The Musical Experience is dedicated to the memory of Bennett Reimer (1932-2013). Reimer's most major achievement, set out in the three editions of A Philosophy of Music Education and the many articles that expanded on this book, was to give the school music education community, especially in the USA, a coherent and well-grounded rationale for teaching. Grounded in part in Suzanne Langer's work on the nature of music, and assisted by the unparalleled success of the Silver Burdett books that he helped to edit, Reimer's argument for music education as aesthetic education inspired general school music for at least two decades. British readers unfamiliar with Reimer's work might imagine the philosophy of Keith Swanwick and the practical curriculum making of John Paynter, together with an inspiring Primary specialist - Jo Glover, say - rolled into one. Reimer's voice was by no means the only one that mattered, and he certainly had his detractors, but it was a considerable one, difficult to ignore.

Inevitably, Reimer's influence came under attack and waned. Although he argued that aesthetic experiences were basically very ordinary and open to all, and although he similarly insisted that excellent music was to be found in every genre, ‘music education as aesthetic education’ went the way of many essentialist theories. Notions of aesthetics did not fit comfortably with either the relativist swing in education (with an insistence on the plurality of musics) nor the standards movement which followed it.

So this, more recent, text provides an opportunity to survey North American thinking about music education, post-Reimer. Nineteen scholars, from Idaho to Florida, from Maine to California, have contributed to ‘a dynamic conversation about artistic values and visions and the nature of well-informed teaching and learning’ (p. 1). In contrast to Reimer, whose philosophy was built explicitly on an account of the nature of music and the relationship between music and human beings, several alternative foundations can be seen.

Probably the most consistent theme in the book is that music education should be founded on the preferences and needs of students; that is, music education should serve students and as far as possible be directed by them. Four of the book's chapters are given over to discussions of the role of the conductor as leader, and how conductors can sometimes deny their students space to make their own musical decisions. Kate Fitzpatrick points out that conductors often teach their students that they are intolerant of mistakes and states, ‘we commonly squelch our students' creativity from the podium. . . by taking a short-term view of success within our ensembles’ (p. 212). Each of these chapters suggests giving students more autonomy within performance ensembles, developing their imagination and creativity, perhaps with the conductor assuming a role which Ramona Wis conceptualizes as a ‘Servant Leader’ and Margaret Berg describes as, a ‘conductor-educator’.

Discussing listening to music, Rob Dunn argues that listening within music lessons is usually very different from listening to music in life beyond the school, for both children and adults, and he proposes several ways in which the gap between these experiences might be bridged. Jody Kerchner takes up one aspect of this theme, providing detailed examples of how children map their experiences of music, graphically. Discussing teaching composing, Janice Smith remarks, ‘Composing should be done with students, not to them. The teacher is a coach and a guide, the teacher should not be the one in charge of the emerging composition’ (p. 150). In a similar vein, David Williams argues that, in order for music education to be more ‘relevant and meaningful’, students should have more autonomy, class sizes should be smaller, musical instruments, styles and genres should be more varied, and so on.

For others, the music curriculum would be better if it were conceived as part of the broader educational project. For example, Catherine Larsen makes a case for music within an arts curriculum in urban schools, involving collaborative ventures between teachers of different arts and between schools, universities and cultural organisations. Valerie Peters explores some of the complex problems around teaching ‘world music’ and demonstrates that ‘students can learn deeply about themselves and others through engaging with local music cultures using the tools of anthropology and ethnography’. Hers is a sensitive and informed theoretical position that values depth over breadth and personal experience of music and musicians, over encounters with recorded music.

For me, the chapter with the most potential for rethinking music education is Paul Woodford's. He positions music education within an increasingly neoliberal hegemony, arguing that corporate interests, the music industry and Anglo-American governments are complicit in a policy of infantilizing children and young people so that they see music education in terms of providing the entertainers and consumers of the future, rather than helping them to become socially and politically aware. He states,

Instead, he argues, music education should teach children, ‘to distinguish fact from fantasy and to identify and decipher the ideologies and political forces at play in the world’ (p. 35). His chapter is likely to be controversial and doubtless will be politically unacceptable to many, but it seems to offer a coherent and persuasive vision of how music might contribute to an educational moral purpose.

All in all, this book provides several useful starting points for constructing coherent rationales for music education within general education. Its authors take a variety of theoretical perspectives and the book contains several illuminating case studies of music education practice. (I found Bruce Carter's account of working as a composer in residence within a school particularly interesting.) It provides a lot to think about. On reaching the end, however, it is difficult to argue with Michele Kashub's view. She describes teacher education but what she has to say can be taken of music education more generally:

This description seems apposite, and not only to music education in North America. Music, education and society have become extremely complex during the past thirty years and it is probably naive to hope that another Bennett Reimer will emerge, who will make sense of it all. In the meantime, this book raises important questions and points towards a multiplicity of answers.