I have briefly mentioned the tendency of curricula to follow historic precedents, both in the composition department and the conservatoria as a whole. This often results in an over-and under-representation of certain groups. Furthermore, this imbalance may be hidden, that is, not expressed or communicated. Jane Martin suggests several ways in which aspects of the curricula may be hidden. First, some sides of the curriculum may yet to be discovered, much in the way a cure for cancer might be—it is unknown. Secondly, she suggests there are aspects that have been hidden by someone. Thirdly, she notes that it is possible that some students may be aware of a hidden aspect while others are not.1 Marina Gair and Guy Mullins suggest a fourth possibility—that of something being hidden in plain sight—which may relate to underlying values or norms that are not discussed but are at the core of curricula decisions.2 It is worth noting that hidden aspects of the curriculum are not static and are in a process of changing over time.
If we think of the conservatoire, we could imagine these four aspects as including:
-
Yet to be discovered. This could include composers and performers who are people of colour, women, the embodied knowledge that the students enter the conservatoire with and also recontextualizations of function. Johansen notes that when a practitioner becomes a teacher, they may have other pedagogical approaches that are not necessarily discussed which may create a hidden framework. He suggests it may be useful to perceive teachers as ‘knowledge agents through whom particular knowledge discourses are operating’.3 This resonates with our discussion on the students entering the conservatoire and supports the notion of teachers having their own carrier bag of knowledge, based on their experiences as a musician.
-
Aspects that are hidden by someone.
-
Revealed to some but hidden for others. These are aspects that are not openly acknowledged, but that some students may be aware of. One can think of situations where certain students are exposed to discrimination (related to gender, race, class and so on) while other students and staff are unaware or choose to disregard it.
-
Hidden in plain sight. This could include the presumed hegemony of Western art music, where ‘music theory’ is taught without further qualification. Johansen notes:
‘Recent developments in many institutions towards a more open and inclusive view of other musics such as jazz, popular, and folk music can be interpreted as increasing the awareness of that hidden supremacy. Thereby ‘music’ is turned into a floating signifier and the scene is opened up to ‘debunking [classical music’s] normalization and naturalization’ challenging the students of Western classical music to contextualize their own genre culture, in order to reveal its hegemonic invisibility.’4
In relationship to North American tertiary music education, Margaret E. Walker discusses the assumption that a music study should be centred around ‘European elite music’ and furthermore suggests that this understanding is so deeply embedded in the institutions that it is often invisible.5 I propose that this also applies to music education within Europe itself.