The civilizational return of Eastern “Rites and Music” and Western “Ethics” in modern music education

El retorno civilizatorio de los “ritos y música” orientales y la “ética” occidental en la educación musical moderna

Abstract:

Civilization is a symbol of culture, and only music education with the spirit of civilization has the core of culture. To meet the needs of the times and promote the reform of the educational system, this study analyzes the Eastern rites and music civilization, and Western ethical civilization. The similarities and differences between them were compared. It was found that both affirm the moral-emotional-aesthetic value of music, but they consider the internal and external nature of its role different. The philosophical foundations of the music education system in modern society are analyzed, and the current state of music education is reflected. Aiming at the problems of lack of subjectivity, lack of understanding and lack of musical identity in music education, the study proposes an innovative path for modern music education in the way of the return of the civilizations of oriental “rites and music” and western “ethics,” i.e., resetting the norms of the musical grammatical behavior, penetrating the humanistic connotations and defining the position of subjectivity.

Keywords:
Spirit of civilization; Music education; Ritual civilization; Western ethical thought; Moral emotions; Aesthetic values; The return of civilization

Resumen:

La civilización es un símbolo de la cultura, y sólo la educación musical con espíritu de civilización tiene el núcleo de la cultura. Para responder a las necesidades de la época y promover la reforma del sistema educativo, este estudio analiza la civilización oriental de “ritos y música” y la civilización occidental de “ética”. Se compararon las similitudes y diferencias entre ambas. Se constató que ambas afirman el valor moral-emocional-estético de la música, pero consideran diferente la naturaleza interna y externa de su función. Se analizan los fundamentos filosóficos del sistema de educación musical en la sociedad moderna y se refleja el estado actual de la educación musical. Con el objetivo de abordar los problemas de la falta de subjetividad, la falta de comprensión y la falta de identidad musical en la educación musical, el estudio propone una vía innovadora para la educación musical moderna por la vía del retorno de las civilizaciones de los “ritos y la música” orientales y la “ética” occidental, es decir, reajustando las normas del comportamiento gramatical musical, penetrando en las connotaciones humanísticas y definiendo la posición de la subjetividad.

Palabras clave:
Espíritu de civilización; Educación musical; Civilización ritual; Pensamiento ético occidental; Emociones morales; Valores estéticos; El retorno de la civilización

Introduction

The Eastern civilization of rites and music originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It was a system of education that combined “ritual” and “music”. “Ritual” was a system of rules and regulations that the nobility had to follow in their lives, and it was responsible for regulating social behavior and guiding the society’s members’ morality. “Music” is the basic way for different groups to communicate their emotions. Music evokes resonance between different social groups, thus achieving harmony among them. In the civilization of rites and music, the use, scale and arrangement of music were strictly regulated, which contained the concepts of “order” and “harmony” (Zou, 2022, p. 425). These concepts are still present in modern society. Western ethical thought, born in ancient Greece, is centered on the discussion of values, facts and morality. Its central theme is how people should behave and live. Western ethical thought can be divided into several schools of thought based on the basis of moral judgment. Regardless of the difference among schools, they all have the affirmation of human dignity and value, freedom and happiness in life, which is the concentrated embodiment of humanistic thought. With the development of Internet technology, the digitalization of music has become an important trend in the development of music. Music communication and the music industry are characterized by globalization and centralization. The wave of music development in the new era has brought impacts and challenges to the original music education system.

Many researchers have linked music education with Eastern etiquette, music civilization and Western ethics. They have analyzed the relationship between etiquette and music, ethics and modern music education. Westerlund believes that current music education needs to face up to ethical issues, while emphasizing the need to construct life values in music teaching and fully consider the moral needs brought about by social integration (Westerlund, 2019, p. 503). Niknafs first accepted the ethical issues existing in music education, and then believed that, on this basis, it was also necessary to pay attention to cosmopolitanism, emphasize the need for human connection in music education and cultivate the participants’ ethical sensitivity in order to alleviate human suffering through music (Niknafs, 2020, p. 3). Lu et al. constructed a philosophy of music education using the four philosophies of Confucian philosophy: “nothing” (non-existence/existence), “inaction” non-action), “silence” (non-sound), and “no sadness and no music” non-sadness and non-music), which emphasizes the useful nothingness to achieve modern music education (Lu, 2021, p. 88). Bahtilla et al. explored the impact of Confucian etiquette and music thoughts in Chinese education, and analyzed their modern educational intervention in Chinese music. The study found that influencing students’ moral values, through Confucian thoughts, can effectively improve the quality of modern music education in China (Bahtilla, 2021, p. 1). The internal philosophical foundation behind music education lies in society and morality. Based on the oriental “ritual music” civilization and the Western “ethics” civilization, the research integrates the essence of the Eastern and Western music civilization ideas, explores the development direction and reform path of modern music education in the new era and injects vitality into modern music education.

