Inventing Music: A Philosophical Pedagogy

by Edwardo Pérez

What do we teach when we teach music composition? What is the subject of music composition? How do we assess music composition? These are the questions composer/teacher Edwardo Perez contemplates as he outlines a philosophical pedagogy for music composition. Intellectually stimulating, yet easily accessible, Inventing Music is both a general textbook for teaching music composition and a philosophical treatise on the subject of music composition. Primarily aimed at college-level teaching, Inventing Music attempts to define the subject of music composition through four fundamental properties – shape, motion, force, and identity – which are then used to construct a general pedagogy for teaching music composition, a pedagogy that any composition teacher – elementary, high school, or college – can utilize with any student, regardless of the student’s interests and abilities. Accordingly (and perhaps surprisingly), no musical examples are given. This is by design, as the philosophical nature of Inventing Music is meant to stimulate the thinking process of teachers and students and not to indoctrinate them in some new system or style. By articulating a fundamental subject of music composition, Inventing Music recognizes the common language every style of music inherently possesses, and it encourages teachers and students to utilize this common language as a starting point for understanding the infinite varieties of music seen throughout history as well as to create those yet to be heard.

60 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published January 1, 2012