| Summary: | This dissertation presents a philosophical examination of an
important question in music education: What does it mean to
understand the music of our own culture or the music of another
culture? It begins with a conceptual analysis of understanding,
an analysis that reveals understanding has many different senses
and that it involves a multidimensional range of considerations.
The work presents an overview, summary, and analysis of various
arguments, from both the Western and cross-cultural perspective,
concerning what understanding music means. The literature and the
arguments from the cross-cultural perspective are situated in the
important debate of whether there are generic musical
characteristics that can help us understand the music of non-
Western cultures, characteristics shared by Western music, or if
we can only understand the music of each culture based in the
study of that culture. I argue that there has been an artificial
"gap" created between understanding Western art music and
understanding the music of other cultures. Based on my analysis
of understanding, and the issues raised by the literature, I
present a multidimensional and interrelated set of factors
involved in understanding music cross-culturally. These factors
are: elements (including expressive elements), concepts,
terminology, internal/external musical context/structure,
culture, listening, hearing, performing, and personal
experiences, among others. This range of considerations is supported by philosophical literature on the general nature of
understanding and attempts to resolve the tension between
understanding music through generic concepts and understanding
music through culture. The important point of the
multidimensional nature of understanding for music education is
that levels of sophistication of understanding are suggested and
that moving from a less sophisticated to a more sophisticated
level of understanding music should be a major aim of music
education. Finally, I consider the educational implications of my
range of considerations. Teaching for understanding music crossculturally
involves both "top down" (teaching music through
concepts) and "bottom up" (teaching music through culture)
approaches. It also includes all the ways in which we engage
ourselves with music: listening, performing, composing,
improvising, and reading. === Education, Faculty of === Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of === Graduate
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