This study is a biography of the life experiences of Nathaniel Clark Smith (1877-1934), an African-American musician, music educator and composer who lived during the early part of America's music education's history. Smith became one of the first international bandmasters to organize bands, orchestras, and glee clubs in schools and industries in the United States. Smith was raised and attended school on a military post. He later received a B.S.M.A. from the Chicago Musical College and a Masters in Composition from the Sherwood School of Music. He taught music at five educational institutions: Tuskegee Institute, Western University, Lincoln, Wendell Phillips and Sumner High Schools. Some of his students became prominent musicians. They were Lionel Hampton, Nat "King" Cole, Milton Hinton, Bennie Moten and Charlie Parker. Smith also worked with industries. He conducted the newsboys band for the Chicago Defender Newspaper and he became the music supervisor for the porters of the Pullman Railroad Company. Smith was stated to have introduced the saxophone to African-Americans and he was considered as one of the first composers to notate spirituals. Smith published over fifty works in America. One of his compositions received a copyright from England. His Negro Folk Suite, published by the …

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing to the longevity of four early-career (5 to 10 years of experience) K–5 elementary general music teachers in Title I schools situated in four regions of the United States. The central research question was: How did early-career elementary general music teachers in Title I schools describe the opportunities and challenges that contributed to their decisions to continue teaching? Using Deci and Ryan's theory of self-determination as a theoretical framework, I analyzed how the four teachers reflected on the degree to which they each possessed autonomy, competence, and relatedness through recounting their perspectives, stories, and experiences. Although the participants shared many commonalities, they also experienced challenges and opportunities unique to their teaching environments. Results were mixed regarding their levels of autonomy and relatedness, but all four teachers possessed a high level of competence, which was likely a contributing factor to their longevity and potential to continue teaching. Nurture and care for children also emerged as a prominent theme from the results, which required the application of a separate theoretical framework. Noddings's theory of the ethic of care served as a lens for examining the myriad ways each participant demonstrated love, care, …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the bands of the armies of the Confederate States of America. This study features appendices of libraries and archives collections visited in ten states and Washington D.C., and covers all known Confederate bands. Some scholars have erroneously concluded that this indicated a lack of available primary source materials that few Confederate bands served the duration of the war. The study features appendices of libraries and archives collections visited in ten states and Washington, D.C., and covers all known Confederate bands. There were approximately 155 bands and 2,400 bandsmen in the service of the Confederate armies. Forty bands surrendered at Appomattox and many others not listed on final muster rolls were found to have served through the war. While most Confederate musicians and bandsmen were white, many black musicians were regularly enlisted soldiers who provided the same services. A chapter is devoted to the contributions of black Confederate musicians.

This study compared the effects from the use of aural and notated exercises as pedagogical procedures for teaching harmonic accuracy to beginning jazz improvisation students. The methods of pedagogy were identified from published pedagogic and historical sources, the results of oral and written traditions of jazz pedagogy. The performance objective was produced from a review of the related literature as a recognized and measurable characteristic of jazz improvisation. The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of harmonic accuracy, following the use of notated and aural exercises as experimental procedures of jazz improvisation pedagogy. A lesson plan, materials, curriculum and outline were developed followed by student recruitment and participation. A total of 20 student volunteers participated in the methods of pedagogy (aural or notation). Data collection consisted of a musical background questionnaire and pre and posttest performance recordings. Student recordings were evaluated by six judges using the “experimental performance evaluation measure.” Statistical analyses were conducted, including comparisons of pre to posttest effects between, and among the methods of pedagogy. Although all student participants performed mostly from notated music prior to this study, students who received the aural method of pedagogy produced greater improvement for all measurement items. While the …