1 A comparative analysis of Eastern “Rites and Music” and Western “Ethics”

1.1 Confucian music ethics core of Eastern “Rites and Music”

The rites and music system has been an important means for China’s feudal ruling class to safeguard its own interests throughout the ages, utilizing “rites and teachings” to delineate social hierarchies, and “music and teachings” to dissolve social contradictions due to hierarchical oppositions in order to achieve the goal of social balance and harmony (Khan, 2021, p. 17). Although a variety of philosophical and cultural ideas are involved in the Oriental Rites and Music, Confucianism, as the core idea of Chinese civilization, has a profound influence on the definition and practice of music ethics. Especially in the ritual and music system, Confucian music ethics are explicitly embodied and applied. Therefore, the study chooses to focus on Confucian music ethical thought to explore its embodiment and importance in the Oriental Rites and Music. Confucius is the pioneer of Confucian thought of rites and music. He believes that music cannot only regulate social behavior and maintain the hierarchy, but also cultivate sentiment and morality. Like “Rituals”, music also has a hierarchy. According to different occasions and audiences, the instruments, scale and choreography of music performance are strictly restricted by the system. For example, in The Analects of Confucius, when Confucius saw that Sanhuan’s ancestor worship music in the State of Lu was Yong, he said that Yong was the sacrificial text used by the emperor to worship his ancestors. Its appearance in the occasions of vassals’ sacrifice showed the vassals’ transgression and violation of the rites and music system, which would pose a threat to the rites and music system and even social stability (Zhang; Leng, 2021, p. 1). In addition to maintaining social order, music also plays an educational role, which is mainly reflected in the shaping of personality. Confucius established the value concept of music, namely “harmony”. He believes that music can suppress evil and promote good. The unity of goodness and beauty in music will strengthen people’s appreciation of music content. At the same time, the restrained emotional expression of “expressing happiness and sadness but not excessive” stipulates the aesthetic criteria of music. Music that, according to the doctrine of moderation and perfection, can more arouse people’s resonance and emotions. The aesthetic concept and value concept are conveyed through music melody and thought, and people complete the learning of knowledge and morality in a pleasant atmosphere. They realized the shaping of their inner character through music and cultivated a Junzi’s personality through extensive learning (Yuan, 2021, p. 12).

Mencius and Xunzi are the successors and developers of Confucius’ thought of rites and music. Both of them believe that music is hierarchical. The music with clear distinction of superiority and inferiority and rational moderation is conducive to strengthening the relationship between social members and maintaining the stability of social order. At the same time, the concept of good and evil contained in music is also the standard for shaping personality. Xunzi said that “music is loved by saints and can make people be good and kind”, which reflects Xunzi’s affirmation of the educational value of music (Xie, 2022, p. 212). Music plays a role in promoting the prevalence of traditional Chinese morality. On this basis, they also expanded Confucius’ thought of rites and music. Among them, Mencius further emphasized the value of “harmony” in music, especially the harmony between the emperor and the people. By sharing music with the people, the emperor can strengthen the connection between all social class, which is conducive to promoting political prosperity and fostering a good social atmosphere. Xunzi added “evil” human basis to the thought of rites and music. The core of the unity of what a man should do and what a man really did is the essence of human kindness, which further strengthens the role of music in guiding and educating. Confucius’ music ethics thought has undergone continuous development. Its content and emphasis have changed, but its core of “order” and “harmony” has not changed.

