Music and the Allied Arts--Introduction

Music and the Allied Arts--Introduction

            The Christian music educator has a responsibility to consider which of the other arts to connect music.  Number eight of the Voluntary National Standards for Music Education is, “understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.”  This standard often proves somewhat problematic to some Christian music educators.  What does one do with dance, cinema, drama, photography, visual arts and the decorative arts? Certainly, dance and cinema have the most perplexing problems for the Christian musician but connecting music to the other fine arts is also often fraught with problems. The Christian educator must always remember to keep every educational endeavor Christian. What is taught in the music classroom will have long lasting consequences.        

            Christian music educators often feel overwhelmed with the responsibilities of teaching music.  Since the enrollment of many Christian schools is so fluid, and since so many of the new students have not had general music as a part of their previous education, music educators in the Christian school find it difficult to progress through a curriculum spiral sequence presented in a current music series, let alone engaging in educational connection of music to the other fine arts.  With an already overloaded teaching schedule and the primary responsibility of teaching music literacy to all of the students in their general music program, and the performance pressure placed on their performing organizations, Christian music educator need to have philosophical justifications for adding allying the other fine arts to their academic praxis.