A little over two years ago, as part of the British Journal of Music Education silver jubilee celebrations, a symposium was held at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education to which all past editors of the journal were invited. It was a particular honour that, although already physically frail, John Paynter, who has recently died aged 79, agreed to make the long journey from York to be present at this event. In a short but perfectly judged speech, he demonstrated that he had lost none of the intellectual acuity and perceptiveness which had made him one of the most respected figures in the world of music education.

My purpose is to develop better understanding of John Paynter's professional life and work, and by examining his pedagogic principles, discern something of the system of beliefs that underlay his commitment to finding a place for music within a system of general education. A number of significant influences are identified that bear upon his thought and practice and which in conjunction with his vocation as a composer-teacher come to privilege a process of making that is thought to bring order and coherence not only to musical thought but by analogy to life lived creatively. Portraying John as existential-humanist, although reductive, has a two-fold purpose; it exposes and invites critique of the creative ideology John so zealously promoted and at the same time provides a basis for a wider critique, and in particular, critique of current and future ideas about music, music education and its practice. In this way, John's life and work can be viewed as a vital source of long-living value.

The big challenge of John Paynter's work in music education from the late 1960s on was that his approach to children's music was that of composer to composer. This was markedly at odds with the training of most music teachers at that time whose specialism – whose status even – was most likely to be rooted in their performance skills. For many teachers, composition was an entirely alien activity, with ‘real’ composers as distanced figures, to be approached through history and appreciation or possibly performance of their works.

It was my wife to be, whilst teacher training at Goldsmiths in the early seventies, who drew my attention to this extraordinary man. Large, amiable, typically English in so many ways, polished shoes, be-suited, courteous, brilliant. She remembers now some 40 years later the experience of being taught, being inspired by him as a visiting lecturer on her postgraduate, initial teacher-training primary course, promulgating a philosophy of creativity in the class room whose mantra was manna to the ears of eager students, wanting in turn to teach and inspire children. This visit followed closely the publication of the revolutionary Sound and Silence, a book that changed the face of music education for ever.

One of the most impressive things about John Paynter was that he was an excellent teacher; not flashy or showy, but quietly unassuming. Numerous friends and colleagues have commented on how he could walk into a classroom of children or adults and with a few quiet words get them all concentrating on making music together and thinking hard about what they were doing. This certainly inspired me to become a teacher, although it took me many years to learn how to direct and organise with apparently such small interventions. He could pick a few apt words and create a perfect environment for working.

Outside the music department at the University of York is a tall bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. One of my abiding memories of John Paynter is walking in conversation with him through the university campus and seeing him leap towards this sculpture, indignantly (and with some difficulty) removing a woolly hat that had been placed on the top by some disrespectful student. The small things mattered to John – not that he would have seen such irreverence for art as a small thing – and he was always prepared to remedy them himself through direct, practical action. This made him a head of department who always seemed to have time for his students, and he spent hours in dissertation tutorials guiding me slowly and thoughtfully through debates about music education that he must have explored and resolved for himself many years before. I learnt so much from his precision in writing, his critical thinking and his patient mentoring – qualities I now aspire to in an academic career on which I would never have embarked without his insistence that I should do a PhD. John's retirement coincided with the end of my undergraduate degree, and so sadly I was not able to continue doctoral studies with him, though he remained encouraging and interested in all aspects of my work long after I had left York.

In 1970 I abandoned a career in orchestral playing to become a teacher of music in schools. Although I am glad that I had the chance to play professionally, I am even more pleased that I pursued the profession for which I had been trained because interesting things were occurring in school music. As it happens, 1970 was also the year in which Sound and Silence by Paynter and Aston was published.

For a practicing arts educator, the relationship between theory and practice is often unproblematic: theory is considered to be irrelevant for the good practice. Considering the matter from an academic standpoint, one faces the distinction between poietic, or productive, and contemplative, or responsive, mindsets stemming from the classical philosophical tradition. Still more confusing is the question of the relationship between theory and philosophy; one's theory seems to follow one's chosen philosophical commitment, even to a degree that advocates of different philosophical stances do not necessarily understand each others' conceptions of theory.

In this article,1 we examine the complex relationships between philosophy, theory and practice in music education. We shall begin with analysing different approaches to philosophy of music education. Proceeding towards more general conceptions of the relationship between theory and practice, we will examine the work of some of the well-known authors within the field of music education in order to pave way to a philosophical outlook that conceives the role of philosophy of music education as a form of cultural critique. The suggested alternative approach mediates between contemplative and poietic fields in pedagogical praxis. This guides us towards an understanding that considers theoretical concepts as philosophically loaded pragmatic tools that serve critical rationality embedded in practical action. From this standpoint there is indeed no need to cut theory apart from a good practice: both can be taken to serve the same master, philosophically informed way of living meaningfully.

This article reports the results of research into teachers’ practices concerning the assessment of composing at Key Stage 3 in the National Curriculum for Music in England. It finds that many teachers are using NC levels for assessing individual pieces of work, a process for which they were never intended. It also finds that teachers find it difficult to show progress using NC levels, and that many teachers have rewritten the levels into child-friendly language, thus causing further difficulties.

This paper explores the concept of instrumental/vocal learning when studying the same instrument or voice with more than one concurrent teacher. In this context, teachers may be working as a team, or one or both teachers may not know of the other's contribution to a student's learning. Qualitative data from music students and teachers at the University of York sheds some light on this often hidden learning context. This paper examines students’ reasons for studying with more than one teacher; their views on negotiating teacher demands; teacher–student–teacher dynamics; and assessment of the success of this context for learning. Teachers’ views are considered through discussion of their attitudes to this context, and their evaluation of its effect on their teaching. Findings suggest that although there may be problems for students regarding issues of teacher loyalty and dealing with conflicting advice, there are also many benefits including exposure to a greater range of musical and technical ideas and added pedagogical insight. There are also potential benefits for teachers if they are working as a team.

This paper explores recent developments in relation to doctoral research training in music. Drawing on the findings of a case-study of a recently established practice-led doctorate at an Australian conservatoire, we offer insights into the attributes of its expanding cohort. We interrogate a blended research training structure of academic supervision, coursework, web-based tools and administrative resources in order to reveal the obstacles to, and opportunities for improvement. The paper concludes by arguing programme design refinements which contribute to a deeper understanding of practice-led doctorates in music while inviting readers to similarly consider their own experiences.