Newsletter of the MENC History
Special Research Interest Group

October 1999
 

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Editor, Marie McCarthy, History SRIG Chair (1998-2000)
Chair-Elect, Carolyn Livingston (1998-2000)
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Notable Changes in the HSRIG Community

Greetings to all members! There are some notable changes and developments in the HSRIG community since the last newsletter. In these latter months of 1999 we are acutely aware of endings and new beginnings, and acknowledge that in our community we also witness a significant ending and a new beginning. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education, the first journal of historical research in music education, had its final issue in May 1999. We are deeply indebted to George N. Heller, whose vision brought this journal into existence in 1980 and whose persistence and dedication maintained this scholarly forum through its twenty volumes. George continues his editorship with the new Journal of Historical Research in Music Education  and is assisting in the transition of The Bulletin to a new location. Following is a description of the new arrangements for the publication.
 

Beginning in fall 1999, The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education will be published by Arizona State University, re-titled the Journalof Historical Research in Music Education (JHRME). The JHRME will feature a new look, two editors (Jere Humphreys and George Heller), a publication editor (Jeffrey Bush), a book review editor (Marie McCarthy), and an expanded editorial committee with members from several foreign countries.

For information on subscriptions to the JHRME, back issues of The Bulletin, or article submissions, contact JHRME, School of Music, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0405.  For information on book review subscriptions, contact Marie McCarthy, School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 <mm148@umail.umd.edu>

There is another notable change in The Sonneck Society which is now called The Society for American Music.  See the web site at <American-music.org> for details on membership.  The Sonneck Society was incorporated in 1975 in honor of Oscar Sonneck, early Chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress.  The Society "seeks to stimulate the appreciation, performance, creation, and study of American music in all its historical and contemporary styles and contexts, including art and popular music, the musics of ethnic groups and minorities, and the full range of activities associated with music in North America, including Central America and the Caribbean."
 

Publications of the Society include American Music, a bulletin, and membership directory.  Conferences in the year 2000 will be held in Charleston, SC, March 1-5, and the Mega Conference (along with AMS, CMS, SEM and other groups) in Toronto, November 1-5.

A newly established "history of music education website," located at www.utc.edu/~wlee, is devoted to the history of music education.  "It is designed to help scholars in the history of music education and specialist-scholars in music educational history.  Though the site emphasizes electronic resources, it also includes a variety of representative books, articles, and bibliographies relating to how people have taught and learned music.  An effort has been made to present significant recent publications and most electronic resources.  Naturally, choices of sources to include on the site are idiosyncratic to the manager of the site and his contributors and no claim to completeness in made." This site is supported by the Music Department of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. We are indebted to William R. Lee who initiated this project and is willing to serve as site manager, and to establish a website for the HSRIG at the MENC website.
 

HSRIG members have changed positions in recent months and we wish them every success. Roger Rideout, former Southwestern Division Chair of the HSRIG, is now Coordinator of Music Education in the Department of Music and Dance, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Terese Volk, former Eastern Division Chair, is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Music, Wayne State University, Detroit. Patricia Costa Kim, who earlier this year completed her dissertation at the University of Washington, "Making Music Their Own: School Music, Community, and Standards of Excellence in Seattle, 1960-75", is now Director of Education and Community Programs with the Seattle Symphony.
 
 

Looking Ahead to the Britton Symposium and the
MENC Biennial Conference, Washington, DC

The Historian's Perspective: A Symposium In Tribute to Allen P. Britton

The music education community will honor the distinguished music educator and scholar Allen P. Britton in a symposium to be held on Monday, March 6, 2000, at the University of Maryland, College Park, preceding the MENC National Biennial In-Service Conference in Washington, DC, March 8-11. The forum is open to historical topics in music education, in addition to papers that pay tribute to Allen Britton, particularly the way he brought historical perspective to the current practice of music education. Each author will be allotted twenty minutes for presentation, followed by ten minutes of discussion. Papers presented (including longer versions of the symposium papers) will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. Interested scholars should submit a one-page abstract to Marie McCarthy by December 1, 1999, at the following address: School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, or by e-mail at <mm148@umail.umd.edu>
 

Participants may stay at the conference hotels in Washington, DC, at the conference rate, and travel to the University of Maryland, College Park, by Metro train; or, participants will find accommodation at the Inn and Conference Center where the Symposium will be held, or at nearby hotels and motels in College Park. (See website listed below for further information.)
 

