The role of music theory in professional music education, a historic overview

Patrick van Deurzen

Preface

In 2017-2018 I did a research on the role of music theory in professional music education, facilitated by the Royal Conservatoire The Hague.[1] During this year, I was primarily busy with a literature survey, since my knowledge of the history of music theory was rather one-sided. I knew about the relevant steps for the development of music-theoretical thinking, as explained in historical treatises and more recent books, e.g. “Van Aristoxenos tot Stockhausen”[2]. However, I was quite unaware of the role of music theory from the earliest conservatories onwards. Over the past years I did get some clues about this, but never had time to investigate it more closely. I was inspired by the discoveries of partimento-playing by researchers like Sanguinetti, who gave an interesting glimpse of the education at the earliest Italian Conservatoires.

Secondly, I tried to connect some of my findings regarding the role of the amateur musician in relation to professional music, to an artistic project. This project involved a commission to compose a new work for a society of amateur musicians. This project resulted in ten new chamber music works, called Songs & Dances, and was premiered on October 23th 2018 in Rotterdam.[3]

This text only addresses the first part of my research. It offers an overview, which is not complete yet, of the role of music theory in professional music education, as I interpret it from the books I have read. It remains clearly a work in progress. The things I discovered, raised more questions instead of giving me answers, and made me clear that it is a multi-faceted subject, which needs more research. I consider this text to be a preliminary study, pointing out relations between the history of music theory and current issues in music theoretical education, as well as mapping areas of lacking knowledge and a related potential research field.  

In the introduction I problematize the growing gap between music theory books and the development of music since the second half of the 19th century. In the next three chapters, I discuss three possible aspects that have a relation with this problem. In the last, fourth chapter, I make a start with describing music theoretical training that has no origin in a compositional practice. I end with a Coda, in which I summarize the findings of this research, how to proceed and what aspects I would like to change in the current curriculum of a conservatoire.

The role of music theory in professional music education, a historic overview

Preface

In 2017-2018 I did a research on the role of music theory in professional music education, facilitated by the Royal Conservatoire The Hague.[1]During this year, I was primarily busy with a literature survey, since my knowledge of the history of music theory was rather one-sided. I knew about the relevant steps for the development of music-theoretical thinking, as explained in historical treatises and more recent books, e.g. “Van Aristoxenos tot Stockhausen”[2]. However, I was quite unaware of the role of music theory from the earliest conservatories onwards. Over the past years I did get some clues about this, but never had time to investigate it more closely. I was inspired by the discoveries of partimento-playing by researchers like Sanguinetti, who gave an interesting glimpse of the education at the earliest Italian Conservatoires.

Secondly, I tried to connect some of my findings regarding the role of the amateur musician in relation to professional music, to an artistic project that involved a commission to compose a new work for a society of amateur musicians. This project resulted in ten new chamber music works, called Songs & Dances, and was premiered on October 23th 2018 in Rotterdam.[3]

This text only addresses the first part of my research. It offers an overview, which is not complete yet, of the role of music theory in professional music education, as I interpret it from the books I have read. It remains clearly a work in progress. The things I discovered, raised more questions instead of giving me answers, and made me clear that it is a multi-faceted subject, which needs more research. I consider this text to be a preliminary study, pointing out relations between the history of music theory and current issues in music theoretical education, as well as mapping areas of lacking knowledge and a related potential research field.