Creative and Critical Projects in Classroom Music, Fifty Years of Sound and Silence

Creative and Critical Projects in Classroom Music is both a celebration and extension of John Paynter and Peter Aston’s ground-breaking work on creative classroom music, Sound and Silence, first published in 1970.

Building on the central themes of the original work – the child as artist, the role of musical imagination and creativity, and the process of making music – the authors and contributors provide a contemporary response to the spirit and style of Sound and Silence. They offer reflections on the ideas and convictions underpinning Paynter and Aston’s work in light of scholarship developed during the intervening years. This critical work is accompanied by 16 creative classroom projects designed and enacted by contemporary practitioners, raising questions about the nature and function of music in education and society. In summary, this book aims to:

• Celebrate seminal work on musical creativity in the classroom.

• Promote the integration of practical, critical and analytical writing and thinking around this key theme for music education.

• Contribute to initiating the next 50 years of thought in relation to music creativity in the classroom.

Offering a unique combination of critical scholarship and practical application, and published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sound and Silence, themes from Paynter and Aston’s work are here given fresh context that aims to inspire a new generation of innovative classroom practice and to challenge current ways of thinking about the music classroom.

John Finney taught music in secondary schools in Southall, Worcester and Basingstoke before teaching at Reading University, Homerton College and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, where he led the postgraduate secondary course in music education. His publications include Music Education in England 1950–2010: The child-centred progressive tradition (2011) and (with Felicity Laurence) Masterclass in Music Education: Transforming teaching and learning (2013). His interest focuses on developing an ethical approach to music education found in the relationship between pupil, teacher and what is being learnt, constructing relational knowledge and a music education with ‘human interest’. John writes a blog Music Education Now.

Chris Philpott is a reader in music education at the University of Greenwich, London. Until recently he was dean and then deputy pro vice-chancellor in the university’s Faculty of Education and Health. Before moving to Greenwich he was a secondary music teacher for 16 years, with a musical background in the brass bands of East Kent, after which he became a teacher educator at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has written and edited books, articles, online texts and resources that are widely used in initial teacher education and academic music education programmes. He has also led UK government-funded projects in relation to ITE in music. In semi-retirement he cycles, plays cricket and walks.

Gary Spruce was a secondary school music teacher for 18 years before joining the Open University as subject leader for its music PGCE course. He is now subject leader for Birmingham City University’s PGCE music course and academic consultant at Trinity College, London. From 2007–2012 he was co-editor of the British Journal of Music Education. He has written and published widely on music education, particularly around the areas of teacher professional development, music education and social justice. He has presented papers at national and international conferences. He is a practising musician with a particular interest in music theatre.