According to the editors, ‘The aim of this book is to provide an overview of music education in the UK in the twenty-first century across all phases of education, celebrating achievements, identifying where there is room for improvement and setting out aspirations for the future’. The title is a bold one since, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it is evident that music education in the UK in the 21st century is likely to face significant changes even in the very near future in light of the government's spending review in the autumn of 2010 and the findings of Darren Henley's review of music education. Some chapter authors have pre-empted such changes. For instance, Conlon and Rogers are wary about the future of the 14–19 Diploma in their chapter on music in further education colleges. Conversely, some chapters have already been overtaken by events, for instance in relation to the proposed changes to primary education in the Rose Review that have now been abandoned. However, the book fills a gap in the market by providing a condensed overview of music education in the first decade of the century and encompassing many aspects of music education in the UK.

The book is laid out straightforwardly. It is divided into three sections which are entitled Introduction, Current Issues in Music Education and Contexts of Learning. Each chapter is clearly sectionalised and concludes with a commendably full and up-to-date bibliography. The section entitled Current Issues in Music Education encapsulates the philosophy of the book. It could be suggested that the issues raised in this section are generic and could have been related to all of the Contexts of Learning, allowing for comparison across phases and removing the necessity for the relatively pragmatic chapters outlining each context of learning. Some issues do pervade the book but are not listed as such. For instance, in the first chapter of the introduction Hallam aims to summarise ‘the power of music’. She actually outlines the transferable benefits of music and these are reiterated throughout the book, for instance in the chapters about singing, learning to play an instrument and ‘learning through life’ as well as in the chapters on music in the early years and music in the primary school and in the final chapter entitled ‘Where now?’. Writing about music in the early years, Creech and Ellison suggest that ‘music provision is largely driven by two dominant values that may be summarised as: (1) the transferable skills discourse, and (2) the creativity discourse’. ‘The creativity discourse’ might have been given more weight in this book with more discussion of the unique benefits that are gained from music education and what specific ‘power’ music has. It is heartening that Hallam does state in the concluding paragraph of the book that ‘the value of music in its own right must not be forgotten’.

In the second chapter Adams, Hallam and McQueen give a useful summary of the development of music education in the UK since the advent of compulsory schooling but there is much discussion of what Ed Vaizey described as ‘the blizzard of initiatives’ in the first decade of the 21st century, many of which may be quite transitory and will undoubtedly not have lasting impact in comparison to the work of educators such as Froebel, Dalcroze, Orff, Kodaly and Paynter whose work has to be equally briefly discussed in the chapter.

The Current Issues in Music Education section clearly reflects the research interests of many of the established authors who all work at or have an association with the Institute of Education. This means that each chapter has a refreshingly individual voice but that some important topics are discussed only in passing. These include current issues such as the necessity to integrate learners’ musical experiences from all contexts, the importance of the learner's voice, the power of informal learning, progression in learning (including transition issues) and the relative value of academic and vocational music education. Apart from ‘the role of technology’ the ‘current issues’ selected have been important issues in music education for a substantial period of time.

Some chapters in the Current Issues in Music Education section have a very specific focus. For instance, Welch and Ockelford's chapter purports to consider ‘Music for all’ but actually focuses on specific research carried out as part of the Provision of Music in Special Education (PROMISE) project. In a chapter about ‘music for all’ it would seem important to discuss learners who have diverse learning needs other than special educational needs, for instance needs related to the learners’ social and cultural backgrounds. Himonides and Purves’ chapter on the role of technology interestingly relates the UK government's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) ten holistic principles to music technology. This provides a clear structure for the chapter but means that the creative potential of music technology in education is given little consideration.

Hallam's chapter on ‘Listening’ is much more wide-ranging and is enlivened by pertinent and musical case studies. This is also true of her chapter on ‘Learning to play an instrument’ written in collaboration with Creech, although more discussion of group and whole-class instrumental teaching would have reflected the current picture of learning to play an instrument in the UK. Case studies are used less successfully in some later chapters where they rather overwhelm the text, for instance in the final two chapters.

Saunders, Varvarigou and Welch have obviously written about the role of singing once again because of the ‘new initiatives’ that they discuss but this does not necessarily define it as a current issue, merely an ongoing issue. In their chapter on Creativity Hallam and Rogers have taken a particular perspective in relation to such an enormous area and have focused on creative activities such as composing and improvising. However, it is not evident why world music has been chosen as having particular power to engender creativity. Papageorgi and Hallam again take a particular stance on issues of assessment and performance and after promoting an atomised approach to assessment within the curriculum (Box 9.1) devote a great deal of discussion to grade exams including a seemingly unrelated section on performance anxiety. Assessment does not fare well as a topic for discussion with the only case study of innovative assessment practice in universities and conservatoires being from Australia.

The section entitled Contexts of Learning contains eight chapters which discuss music in the early years, music in the primary school, music in the secondary school, music in further education colleges, music in universities and conservatoires, Music Services, the music studio and the role of music leaders and community musicians. Each chapter provides a pragmatic overview and, as suggested earlier, these chapters might have been strengthened by considering issues which transcend contexts and phases of music education. For instance, in the chapters on ‘the music studio’ (a term which is now commonly recognised to mean a recording studio but is here used to mean a ‘private music studio’, mainly involving one-to-one teaching) and the chapter about community musicians, characteristics of effective teachers in these contexts are highlighted. In the chapter about the music studio it is stated that ‘teacher–pupil relationships . . . have been found to make a significant contribution to effective teaching and learning’ and in the chapter about community musicians it is established that their ‘key attributes are . . . excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills, an understanding of the social and musical cultures one is working within, good administrative skills and knowledge of bureaucratic structures’ and that they ‘possess the expertise that is required to most effectively initiate, organise and guide musical encounters.’ All of these comments apply to any effective music educator. Similarly, a number of chapter authors refer to the lack of opportunities for conservatoire musicians and community musicians to become educators themselves and seem unaware that music education courses for teachers nowadays embrace a range of contexts and that effective teaching and learning strategies are transferable.

Music education in the 21st century in the UK is obviously incredibly diverse and the book very effectively reflects this situation. The book is unusual in attempting to cover such a breadth of content and provides a valuable starting point for reading, particularly for those who are new to the field.