The study sought to determine the relationships of preference responses to grade, gender, familiarity, musical training, peers'/parents' listening habits, music media use, and listening contexts. Grade six through nine Hong Kong students (N = 310) completed the audio preference test followed by verbal responses to training, peers'/parents' preferences, leisure/music media involvement, and listening context. Results indicated: The preferred genres, in descending order, were Western pop/rock, Cantopop/rock, Western classical; the disliked genres were jazz, Chinese, and non- Western/non-Chinese. Preference correlated strongly with genre familiarity. Pop genres were the most familiar to all adolescents. The students' preference toward Western pop/rock and Cantopop/rock associated with several listening contexts: solitary listening, having great freedom to choose one's desired music for listening, listening to music in one's room, and listening to music as background activity. The adolescents expressed that their leisure activities were spent with their family and friends. However, they made it clear that music listening was a personal activity that very likely was listened to alone. On all listening occasions, the girls exhibited a more positive response than the boys did. With four to five hours daily leisure time, the adolescents watched TV for three to four hours while spending less than two …

School orchestra programs are overwhelmingly concentrated in suburban districts, which are becoming increasingly racially and economically diverse. Diversifying suburbs lie at the crossroads of race, racism, and whiteness and findings drawn from these settings can have implications for racial dynamics in all educational contexts. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore how racially underrepresented students perceive race within an urban characteristic high school orchestra program through the lens of critical race theory. I developed a composite counter-story to examine the racialized experience of school orchestra told from the perspective of students of color with a particular interest on competition. Participants were six students and two teachers affiliated with the same high school orchestra program in Texas. Emergent thematic findings examined students' sense of racial belonging, mechanisms upholding the racial status quo, and fulfilling aspects of students' orchestra participation. Though the lens of critical race theory, I discuss how everyday whiteness, property of whiteness, and meritocracy function to maintain white hegemony in school orchestra.

The increasing cultural diversity in the United States has brought not only richness, but also complex challenges, to various segments of American society, particularly with regard to public schools. As the student population continues to diversify while teacher population remains predominately White, female, and middle class, teacher awareness in the classroom might be an integral piece to assist students marginalized by stereotypes in feeling more empowered in the school community. Through qualitative data collection and analysis, and framed by Basil Bernstein’s language code theory, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of how classroom interactions, in light of differences in communication, might impact students of different socio-economic backgrounds from the teacher. The findings of this study indicated that the participants expressed a desire to connect with all of their students, regardless of their background. They also discussed challenges that made relationships difficult, such as feelings of disconnect from their Title I students and their families based on differences in home life and background. This dissonance was often difficult for the participants to reconcile due to pressures and difficulties in their teaching situations, such as the large number of students and the scheduling of classes, curricular pressures, and other district expectations such as …

Current practices in music education parallel the expansion of globalization and cross-cultural contact. However, the multicultural music education movement—referred to by some as "world music education"—has been primarily about the diversity of musical experiences and less about the circumstances and processes of the music itself. As a result, Western music educators often neglect inseparable learning pathways and unintentionally distort the meaning and value of diverse musics from around the world. While there is considerable research examining the teaching and learning of diverse music cultures, significant portions of that literature only represent the observed accounts of cultural outsiders. In this study, I examined the lived experiences of world music culture bearers who teach in Western university institutions in the Southwest region of the United States. I used narrative inquiry to learn more about their pedagogical experiences and documented their storied accounts of interactions with university students. I based the theoretical framework in this study on Clandinin and Connelly's narrative inquiry three-dimensional space model and Schippers' twelve continuum transmission framework. My primary findings revealed that teaching in a cross-cultural setting involves several musical and contextual choices. Moreover, the perceived authenticity of the research participants' transmission processes was often a byproduct of their …

