Volume 1, No. 1 September 2003

HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION
AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF KANT,
SPENGLER, AND FOUCAULT

 George N. Heller
The University of Kansas

gheller@mail.com

Abstract

This essay examines historical research in music education in connection with historiography and the writing of history, using the works of three exemplary writers recently reviewed in book-length studies. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) representing classic, enlightenment philosophy as it pertains to historiography was primarily a philosopher who wrote tangentially on history. Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), a modernist German historian and philosopher famous for his pessimistic tome, The Decline of the West (1924-26), was primarily a historian with an interest in philosophy. Michel Foucault (1926-1984), who stated the case for post-modern historiography from a French perspective, seems to have been interested in history and philosophy more or less equally. Each of these three had important things to say to music education historians about the nature of history itself. All three addressed fundamental questions on the nature and value of history: What is it? What good is it? Twenty-first century commentators have made interesting applications of their ideas to present concerns of historians in general, which music education historians may well extrapolate to their own concerns.

Article and Footnotes

About the Author

George N. Heller earned bachelor’s (1963), master’s (1969), and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in music education from the University of Michigan. He was a private piano instructor and organist and choir director, and he taught vocal, instrumental, and general music in Michigan public schools, 1963-66, and 1971-73. From 1966 to 1968, Heller was in the U. S. Army Bands at Ft. Sheridan, Illinois, and Heidelberg, Germany, where he served as tuba soloist, assistant conductor, and staff arranger.

Heller was a teaching fellow in music at the University of Michigan and an instructor in music at Eastern Michigan University prior to joining the faculty at the University of Kansas in 1973. He has been a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1985-86, summer 1998, and summer 2000), the University of Washington (summer 1994), and the University of Miami (spring 2001, spring 2002). Heller retired from the University of Kansas in May 2002.

Dr. Heller’s special interests include secondary general music methods, world music, and the history of music education. He has published over one hundred articles and book chapters on these topics and has contributed twenty-two articles on music education to The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986). Heller is the author of Ensemble Music for Wind and Percussion Instruments (1970), Historical Research in Music Education: A Bibliography (three editions: 1985, 1992, and 1995), Music and Music Education History: A Chronology (three editions: 1991, 1993, and 1996), and Charles Leonhard: American Music Educator (1995).

Professor Heller was the first national chair of the History Special Research Interest Group of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and was the founding editor of The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education (1980-99). He was the music education area advisor for The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986). Heller remains active in the music education profession as both a researcher and writer, and he continues to serve in professional organizations. He is on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Music Teacher Education of the MENC and is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. In February, 2003, the Kansas Music Educators Association inducted Heller into its Hall of Fame.