James Mursell

Life & Legacy

James Lockhart Mursell (b. Derby, England, June 1, 1893; d. Jackson, New Hampshire, Feb. 1, 1963) wrote extensively about music education and the use of music in a classroom setting. He emphasized the student's role in learning and believed that unless students are intrinsically motivated to learn, their musical growth will be minimal at best. In Mursell's view, the best motivator is the active, participatory musical experience — singing, playing, listening and being actively involved with good music. This is the all-important starting point for motivation, and it is from these experiences that musical growth can occur.
He applies his "synthesis-analysis-synthesis" (or whole-part-whole) pattern of learning to music education, and speaks of musical understanding as "unfolding or evolving, rather than adding or accumulating." Instead of teaching the rudiments of music in isolation from the context that gives them meaning, Mursell suggests that factual knowledge about music will gradually be gleaned from songs that students have learned and enjoy singing. Each time they sing a particular song, they do something different with it and learn a little more about it. In this way their understanding of melody, rhythm and dynamics deepens gradually as an outgrowth of meaningful music-making, rather than drill and practice. At the end of each such activity, when students sing the song through once more, it means more to them that it did prior to their "analysis" of it.
Mursell conceived of his pedagogical role as building “a bridge between our psychological knowledge and the practical teaching job,” by applying six principles: context, focus, social relationships, individuality, an ordered sequence and appropriate evaluation.