On ‘Listening’ in Music Education Brian Loane

Abstract

The article suggests that ‘Composing / Performing / Listening’ may be an inadequate way to categorise musical activities, particularly because any musical activity is a sort of listening. There is a discussion of the educationally crucial difference between ‘audience-listening’ on the one hand, and ‘composition-listening’ and ‘performance-listening’ on the other. It is suggested that musical experience is itself thinking embodied in sound, and that explicit ‘analysis-of-listening’ plays a supportive role.In this light, the article proposes an alternative way to categorise musical activities, and indicates some possible conclusions for the curriculum and for assessment.