Please note that there is no registration fee to attend this Symposium, but those planning to attend are required to send a written confirmation to Marie McCarthy by January 15, 2000: School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 <mm148@umail.umd.edu>
 

Symposium program and further information will be made available at the University of Maryland Performing Arts Library website:<http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/MUSIC/music.html>

"Piano 300: Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos"

Some members have made inquiries about the "Piano 300" exhibit to be held at the Smithsonian Institution, beginning in March, 2000. Although the exhibit does not open officially until March 9, MENC has arranged a special tour for conference attendants on Wednesday, March 8. A web site for the exhibit is in progress. For further information about the exhibit or the tour, contact Valeska Hilbig in the Public Affairs Office at the Smithsonian Institution (202) 357-1300, or Mike Blakeslee at MENC, 1-800-828-0229.
 

HSRIG Session, MENC Biennial Conference

The History SRIG session is scheduled for 8:00-9:00AM, on Friday, March 10. I have changed the format of the session this year on two fronts, (although the business meeting will remain part of the session). First, we are planning one principal speaker and considerable time for discussion; also, our speaker, Barbara Finkelstein, is an educational historian from outside the HSRIG community. The session is titled "Crossing Borders, Expanding Boundaries: The New Historiography of Education," and will include a presentation of recent developments in educational historiography that have implications for the scope, content and methodology of historical research in music education.

Barbara Finkelstein, Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Planning and Administration and Director of the International Center for the Study of Education Policy and Human Values, University of Maryland at College Park, is a widely published cultural historian who has received an array of awards and fellowships--the American Educational Studies Association Book of the Year award for Regulated Children/Liberated Children: Education in Psychohistorical Perspective; Henry Allen Moe Prize for Excellence in the Arts for an essay entitled "Casting Networks of Good Influence;" American Press Association Award for the best article of the year for "Reimagining Civic Education;" a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship at the University of Tokyo and National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowship.

Her published work has explored relationships between education and culture, with a special focus on the history and fate of minority children in schools, classrooms, and communities in the United States. Her publications and presentations have been translated into multiple languages and she has participated as keynote speaker at many international conferences.  She is currently president of the History of Education Society, was Vice President of Division F of AERA, president of the American Educational Studies Association, founding editor of Issues in Education, (now AERJ) and lectures extensively on issues of compelling historical and cultural importance--the evolution and condition of childhood, minority group learning, and cultural relations.
 

Following are selected articles authored by Finkelstein which you may wish to read prior to the HSRIG session:
(1) "Education Historians as Mythmakers," Review of Research in Education 18  (1992): 255-297.
(2) "Incorporating Childhood into the History of Education," The Journal of  Educational Thought XVIII, 1 (April 1984): 21-43.
(3) "Revealing Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth in the History of Education:  Approaches in the 1990s." Paedogica Historica: International Journal of  the History of Education XXXII (1996): 453-474.
 
 

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

HSRIG Distinguished Service Award
Deadline: December 1, 1999

The HSRIG has established a distinguished service award to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to historical research in music education.  Members are free to nominate anyone (self-nominations accepted) so long as the nominee meets the qualifications described below.

Nominees music have a record of at least ten years of ongoing significant contributions to historical research in music education, including high quality work in one or more of the following activities:

1.  Publication/presentation of scholarly research related to the history of music education;
2.  Collection/publication of primary source material related to the history of music education;
3.  Editorial service to journals/other publications related to history of music education;
4.  Encouragement/mentorship to students and other researchers interested in historical research in music education;
5.  Service to HSRIG/other organizations related to historical research in music education;
6.  Demonstrated excellence in the teaching of the history of music education.

Applications should include a letter of nomination and nominee's curriculum vita.  Send information to the Chair Elect by December 1, 1999. Carolyn Livingston, Department of Music, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881.  E-mail: musiced@uriacc.uri.edu
 

The recipient will be chosen the HSRIG Nominating Committee (Carolyn Livingston, Chair).  The award (certificate or plaque) will be presented at the biennial HSRIG meeting held in conjunction with the MENC National conference in Washington, DC.

