On Hating Classical Music in Music Education

Abstract

The second section of this volume shifts the focus to the relations between particular kinds of music and hate, as Alexandra Kertz-Welzel opens with a provocation for music education philosophy and practice. She argues that recent developments in music education that position classical music in opposition to students’ lives and the oversimplified transformative ideals of teaching and learning are misguided if not damaging. Through an analysis of the underlying epistemological foundations of this ‘hatred of classical music’ and the essentialised meanings assigned to classical music in schools, she challenges common conceptions of classical music as elitist, morally superior, and having little connection to young people’s out-of-school lives, and argues for a conceptualisation of classical music as part of broader musical diversity. Through a more critical engagement with the discourses on different kinds of music and their meanings, Kertz-Welzel envisions a more informed approach to understanding music’s purpose and power in globalised education contexts.