Rating: 
Summary: Redundant
Review: Although it is full of a lot of interesting ideas, this book is basically a compilation of assorted musings garnered primarily from Elliott's previously published articles. In an age of boundless and readily available information, books that strive for synthesis and brevity are often the most useful in education. As a text for foundations courses in music education as well as inservice reading for music teachers, Music Matters misses the mark. However, as a source for a myriad of ideas and directions in music education philosophy, I have found it especially useful.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, but needs interpersonal and editing skills.
Review: David Elliot certainly has done much to help those of us in music education embrace the kinds of "musicing" that were absent from the traditional American music curriculum. Approaching music as a verb rather than a noun changes our process dramatically and for the better. However, the book would be more effective if it were better edited. It reads as if Elliot simply transcribed audio recordings of lectures in his doctoral level philosophy classes. The work contains many long elaborate lists, invented words, and sentences with confusing syntax which at best confuse and at worst insult the reader. (A particular glaring example from the first chapter: "When discussing music education, twelve things immediately come to mind. We will discuss four of them. ") In addition to this need for editing, Elliot seems to be carrying a very large chip on his shoulder for his former graduate advisor and apparent nemesis, Bennett Reimer. Many readers, myself included, may find his confrontational tone counter-productive to his professed cause of furthering the profession. Readers may also take issue with his refusal to acknowledge the fact that no thought, however radical and new, is created in a vacuum, but rather is built upon the foundation of the thought from which it precedes. It is certain that Elliot would vehemently deny any influence of Reimer's philosophical though on his own work, but the facts of time and circumstance point otherwise. His work would have been impossible to create had it not been for the philosophical foundations laid by Reimer.
Rating: 
Summary: A new paradigm
Review: Elliott 's book is a major and brilliant achievement. Never has our field seen anything close to this kind of superb thinking, writing, and scholarship. Elliott sets a new standard, far above the weak mush Reimer has always churned out. Still, Elliott gives full credit to Reimer in Music Matters (chp. 2) for Reimer's earlier work in music education philosophy. Elliott's critics conveniently overlook the fact that Elliott gives this credit, let alone how graciously he does it. Elliott's critics also fail to understand what philosophy is: to do Philosophy is to reflect critically on the efforts of other thinkers, past and present. This is exactly what Elliott does on the way to providing a fine alternative to Reimer's restricted aesthetic view; and Elliott does this brilliantly, with excellent logic and clear explanations. In addition, Elliott never attacks Reimer as a person (whereas Reimer is fond of attacking Elliott personally in his MEJ tirades and elswhere).
Rating:
Summary: Smart and gutsy
Review: Elliott deserves huge credit for having the guts and smarts to expose the fuzzy nonsense handed out to us for years by the old aesthetic ed establishment. Even more, Elliott's philosophy makes perfect sense to real teachers who have to put the National Standards into practice because Elliott's book tells us why and how to make the Standards happen.
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Summary: The Best
Review: Elliott's bold and brilliant book is far, far ahead of anything else in the field. While the American MENC and its cheerleaders in the so-called Standards movement remain stuck in the vapid "old-think" of Reimer's 19th-century notions, Elliott's book offers exceedingly clear, logical, comprehensive, and practical explanations of music and music education based his own thinking and the best research by today's leading scholars. Thus, this book is a classic in the field. I wish my colleagues in the UK would read this book carefully and soon; if not, we'll be stuck forever with the insular and very poor thinking of "our old Swanwick," and the rest of the world will pass us by.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Elliott's book is a classic in the field. I use it as the basic text in my Foundations courses because it is so superior to anything else we have in music education. It is also essential reading for anyone interested in music philosophy and music cognition. Among its many values, I recommend it highly for its amazing clarity, comprehensiveness, scholarship, logic, and passion.
Rating: 
Summary: Make music central in everyone's education!
Review: Hello! I'm David Elliott. Thank you for your interest in this book. The aim of "Music Matters" is to offer a solid philosophical foundation for educating people toward the fullest understanding and enjoyment of music listening and music making. Although it is directed mainly to music educators, "Music Matters" discusses a variety of topics of interest to music lovers everywhere, including these: the nature of music; the significance of music in human life; the nature of music listening, music performing, musical creativity, musical development and musical-affective experience. For summaries of key topics in "Music Matters," a list of the Book Reviews it has received, a list of related books and journal articles, and/or readers' comments, please see my web site at: http://www.utoronto.ca/musicmat Thank you!
Rating:
Summary: Elliott's philosophy is still the BEST!!
Review: I just saw a review here by someone who claims that Elliott's praxial philosophy is 'old' now that Reimer has published his third edition. But this person makes several false statements in his review. First, Elliott's philosophy states that all students should learn ALL forms of music making and listening. Elliott does NOT advocate a performance-only philosophy. This 'performance-only' claim against Elliott is pure rubbish; it is dis-information by Reimer and his un-thinking clones. Second, Reimer says nothing new in his third edition; his philosphy still rests squarely on Langer's old philosophy, which has been rejected by 95% of the world's leading music philosophers, including Kivy, Davies and others.
Rating:
Summary: The best discussion of music and music education!
Review: I'm currently a PhD student in music education (and, also, a Band director). I've been required to read several books on the Foundations of Music Education for my course requirements. Compared to the others I've studied so far by Mark, Abeles, Reimer, and Swanwick, Music Matters is by far the most intelligent and comprehensive. It's more challenging to read than any of the others, but it's worth the effort.
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Summary: Elliott's philosophy is still the BEST!!
Review: It is exciting to finally see American educators recognize the brilliance of Canadian scholars like David J. Elliott. I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Elliott speak at the Canadian Music Educators'Conference Research Forum back in 1991 and his ideas as well as others like Harold Fiske and Robert Walker were a refreshing change from the long-held music education philosophies of American Bennett Reimer and Englishman Keith Swanwick. Elliott was just formulating his ideas back then but he was most inspirational. As a music specialist, I have created a curriculum based on teaching multiculturalism through composition in my elementary program. I'm glad to finally see a multicultural philosophy for the arts that offers an alternative to the Eurocentric Aesthetic viewpoint.
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