The purpose of the creative approach in music education is to furnish the child with opportunities for originality of expression and for freedom and adventure. This thesis examines the goals and purposes of using creativity in music eduction.

A study of the critical work of Virgil Thomson, critic for the New York Herald Tribune and of Olin Downes, music critic for the New York Times, will perhaps give a better understanding of how different emphasis on purposes may influence critical work. Each man wrote brief, journalistic reviews. They attended many of the same concerts; yet, their critical judgments differed in many respects.

This paper attempts to give a complete musical and dramatic analysis of the character of Isolde, from both the legend and Richard Wagner's opera, Tristan and Isolde, by first comparing the events as related in the two principal sources of the legend and then by an examination of Wagner's version of the story.

The purpose of this thesis is to present an evaluated list of motion picture films which are related to the field of music and the teaching of music in order that both teacher and student of music may become familiar with the films which are available for use in music education and with the relative merit of each film.

It is the purpose of the study to make a survey of the larger libraries in this region and to compile a list of the holdings of books about music. With the impetus of the North Texas Regional Union List of Serials, 1943; Comprising the libraries of North Texas State Teachers College. Southern Methodist University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas Christian University Texas State College for Women, and the Public Libraries of Dallas and Fort Worth, and its two supplements of 1943-45 and 1945-46, and following the general form of that work, the present "Union List of Musical Literature in North Texas Regional Libraries, 1946," has been compiled. The libraries represented in the North Texas Regional Union List of Serials are included here, with holdings listed as of March 1, 1946. These libraries are: North Texas State Teachers College and Texas State College for Women, Denton, Texas; Texas Christian University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Fort worth Public Library, Fort Worth, Texas; Southern Methodist University and Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas.

The instrumental composition of the band is an outgrowth of utilitarian improvisation. The well-developed percussion section, and the voluminous reed and brass sections are a carry-over from the Military, where the emphasis was on functional beating of time for marching. Mobility and volume sufficient for the accompaniment of troop movements were also necessary. Until recent times, the band existed only for functional matters, never as an independent and self-justifying medium with its purpose being a musical organization. Through the growth of military, professional, and school bands, the band of today has developed into a musical organization in its own right, which can perform almost anything in the technical range of composition.

Ravel' s "Tombeau de Couperin," a suite for piano, was published in 1918 by Durand. Its first performance was in the Salle Gaveau in Paris in April, 1919. Shortly afterwards Ravel scored four of the six movements of the piano suite for small orchestra, composed of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns in pairs, English horn, trumpet, harp, and strings, The new version was introduced in America in 1920. The four orchestrated movements, Prelude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon, have no programmatic content and the titles identify the forms used. "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is a souvenir of World War I. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a French soldier fallen in battle. The "Tombeau" form dates from the seventeenth century and is a musical "homage" to Francois Couperin, clavecinist of Louis XIV, and one of the great names of French music. "The separate movements, cast in eighteenth century dance forms often used by Qouperin have been described as "tonal wreaths," not too somber nor too profuse, laid with tenderness on an unforgotten tomb." This piece represents Ravel's extreme effort to express himself in the simplest possible manner. The music is subtly archaic; form, line and texture artfully suggest …

Material relating to the viola, its history, technique, use as a solo and orchestral instrument, and its use in chamber music, is practically non-existent. For this reason, this document is being written in an attempt first, to collect and discuss, for the benefit of the author as well as for any who might have some interest in the viola, facts which might eliminate some of the common misunderstandings about the instrument, and second, to show, through examination of viola music, the use to which the viola has been put in solo, orchestral, and chamber music from the Baroque period to the present.

There is often difficulty in determining the most desirable medium to be used in the composition of music. After careful consideration, the writer chose the medium of piano to present the following musical composition. In the initial investigations, it appeared that the vocal idiom might provide a more suitable choice. However, piano teaching rather than work in the vocal field will probably consume a greater part of the writer's time in the future. The writing of a piano composition, then, appeared to be a justifiable decision.

Many persons who major in music with the intention of teaching, either at the public school or college level, are poorly equipped to cope with every problem confronting them. With this in mind, the author has attempted to assemble as much valuable and helpful material as possible into a course of study.

This thesis is designed to acquaint vocalists with the history of the solo cantata and to give a bibliography of available cantatas. Very few singers know that solo cantatas exist and little material is available on the subject in comparison to the material available on other musical forms.This work endeavors to aid the vocalist by compiling the solo cantata material that is available in the North Texas State College Library.

