The Future of Education

There is a general opinion that traditional music-theoretical subjects are obsolete in the contemporary musical education institutions, primarily in the performing departments. To bridge this gap, there were many attempts to establish the correlation between traditional theoretical subjects and practice in performing departments. However, it turned out that music theory continued living in the world of its own, and its relationship with musical performance kept on fading.

The aim of this paper lies in attempting to answer the following questions: What brought about the situation in which many subjects that have been important for centuries are becoming seemingly irrelevant for music performers? How does this reflect on the general education of future performers, theorists and musicologists? What destiny awaits many music theory experts in the years and decades to come, and is it related to the current trends in performing departments?

In order to answer these questions, we shall demonstrate the practice of music educators from Serbia, as well as some of our own methods. On the one hand, the results should complete the interpreter’s musical knowledge with the newest scientific insights in order to make him or her substantially competent. On the other, an additional aim is to bring the theorists back towards the performing practice, so as to bridge the gap between these two seemingly different fields.