THE ONLY WEB PORTRAYAL OF A NATION'S ENTIRE MUSICAL LIFE - DESCRIPTIONS, NUMBERS, ISSUES, FUTURES
Rainbow Serpent Festival - January 2013
By Asher Floyd (Creative Commons)
Credit: Simon Whitaker (Creative Commons)
ABOUT 'MUSIC IN AUSTRALIA'
The Music in Australia Knowledge Base provides the world with a source of information about musical practice in Australia and/or by Australians that can assist in its further development and lift its status in Australian life and culture, and in the world at large.
The Knowledge Base describes the situation of music in Australia. So, for instance, it could describe the situation of music in schools – what is provided, the competence of the teaching, government attitudes and so on, but would be much less likely to dwell on intricacies of pedagogy or syllabus.
It covers the entire music sector including the role of music in human development and society, music’s creation and practice, the music sector and its components, government policies, regulation, support, the international context. It covers facts, issues of contention, statistics, research.
The Music in Australia Knowledge Base is produced and published by the Music Trust. The Trust’s slogan: The Music Trust works with energy, imagination and authority for music in Australia.
New ADDITIONS TO MUSIC IN AUSTRALIA
The kids who’d get the most out of extracurricular activities are missing out – here’s how to improve access
One third of low income kids do not participate in extracurricular activities, compared to 13% from high income areas. State governments give some support to these activities. In all states it goes to sport, but in many it excludes cultural activity, despite the research showing greater benefit from the latter.
Why do Australian states need a national curriculum, and do teachers even use it?
The Commonwealth designs the national curriculum, the states implement it. Curriculum debates are not just an academic argy-bargy over what should or should not be included, but also reflect a “nation’s soul”. It is an insight into what we value. Hence the many heated debates about what is “important” for young people to learn become value laden.
Researching the arts and wellbeing: Challenges and opportunities
The wellbeing boost we receive from creative arts activity is well-known. But finding ways to tease out the complex and interacting active ingredients that constitute these benefits, appraise their impact on our mental health, and share them among all Australians, remains a challenge.
How to bridge the teacher and academic divide online
Teachers and academics often do not mix. This hurts teachers’ engagement with research and its application in the classrooms. We need to bring together teachers, academics, and others within shared spaces to develop collaborative approaches to research and to actively engage with it. Important within this is the idea of a pracademic: a person capable of working between and within the teaching profession and the world of research.
The purposes of the arts: the words of government and the words of musicians
How the artists thinks about their art vs how the government thinks about the arts.
INSIDE THE MUSICIAN. Aviva Endean: Thank you Peggy! The gift that keeps on giving.
Aviva Endean is an artist dedicated to fostering a deep engagement with sound and music, with the hope that attentive listening can connect people with each other and their environment. She works as a composer, clarinettist, improviser, and performance-maker, and creates unusual, spatially engaged, and participatory contexts for listening. She recounts her experience as artist in residency in the Peggy Glanville-Hicks House in 2021.
Loudmouth is the free monthly online magazine of the Music Trust. It reports current developments, discusses matters of policy, politics and cultural development. Its music education section covers issues ranging from early childhood to career development, community music and educational research. Its excellent reviews are written mostly by musicians, and include important recordings and books not reviewed elsewhere.
THIS MONTH ON LOUDMOUTH
MUSIC, THE ARTS AND THE WORLD
- Understanding value of our cultural lives
- Great opportunities: arts policy suggestions for the new government
- How Gough Whitlam got the arts going
- Australian government’s shrinking role in cultural diplomacy
- 60 performances of Australian music at Albert Hall,London
MUSIC AND MUSIC PEOPLE
- Chris Cody interviews the great jazz pianist Mike Nock
- INSIDE THE MUSICIAN: self-revealing article by brilliant pianist Novak Manojlovic
- Obituary: the late great trumpeter Bob Barnard
MUSIC, WELLBEING AND EDUCATION
- Urgently rescue arts education now
- Wales triples funding, launches National (school) Music Service
- 60% of teachers exhausted, want out. To the rescue!
- Reverse Morrison’s ignorant perverse university fee increase
MUSIC AND BOOK REVIEWS
THE BEST MUSIC REVIEWS page in Australia. Written mainly by musicians.
LOUDMOUTH’S JUNE REVIEWS
Reviews of 12 recordings in classical, jazz, experimental, new music, rock/pop. A book describing how Sydney developed its version of jazz and broke away from America. A review of the opera Voss, the greatest Australian opera to date, says the reviewer