1.2 Western music philosophy thought of “Ethics”

At the heart of Western “ethics”, from the perspective of virtue ethics, music is not only a tool for emotional and aesthetic expression, but also a means of cultivating and revealing the musicians’, performers’ and listeners’ inner “virtues”. The process of creating, performing and appreciating music is an opportunity to practice and shape goodness. From a deontological point of view, musicians and performers have a duty to maintain the purity and authenticity of their music, and to treat it with honesty and sincerity. For the listener, the obligation is to experience the music authentically and not be swayed by external factors. The beneficialist perspective, on the other hand, emphasizes the social function of music, which not only brings pleasure to individuals, but also creates value for the wider community. Music can stimulate emotions, bring people closer together and promote social harmony; therefore, from this perspective, music creation, performance and appreciation should aim to bring people maximum happiness (Levinson, 1980, p. 5).

The Western musical philosophy of “ethic” mainly includes three aspects: aesthetic subject and object, the correlation between musical form and content, and musical sensibility and rationality (Zheng, 2021, p. 155). Among them, aesthetic subject and object refer to the role of music aesthetics. Only when music plays a role, relevant people and works can be called aesthetic subject and aesthetic object. The key here is to understand how music affects the aesthetic subject, especially at the level of emotional perception. Western music philosophy emphasizes the binary opposition and fusion between the external object world and the internal sense world. This antagonism and integration is not only reflected in aesthetic adaptation, such as pleasure and sadness, but also in more complex emotional levels, such as shame, pride and disdain, and other cognitive levels of emotion (Levinson, 2009, p. 119). In this regard, Levinson’s philosophy of music provides us with a concrete example. His analysis of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 10, which he describes as full of “hope”, reflects his deep understanding of the concept of specific musical content (Faul, 2020, p. 274). His analysis shows how the combination of sensibility and reason can be extracted from music, and how this combination can be translated into a concrete musical experience. In addition, Yuri Kremliov’s view further explains the relationship between aesthetic subject and object. He believes that there is a unity of opposites between the subject and the object of music aesthetics, and the two cannot be separated in their mutual connection and interaction. This means that the relationship between the musical work (object) and its listener (subject) is not one-way, but a dynamic and interdependent process (Koopal; Vlieghe, 2022, p. 119). Gadamer, on the other hand, emphasizes the historicity and culture of the aesthetic subject. In his view, the experience of musical aesthetics is not merely a subjective emotional response, but is deeply rooted in an individual’s historical and cultural background. This view emphasizes the fusion of duality (sensibility and reason, subject and object) in musical experience, which reflects a more complex and multi-dimensional aesthetic process (Hess, 2020, p. 47).

As for the discussion on the correlation between music form and content, there have been two opposing views in Western music philosophy, namely, the theory of autonomy and the theory of heteronomy (Chen, 2022, p. 8015). The former believes that the form and content of music are identical, and the internal emotional expression of music is independent and opposes all interpretations “beyond music”. That is to say, music has no connection with real life, and life practice cannot provide the soil for music creation, but can only provide some intentional imitation. The latter believes that the emotional expression of music is affected by the external environment, and it is subordinate to life and highly dependent on it. Music is a reflection of real life, but it also has the power to shape reality. At the same time, the emotion of music determines the form of music. For example, Schoenberg’s atonal music style breaks the concept of “coordination” and “harmony” in traditional music creation, and uses distorted, grandiose and eccentric music language to more intuitively express the artist’s inner activities and feelings, bringing auditory impact and emotional experience that directly hit the audience’s soul (Holm, 2020, p. 186).

From the theory of autonomy and the theory of heteronomy, the subject of whether music has emotion is extended, that is, the sensibility and rationality of music. This topic runs through the whole process of musical works from scratch and their effects on human beings. In the process of music creation, the creators need to accurately control the power of sensibility and rationality. They should not only be good at observing and grasping inspiration in life, but also use rational thinking to calmly create and master creative methods and skills. In the process of presenting music works, it is more dependent on the performers’ perceptual thinking. On the basis of understanding the creators’ feelings and thoughts, it integrates its own understanding of the work structure technology to accurately interpret the feelings contained in the music works (Gadamer, 2006, p. 85). This requires a high level of professional skills and the performers’ emotional understanding ability. They should not only avoid indulging in emotion excessively, but also avoid inadequate expression of emotion. At the same time, there is another view beyond the theory of self-discipline and heteronomy, which is that music appreciation is an activity combining sensibility and rationality. Its representative, Leonard Mayer, believes that the dual opposition between the theory of self-discipline and heteronomy is unfavorable to music aesthetics (Prest; Goble, 2021, p. 24).

