ABSTRACT
A philosophy should articulate a consistent and helpful statement about the nature and value of music and music education. The study of art as a "discipline," with primary attention given to the accumulation of information or the development of skills, is formalistic in flavor. Any aesthetic position to be used as a basis for a philosophy must be relevant to the society in which we live and to the general conditions under which American education operates. According to Socialist Realism, and for any referential theory of art, the key factor of value is the non-aesthetic goodness of the art work's "message." In addition to transmitting a specific emotion and doing it well, the quality of the art work also depends on the desirability of the particular emotion transmitted. Music educators and others concerned with the arts in the schools will recognize that referentialist assumptions are in operation in much that is done in the teaching of art.
