. In developing a theoretical and philosophical base for the pre-service music education units a number of educational strategies common in other curriculum areas were examined and adapted for use in the music education classroom.

Qualitative evaluation of the units has indicated that participating students whilst developing skills and knowledge in music and understanding of a range of teaching and learning strategies also perceive themselves to be more capable and confident as musicians.

In this article, I discuss the importance of movement in music education and suggest an effective way to approach this particular area of music teaching for younger children. The most important characteristics of movement to music activity in musical experience would seem to be in the role of developing in the mind of the participants ‘music schemata’, an active, developing organization of past responses to music which play a vital role when we listen to music and comprehend its expressive character. This hypothesis was tested in the teaching-experiment which was carried out in an English primary school and a Japanese primary school with the children of 7 to 8 years of age.

The effects of London Sinfonietta education projects on their participants are identified and analysed, through questionnaire and interview, and then measured against London Sinfonietta policy itself. To a great extent the aims of the policy are being met: the work is found to be an enjoyable and valuable experience leading towards an understanding of contemporary art music. Some problems identified concern the integration of the teachers, appropriate training for the players and composers, and the elitism of the concert hall. The fieldwork was undertaken with the kind co-operation of the London Sinfonietta education team and the schools involved.

The perceived benefits of graded examinations are compared with the actual benefits that they bring and are then weighed against the more general and widely accepted desirable outcomes of musical education in Great Britain. The syllabus of a typical graded examination is analysed in some detail and the conclusions drawn suggest that the time-honoured format of graded examinations serves only some of the musical needs of pupils. Some radical suggestions for up-dating examinations are discussed.

This article is based on some of the materials prepared for the certificate course: Music Teaching in Private Practice to be mounted by the University of Reading Department of Arts and Humanities in Education in collaboration with the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

This article reports an exploratory study into applied music teaching at a tertiary level. The study was staged as a case study where the case comprises one performance lecturer of clarinet and eight of her students. The focus of the study is how a performance teacher with no formal teacher training fares in the training of musical performers, how students respond, and what are the particular successful or unsuccessful issues in ‘commonsense teaching’. The data were gathered through participant observation and questionnaires. The findings suggest that the distinction between the role of the pedagogue (skilled in the dynamics and principles of teaching and learning) and the role of the expert performer (skilled mainly in the domain of performance) is an essential distinction to make. However, it is also a distinction that traditional performance teaching at a tertiary level seldom makes. The article concludes by tentatively proposing some pedagogical considerations for applied music teaching, as drawn from the case study.

The longstanding debate within Islam about the legitimacy of performing and listening to music is now being heard within the British Muslim community, and some parents are expressing misgivings about the compulsory status of music within the National Curriculum. The paper explores the diversity of Muslim attitudes towards music and argues that teachers in Britain have a responsibility to respond to Muslim sensitivities as far as possible.

The image of change, as witnessed in the process of metamorphosis, emphasises the importance of an approach to music education which is not confined to the development of skills without placing these in the context of a holistic creative framework. The theme of structuring a music education curriculum within such a creative framework is not new; however, while national and more local directives on education (in Britain and abroad) continue to emphasise a ‘knowledge-skills’ basis to learning, it remains necessary to draw attention to the long-term purpose of education and the position of knowledge and skills within an individual's understanding and creative development. The issue explored in this article is not one of ‘either/or’, but rather that of perception and emphasis.

Structurally the article reflects the development of a butterfly, with an increasing emphasis on creativity towards the final section of the paper. In addition the rondo structure of Smetana's Vltava contributes to the structural framework of the article – broadly in terms of the progress of a river from source to end, as well as at the particular level: for example, in the area of duality and balance of such elements as the cold and warm streams, and the two main scenes (day and night) through which the river passes. In this article, the two concepts of creativity and integration are combined within a creative structure, just as the elements of Smetana's composition are imaginatively and creatively integrated. The sub-title of the article places the themes of creativity and integration within a European framework, where ongoing attempts at political, economic and social bonding are reflected in the need to establish a currency of educational approaches to enable professional interaction and mobility to develop.

‘Creative music-making’, as developed in recent years in Great Britain and other countries, has also become popular in Japanese music education; for many music teachers have come to think seriously about the significance of child-centred music education instead of teacher-centred music education. Such a trend seems to be new. However, as in the United States and Great Britain, child-centred music education has been implemented previously – during the 1920's, in Japan's case. This development began in the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women's Higher Teachers College. The author describes the ideas and practices of creative music education in this school, and its historical background, comparing them with creative music-making today.