This paper is to explicate why schools wrote their school song based on the documents of the commission of musical composition at Tokyo Academy of Music, which is a collection of letters exchanged between schools and Tokyo Academy of Music. Tokyo Academy of Music received 456 commissions to write the school song during the period from 1907 to 1945. The schools began to make their school songs, though they were not obligated to and even needed the funds. Especially after 1930, the number of schools which asked Tokyo Academy of Music to write their school songs increased. The schools got “a superior school song” by commissioning Tokyo Academy of Music to write their school songs, and presented their school songs, each of which shows the motto and idea of the school, to the people outside the school at the school ceremonies. The school songs were used to express the ideas of each school by connecting the environment and virtues with the image of an ideal student, and were means to disseminate the schools’ identities.

  The purpose of this study is to research the courses of music education at three national universities in Finland and to reveal the characteristics of skills and knowledge required for music teachers. First, I refer to the historical changes of the music education in Finland. Next, I show that the National Core Curriculum 2004 has had a great deal of relevance to music education. Reflecting the content of the National Core Curriculum 2004, each university has built music education courses for master’s and doctorate degrees. In conclusion, I would like to elucidate the following six points of skills and knowledge : advanced practical skills of a piano accompaniment and improvisation, a wide and profound knowledge, teaching skills trained through long-term teaching practice, the leadership to promote the cooperative projects with pupils, utilizing Information and Communication Technologies, and devoting to the study of music based on feedback from pupils.

  This study determines the new educational significance of creative music making. Furthermore, it examines the relation between an image and music as well as the self and others from the perspective of Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory. Lacan insists that a subject always loses the self and acquires ego by reflecting on others. This theory suggests that image and music are objects for self-reflection. This study clarifies that creative music making is attained by transforming sound into music and coming across the sound that it demanded, and not through the development of an image. Then, what is the function of an image in creative music making? The image simply provides opportunities to make music. Furthermore, the image is generated by the ego, which is acquired through the music. Thus, music teachers must think of ways to teach the techniques of transforming sound into music. The new music is made by music. And the new music that is not language produces conversation for reasons for it. From these findings, the significance of creative music making is to recognize the self and allows for an opportunity to communicate with others in society.