Pedagogical-Didactic Implications in the Writings of Fedele d'Amico

Fedele d’Amico (1912-1990), an engaged critic and Professor of Music History at Rome’s La Sapienza University, was definitively aware of the low standard of musical culture in Italian students and citizens. On several occasions, the musicologist (rightly appreciated for his critical insight, extensive knowledge, and polemical attitude) made public statements in which he exposed the severe deficiencies of music education in Italian schools, advocated a reform and enhancement of teaching curricula, and pleaded for the inclusion of choir singing and chamber music in the education of young people and adults, but also tried to curb the excesses of certain fashionable figures of music culture, who wanted to undermine the (alleged) dominance of art music, tipping the balance in favour of ‘other types of music’ (folk, world, commercial), in the hope that this would bring the public closer to New Music. Fedele d’Amico therefore did possess a clear perception of the limits and obstacles that hindered the development of music education in our country. And yet, like so many Italian musicologists, he lacked adequate knowledge and mastery of the conceptual and working categories of education science. As a result, no dialogue was possible with his academic colleagues from the domains of Pedagogy and General Didactics, who in their turn were mostly wary of music education, which they ultimately saw as a marginal subject. This failure to initiate a debate gave free rein to a music teaching that was far too indulgent towards amateurism and spontaneism, and at the same time turned out to be far from effective in raising the standard of musical culture in the population.