Music education in American schools began at 1838. Prior to this, singing schools, as the main form of community music education, laid the foundation for the emergence of school music education in the United States. 1838, Boston School Board formally included music in the school curriculum of the city. Many people think that this is the beginning of music education in American schools.

Although the United States is a multi-ethnic immigrant country, from 1838 to the end of 19, the content of school music education and teaching was mainly German classical music, and immigrant music from other countries except western European music was not included in school music teaching content. "Throughout the second half of the19th century, all general education and music education quoted European philosophy and educational methodology. In addition, music education is in line with Europe, especially the German classical music tradition has become a teaching material for music education classes. " "At the turn of the 20th century from 19, although music educators are willing to accept music from other cultures, music education basically only teaches one music culture-German art and music tradition in Europe."

Multicultural education is a social problem caused by a series of social problems in America in the early 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, immigrants mainly from Southeast Europe flooded into the United States, and school education faced students from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Xenophobes insist that immigrants living in the United States should integrate into the mainstream culture as soon as possible or complete the process of "Americanization". 19 16, john dewey put forward the concept of "cultural pluralism" in a speech given by the National Education Association. Cultural pluralism also refers to multi-ethnic society, cultural diversity or ethnic diversity. It was not until the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, especially the emergence of the black rights movement, that the whole society began to pay attention to national consciousness. At the same time, the influence of national culture brought by the immigration tide on society urges people to understand the concept of equal coexistence and mutual understanding of national cultures advocated by cultural pluralism, and the theory of cultural pluralism is gradually accepted by people; In addition, multicultural education began to appear in the school curriculum.

At the beginning of the 20th century, L. elson, one of the founders of American Music Teachers Association, took the lead in practicing multicultural music education in American public primary and secondary schools. His "multi-ethnic songs" include descriptions of China pentatonic scale, Byzantine scale, ancient church scale used by Scottish folk songs and Hungarian gypsy scale. In addition, there are collections of national folk songs compiled by others. From 19 16 to 1924, English, French and German folk songs are widely used in music textbooks. Foresman's Collection of Songs introduced western European folk songs into music textbooks for the first time. More than 200 songs in the whole series represent more than 20 cultures in Northern and Central Europe. During this period, music teachers explore the relationship between folk music and other disciplines in music classes. In public schools, the cooperation between different disciplines is also reflected in some extracurricular activities (festival performances, celebrations, etc.). In these activities, the integration of music, fine arts, history, literature, home economics, handicrafts and other disciplines often occurs, which reflects the cultural integration of all ethnic groups in the world. Students learn about the cultures, customs and habits of all nationalities in the world in extracurricular entertainment activities.

Before the First World War, folk dance became popular in schools and became an important part of music classes. Through folk dances, students can intuitively understand the history, cultural traditions, customs and habits of various ethnic groups. After 19 16, American primary and secondary schools generally added folk dance courses. With the development of record industry, songs and instrumental records of various cultures began to enter music classes, especially enriching and diversifying the content of music appreciation classes. Some music appreciation teaching materials are combined with records, which has played a very good teaching effect. Before 1902, there was no African-American music in American school music textbooks. Obviously, African-American music is despised in school music education.

19 18, the national conference of American music educators introduced African-American soul songs for the first time at the annual meeting of the association. At the opening concert of the conference, the children and organizations of American black schools performed soul songs, and the wonderful performances were warmly welcomed by the delegates. Later, black music programs appeared in some music performances in American schools. At this time, black soul songs began to appear in the content of school music teaching. As school music textbooks, Foresman's Songs Collection and Moment of Music contain a large number of African-American folk songs, especially soul songs. Although soul songs have been accepted by school music courses, other forms of African-American music are still not popular in public primary and secondary schools and high society. Jazz is forbidden in music class, which is considered vulgar, vulgar and evil.

19 18, S. Coleman, a female teacher in Lincoln School of Teachers College of Columbia University in new york, implemented a project called "Creating Music" in this school. One of the contents of this project is to explore the teaching methods of multicultural music education. Coleman believes that children playing musical instruments is a very important channel for learning music. It is best for children to learn musical instruments from simple drums, then gradually to percussion instruments with fixed pitch such as xylophone, then to keyboard instruments, or from lyre to violin. When learning a new musical instrument, she will tell students about the development history and performance practice of the instrument, and often take students to museums to visit musical instruments of various countries; She also asked the children to make some simple musical instruments, such as China's piano and flute, Egyptian clarinet, African marimba and various drums. Coleman's experiment is effective. She explored and studied the creativity of music through the sound of music, expanded the content of music teaching through the study of musical instruments around the world, and provided a successful practice model for the specific implementation of multicultural music education. 1900- 1928 The content of music education in American schools has gradually changed from German music tradition to folk songs and dances in many countries in Northern Europe and Central Europe, as well as a few American black folk songs, American native folk songs and songs from some East Asian countries. After World War I, the United States began to carry out two educational programs in general school education: international relations education and cross-cultural education. From the 1920s to 1930s, the education of international relations became more prominent, with the focus on global peace and understanding. The content of the course is mostly national league, international friendship and the contribution of countries to the world society. Many schools offer courses related to different international cultures, usually including music and folk dance. Celebrations organized by schools are particularly popular in extracurricular activities. All subjects, including art, are considered to be offered to enhance understanding between different countries, nationalities and cultures.

