Musical Knowledge: Intuition, Analysis and Music Education

by Keith Swanwick

The understanding of music involves the mastery of its various layers of meaning. Sometimes this meaning can be acquired through human insight; at other times, it can be learned. The central concern of Musical Knowledge is the tension between intuitive and analytical ways of making sense of the world. Keith Swanwick examines this relationship on three in considering music as a way of knowing; as the apparent predicament between qualitative and quantitative research paradigms; and as a tension in education. Keith Swanwick guides his reader from a theoretical exploration of musical knowledge, through an examination of ways of researching the musical experience to a concluding section which will be of direct practical help to teachers. He suggests ways in which music education can be a vital transaction, giving examples across a range of music teaching, including school classroom and instrumental studios. The book will be of interest to anyone who makes or responds to music.

194 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1994

Reviews

[Alexander Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was up and down with this book. Swanwick's framework for musical knowledge didn't resonate with me reading from 30 years of research later but he makes a good presentation of how he gets there and how it could be used productively. His reasoning is good and his thinking is well presented in this book. There were lots of good and useful bits of thinking in this book. For me, much of his writing around around literacy/fluency and the foundations of music education as aural/intuitive progressing toward analytical thinking were evergreen points and were well expressed. I liked especially his lens for analysis as present in all experience as an element of meaning making. I didn't jive with his aesthetic/artistic terminology but the underlying idea of directionality and intention was one that I did like.