The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the processes in which eight and nine year old children engaged as they composed generative expressions with music and language. This study was a classroom-based ethnography conducted by a teacher/researcher in the context of her own general music classroom and the home room of the participant students. Twenty-one boys and girls in a suburban grade three class were involved in this four and one-half month study; three children were chosen as target (focus) composers. This study was designed so that the primary voice and point of view was that of the student-composers rather than that of the adult teacher/researcher. To that end, methodologies for data collection and interpretation were flexible and emergent, to allow for inclusion of unexpected events, interactions, foci/directions, etc. and to ensure that student-composers' self-described decisions about their work were at the forefront of the discussion and interpretation of the data. A framework was devised to inform and clarify the teacher/researcher's understanding of what the children were doing as they composed. This framework provided a flexible structure for organization and illustration of data used for interpretive purposes. Data collected included: 1) journals, written self evaluations and in-process verbal critiques by all students 2) video-tapes of focus composers in: a) working sessions b) reflective discussion with the teacher/researcher 3) video-tapes of all students in: a) in-process sharing/critiquing sessions b) final performances of compositions 4) field notes of the teacher/researcher, including observations, informal conversations with student-composers, and observations and comments of the home room teacher. Findings from this study included these insights: 1) For these child-composers, process and product were intertwined throughout the making of their compositions; 2) These child-composers began with a holistic idea of what they wanted to do and proceeded to explore, revise and polish their compositions in the particular medium until they reached their self-determined goal; 3) Socio-cultural factors of informal (enculturated or acquired) learning, and general maturity, were primary influences in decision-making in compositions with both music and language; 4) Training made a difference in the baseline starting point in composing ability, attitude, speed of the compositional process, and expectations for the final product; 5) These eight and nine year old children, untrained in music, demonstrated that they could compose rather than just improvise; 6) These child-composers went through the same four processes of exploration, making choices, editing/drafting, and completing a coherent product, when composing in two different modalities; they engaged in these processes recursively as well as sequentially in both media.

The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of how music education students come to think of themselves as music educators. Guided by the thematic framework, "learning from experience", which draws upon research relating to constructivist theory and biographical inquiry, as well as literature pertaining to construction of images of self, this study explored four music education students' perceptions of themselves as musicians and as educators. Believing that self-perceptions are rooted in personal biographies, autobiographical and journal writings were investigated to establish links between participants' perceptions and biographies. Issues encountered by participants as they began to think of themselves as music educators were uncovered. / Participants' perceptions of their "selves" were rooted in childhood memories and models of practice. They interpreted, internalized and practised the tacit expectations of their models of practice. Subsequently, participants' images of self-as-musicians and self-as-educators were connected by a common thread, that of image of self. Participants who viewed self-as-performer encountered conflict between their identities as musician and as educator. Other participants constructed images of self-as-participants. As such, they experienced a sense of unity and resonance between their identities as musicians and as educators. / Issues directly related to their self-perceptions surfaced as participants began to think of themselves as music educators. The study considered the implication of these issues for teaching practice, and the relationship between these issues and preservice teacher training. This study concludes with a discussion of research implications and directions for reforming music teacher education.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1988.

No description available.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

An attempt has been made to determine whether or not a handbook to be used by student teachers and a handbook to be used by supervising teachers would be a significant and worthwhile contribution, not only to Taylor University, but to education in general.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Contemporary Etudes for Harp consists of twelve etudes dealing with two major areas. The primary area of concern is to expose the harpist to many of the compositional techniques used in twentieth-century harp music. A second concern deals with the way sounds can be produced on the harp as well as the involvement of the performer in producing sounds. Problems involved in the notation of these special effects are also addressed in these twelve etudes.Etudes I, II, III, IV, VII, IX, and X deal more specifically with compositional techniques that are frequently found in twentieth century harp music. Modality, polytonality, the use of synthetic scales, quartal harmony, non-traditional use of traditional harmony and scales, and mixed and changing meters are included in these chapters.Less-commonly used techniques are found in Etudes V, VI, VIII, XI, and XII. These deal with the use of sounds and silences and their durations, graphic notation, and a simple introduction into aleatoric music. Emphasis is also placed on pitch selection and organization through the use of a pitch class set and serialism.The level of the etudes ranges from medium to difficult and presupposes that the harpist would be capable of achieving an undergraduate degree in harp performance. The length of the etudes ranges from 2 1/2 minutes to 4 minutes. Some of the problems which contribute which contribute to the difficulty to these etudes are the use of rapid pedal changes, three-note pedal glissandos, using a tuning fork to change pitches on a given string, interpreting graphic notation, maintaining a musical sense of direction within a given time frame, and dealing with rapidly changing time signatures. The harpist must also make choices in the order in which events are to occur in the aleatoric piece. In the final etude using graphic notation, singing is required by the harpist.Because new compositional techniques and special effects are continually being introduced, this study is not intended to be all encompassing. It is instead intended to be used for score study and to provide musical studies which clearly demonstrate the specific techniques included in each other.

Gunther Schuller is presently one of America's most influential music personalities. As one colleague of Schuller's at the New England Conservatory has written, "In many ways, Gunther Schuller is a modern incarnation of the renaissance man, with his interests and abilities flowing from him like ripples in a pond."1 Schuller, in his six decades, has been one of the nation's first-rate orchestral horn players and has participated in the instrument's introduction into the jazz medium; his interest in musicological research has encompassed the study of various types of music and resulted in Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, 2 considered by some to be "the definitive musicological treatment of jazz history . . ..”3 Schuller is also recognized as a leading contemporary composer and conductor, former composition instructor and long-time artistic co-director of the annual summer Tanglewood Festival, and teacher, authority, and author on horn playing.The dissertation traces Schuller's varied career, giving particular attention to his phenomenal success as a virtuoso of the French horn by age seventeen. The study also details his development as a composer, concentrating primarily on his compositional style as revealed in the works for horn as a solo and chamber music instrument. Among the works discussed are the horn concertos, the woodwind suite and brass quintet, Lines and Contrasts for sixteen horns, and Five Pieces for Five Horns. Included in the discussion is his unpublished and virtually unknown first Horn Concerto, which was written (and performed only once) by the composer while he was first horn in the Cincinnati Symphony. For the research, a copy of the manuscript was provided by the composer. (To date, the only published remnant is an arrangement of the second movement entitled Nocturne for horn and piano.)The dissertation examines Schuller's ideas concerning the "art" of modern horn playing through a discussion of his writings (Horn Technique), his musical studies (Studies for Unaccompanied Horn and Duets for Unaccompanied Horns), and through the observations of colleagues and former students. Fortunately, some of Schuller's well-articulated thoughts on musicianship in general and horn playing specifically have been retained in the tapes of the Sixth Annual International Horn Workshop, held at Ball State University in 1974. These are transcribed and included in the Appendix.In summary, the research is in three major sections. The first deals with biographical information-- Schuller's various careers, a survey of his compositions and writings, and a discussion and evaluation of his playing career based on information from his colleagues, recordings, and reviews. Section two examines the composer’s style and his influence on the instrument’s technique through a detailed study of the solo and chamber works for horn. Part three concerns his pedagogical and philosophical ideas regarding music education, with particular attention to the horn and horn playing.1. Frank Battisti, "Gunther Schuller and His Many Worlds of Music," The Instrumentalist, XXXII (June, 1978), p. 39.2. Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, (New York: Oxford University Press), 1968.3. Robert Palmer, "Gunther Schuller: On the American Musical Melting Pot," Downbeat, XLIII (Feb. 12, 1976), 12.