1.3 The similarities and differences between “Rites and Music” and Western “Ethics”

From the perspective of Marxist philosophy, this paper examines the similarities and differences between Eastern “rites and music” and Western “ethics”. From the perspective of similarity, the essence of Eastern and Western music ethics is to safeguard the ruling class’ or the exploiting class’ interests. The development of rites and music system was based on the ancient Chinese’s natural philosophy. Yin and Yang, the unity of nature and man, are the ancients’ nature’s cognition, while the rites and music system is the nature’s concrete manifestation on earth (Wang, 2022, p. 324). The daily life’s norms are unified because of the nature’s authority. Because people respect the mysterious and dominant nature, they constantly strengthen this political paradigm in their life practice. Different from the economic relations in ancient China, Western ethical thoughts were born in capitalist relations of production. The development of handicraft industry and commodity economy has changed the allocation of means of production (Mantie, 2022, p. 21). The change of life style made the slave owner class thinkers start to think about new life norms and rules, strive for the universality of this life order and maintain social stability while seeking personal development. In addition, both of them affirmed the moral and emotional aesthetic value of music. The aesthetic subject judges and understands music through consciousness, which is specifically expressed as “preset” (Boucher; Moisey, 2019, p. 2111). The aesthetic subject then enters into the consciousness framework of music works, tries to observe things from the others’ perspective and forms self-emotion and consciousness on the basis. The aesthetic subject has the right to choose the emotion conveyed by music, which means that music aesthetics is not an activity of consciousness compulsion. Individual growth and ethical life are all based on “kindness” and “harmony”. The aesthetic appreciation of music arouses human emotions and, at the same time, it also fills in some gaps in emotional experience. Regardless of the form of music, the content of music can also guide human morality and life goals. According to individual differences, certain specific musical experiences can stimulate human potential in ethics and morality. The accumulation of music experience can promote the shaping of human character.

However, different philosophical foundations have also created different ideas. Ancient China had been committed to developing agricultural economy for a long time. In such a stable living environment as agricultural civilization, the flow of social information was more dependent on context, while language expression was m vaguer (Lo, 2022, p. 31). Ancient philosophers praised the infinite imagination of artistic conception and attempted to understand the essence of the evolution of everything in terms of the possibility and invisibility of things. Ritual and music civilization takes “benevolence” as the core concept, takes ethics and morality as the internal purpose of music, and uses music to pursue a higher spiritual realm (Di, 2020, p. 201). In the rites and music civilization, music, as a practice, represents the collective spirit. “Benevolence” runs through the whole process of music creation, performance and appreciation. Music cultivates the inner character and self-restraint, and helps the audience return to nature to achieve a harmonious social state. While ancient Greece and other Western countries are rooted in marine civilization, frequent trade has given birth to a variety of language types (Bowie, 2023, p. 6). The characteristics of commercial economy also promote the formation of logical, rational and reasoning modes of thinking. On the basis of practice, Western ethical thought attaches great importance to “intelligence”, advocates intelligent knowledge, and it is committed to exploring new science and culture. Different from China’s ethical and moral basis, the philosophy of Western ethical thought is based on religion (Sims, 2019, p. 45). The theory of original sin believes that the construction of social order relies on people’s mind, that is, “good”. Morality should be used to set up social norms and regulate people’s external behavior. Morality is the manifestation of public obedience to external norms, which leads to the separation of music and morality (Louth, 2020, p. 88). The creators focused on the transmission of subjective rationality, while music aesthetics focused on the learning of knowledge. Social norms determined people’s obedience behavior, and morality gradually became a marginal role in music cognition (May, 2020, p. 470).

In the context of globalization, the exchange between Eastern “rites and music” and Western ethics has become increasingly close, which has led to a discussion on the possibility of integrating the two. First of all, both have overlapping moral and emotional aesthetic values, which creates a basis for integration. Music, as a universal language that transcends cultures and languages, has the ability to fuse two very different ethical ideas. However, there are also some potentially interfering factors. The transformation of the mind and the pursuit of the natural attributes of the Tao of Heaven, advocated by Eastern “rituals and music”, may conflict with the emphasis on individual rationality and intellectual learning in Western ethics. At the same time, the Western ethic is based on religion, which may be fundamentally different from the understanding of heavenly ways and human ethics in the “rituals and music”. But this does not mean that integration between the two is impossible. In fact, through in-depth understanding and mutual respect, the music ethics of the East and the West can complement each other. For example, the emphasis on emotion and morality in Eastern “rites and music” can bring deeper emotional expression to Western music, while Western rationality and intellectual pursuits can provide Eastern music with a wider range of creative and aesthetic perspectives. If we focus on the commonalities and respect the differences, the fusion of the two is not only possible, but may also bring people unprecedented musical experiences.

2 The return to civilization of “Ritual AND Ethics” in modern music education

2.1 The philosophical basis of modern music education system

Music education philosophy includes aesthetic music education philosophy and process philosophy. As the cornerstone of modern music education system, the practice of music education philosophy can provide convincing evidence for the importance of music education (Boswell, 2022, p. 56). Practice is a guiding philosophical concept, representing the transformation from self to the world, and guiding self or the world to changes in some aspects. From the direction of guidance, “happiness” and “goodness” are the goals of people’s ethical and moral activities and political activities. Music education cannot be separated from the nourishment of social soil. If music is separated from social life, it will also put aside the goals of “happiness” and “kindness”, and music education will deteriorate. Therefore, practice is the guiding light for the return of music education to real life and diversified development. Music is regarded as an ethical and moral quality, which is specific and universal. Music education has the social function of understanding and spreading ethics, which has identity for the realization of potential. Music education helps people eliminate the nihility and danger in life and pursue a better life.

The creators integrate their logical and geometric consciousness into their music works. Through the “accurate calculation” of pitch, they designed a scientific music production system to complete the aesthetic judgment of the subject to the object. Based on the spatial expression of music time and the principle of mathematical logic, the players reproduce the pitch by understanding the object of pitch and combining their own life intuition. The audience enters the framework of subject consciousness, communicates with other different subject consciousness in music and integrates into their own social practice to realize the acceptance and expansion of music experience and form their own aesthetic rationality. In the process of reaction between music creation and subject, each subject will produce aesthetic consciousness, which constitutes the basis of aesthetic music education. Ramer, the representative of aesthetic music education philosophy, believes that, compared with other language arts, music has a unique cognitive form, namely emotion, because of its concept and content. Therefore, the core of music education is “musicality”, which should focus on cultivating students’ aesthetic perception ability and improving individual music aesthetic quality.

Process philosophy advocates viewing the world from the perspective of relationship. “Everything is flowing, and nothing remains unchanged” (White, 2021, p. 899). Everything is in the process of evolution, which is the creative activity among the life’s elements. Organisms are connected by intake and connection. According to a certain direction, the real entity absorbs factors, such as related emotions, goals and conditions, and on the basis of individual unity, it disassembles the real entity into a standard style with multiple functions, thus completing the integration and transformation from “many” to “one”. This comprehensive activity process is fundamental and belongs to the ultimate category (Sáez, 2021, p. 203). Constant real value is an important part of the internal transcendence of the body. Any reality has aesthetic value, and the aesthetic relationship between different things is the real relationship of the process. The universe, composed of real organism and process, has infinity. The development of the organism, in a specific generation environment, completes the construction of the order of the universe system, so the process and connected universe environment make music education global and innovative. The connection between practice and theory, the connection among music education of different nationalities, and the connection between the past and the present of music education are the key points that cannot be ignored in music education.

2.2 The impact of modern civilization on traditional music education system

In modern society, music has been endowed with economic functions as well as spiritual communication ones. The development of industry has refined and standardized the division of labor in the production of music goods, expanded the market of music goods and improved the cultural industry chain. In addition, the development of science and technology has brought about the innovation of music communication media, and diversified online and offline music transmission methods have become an important part of digital music. The industrialization and standardization of “music creation” have led to the lack of disciplinary functions in music education, limiting music creation education to a fixed framework, and attempting to establish a formulaic music creation mechanism and process (Puy, 2022, p. 410). Music education replaced “oral teaching that inspires true understanding within”, which in fact is to integrate performance into music education and endow music works with vitality. Written musical grammars, however, express musical compositions in abstract standards and rules, thus consolidating their constancy and attempting to establish a uniform pattern of musical understanding. This model completely ignores the flexibility and contingency of thinking and feeling in musical works, and weakens the meaning generated between the subject consciousness of music. In contrast to written grammar, the oral approach emphasizes the personalization and improvisation of the musical experience, which is essential for developing students’ musical understanding and creativity. This contrast shows that in order to understand and appreciate music more comprehensively, we need to combine the advantages of these two teaching methods in order to better promote students’ deep understanding and emotional connection with music. Under this mode, the aesthetic thinking of music between teachers and students cannot be transformed, which means that teachers’ guidance, on the transmission and diffusion of music language symbols, is incomplete.

The expanding music consumption market makes the commodity attribute of music works stronger. Industrialized production standards make music creation “scientific” and “standardized” (Kertz-Welzel, 2020, p. 239). The elements in music works, including pitch, timbre, harmony and vibration, are designed according to the standard of music creation paradigm and converted into the content and concept of the works through accurate calculation. Finally, they are presented as the written grammar of music. The disadvantage of this pipeline music creation is that the abstract and mathematical music language and its structure are opposite to the practical life’s creative environment, which also leads to the lack of understanding of music education. On the basis of classical Marxism, the Frankfurt School, represented by Benjamin and Adorno, also criticized the cultural industry and social reality, proposing that the cultural industry is the “social cement” under the capitalist system. In the context of technological development, the expansion of cultural media is driven by industrial material conditions with technology as the main force. The production model of combining technology and capital shapes the logical orientation of modern cultural production, using quantitative technical rationality standards as the evaluation basis for artistic and cultural works, such as music, literature and movies. The Frankfurt School pointed out that the cultural industry takes the audience’s entertainment needs as the production index and carries out mass production of culture in order to achieve benefits, which violates the true characteristics of culture and art. Standard produced cultural goods lose their original artistry, and mechanical reproduction makes artistic works meaningless. In the context of industrialized music production, current music education focuses on music technology rather than music understanding, with the emotional value inherent in music being dispelled, and utilitarianism gaining the upper hand in music creation and teaching. Modern music education disassembles music elements and separates them from music aesthetics, pays too much attention to the technology of explaining the structure of closed music works and despises the emotional connotation of music. This is actually a deviation in the positioning of the value of music. The entertainment value of music has gradually replaced its emotional value. As the basis of music value, the role of morality and culture in the development paradigm has been deprived, and its importance in music education has been lost.

The process of globalization is accelerating, which means that cultural exchanges between countries and regions in the world are becoming more frequent. At the same time, the Internet has improved the virtual nature of cultural links and injected new vitality into the interaction of multiple cultures. The epistemology of mutual subjectivity breaks the closeness of music and realizes the transformation from single interpretation to two-way interpretation, which is the main method of multicultural communication. The basis of mutual subjectivity is to respect the differences of music language, such as content, concept and behavior, find the fundamental starting point of mutual subjectivity, and the communication parties need to break the “superior to subordinate” discussion mode (Abramo, 2021, p. 155). In this process, the mobility and variability of identity bring challenges to the universal concept of musical identity, which foreshadows the lack of recognition of musical identity in music education. In the diversified national music exchanges, the modern technical characteristics of music works cover up the ecological diversity of music concepts, which brings about the crisis of national culture inheritance. How to find the language foothold of one’s own music is the key of musical identity. Only by establishing the standard of self-concept and constructing the system of national music culture, the direction of music can be clarified.

2.3 Suggested paths for the return of ritual civilization and Western ethical thought civilization

When exploring the development of modern music education, the civilized return path of the Eastern civilization of rites and music and the Western ethical thinking cannot be ignored. Modern music education should first combine the characteristics of Eastern and Western social backgrounds, utilize Eastern etiquette and music civilization and Western ethics to guide modern music education, and reform modern music education based on different musical language structures. For example, folk songs in Eastern music have very strong regional characteristics. Unlike Western music, it does not need to refer to rational knowledge, such as mathematics, logic and reasoning. This shows that different music systems need to adopt corresponding music education methods. As for modern music education, the rules of music grammar behavior should be reset. On the basis of understanding the composition and writing methods of music works, teachers should design teaching content and teaching methods according to the characteristics of music language and explain the meaning chain of music works, which can lead to the return of the subject of music education and effectively improve the effect of it. For example, teachers should understand and master the cultural connotation and performance characteristics of operas in the teaching of them in Eastern music. Different from other forms of music art, operas should be taught orally, providing students with a template for the performance through teaching by words and deeds, and guiding students to comprehend from the heart on this basis.