From the late 1920s to the early 1950s, the types and quantities of music included in American school music courses gradually increased. By the mid-1930s, songs from Eastern European countries had been added to the existing music courses in Northern Europe and Western Europe. With the increasing variety and quantity of music works in school music textbooks during this period, Latin American music began to be valued. The National Conference of American Music Educators has played an important role in realizing the unification of the United States through music. 194 1 year, the national conference of American music educators announced the new policy of "unifying America through music". The plan is divided into two parts: the first part is based on American folk music and is called "American songs for American children"; The second part is called "Unified American Music", and its scope is international, mainly Latin American music, which is the embodiment of the good-neighborly and friendly policy. The National Conference of American Music Educators informs all its members about its activities in state relations, participates in the publication and distribution of music teaching materials, and provides relevant information on the implementation of music teaching in the classroom. Music Educator recorded these events in its chronicle and reported more information from national and ministerial conferences. The national conference of American music educators played an important role in promoting the development of multicultural music education in the United States during this period.

In 1950s and 1960s, with the promotion of the International Society of Music Education, with the gradual deepening of people's understanding of multicultural music education, school music education increasingly emphasized internationality. Music educators began to realize that African-American music is also an integral part of American music culture, and jazz was gradually accepted by music educators and became the teaching content of music classes. During this period, American school music textbooks continue to reflect the increase in the number of songs from different cultures. With the increase of Latin American songs, the number of songs from Africa, Australia, Canada, Eastern Europe, the Far East and the Middle East and Pacific island countries in many music textbooks is also increasing, and many of them are marked with the original texts. During this period, not only the number of African-American songs in textbooks increased correspondingly, but also the types were more abundant, such as labor songs, Dang Ge songs and boat songs. Even though there are more and more songs from different cultures in music textbooks, the authenticity of music is still a problem. In order to solve this problem, music textbook publishing companies and record companies began to strive to provide folk songs in a more authentic way. In order to do this, they hired authoritative figures from different music fields at home and abroad as consultants for the selection and introduction of folk music content.

From the late 1960s to the early 1990s, international society for music education continued to promote the development of multicultural music education in the form of seminars and publications. From 1970 in Moscow to 1994 in Tampa, every session of this 13 international conference is a topic related to multicultural music education. Multicultural music education has been the dominant discourse of the International Society of Music Education since the establishment of 1953. Its series of activities show that international society for music education plays an important role in promoting multicultural music education in the world, including the United States. 1994, the U.S. government promulgated the Goals for 2000: American Education Act, which set a higher goal for all students-students must pass the tests of English, mathematics, natural science, foreign languages, citizens and government, economy, art, history and geography in grades 4 and 8 and 12. The bill stipulates: "All students will learn about the cultural heritage of different nationalities in their own country and the world." The bill regards art as the core subject of basic education, which shows that the American government attaches importance to art education. In order to implement the bill, under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Education, national academic organizations in various disciplines began to formulate national standards for courses in various disciplines. The national standard of art education was completed in 1994. The standard includes dance, music, drama and visual arts, and is formulated by the National Art Education Association. In the National Standards for Music Education, the teaching contents of each grade include music works of different nationalities, styles and schools. The promulgation of American national standards for art education has established the position of multicultural music education in school education in the form of national education laws and regulations, making it an important part of school music education. Undoubtedly, the promulgation of the national standards for art education in the United States marks the maturity of multicultural music education in the United States.

From 65438 to 0999, the House Wright Seminar with the theme of "Future Music Education" sponsored by the National Conference of American Music Educators was held in Florida. The Wright Declaration of the House of Representatives issued after the meeting reiterated the importance of implementing multicultural music education: "All music has a certain position in the curriculum. Not only do western artistic traditions need to be preserved and spread, but music educators should also be aware of the music of other nationalities in human experience and integrate it into classrooms and teaching. " The House Wright Declaration embodies the idea and action trend of American music education in the new era, from which we can see that multicultural music education has become an important content of American school music education in the future.

Experts and scholars suggest that college music educators should strengthen the training of different music cultures, be good at at at least one other music culture, and be able to apply a variety of music to music education. In order to meet the needs of the development of multicultural education, the education departments of many states in the United States require teachers to carry out multicultural education and training, and the training content of multicultural education is one of the contents of primary and secondary school teachers' education qualification certificates. As the qualification certificate of music education, there are currently four states that require the examination of western and non-western music, and the relationship between music and culture. Seven states are going to take multicultural competence as one of the music qualification standards required by teachers' professional education.