Music is Universal – Classroom Connections to the Performing Arts

For years, performing arts educators have promoted their programs to students and parents (and administrations) by noting that music is history, science, language, math, reading and – when performing it – physical education. Indeed, a student or adult participating in music, whether as a soloist or in an ensemble, is coming in contact with aspects of all of those aforementioned areas.

Rehearsing, composing, studying, reading, learning and performing music brings the musician in direct contact with the culture and history of the composition. Within that composition is the language used to title it and provide the performer with instructions on how to best represent the work. The music uses a notation system that follows strict rules and guidelines, based on mathematical formulas and exact timing. Each sound is a specific frequency coupled with a series of harmonics and overtones that gives it not only a specific pitch, but an identifiable timbre (sound quality). And the physical effort required to turn that notation in a complete sound requires the use of the entire body – brain included.

Given that every piece of music contains some or all of those components, connecting a school’s music program to courses taught in math, science, foreign language, history and reading would seem to be a logical step, and it would seem to be an easy one. Yet many music programs operate in a vacuum, disappearing into their rehearsal space for months at a time, only coming out into the light for performances and then doing so without any mention of other subject areas.

Promoting music by noting these connections, and then not reaching out to the teachers of those subjects to connect the dots, limits the true value and experience of the music to just the musicians. Even the audiences at music performances miss out on understanding and appreciating the music fully unless they are guided to a deeper level. Educational opportunities that relate well to all students should not be missed. Music is, after all, universal.

The connection to math in music can range from the meter or time signature of a piece, or the patterns in the length of phrases and organization of sections, to the use of strict mathematics in intervals, inversions and the precise organization of 12-tone music. Having a math class decipher the possible rhythms of different time signatures, analyze the measures in phrases, determine the meter in song lyrics (especially popular ones they know), or consider the math needed to determine intervals brings music out of the music room. Let the music students in the class explain meter or phrases to their classmates before the exercise begins, leading the class instead of just following instructions. Music is math.

The science of sound, acoustics, is already a part of many high school physics curriculums. Studying frequencies, overtones, harmonics, sound waves and resonance takes on a new dimension when those concepts are demonstrated live in class by student musicians. Sound produced by reeds, brass, string and percussion instruments all have characteristics that can enhance non-musicians understanding of the lessons being taught. Dissonance, harmony, intonation and perfect intervals are all easily brought to life by any instrument from a recorder to a tuba.

However, such studies are not limited to physics. Using music instruments to try and recreate the sounds made by animals and insects brings a new understanding of both how the sound is generated and what communication purpose they fulfill. Demonstrating the different resonances in various metals promotes discussion on why certain materials are used in different products, building materials and equipment. Applying different frequencies to liquids highlights not only their reaction to that sound, but how their different densities respond to outside stimulation. Music is science.

Composers wrote music for their time, to represent their feelings, wants and needs, to celebrate about or demonstrate against the events of their time. They did so using the tools they had available, using the performers of their generation, communicating with their contemporaries in the audience. Each piece is a snapshot of the time and place when it was composed, and a mirror on the emotions of the moment.

Connecting music to its historical era brings the human side of those events back to life. Music was written to please the royals in the 1700s, cheer up the troops in every way, mark the occasion of thousands of events and capture history as it happened from the beginning of time. Every chapter of every history textbook ever written can be represented in music, composed during that time or to renew it again. America’s history is alive in her songs, from Native American dances through William Billings and Stephen Foster to Billy Joel and DoJa Cat. Every country has its own music, infused with its cultural heritage, traditions and folklore. Music is history.

The language of music is the vernacular, words to match the common language of the composer and the audience. Chosen not only to provide understanding, the language is often intrinsic to the melody’s meter, phrasing and flow. Translating a song written in one language to another often either interrupts the song’s emphasis or changes its meaning and interpretation. Singing an Italian opera aria in English would have the same notes and the same general information, but would lack the nuances where the music and the phrase match the emotion being represented.

However, music carries more than just the words used as lyrics as each composer uses one of several languages to express their desires to the performer in the hopes that the piece will be performed as they would, forever. Often those ‘instructions’ involve several different languages as the composer searches for just the right word to use so that the performer will know. Italian, Latin, German, French, English and Spanish are all part of the many terms used in music to denote tempo, phrasing, dynamics (volume), character and approach. Music is language.

A musician physically reproduces what the written music represents. To do so, the musician needs to ‘read’ the music. That skill is not simply looking at a passage and understanding it, but involves a wide variety of comprehension skills simultaneously. And they must do so based on a strict count and often in conjunction with one to a hundred other individuals all doing the same thing, but creating a different representation.

Performing music requires advanced reading skills to not only understand the symbol, but to then turn it into a sound, shared at the right time, in the correct manner, while looking ahead to see what the next sound will be and when it will occur. It is physically involved reading. For non-musicians, it seems impossible at times that all of that can happen and appear to be effortless. The connection between music and reading goes beyond interpreting the lyrics (although that is a good start to make) to the musician becoming the music just as the composer intended. Music is reading.

The programming of music is a critical step for the music educator. The pieces in each student’s folder become the textbook the teacher will use until they are performed in concert. All of the skills they hope to teach or reinforce need to be represented in those documents. They need to be educational to the musician, not just more of the same. They also need to be enjoyable to rehearse and perform so that they are played to the best of their ability. And they need to be entertaining and appropriate for the intended audience, the supporters that make sure music remains a viable part of the school day for so many. But that does not mean that the programming cannot include pieces that support these types of connections. Compositions from Stravinsky that inspired the artwork of the artist Kandinsky; pieces written to musically represent great pieces of literature; music written in protest or celebration or simply to enjoy; songs written to convey the culture of the times for those that follow to enjoy.

When programming for their next concert, music educators should consider how those choices could touch more than just their musicians and audience members. And make choices for their entire school to connect to. Music is universal.

Steffen Parker is a retired music educator, event organizer, maple sugar maker, and Information Technology specialist from Vermont who serves as the Performing Arts/Technology representative on the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee.