On Excellence in Music Education

Abstract

The standards of performance in music that we have become accustomed to expect in our day are extraordinarily high. Considering that these are achieved by professionals only after intensive and prolonged training, why should music teachers, dealing with amateurs, aspire to an excellence that is so far out of reach? Would it not be realistic to settle for more modest results? Jorgensen first examines the problem of standards, finding that on each of four considerations of standard there can be both an absolutist and a relativist position, a state of affairs that leaves one with a somewhat general definition of what it is that must be excelled in order to achieve excellence. She then evolves five principles concerning the working of excellence in music education, and points to the strongly inspirational effect it has both on student and on teacher - an effect that is peculiarly achievable in music, but that clearly is equally desirable in any subject.