Frede V. Nielsen in memoriam.
Frede died on 21 March, still in his 70th year. He had, in defiance of his health condition, many plans for the future. He never tired in his quest for more knowledge and understanding of the essence of music education, and his wonder about the miracle of music was probably a great comfort. As «Specialeafhandling» in his University exam he wrote about Beethoven and Mozart’s piano concertos, and he was active as choir conductor until1994. A life in and for music has ended.
In February and March 1974 there was an article in Dansk Musik Tidsskrift called «Hvad er musikpædagogik?» («What is music pedagogy»?). The author was Frede V. Nielsen, teacher at Danmarks Lærerhøjskoles Institut for Musik og Musikvidenskab. In this article we find several of the major issues that Frede addressed throughout his career: The meaning of concepts like «music pedagogy», «music education», «music as art», «music didactics» and «music teaching», the relationship between aims and content in music education, and the question «why should we teach music?» Doing this, he reminded us of the necessity to engage in questions of a philosophical nature, and he had introduced an issue that was to dominate his professional life: Music didactics.
A special feature of the article was that it almost exclusively referred to German music education scholars and teachers. This was, for many Scandinavian music educators at that time, a thought-provoking presentation, since at least Sweden and Norway had been primarily oriented towards American and English thought and practice in music education. Even if knowledge of German music education expanded in Scandinavia in the following years, Frede continued to be the best informed and the one who established sustainable relationships between Scandinavian and German philosophies and practices of music education. He never tired of this, and even published in English about German music education issues, for instance about «Bildung». Not an altogether easy task!
An article by Frede in the same journal, one year earlier, had introduced his other major interest, research in music education. This was also a recurring issue for Frede, with the relationship between music teaching and research as a basic theme. Some were probably surprised when Frede, well known for his philosophical contributions, presented a doctoral thesis based on an empirical study of experience of musical tension while listening to music by Haydn. This study proved to be of importance for Frede’s theory of the many layers of meaning in a piece of music, and the many potential experiences for the listener. This theory was central for his didactical theory in his influential book, Almen Musikdidaktik (General Music Didactics) from 1994.
Through the years, Frede continued to contribute to Danish, Scandinavian, and international discourse about music education, on all the issues mentioned above and on many more. At the same time he was central in developing programs in music teacher education and music education research in the institution he worked in for more than 40 years, Danmarks Lærerhøjskole (from 2000: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet). This was not always an easy task, and worries about the future of the music education program was prominent in his mind in his last years.
Outside Denmark he was engaged in Nordic Network for Research in Music Education from its start in 1992, contributing in conferences and as coeditor of several yearbooks. He was a member of the Research Alliance for Institutes of Music Education (RAIME), meeting music education scholars from many parts of the world for presentations and discussions. His expertise in music education was also drawn on by Bergen Lærerhøyskole, where he was Guest Professor (Professor II) from 1994 to 2001. He was also a member of many committees in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, addressing issues in higher music education institutions. Doing this, he also contributed to the development of these institutions.
I first met Frede in 1974. This started a cooperation about music education as a program in higher education that was of great value for me. Always responsive, always ready to contribute, Frede was a reliable cornerstone in the building of music education as a theoretical and practical issue for higher music education. His insistence on and formulation of a didactic theory for music education will continue to influence music education students and teachers for many years.
In memory of a good friend and colleague,
Harald Jørgensen,
Norges musikkhøgskole