Recipients of the award have been George N. Heller in 1994, Allen P. Britton in 1996, and Michael Mark in 1998.
 
 
 

HSRIG Chair-Elect for 2000-02
Deadline: December 1, 1999.

Description of the position:  The HSRIG National Chair-Elect shall assist the National Chair in organizing the activities of the History SRIG.  After a two-year term (2000-02), the Chair-Elect will become the Chair for 2002-04. Nominees should be HSRIG members who are active in historical research in music education.

SRIG Chairs may not currently hold any other national leadership posts in the Society for Research in Music Education.  National leadership posts are defined as members of the MERC Executive Committee, JMRE Editorial Committee, or Update Editorial Committee.

Send letters of nomination to the Chair-Elect, Carolyn Livingston, by December 1, 1999.  The Chair-Elect will be selected by the HSRIG Nominating Committee.  Past National Chairs:

George Heller, 1978-1980  William Lee, 1990-1992
James Scholten, 1980-1982 Mark Fonder, 1992-1994
Michael Mark, 1982-1984  Hoyt LeCroy, 1994-1996
Melvin Platt, 1984-1986  Sondra Howe, 1996-1998
Charles Gary, 1986-1988  Marie McCarthy, 1998-2000
Thomas Hill, 1988-1990  Carolyn Livingston, 2000-2002

Send nominations to Carolyn Livingston, HSRIG Chair-Elect, Department of Music, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881.  E-mail: musiced@uriacc.uri.edu
 
 
 

Remembering a Significant American Music Historian

Alan Clark Buechner, 16 April 1926-10 December 1998

On December 10, 1998, Alan C. Buechner, one of the founding members of the Sonneck Society for American Music, died at a convalescent center in Woburn, Massachusetts. He was born in El Paso, Texas on April 16, 1926.  He had been Professor of Music at the Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY, from 1967 to his retirement in 1992.  Prior appointments include Harvard University, the University of Texas, and the University of Hartford.  His study of "Yankee Singing in Schools and the Golden Age of Choral Music in New England, 1760-1800" (Ed.D. dissertation, Harvard 1960), laid the foundation for many subsequent studies of that popular institution.  During the past two decades his investigation into American revivalism of the 1840s, into 19th-century American music and dance as reflected by the fiddle tune collection of W.S. Mount, and into the music activities of the painter Thomas Hart Benton have been the subjects of papers delivered at meetings of the American Folklore Society; the Old Sturbridge Conference "Joyful Sounds;" the Berea Conference on Rural Hymnody; the Stony Brook Conference "Catching the Tune;" the American Musicological Society; the Violin Society of America; and the Sonneck Society.  He had also lectured on various topics in American music at Emory University, the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and Bard College.  The recording The New England Harmony, a collection of early American choral music (Folkways FA 3-2377) was produced under his direction at Old Sturbridge Village in 1964.  Articles and reviews have been published in the Journal of the American Musicological Association; in Symposium, the Journal of the College Music Society; in American Music; the Journal of the Sonneck Society; the Music Educators Journal, and the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklore.  A founder and officer of the Sonneck Society for American Music, he served on the Board and as its vice-president as well as chairing the Nominating, Bylaws, and American Music in American Schools and Colleges committees. In October 1998, the Society for American Music Board awarded him  the Distinguished Service Citation, the Society's highest award for members.

Reports of Past Conferences

The 3rd annual seminar on Historical Research in Music  Education was held at the University of London Institute of Education on 2 July 1999. The papers included: Music in Adult Education in Mechanics Institutes, 1825-1875 (Jana Sims); Paul David, John Farmer and the English Public Schools (Michael Spencer); Choirboys in Evora and Vila Vicosa, Portugal, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries: duties and training (Michael Ryan); Edmund Priestley: the development of a music policy in a Local Education Authority (Paul Mann).

