Sound and Structure

In the pioneering Sound and Silence (1970, CUP), Paynter and Peter Aston set out to demonstrate the importance of drawing on children's creative talent as the basis for music education. Their book reflected work that its authors had been doing in schools and colleges during the preceding decade. Much that has happened since in music education has in no small measure been influenced by Sound and Silence and by subsequent publications of John Paynter's. Now, twenty years later, John Paynter, himself a composer, views some thirty years of teaching music. His basic philosophy is the same: music is a creative art in all its modes--composing (inventing), performing (interpreting) and listening (remaking the music within ourselves). Today, John Paynter believes as firmly as ever that creativity is the starting point for all music education. To meet the new demands and fresh opportunities of a progressive educational program there have been developments in this philosophy. The projects and assignments in Sound and Structure are the fruits of this development. A cassette accompanies John Paynter's book, and contains those musical examples that may be difficult for the reader to obtain from usual sources. The cassette will complete the reader's enjoyment of the book.