Orla Vinther:

The musical academies, the music schools and their interrelationship

The treatise Musikkonservatorierne og musikskolerne. En relationsanalyse appeared in December 1997, published by The Royal Academy of Music in Århus. The treatise investigates the relations between the music academies and the music schools in Denmark: do the study programmes for music pedagogues fit the general music education, especially the current and future demands of the 240 Danish municipal music schools? The article describes focus, purpose, argumentations, and methodology of the treatise and gives a few examples of its findings.

From different positions and points of view the six academies of music in Denmark try to solve the eternal problem of fitting "the quart in the pint pot", i.e. the problem of the squeezing all the useful and necessary subjects into a tight schedule and at the same time allowing the student ample time for individuel practice. They also try to answer the eternal question: does one learn to teach by becoming first and foremost an excellent musician or is it better to receive plenty of instruction in pedagogical subjects?

The investigation shows that the dialoque between the academies and the music schools has recently been intensified and improved, resulting in the fact that in future the music teacher should be educated as a "reflective practitioner", i.e. that the teacher should have not only a high professional standard as a musician, but also the ability to reflect and discuss pedagogical questions in a systematical way and the ability to evolve theories