Submitted by Gordon Cox, University of Reading, UK

Robin Stevens (Deakin University, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Melbourne, Australia) presented a paper entitled "Emily Patton and Tonic Sol-fa: The Influence of an Australian Immigrant to Japan on Music Education during the Latter Half of the Meiji Period" at the recent Twenty-First International Standing Conference for History of Education which was held at the University of Sydney, July 12-16, 1999.  The abstract of the paper and a copy of the full text of the paper may be obtained via email from Robin at <rstevens@deakin.edu.au>

Submitted by Robin Stevens, Deakin University, Australia
 

Call For Conference Papers

The Society for American Music (formerly the Sonneck Society) will hold a special conference 1-5 November 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, as one of fifteen music scholarly societies participating in Toronto 2000: Musical Intersections.  Proposals for papers, concerts, lecture-performances, and full sessions are invited, as are proposals for presentations in innovative and imaginative formats.  The Program Committee is particularly interested in considering papers or sessions that have representation from more than one of the scholarly societies involved in the conference; already built into the SAM program are several joint sessions with both the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and the Historic Brass Society.  We also invite truly cross-disciplinary papers and sessions that combine musical understanding with literature, history, theatre history, cultural studies, sociology, art, anthropology, dance, film studies, American studies, and other areas of scholarly inquiry.  [SAM Special Interest Groups will not have meeting times at this conference, but are welcome to submit session proposals; particularly appealing will be joint sessions with similar special interest groups from other societies or interdisciplinary sessions.]  Proposals involving any aspect of American music and music in America are welcome.
 

Individual presentations of all types normally are limited to twenty minutes in length, and full sessions typically consist of three individual twenty-minute presentations. However, if the material warrants and if sufficient justification is provided, the Committee will also entertain proposals for longer presentations, especially if they include performances or are truly interdisciplinary.  Submissions for papers consist of eight (8) copies of a proposal of no more than 500 words, and one (1) copy of a 250-word abstract suitable for publication in the conference program. Because all submissions (except for panel sessions) are evaluated blind, proposers' name(s), address(es), phone number(s), and e-mail address(es) should appear on only ONE copy of the proposal.  The abstract for publication should be single-spaced and should include the presenter's name and affiliation between the title and the abstract text.
 

For formal sessions, panels, or proposals involving unusual formats, the proposer(s) should include eight copies of an additional statement explaining the format and overall rationale for the session, the importance of the topic, and the significance of the proposed grouping of papers.  The organizer of the session should gather the proper number of individual proposals and abstracts from session members, and submit them in a single envelope.  Formal session proposals are welcome, but each abstract will be evaluated individually, and the Committee reserves the right to reconfigure the organization and makeup of such proposed sessions, or to accept individually any of the proposed papers.  Proposals for panel sessions that deal with issues of general interest are also solicited; these should be clearly labeled as panel sessions.  The sessions should consist of brief position papers (of not more than 10 minutes duration) by each of the participants in order to leave ample time for discussion.  Organizers of panel discussions should submit eight copies of a one-page prospectus that provides an outline of the proposed topic, describes the significance of the panel, and explains why each panelist has been chosen.  Panel proposals will be accepted or rejected as intact entities.
 

Proposals for lecture-recitals or for concerts (either independent performances or those aligned with a session) should be submitted to Mark Tucker, SAM representative to the Toronto 2000 Joint Concert Committee. Submissions for lecture-recitals should include two copies of the 500-word abstract, one copy of the 250-word program abstract, and at least one copy of a recording of the proposed performer(s), of sufficient length to permit evaluation.  (Please indicate if you wish for the tape to be returned.) Proposals for concerts should consist of a recording (as above) and two copies of a short description of the concert (including duration, a list of repertory, rationale for the concert, and--if appropriate--how the concert fits with a proposed formal session submitted to the program committee). Concerts can be proposed for mid-day or evening venues.
 

Proposers must also indicate special needs such as audio-visual equipment, music stands, rehearsal space, etc.  All submissions must include two (2) self-addressed stamped envelopes. Presenters must register for the full conference.  Any music scholars must be members of at least one of the societies represented at the conference. No individual may appear more than twice.  Appearances include delivering a paper, participating in a daytime, programmatic panel, giving a lecture-demonstration, or functioning as a chair-organizer of or respondent to a session. (Not counting as an appearance are such extra-programmatic offerings as unofficial interest-group meetings, standing committee presentations, non-programmatic concert performances, or serving as an appointed chair of a session.)  All proposals must be postmarked by 8 January 2000.  Submissions by fax or e-mail will NOT be accepted.
 

