Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance in Ontario: From Concept to Curriculum

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to trace the roots of Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance (CMP) in the province of Ontario, Canada, between 1980 and 2010, and to document its influence on music curriculum development. As part of this historical narrative the following questions are addressed: a) What circumstances led to the introduction of CMP in Ontario? b) Who were key figures in promoting the practice to provincial curriculum writers? c) How was CMP introduced into the Ontario music curriculum and to what degree did it succeed in achieving its intended outcomes? These questions represent a point of departure on a quest to discover and document the development of CMP in the curriculum of Ontario high school band programs. The method used to carry out this study draws on the tools of historical research, primarily the examination of primary sources, and oral history. The narrative depended heavily on the voices of important figures in music education in Ontario whose participation and actions informed the profession during the time of great and rapid change that brought the principles of CMP across the border and into the Ontario high school curriculum. The findings of the study suggest that CMP evolved in the United States concurrently with a developing desire in Ontario for instrumental music to become a core subject in the Ontario public school curriculum. There was evidence of strong American influence in Canadian university music education programs through several influential figures who were working in Ontario’s education system at the time and had studied at universities in the United States. Also evident was the powerful hold provincial politics has over the Ontario curriculum and the monumental role that the OMEA played in lobbying for music and the arts. These combined elements contributed to CMP becoming the basis of the Ontario music curriculum as evident in the main three required strands of the document—performing, creating, listening and analysis. The degree to which CMP was initially accepted and achieved its intended outcomes depended on the individual Ontario band director’s awareness and willingness to engage with new activities that transcended the performance-based approach. Over time CMP was integrated as the basis of the Ontario music curriculum and was adopted by band directors who embraced curricular accountability and had successfully navigated their programs through a variety of challenges and changes through several decades.