STAR-POST (Music) July 2018 STAR-POST (Music) July 2018 | Page 8

I am also reminded of one of Janet Mills’ observations:
…I certainly do not think something such as
SKILLS + INTERPRETATION = PERFORMANCE
– Mills, 2005, p. 176.
There is a saying that “the whole is greater than the sum of
the parts”, and this is certainly true in assessment terms. If we
break down some learners’ musical offerings into a series of
assessed components, we might miss something, that ‘spark’,
that ‘magic’, which somehow lifts a piece. We can count the
trees, but we miss the forest!
So I think, to assess music “musically”, we need to think
about a number of factors simultaneously, and not try to
divide these up too much. And, perhaps we can be a bit more
daring in challenging learners to think about whether we
need to classify and quantify a musical observation in order
for it to exist. There is a nice part in the book Zen and the art
of motorcycle maintenance where the author says:
…. if you can’t say what Quality is, how do you know
what it is, or how do you know that it even exists?
If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes
it doesn’t exist at all. But for all practical purposes it
really does exist. What else are the grades based on?
– Pirsig, 1974, p. 187.
This, to me. sums up the issue for us in music education quite
nicely!
“If we break down some
learners’ musical offerings
into a series of assessed
components, we might
miss something, that
‘spark’, that ‘magic’, which
somehow lifts a piece.”
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