Education of Music Historians: Past, Present and Future
The situation in the realm of education of music historians is assessed by the author as catastrophic - first of all because the conservatoire programmes do not pay due attention to the music of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as the music of non-European cultures. As a result, the notions and categories pertaining to the European music of last three or four centuries are often interpreted erroneously, since their relation to the musical thinking of remote past remains either obscure or misunderstood. The author traces the historical developments that brought to such a situation, outlines the possible ways to overcome it, and brings positive examples from the recent practice of the St Petersburg Conservatoire.