ABSTRACT
Forty or so years ago, the music curriculum in Britain was built largely on musical appreciation and class singing, involving a mixture of mainly post-seventeenth-century Western classical music and settings of folk songs collected by early twentieth-century composers. Despite the existence of Orff instruments, in most schools instrumental tuition took place outside the classroom during extra-curricular time. Although some pupils studied rudiments, harmony and counterpoint, virtually no-one studied composition until they were in Higher Education. By contrast, as we enter the new millennium, teachers have become quite accustomed to incorporating all sorts of musical activities into the classroom, involving everyone in not only singing, but playing an array of instruments, composing and improvising as well as listening to a huge variety of musical styles including popular, folk and classical music from all over the world.
