PIANO AND THINKING: THE USAGE OF METHODS OF LIBERAL ARTS IN TEACHING MUSIC PERFORMANCE

The course on westernization of education is officially established in today’s Russia, which evidently is provoking resistance among many of its representatives, not the least in the field of music education. Notwithstanding precautious attitude to these pursuits, some scholars (including the author) still continue to initiate the research and introducing a number of Western educational methods and concepts, including the principles of liberal arts & sciences. This essay discusses the usage of numerous aspects of that theory and practice in the field of teaching music performance: namely, piano playing. This topic is neither present in Russian, nor in international scholarship so far. As several scholars show, music appears to be one of the fields of humanities which is perhaps the least subjective to the usage of techniques and methods of liberal arts by its definition. The most obvious reason for this lies in excessively long educational trajectory of musicians, which results in their low horizontal mobility and an isolation of the whole field. In contrast to all that, as this essay shows, the author has elaborated a course in teaching piano performance, which demonstrates inclusion of several foundational principles of liberal arts. For instance, these are an orientation to the development of thinking, skills for arguing and innovative techniques of interaction with music text (the scores). The students are supposed to reveal their emotional impressions of music compositions they listen to; they offer different concepts of their contents, the associations with other music styles and means of expression. Thus, the article aims at proving the applicability and usability of techniques of liberal education in music, including the example of this course.

liberal arts, piano, music performance, writing and thinking, music education, Smolny college, critical thinking, argumentation, music appreciation, class.

Orlov V. S. Piano and thinking: the usage of methods of liberal arts in teaching music performance. Business. Education. Law, 2021, no. 2, pp. 438—333. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2021.55.239.