XVI Colloquium: July 12 - 19, 2005:
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
"Discourses and Practices of Hegemony, Power, and Exclusion in Music Education"

Music Education, Fascism and the "Musikant: Theodor W Adorno on Making Music
Alexandra Kertz-Welzel
University of Washington, Seattle

After World War II, the German philosopher Theodor W Adorno [1903-1969] was one of the key figures in the search for new approaches in German music education. At the core of his critique of German music education was the idea that music making is not a value in itself, but can be a means of ideology. Theodor Adorno was deeply concerned about the misuse of German music education during the Third Reich, a misuse that was to some extent a result of unquestioned music making and an idealistic philosophy of teaching. For Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), music education was one of the most important means to manipulate young people through active music making and intense musical experiences, which were linked to the National socialist ideology.

The ideal of the "Musikant," a musical amateur, who enjoys making easy music for the sake of escaping into a world of dreams, was one of the goals of German music education at this time. According to Adorno, making music and music education were highly ideological because they were misused for the National socialist ideology in terms of tranquilizing people through a "consonant" world of dreams and the experience of community. For Adorno, it was not possible to proclaim that making music and a lifelong involvement in music are the most important goals for music education anymore, because the misuse of music education during the Third Reich proved the weakness of this concept. A critique of the old dream that music is able to "humanize" people and to make the world a better place, particularly through making music, is essential for Adorno.

Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), and many other important figures of the Nazi era were music aficionados and amateur musicians, but this fact did not help them in becoming morally better human beings. For Adorno, idealistic dreams of making the world a better place through making music are impossible after Auschwitz. There must be critical reflection of what making music means in music education. According to Adorno, making music should be mindful and critical in order to learn from the experiences during the Third Reich.