The purpose of this study was to assess the benefits that selected adult piano students reported receiving from their study. Adult piano students (N = 711) from 24 states representing all geographic regions of the U.S. each completed a questionnaire containing 31 individual benefit items. These benefits were organized into 3 categories: Personal, Skill, and Social/Cultural. The demographic characteristics of the study population were consistent with the findings of other adult music research. Students indicated the existence (yes or no) of each benefit and rated the importance of existing benefits on a scale of 1-10. The category of Skill Benefits was the most agreed upon and highest rated category in the study, with over 90% agreement for each of the 7 Skill Benefits. The 14 Personal Benefits were also rated highly, particularly benefits related to self-actualization and fun. Self-related Personal Benefits were rated moderately, while more introverted Personal Benefits such as Imagination/Creativity, Spirituality, and Aesthetic Appreciation were lower rated benefits. The 10 Social/Cultural benefits were the lowest rated and least important benefits in the study. The most agreed upon benefits were Skill Improvement, Musical Knowledge, Musicianship, Accomplishment, Skill Refinement, Technique, Play/Fun, Escape from Routine, and Music Listening. The highest rated …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics and means of Katinka Dániel's interpersonal influences through the perceptions of 20 selected students, protégés, and colleagues, and to study the behavioral and attitudinal changes they attributed to her influence. A case study design and structured interview questionnaire were used to study four variables coming from the social sciences' literature on influence: legitimate authority, attractiveness, expert authority, and trustworthiness. Responses were qualitatively analyzed to determine the role those variables played in Dániel's interpersonal influence. All interviewees were music teachers who used the Kodály method in their teaching and have studied or worked with Dániel. Two images of Dániel emerged from the interviews. The first, a business-like image, emanated from Dániel's work in the classroom, and the second, a maternal image, came from personal relationships with her students and associates. Attractiveness (defined as a willingness to respond positively to the requests of an influential person because one respects that individual and wants to obtain that person's approval) proved to be the principal characteristic of influence, followed by legitimate authority, then expertise. Trustworthiness played a lesser role. The greatest effect of Dániel's influence was on the interviewees' teaching. Among the factors interviewees …

In music education, aesthetic education and praxial music education serve as two major, guiding philosophical frameworks, yet supporters of each often conflict with one another. Furthermore, both are slightly problematic with respect to the specific context of the public school. Each framework is primarily music-based, however, music education has existed in the wider context of general education since the 1830s. Given the recent core-status designation for music education, as part of all fine arts, in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a framework from general education that supported music education could offer benefits for the domain. However, the wider context of general education is messy as well. Two groups occupy most of the space there, and remain locked in a fundamental disagreement over the purpose of a formal education. The progressive educators, historically framed by Dewey and Thorndike, contend that education functions as societal improvement. In contrast, the essentialists contend that education functions as cultural transmission. Therefore, a more specific need for music education involves selecting a framework from general education that resolves this conflict. The writings of William Chandler Bagley indicate that he balanced both considerations of a formal education while also advancing his notion of …

The purpose of this study was to investigate selected landmark events in the historical development of the Texas Music Educators Association, 1938-1980, and the decisions which influenced their outcomes. A polling of twenty former presidents of TMEA selected the following landmark events that helped to shape the history of TMEA: (1) the change from a band organization to a music educators organization in 1938, (2) the University Interscholastic League takeover of contests in 1947, and (3) TMEA's separation from the Music Educators National Conference in 1976. In addition to developing a historical chronology from documentary sources, in-depth interviews were conducted with actual participants in these landmark events. The interviews utilized comparable questions, in order to identify decision-making patterns, while also capturing the atmosphere and visceral context of TMEA history. Literature from the social science disciplines on organizational decision—making was explored for help in understanding what happened, how, and why. In all three events the final decision was strongly influenced by factors external to the TMEA. The strong power position held by school administrators was evident in both the first and second events, while reinforcement from actively lobbying choral directors was also a factor in the first event only. The strong …

Latinx students are underrepresented among high school music students in the United States, nationally. However, localized demographics in some parts of the country reveal secondary music programs that are comprised nearly entirely of Latinx students. Still, the experiences of such a large and racially marginalized population as Latinx students remain under-researched in the field of music education. To explore how Latinx racial identity may inform the experiences of Latinx music students and their music teachers, I conducted a post-qualitative study of students and teachers in music classes at large secondary schools in which the Latinx population is 95 percent or more. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with music students and their teachers. To guide my thinking on the role of race in the lives of the participants, I incorporated Omi and Winant's (2015) theory of racial formation throughout the data analysis. Overall findings indicated that race informs much of the experiences of the participants in varying, sometimes subtle ways. Through racism, racial resistance, the formation of racial identity, and the incorporation of both colorblind ideology and race consciousness, the participants provided nuance as to how we may regard the role and significance of race in music education. Implications …

