Musical education is regarded as the practice of music pedagogy. As an educational subject, it is a socially organized, deliberate process of the musical development of the individual. It is decisive for passing on music to new generation.

The paper is concerned with some chapters in the history of Slovak musical education in the 20^th century. Attention is devoted to some aspects of the development of musical education in the Slovak State. The leaving of significant Czech teachers after the break up of the Czechoslovak Republic at the end of the 1930s accelerated the formation of a group of Slovak teachers of singing and the laying of the foundations of Slovak musical education. The methodological handbook of Jozef Vronč and the extensive musical-sociological research of Jozef Šamko and his progressive project of a music school are evidence of this.

According to the intentions of the Czech music pedagogue Vladimír Helfert, the subject “song” was renamed “musical education” in the temporary curriculum from 1945. The post-war conceptions of musical education were dependent on Czech musical education. Progressive foreign influences were reflected in the new conception of musical education from 1976. The spread of music teaching according to the model from Banská Bystrica forms a modest chapter in the history of Slovak musical education.

The transformation of Slovak education system after 1989 is occurring very slowly. Implementation of the national conception of education according to the Millennium Project should bring change. Working out and respecting national and regional forms should contribute to overcoming the present stagnation in the development of general musical education.

The author, composer and pedagogue Juraj Hatrík devotes his study to the problem of the relationship between the mission and work of the composer on the one hand and the music pedagogue on the other. He examines the specifics of the two areas and the possibilities for inter-relating  and combining them. He subjects the traditional paradigm of composition to critical consideration and finds much that is anachronistic in relation to the problems of the contemporary world. Concentration on the “ego” of the crative personality prevails, rather than the development and application of communication with other people. The lack of Greek “paideia”, that is care for the soul affects the creative personality. He sees precisely in this the potential possiblility of bringing composition activity close to the educational mission, which belongs more to the music teacher in the traditional conception. In this field of the “space between”, the author points to the ossification of musical education, a schematic approach demanding memorization of information and reducing knowledge to rules and schemes. He sees the possiblility of bringing teaching closer to the composition or creative principle in the application of creative or open approaches, in which education involves a joint search or asking of questions.

In the next part of his account the author asks whether composing for children is fiction or a challenge. He points to the loss of relationship between music for children and compositions “for adults”. This loss especially afflicted avantgarde music of the 20^th century. This interrupted a tradition, which had survived in European music for several centuries. The composer, who is not able to compose for children in a homogeneous musical language, is not a crystallized personality. Similarly, the work of the music teacher must include the claims of creativity, the ability to follow in the footsteps of the creator, to recreate the process of origin of the composition. It points to the need of children for contact with artistically mature music on a level appropriate to their age. In this context, using examples from his own compositions and teaching work, the author deals with the possibilities to make educational use of musical text, educational projects, which bring the child into the process of learning by means of playing. The composer regards living, active perception on the basis of natural sensibility, which is gradually intellectualized, as the basis of getting to know or analyse a musical work. An important means for bringing teaching and composition together is a metaphor, which forms the bridge between undifferentiated experience on one side and its cognitive processing and fixing in technical terms on the other. Referring to study of C. G. Jung “On the Origin of Personality”, Hatrík criticizes “the experts, who are condemned to competence” because they fear feelings of uncertainty and doubt. And precisely these, as the basis of educational and creative searching, should join the composer and the teacher, and bring closer their positions in the “space between composition and musical education”.

Music contains an educational aspect, which cannot be identified only with school education. The author considers the present content of education and the possibilities for its penetration into the life of the person. She looks for the human aspect of education in its higher mission, where love dominates as the motivating force of life in relation to the object of education – the child. She understands education as possibility. The teacher is a person in a partnership relationship with the pupil.

The possibilities of music in the educational process, especially in school musical and artistic education are approached on this principle. The basis of musical education is the communicative aspect of music – understanding of music and its aesthetic perception. In this sense, the author sees the lesson as an educational work with its specific content and educational meaning. She explains some steps in educational work concerning the perception of music and the musical creativity of pupils. She also emphasizes the educational aspect of music in the artistic education of composers and performers.

The connection of education with music includes important phenomena, which should be an obvious part of every teaching process: musical communication, educational interpretation of the musical work, associative thinking and emotional memory, cultivation of aesthetic thinking, empathy, expression and elements of integrative teaching. A professional level of teaching, attractive teaching materials and the creative character of lessons contribute to this.

Every educational system or conception is a result of historical development in the area of education. This development differs in individual geographical-cultural areas. It depends on social relations, cultural maturity, the qualitative level of education, the institutional base and personalities. Musical education is a scientific discipline, which is reflected in the musical educational process.

German musical education includes a wide range of educational systems and conceptions. It represents a scientific potential reaching beyond the frontiers of the German speaking territory. The significant personalities of German musical education laid the foundations of this scientific discipline and their work is valid for the whole of Europe.

Knowledge, inspiration and application of experience from other countires is an important innovatory element for musical education in a country. Present-day information technology enables accesss to and knowledge of the culture and school systems of other geographical and language territories. These findings can be transferred to domestic conditions in the form of selection of what is applicable and effective. German musical education allows us sufficient space, extent and quality in this direction.

Thanks to the activity of the media, modern popular music became part of the everyday life of society in the 20^th century. Musical expressions of questionable value with advertising and commerce playing the decisive role, intensively influence young people precisely in the period of their formation and value stabilization. On the other hand, the best expressions of modern popular music and jazz can be a source of specific aesthetic experiences. For a long time, this fact has led in the USA and various European countries to use teaching materials from the area of modern popular music and jazz in teaching and to the establishment of specialized educational institutions. Similar efforts occurred in a sporadic and unsystematic way in former Czechoslovakia, but they acquired a more comprehensive character only after 1989.

At present, teaching materials from the area of modern popular music and jazz are used in the higher grades of elementary school, and their extension to the lower grades is planned with the new music textbooks by E. Langsteinová and B. Felix. Modern popular music and jazz are understood in the context of the overall musical culture, art and life of society. An educational subject has arisen in the new conditions to prepare future teachers in university faculties of education for the teaching of modern popular music and jazz to pupils at elementary school. The study provides brief information about the teaching of modern popular music and jazz abroad. We are analysing the present situation in this area in Slovakia with special regard for the situaltion in departments concerned with music and musical education in university faculties of education. The research has also resulted in a statement of the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem and for cooperation between individual educational institutions and monitoring of recent developments aborad. This is the only way to react to the dynamic development of this musical genre, which makes teaching more attractive.

Ethnomusicology has a longstanding tradition as a scholarly and an academic discipline at colleges and universities in the United States. Since the 1980s, under the political and cultural impact of ethnic movements and immigration, music of various world’s cultures have been introduced also to the elementary and high school education. The article presents the content and requirements of the graduate study in ethnomusicology, focusing on the ethnomusicology program offered by the Music Department at the Graduate Center of the City Unviersity of New York, and discussing some recent courses devoted to various aspects of music from the cross-cultural perspective.