Of Concepts and the Everyday: Multiculturality in Music Education in Germany

Abstract

Multiculturality is equally an everyday phenomenon in most countries of the world and a theoretical construct that is relevant in many academic disciplines like sociology, cultural studies or pedagogy. In compulsory schools music seems to be a favored subject to learn about other musical cultures, to acquire appropriate attitudes about these cultures and to develop a deep understanding of the relationship between various cultures. However, neither concepts nor their practical implications can be separated from the history of immigration and specific theoretical traditions. Thus, it is useful to take on a specific perspective, in this case a German (or Western European) one. Hence, this paper tries to relate theoretical concepts that have been developed in Germany in the past to the specific phases of migration during the last 75 years. It is argued that therein multiculturality is not the set relation between cultures that can be discerned from the outside but a process of people defining and redefining their culturality and cultural identity.