World Musics in Music Education: The Matter of Authenticity

In rccent years classroom music textbooks have begun to pay more attention to matters of authenticity. Usually, songs taken from around the world were placed in textbooks with piano accompaniments added, with texts translated and sometimes altered to fit American conceptions, and generally ’cleansed ’ of their rhythmic and tonal ’irregularities’. However, with ethnomusicologists now serving as advisors to some textbook publishers, an effort to improve the authenticity level of the music- printed and recorded- has developed. Further, other music publishers have been praised for their efforts to offer authentic music materials to a needy profession. Added to this, the Education Committee of the Society for Ethnomusicology plans to develop a computer information project to assist classroom teachers and music specialists in the collection of authentic materials for the teaching of world musics. With this activity toward authenticity of music materials for teaching, it is remarkable that little discussion has appeared in the music education literature on what authenticity means. It is the purpose of this article to stimulate that discussion. When a music is transferred out of its original culture, it loses some of its essential