This study's purpose was to investigate the kinds of instructions provided for teachers by authors and publishers of elementary music series for the development of children's voices. Specifically, the study was 1. to investigate the recommended methodology related to the development of vocal concepts in children, 2. to investigate musical aspects that could be indicators of expected vocal ability in children, and 3. to relate the findings of this study to other research results that give insight into the vocal capabilities of children. To collect the data, the teacher's editions of grades one, three, and five of music series published by the Silver Burdett Company and by the American Book Company during the period circa 1945 to 1975 were subjected to a content analysis and to a musical analysis. Three categories were established for the content analysis: Vocal Characteristics, Singing Objectives, and Teaching Strategies. Validity of the research tool was tested by the jury method and by logical validity. Reliability coefficients of .90 were determined by using two additional coders and by re-coding material.

The purpose was to determine the relationship between high or low cultural mistrust and vocal characteristics in African-American adolescent females. The vocal characteristics were vocal self-identification, singing style, and singing range.

The purpose of this study was to determine the instructional methods of Oklahoma's elementary school music educators with respect to the inclusion of an authentic repertoire of American Indian music in the curriculum. The research was conducted through two methods. First, an analysis and review of adopted textbook series and pertinent supplemental resources on American Indian music was made. Second, a survey of K-6 grade elementary music specialists in Oklahoma during the 1997-1998 school year was conducted.

The purpose of this study was to determine differences between the same subjects' music preferences at the elementary and high school levels, and the relationship between these findings and the following variables: peer preferences, musical training, excerpt familiarity, grade, gender, and race.

Positive adaptations experienced in spite of challenges faced is known as resilience. Comparatively little research has focused on in-depth descriptions regarding how resilience is manifested in children. The purpose of this study was to add to previous research in the identification of characteristics of resilience in students, and to determine the extent to which band membership has aided their resilience in other domains. Data was collected from a random sample of band seniors from the class of 2011 (n = 3) who attended a large high school in the South. Specific research questions were: (1) What characteristics of resilience are present in the talk of participants in a high school instrumental music program? (2) To what extent has this population perceived that membership in band aided their resilience in other domains? A descriptive study design was chosen that used qualitative data. Following data analysis that included category matrices, prominent themes emerged from the participants’ responses. These included self-improvement, forward thinking, optimism, inner drive, increased achievement, determination, development of relationships to peers and adult mentors, and development of connectedness to the school. The findings of this study complemented previous research on characteristics of resilient students, and suggested that the participants derived …

The purpose of this descriptive study was to discover Texas middle school choir directors’ perceptions and applications of multicultural education in their classrooms. Three research questions guided this investigation: (1) What were middle school choir director’s perceptions about multicultural music education?; (2) How did middle school choir directors apply multicultural music pedagogy in their classrooms?; and (3) How did middle school choir directors perceive professional development opportunities in multicultural music education? Texas middle school choir directors perceived that the purpose of multicultural music was to expose students to different cultures and diverse worldviews through music. Teachers listed several social and musical benefits of studying multicultural music including broadening musical horizons, cultural appreciation, and expansion of student worldviews. Teachers consciously programmed multicultural music for most of their concerts, and some chose literature based on their students’ cultural backgrounds. Although most teachers tried to make multicultural music experiences genuine for students, authenticity was the foremost pedagogical concern regarding multicultural music pedagogy. Teachers tended to utilize a combination of music concept and sociocultural approaches when teaching multicultural music by comparing multicultural music to Western music and using classroom discussions to discuss social issues that lend context to the music. Professional development opportunities in …

This study's purpose was to examine and compare pedagogical opinions and suggestions regarding teaching American art-songs recommended as suitable for beginning voice students. Specific problems were to determine 1. The ten American art-songs most recommended by voice teachers for beginning students, 2. Pedagogical opinions and suggestions about these art-songs, 3. Voice teachers' general opinions and suggestions regarding teaching American artsong, 4. Ways in which their opinions and suggestions were similar and 5. Ways in which their opinions and suggestions were dissimiliar.