Secondly, modern music education needs to combine the real life’s characteristics and carry out teaching activities with social ethics as the intrinsic content. Music is closely related to real life, and the natural environment, customs and lifestyle are the foundation of music creation. Only music works closely related to reality can show their vigorous vitality. In modern music education, in order to make music education more characteristic of the return of civilization, emphasis should be placed on the close integration of music with the life’s realities, so as to make music education more humanistic. From the perspective of Western ethics, music is not only an auditory art, but more importantly, it contains moral aesthetic values. This requires modern music education not only to impart skills, but also to deepen students’ understanding of the civilization background, morality and aesthetics of music, whose moral and aesthetic qualities have an unconscious power that will have meaning for human life at the deepest level. From the perspective of curriculum content, in addition to music theory knowledge, music history, music appreciation and other courses should also be added. In addition, music practice should be added to modern music education to improve students’ aesthetic perception through on-site experience and actual stage performance. Last but not least, as an art form with strong regional characteristics, dialect music should be included in the modern music education system.

Taking into account the self and the other in musical communication, the process of the return of civilization needs to ensure equal exchange and mutual respect among different musical cultures. This requires modern music education to pay more attention to subjectivity and the recognition of cultural differences, especially in the education of ethnic music, which involves teaching skills as well as educating students to respect and appreciate the musical cultures of their own and other ethnic groups. In different musical communication, cognitive errors in the subject and object can lead to inaccurate understanding of the relationship between oneself and others, which can undermine the essence of musical communication. This requires modern music education to maintain its dominant position, fully grasp the relationship between the subject and object of Eastern etiquette and music civilization and Western ethics in different social backgrounds, and innovate and reform modern music education in combination with reality. On the basis of grasping the characteristics and differences of each music discipline, people should fully understand the subjective and objective significance of music and realize the inter subjectivity between music cultures. This is mainly reflected in ethnic music education. Educational institutions should incorporate ethnic music education and regional one into the modern music education system. By offering courses related to ethnic musical instruments and songs, students can deeply learn their own ethnic music culture and humanistic connotation, understand their own life characteristics and awareness, and enhance their confidence in ethnic music culture.

Conclusion

The disruptive changes, caused by industrialization to the music industry, urgently require a re-examination and adjustment of the strategies and methods of modern music education from the perspective of civilization. In order to explore and reshape the music education system in the context of modern civilization, this research is based on the core of civilization spirit and it deeply discusses the application and return of the Eastern ritual and music civilization and the Western ethical thought in modern music education. From the point of view of Eastern and Western music ethical thinking, both of them are rooted in the civilization of ritual and music and Western ethical thinking respectively, and both of them believe that music has the value of guiding social morality. They also believe that the “goodness” and “harmony” embedded in music are the goals that people pursue for a happy life. But the difference is that the role of music, in the civilization of ritual and music, is the same. However, the difference is that the role of music, in the civilization of rites and music, focuses on the cultivation of the body, while music in the Western ethical thought mainly assumes the role of regulating moral behavior. The philosophical foundation of the modern music education system combines the philosophy of practical music education, the philosophy of aesthetic music education and the philosophy of process. On this basis, the study explores, in detail, how to return Eastern and Western music ethical thought to the reconstruction of modern music education, especially in the three key aspects of music grammatical behavior, humanistic connotation and subjectivity stance. Modern music is not only a means of expressing emotions, but also a way of transmission and communication of the civilization. Integrating the two ideas of Eastern “ritual” and Western “ethics”, in modern music education, can better cultivate students’ musical literacy, enable them to better understand the civilization values behind music, and thus promote the progress of global music education. However, although the study attempts to cover and integrate the musical cultures of the East and the West, it may need to be further deepened and improved in certain civilization-specific contexts and practical applications.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  04 Mar 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  24 May 2023
• Accepted
  09 Oct 2023
• Published
  27 Feb 2024