This study considers only one aspect of music of the twentieth century--that of dissonance. Through an analysis of harmonic tension in the twelve fugues of the "Ludus Tonalis" by Paul Hindemith, a two-fold significance is notable. First, consideration of the broad tendencies of modernism is necessary. second, with Hindemith as a chosen representative of certain aspects of the twentieth century style, the study attempts to show more specifically certain characteristics of the composer himself in the use and treatment of dissonance, one of the more technical features of style in modern music.

The English classical song is peculiarly native to Britain. It roots in the mystic elements of ballads and nature. It was the influence of the early English ballad, first spoken, then sung, then joined in the happy culmination of voice and melody to make a song that is immortal and unique in music.

The purpose of this study is to present a brief history of the work, a discussion of the ornamentation which occurs therein and suggestions for the performance of the ornaments, an analysis covering especially the characteristics of each movement in regard to form and style and inasmuch as possible to show the influence of this early work on the later compositions of J. S. Bach.

The purpose of this survey is to determine the educational and professional status of piano teachers in the colleges and universities of the United States. This survey will attempt to evaluate the musical and educational background as well as the professional status of people engaged actively in the teaching profession today.

The following study deals with the structural elements of the six Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, opus 65. The problem excludes stylistic considerations. The Mendelssohn organ works are the greatest that appeared from the time of J. S. Bach until the nineteenth century. The Sonatas "have long been accepted as 'classics' of the instrument." Of them Mendelssohn himself wrote in a letter to his publisher, "I attach much importance to these Sonatas." They have no formal predecessor and no formal counterpart in subsequent organ literature. Their structures are hybrid, contrasting, unique, and unconventional; yet, to the writer's knowledge, there is no material available which presents a thorough, scientific formal analysis. It is hoped that the following study will fill this need.

Since the music requirement does rest with the teacher training institutions, the elementary education major is required, in most colleges and universities, to take six hours of music education. My problem is to develop an adequate course of study in music education to fit the musical needs of the elementary education major which will prepare her as well as possible in the allotted six hours to teach music in a classroom aided or unaided by supervision

The purpose of this study is to make an investigation of the musical score of "The Passion According to St. Matthew" with attention given to the pictorial elements or symbolism in the composition. The study is confined mainly to the one composition, but attention is given to the historical background of the work, and examples of the pictorial technique of sacred music as it had been developed in the Netherlands.

It is the purpose of this thesis to list and evaluate the published materials for junior high school band that the director may have a comprehensive knowledge of materials adapted to that level.

This study is an evaluation of individual music textbooks from eight series for grades four, five, and six, by a definite criterion basis. It seems very worthwhile to have an evaluation of such books: (a) to aid in the wise selection of music books, and (b) to become familiar with the contributions of each series.

The public school of Vanderbilt, Texas is in the process of building a band. The steady growth of the band will depend upon a long-range planning program. It is the band director's aim to set up such a long-range plan to cover the five years from the 1947 school year and including the 1952 school year. The following chapters will cover most of the phases of the band's work, and that of the director's work, and his relation to the band and the community.

The purpose of this study is to make the Protestant church workers more efficient in their use of music in religious work by giving them a clear conception of the kind of music to be used and by suggesting detailed plans and methods by which desirable results may be secured in the use of church music. Ideal standards have their place, but here it is proposed to be matter-of-fact, practical and concrete, and to secure immediate results with the average church member and choir singer as the final criterion in every phase of the work. The purpose is not to emphasize high ideals but to instruct and inspire all those who have leadership in the service of church music, that they may be able here to provide the greatest religious helpfulness that the use of music can bring the souls to whom they minister.

The teaching of singing is fraught with psychological problems not met with in the other branches of applied music. The inordinate physical and mental concepts with which the singing teacher must deal result in the necessity that the singing teacher, to be highly efficient, must be a practicing psychologist. In the writer's experience, first as student and then as teacher and observer of the work of other teachers, it has become obvious that in the minds of the majority of pupils, diction problems are so paramount that they supercede the purely vocal aspects of singing. As the language sounds are rightly but a point of departure for the building of a beautiful and expressive singing tone, it seems absolutely essential that the way must be pointed whereby language in singing can find its proper place in the pupil's development, where it can assume the position of a help rather than a hindrance in vocal achievement.

The conviction that the music competition festivals should be better organized and better administered has led to the study of this topic by many serious-minded music leaders.The present study will deal with this all important phase of the contest or festival--the organization and administration of a vocal competition festival. The writer has no intention of setting down a set of rules and regulations to be followed by all directors of contests in all situations. He rather would suggest the use of a set of findings which should help contest directors to organize and administer an event which should be of great educational value both to the directors and the students.