As we discovered earlier, music results from vibrations which cause sound, and, by my definition, music is simply sound whether organized or not. While we may prefer a certain systematized organization of sound for our music, and we may find aesthetic beauty in melody and harmony, it doesn't change the fact that all sound is music in one form or another. Since sound exists in nature and is further expanded by humans, it cannot be, nor would we want it to be, obliterated. It, then, becomes a human need by virtue of its omnipresence in the world.
But the question arises, how valid is the study of music for the school curriculum? To answer this requires an examination of what education is and how subjects are selected for further study.
The process of educating is to supply the necessary tools for improvement of life's situation. Education, in a nutshell, is moving from the known to the unknown and from the concrete to the abstract. We use a variety of experiences to teach people something new and special that will give them the knowledge for reaching beyond the obvious to the sublime. In the case of math, we begin simply with concrete examples--we all remember adding and subtracting apples--to multiplication and onward to calculus and further. Someone recognized the need for mathematical knowledge for improvement of the quality of life. So the study of math becomes a standard subject in schools and for the educational process. While discussion continues over how to teach math and how much is needed, little discussion takes place over its worth in the curriculum. The difference is that math (although advanced math is flexible and creative) is quantifiable. It is easily assessed and easily measured. It is black and white, right or wrong, and objective.
While curriculum in schools tends to be reactive to societal trends (take the recent position in obesity studies at a major university as an example), there are some subjects that remain timeless and always required such as English, History, and basic Science. Knowledge of these subjects is expected and will not change. These subjects are necessary and valuable in educating the whole person, and therefore are needed in the curriculum at all ages. Like music, these subjects cannot be abolished and they exist in the world in a multitude of forms. They are a human need.
But what makes the subject of Music different from Math or English? Is it the subjectivity or cross-disciplinary traits of music--since music involves some math, science, history, and language--or is it the aptitude factor that is admirable but equally frightening? Meaning that we wonder how it is that some seem to have a greater aptitude or talent level than others in regard to music? While an interest in history can propel and hasten a person to a comprehensive level that seems unusually gifted, it is still the interest not the aptitude that led to the knowledge.
Music, however, requires interest, knowledge, and unfortunately for the discipline, at least to an extent, aptitude. At this point, one could and should argue that aptitude without interest leads to limited results and that interest in music without aptitude is a prescription for mediocrity (although, in my mind, mediocre music making is preferable over no music making, and in fact, is why music is the discipline for everyone), although mediocrity is a subjective judgment at best. Music, as a subject may suffer from the odd psychological difficulty of understanding how and why some are talented and others are not. Since we have trouble academically describing talent, and have trouble applying scholarship to aptitude, it becomes easier to simply reject it. Further adding to this challenge is that there are countless examples of unusual aptitude without any kind of formal training. This then brings to mind the talent question--is talented educated or natural? But that is an off-shoot discussion for another time.
The question to be answered is why does music jockey for position in the curriculum when other subjects do not? Because ultimately, no matter how much objectivity we may apply to the study of music, the end result moves from the cognitive to the emotional. This makes music's benefits primarily intrinsic and difficult to measure. Does this truth then demand music's extraction from the educational process or does it prove its inherent worth? Let's discuss this further in the next section.
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