ABSTRACT
Sound and Silence represented, at the time of its writing, a challenge to traditional conceptions of the purposes and aims of classroom music education, arguing for musical classrooms where all children are supported in creative music making. This chapter seeks to revisit this paradigmatic shift from a contemporary perspective and at a time when such ideals are under sustained critique. Drawing on the concepts of dialogism and participatory creativity, it will explore ways in which the spirit and intent of Sound and Silence might be reimagined for contemporary music classrooms. The chapter is predicated on a belief that all classroom interactions are underpinned by pedagogical relationships, defined here as the interrelationship of the roles of ‘teacher’, ‘learner’ and ‘musical knowledge’, and that the ways in which pedagogical relationships are conceived and enacted directly impact on the extent to which the music education children experience can be described as one that is socially just.