The purpose of this study is to provide a guide for the instruction of a trumpet mariachi performance ensemble in a music curriculum. The fulfillment of this purpose is dependent upon the data supplied in answer to the sub problems: (1) What socio-cultural information provides authentic trumpet mariachi music; (2) What trumpet mariachi literature illustrates the repertoire and style; (3) What instructional source materials may be developed such that Mexican American and non-Mexican American instructors build a competency in repertoire and style; (4) How could this guide be evaluated in its functional design for a music curriculum? The data collected for use in this study has been presented in three major categories: (1) the history and milieu in which the trumpet, mariachi crystalized; (2) the repertoire--its history and function in Mexican society and the transcriptions of types demonstrating the musical structure; and (3) the technical information relative to the instruction of the particular mariachi instruments. An evaluative instrument has been supplied in an attempt to establish the validity of the information and examples provided in this practicum. The validity of the research seems to rest on its authenticity and its serviceability. The findings of this study are stated as assertions …

The purpose of this study was to measure music performance program enrollments and course availability for educationally disadvantaged and non-educationally disadvantaged groups (grades 9-12) in Texas, and to further examine relationships which could help music educators understand the role which music performance programs play in the lives of educationally disadvantaged students. Data analyzed were collected by Texas' Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). Educationally disadvantaged groups under consideration included economically disadvantaged, at risk (as defined by Texas Education Agency guidelines), limited English proficient, as well as Black and Hispanic students. Separate analyses were conducted for band, choir, and orchestra. Subjects included 907,327 students from 1,048 school districts.

This study examines the phenomenon of contemporary a cappella music making found in high school settings as curricular and extra-curricular offerings. Past music and music education literature has focused exclusively on contemporary a cappella at the collegiate level. Through application of a descriptive phenomenological method and incorporation an educational-sociological lens, this study advances an understanding of the educational benefit and social value of membership in contemporary a cappella at the high school level. Six recent members from three regions of the United States provided data through individual open-form interviews in which questions were derived from the participants’ own speech. I incorporated phenomenological reductions and processes to negate researcher bias during data collection, analysis, and the formation of a general structure and constituent meanings of membership in high school contemporary a cappella. Participants utilized traditional music skills, individual talents, conceptions of popular culture and music, and in-group socialization to facilitate music making and reify membership. Expressing the value of group membership, individuals acted to benefit the group by cultivating social bonds, developing and fostering personal/shared connections to songs, identifying and purposing individual talents and skills, and gaining an understanding of each members’ unique contribution to membership. Discussion includes implications for music …

The purpose of this study was to describe 11th- and 12th-grade high school string orchestra students in Texas public schools in terms of their decision to enter the field of string orchestra teaching as a possible career choice or to pursue another field of study. Convenience sampling techniques were used to secure a study population of 1,683 high school string orchestra students. The Junior and Senior High School String Orchestra Student Survey (researcher designed) was used to gather demographic characteristics, students' perceptions on selected intrinsic/extrinsic work values, tangible elements of teaching, intrinsic characteristics of string orchestra teaching, and individuals assisting in students' career choices. Selected elements of teaching cited by students for their lack of interest in string orchestra teaching were also reviewed. Analysis procedures for descriptive statistics included measures of central tendency, crosstabulation, frequencies and percentages. Consistent with prior research, it was found that a larger number of female students over male students were interested in string orchestra teaching. Students interested in fields outside of string orchestra teaching reported higher class grades, more honors and advanced classes and higher SAT/ACT mean scores. Students interested in string orchestra teaching reported a higher percentage of brothers/sisters, mothers and fathers who played …