How Can an International Art Form—Classical Music—Still be Wearing European White Wigs and Buckled-Toe Shoes?”

Dena K. Jones, UTEP

Abstract

Selected Presenter at the Third International Conference on Education, Labor and Emancipation (CONFELE). Living and working in a bicultural region led me to investigate my own “traditional” upbringing of classical music and music education and how some of those approaches do not work at my current institution. These thoughts were presented at the CONFELE conference in a lecture entitled, “How Can an International Art Form—Classical Music—Still be Wearing European White Wigs and Buckled-Toe Shoes?” Topics covered in the lecture included the dissemination of Central and South American composers and their works, the UTEP Department of Music’s student demographic, differences in pedagogical approach (for example, Mexico has a strong aural tradition, whereas the U.S. has a strong visual tradition in regard to music education), and I also demonstrated musical examples used when teaching, pairing musical works by Frédéric Chopin and Manuel Ponce, as well as Aaron Copland and Silvestre Revueltas. As international faculty traveled from Spain, England, Canada and Brazil to UTEP to offer innumerable theoretical perspectives, I gained great insight as to how other scholars relate to some of these very same issues.