Fifteen music-scholarly societies will meet at the Toronto 2000 conference, including (in addition to SAM), the American Musicological Society, College Music Society, Society for Music Theory, Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Musical Instrument Society, Historic Brass Society, Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Association for Technology in Music Instruction, Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relationships, International Association for the Study of Popular Music (US and Canadian chapters), Canadian University Music Society, Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, and Canadian Society for Traditional Music.
 

Paper and session materials should be sent to:
Prof. Katherine K. Preston, Chair
SAM Program Committee for Toronto 2000
Department of Music
The College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23185-8795
 

Performance proposals should be sent to:
Prof. Mark Tucker
SAM Representative to the Joint Concert Committee
114 Deerwood Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23188
 
 

Recent Publications
 

Books

Mark, Michael  L., and Charles L. Gary. A History of American Music  Education. 2d ed. Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference, 1999. Available from MENC, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA   20191, or online:  www.menc.org.  The cost is $25.00.
 

From its roots in antiquity, through the days of the Spanish explorers and the earliest colonists, up to the present, A History of American Music Education takes you on an insightful journey through the evolution of school music instruction.  Along the way, it examines the musical, educational, philosophical, and social aspects of American history and their effect on the development of music education in this country.

McCarthy, Marie. Passing It On: The Transmission of Music in Irish
         Culture. Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1999.

An interpretation of education's role in shaping the quality of musical and cultural life in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland. As a national study it will appeal to those interested in the history of Irish music, culture and education. In the broader context, the study contributes to our understanding of how music's transmission is underpinned by the dominant ideologies, values and media of the time.

Pincus, Andrew L. Tanglewood: The Clash Between Tradition and
         Change. With a foreword by Phyllis Curtin. Boston: Northeastern  University Press, 1999.
 

Articles

ï"Farewell to a Music Education Pioneer" [Irving Cheyette]. Music Educators Journall 85 (May 1999): 12.

Dissertations and Theses

Al-Ramzi, Saqer M. "The History, Development, and Curriculum of the
        Institute of Musical Studies and the Higher Institute of Musical
        Art in Kuwait." Ph. D. diss., University of Miami, 1998.
Christianson, Donald G. "The Life and Choral Techniques of Douglas Reeve
        McEwen: Conductor, Educator." DMA diss., Arizona State
        University, 1998.
Stacke, Robert J. "The Emergence of Music Education in the Barrios of
        Managua, Nicaragua." Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1998.
Thomas, Duanne Lee. "Kenneth I. Bray: His Contribution to Music
        Education." Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1998.

Book Reviews

Lee, William R. Review of Luther Whiting Mason: International Music
      Education,by Sondra Wieland Howe. History of Education Quarterly 39 (Fall 1999): 352-354.
 
 

History SRIG National Officers (1998-2000)

(1) Chair: Marie McCarthy, School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.  E-mail: mm148@umail.umd.edu
(2) Chair-Elect: Carolyn Livingston, Department of Music, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881.  E-mail: musiced@uriacc.uri.edu
(3) Past Chair: Sondra Wieland Howe, 135 Chevy Chase Drive, Wayzata, MN 55391  E-mail: howex009@tc.umn.edu
(4) Eastern Division Chair: Patrick M. Jones, Fredonia School of Music, State University of New York, Fredonia, NY 14063
(5) North Central Division Chair: Jean Fickett, 1175D Arbor Drive, East Lansing, MI 48823
(6) Northwestern Division Chair: Gary Nakayama, 14402 144th St. E, Orting,
WA 98360
(7) Southern Division Chair: James T. McRaney, 2636 Whiteleigh Court, Atlanta, GA 30345. E-mail: LMcRaney@aol.com
(8) Southwestern Division Chair: vacant
(9) Western Division Chair: Aubrey Penman, 4333 Alderwood Way, Sacramento, CA 95864