Pentti Määttänen & Heidi Westerlund:

Tradition, practice, and musical meaning. A pragmatist approach to music education

The paper examines music from a pragmatist viewpoint according to which music and musical meaning have their roots in lived culture, traditions and practices. Habits of motor action, in playing an instrument or singing, are ways to have beliefs about music, to think about music. A piece of music as a work of art is experience rather than a structured pattern of sounds. Notation is understood as a set of instructions for operations the aim of which is to produce a musical experience. Musical meanings exist as social habits and practices of musicing, and the ability to act musically is an essential aspect in understanding music.