A Pedagogical and Psychological Challenge: Teaching Post-Tonal Music to Twenty-First-Century Students

Post-tonal music has a pr problem among young musicians, and many not-so-young ones. Anyone who has recently taught a course on the theory and analysis of post-tonal music to a general music student population mostly made up of performers, be it at the undergraduate or master’s level, will probably immediately understand what the title of this article refers to. For the most part, these students will have been minimally exposed to post-tonal music, if they have been exposed at all. They will perhaps be familiar with some music by Debussy and Ravel, some Stravinsky, perhaps other isolated composers, but even the music of Bartók is often strange to them. They have not listened to post-tonal music, neither have their friends. Allowing for possible rare exceptions, they have never performed it, neither have they heard their teachers perform it, much less assign it to them for study and performance. They are likely to never have been in an orchestra or wind ensemble that has performed post-tonal music. The little they know about it, often through hearsay, is that they don’t, or won’t, like it, that it’s different (translate as weird), incomprehensible, and not exactly pretty. In other words, we face a clear disconnect between post-tonal music and our present-day core students. So when we walk into that classroom ready to teach post-tonal theory and analysis for a semester, we need to be aware of their predisposition to not like that music, to not accept a lot of it, to question why they are supposed or meant (or made) to study it for a whole semester, or even to wonder what the purpose and point of such a futile exercise could be. In other words, we face a true pedagogical challenge, and if we have any chance at succeeding (which we do, and we want to), we also have to accept the fantastic psychological (and marketing) challenge we are embarking on to change the image of the product we are going to present to students.

This article will provide some suggestions to turn such a challenging classroom situation into one of discovery, acceptance, open learning, understanding, and yes, hopefully also fun. I will discuss the following twelve approaches to the pedagogy and organization of such a course: (1) focus on the music and the repertoire; (2) value of understanding the music through analysis; (3) value of understanding the historical and social contexts of artistic movements and styles; (4) preference for a roughly chronological organization; (5) avoiding the linear historiographic model; (6) broadening the repertoire; (7) introducing difficult theoretical topics with more easily accessible music; (8) addressing the multiplicity of styles in the second half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century; (9) the lack of a unified methodology; (10) the need to rely on existing theoretical and analytical scholarship; (11) the need to be aware of the interpretive and generative approaches to analysis; and (12) the importance of helping students enjoy the material and the music, and of having fun in the process of presenting it. These basic pedagogical principles can make a very positive difference not only in the learning experience of students, but also in their comprehension of post-tonal music by the time they leave the course.¹

1. 1. Focus on the music and the repertoire. I believe in repertoire-oriented courses in which the music is the main focus. Rather than teaching post-tonal theory and showing brief examples to illustrate our points, students will be much more interested and engaged if we study compositions, preferably complete pieces or large segments of larger pieces, and if we derive the theory, or the need for the theory, from our study of the music. Start from the music. Begin with what students can hear and figure out without the need of a theoretical apparatus. That would include, for instance, phrases, sections, form, texture, rhythm, pitch, or motivic structures. At some point you will get to something in the music that...