Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy of Music Education Review 12.1 (2004) 1-3 [Access article in PDF] Editorial In the introduction to his edited collection, The Creative Process: A Symposium, published a half century ago, Brewster Ghiselin points to the important role of emotion in creative thought and practice. Mathematicians, scientists, musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, novelists, psychologists, and philosophers alike attest to the passionate and felt aspects of creativity, its imaginative, intuitive, rational, and critical aspects, seemingly unconscious and conscious intellection, purposeful and unexpected character, and sometimes stressful and rhapsodic effort involved in the creative process. In the writings of Ghiselin and his fellows, one encounters what Israel Scheffler and Iris Yob respectively call the cognitive emotions and emotional cognitions, Donald Schön characterizes reflection before, in the midst of, and after action, and Susanne Langer denotes feeling-thought, emotion, and bodily sensation as the creative process unfolds. As I write, the emotive quality of creative thought is exemplified in the scenes of jubilation on the occasion of the rover Spirit's landing on Mars. I also recall in my mind's eye similar shouts of jubilation on the successful completion of a choral concert of challenging repertoire by young high school students. Irrespective of the particular things that are being thought or made, it seems that the creative process is sometimes associated with strong emotional states. And it is natural for music educators to be interested in the particular role that the emotions play in musical experience and the specific affective states toward which music education should point.A host of problems and possibilities are evoked by normative questions relating to music and the emotions. Among these questions, Should music education fundamentally be a matter of developing particular emotions respecting particular musics? Who should determine what these emotional states ought to be? Is [End Page 1] a music education that is focused on emotional ends too narrow? How should emotions, thoughts, and bodily involvements in music be interrelated in musical thought and practice? Since some music seems designed more for intellectual contemplation than emotional expression or physical arousal, what should be the stance of music education policy makers toward these value differences (and the associated disjunction and alienation between various musical publics)?Why are questions having to do with emotion, music, and education important in our time? I see the threads of at least three reasons that go to the heart of the philosophical enterprise. First, much vernacular music is designed primarily for emotional appeal and physical response and the philosopher asks if this is an altogether good state of affairs, and whether music teachers should also promote thinking about music and intellectual approaches to it. Second, a back-to-basics approach to education, particularly in the United States, has devalued the emotions as means of knowing (and music since it has to do with the emotions), and a philosopher inquires if subjects such as music are needed in the general education curriculum precisely because of their emotional, physical, as well as intellectual appeal. Third, in today's manifestly multi-cultural societies where music constitutes a basis for personal and collective identity, a philosopher asks how music teaching and learning might be approached to forge a better understanding of various cultures and relations among and between them.The Philosophy of Music Education International Symposium V held at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.A., 4-7 June, 2003, provided an opportunity for music educators and others interested in their work to address some of these questions. Special thanks are due to Iris Yob and Frank Heuser, program co-chairs, and Deanne Bogdan, Charlene Morton, and Paul Woodford, members of the program committee, for their efforts in developing an outstanding program, and to Forest Hansen for his work in arranging for the symposium site. One of the most international gatherings of those interested in the philosophy of music education in recent decades, the symposium generated several important themes. Importantly, this symposium spawned the creation of the International Society for the Philosophy of Music Education (Estelle Jorgensen, U.S.A., and Frede Nielsen, Denmark, co-chairs), an historic event that evidences the growing...