The History

I found it extremely interesting, that yesterday in a lecture provided by Terry King, there was only two people who could answer his opening question. The question was: "Why do we study music history?". I do not believe I would have fully appreciated this comment if it wasn't for this class. For those two who answered, only one touched upon historical context while the other spoke of issues pertaining to performance practice. This was not only astonishing to my ears but also frightening. The History of Music usually goes hand and hand with history itself, and if conservatory students have difficulty in answering a question of such simplicity, we are worse off than I thought we were. In getting back to my idea of a page that helps those who need an information database to save their music program, or at least some ideas of how to help, never once did it occur to me that I could somehow incorporate history to the project. Possibly, from coming at this from more of an academic thought process, I may be able to somehow open more doors for those on the boards who feel music is simply an extra-curricular activity. Mr. King put it nicely, he said simply "how can we perform history, if we do not understand it or appreciate its significance and impact on the world around it".