ABSTRACT
This Afterword to Higher Music Education in the 21st Century draws out and critiques a number of key themes that emerge from the other contributions to the book. It revolves around a series of tensions that result from the conflicting expectations of music education in a changing world and the values that inform it: between music as a canonic repertory and a commitment to pluralism; between the acquisition of defined skills and personal development; between the neo-liberal university and the learning community; between real-world deliverability and the utopian values of which music is an expression. The chapter concludes by questioning the viability in today’s world of the idea of a core curriculum that defines musical graduateness: the logical consequence of an extreme diversity in musical practices is a corresponding degree of diversity in higher music education.
