This article seeks to reignite debate about the purpose of a university music education. Taking inspiration from Randall Thompson's 1935 investigation of the role of music preparation in U.S. colleges and universities, an analogous call is made for a less vocational approach to the study of music. The author claims that the music education…

This article begins with a brief history of children's singing instruction in schools. When Kenneth Phillips began researching children's singing, he was surprised to learn that a strong program of child vocal pedagogy was in place in America's schools for about a hundred years--the 1830s to the 1930s. By the 1950s however, all that…

In 1989, Bennett Reimer wrote that there are three ways through which people can experience music: performing, listening, and composing. Similarly, in the current National Standards document, MENC [now the National Association for Music Education (NAfME)] identifies performing, creating, and responding to music as the "fundamental music…

We argue in this article for greater role for improvisation in the music classroom. Based on an extensive examination of scholarship about improvisational practices, we propose three conceptualizations--ability, culture, experience--that can serve to guide the teaching of improvisation. When considered as an "ability," improvisation is a…

In this article Leon Mones expresses his deep interest in the functional role of music in Western culture and particularly in the system of public education that has been designed to assure the survival and advancement of Western culture and the people who will live within it. In other words, he is interested in music as a dynamic experience in…

Melissa Lesniak, the executive director of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, discusses how much she enjoyed reading the responses to her "El Sistema" article and appreciates the opportunity for healthy dialogue and debate. In response, she states that there are many common goals and objectives across all music education programs that can…

Professional discussion of curricular change and innovation is essential for maintaining and increasing the positive effects that music education can have on schoolchildren. Much recent discourse about curricular change has focused on critiques of the traditional large-ensemble model of music education, technological innovation applied to teaching…

Since early times, human beings have searched for spiritual experiences that provide connections to their hearts and souls. People sometimes find these connections through experiencing music--perhaps the last remaining ubiquitous spiritual experience in Western culture. And yet, material values rule our world, even in music education. Is music in…

This response by Thomas A. Regelski was solicited to complement the lead article in this issue, "Toward Convergence: Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture" by Evan S. Tobias. The author notes that many interesting and vital questions and alternatives that are often studiously ignored, overlooked, or taken for…

If music education is going to meet its full potential in the twenty-first century, then people may need to rethink their assumptions about the central values of school music. The author fully supports all effective, educative, and ethical ways of teaching and learning music, as well as students' critically reflective and democratic engagement…

Due to the current recession, the American economy within the last few years has taken a nosedive, making it difficult for national, state, and local governments to support all the programs they currently have in place. There are difficult choices that need to be made about where to make sacrifices in their budgets so things can still run…

This article presents an interview with Willie L. Hill Jr., founder and director of the Society for Jazz Education. Currently a professor of music education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the director of the UMass Fine Arts Center, Hill has served as director of education for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He is a past…

The word gospel means "good news," and gospel music is the good news of the message of Jesus of Nazareth in song. African American gospel is a style that is growing in popularity. The number of twenty-four-hour gospel radio stations in the United States is increasing, and sales of gospel music recordings are on the rise. Gospel music award shows…

In today's world of restrictive school budgets and increasing property taxes, it is an unfortunate reality that many school districts will be faced with a budget crunch crisis that unenlightened school boards may try to solve by cutting or eliminating funds for music. At the crisis stage, it is often only the effective advocacy of an organized…

In this article, the author explains that before beginning to create concert programs, it is important that ensemble conductors first develop a long-term curricular plan to which each individual program will contribute. He continues that if an ensemble curriculum is devised so that students make progress over the long term, dynamic growth can take…