ABSTRACT
Paynter and Aston's approach readily embraced the idea of music as being of society and culture: it was about a broadening of the mind and much more than a musical training, and focused on the belief that all children possessed the capacity to be as artists able to respond to the world around them and make art in response. Like Witkin and Ross they readily embraced the idea of an education through the arts starting with the individual, and for a music education to be centred on the child's perceptions and insights. Music teachers were encouraged to experiment and Sound and Silence provided support with ways offered through which pupils could find a reason for making music. Paynter's ideas crystallized during the 1960s, first as a teacher-educator at a College of Education in the south of England, and then in the music department of York University.
