<p> The Concert Choir has been the flagship choral ensemble of Stetson University, a private, liberal arts university in DeLand, Florida, since 1935. The choir has traveled extensively throughout the southeast United States and twice abroad, serving as ambassadors for Stetson University. This study documents Stetson University's early history, the first few decades of choral activity at Stetson University, and the complete history of the Concert Choir through the tenure of Milburn Price. The study explores 1) the individuals, events, and institutions leading to the formation of the Concert Choir, 2) the philosophy and purpose of the Concert Choir, 3) the individuals, events and institutions that have shaped that philosophy and purpose, and 4) the ways in which the Spring Concert repertoire of the Concert Choir reflects the ensemble's philosophy and purpose. </p><p> The three major conductors of the Concert Choir, occupying 71 of the last 77 years, were Harold Giffin (1935-1972), Robert Rich (1972-1989), and Duncan Couch (1989-2006). Giffin was responsible for combining the separate glee clubs into one performing ensemble, performing Handel's <i> Messiah</i> annually for twenty-five years, and instituting an extensive touring schedule throughout the United States. The performances at the National Federation of Music Clubs (1939), New York City's Lincoln Center (1967), and the recording session that was broadcast coast-to-coast with NBC in Chicago (1953) were three of Giffin's tours that were most significant. Rich was the first alumnus of the Concert Choir to be hired as Director of Choral Activities and conducted the ensemble for their first ACDA convention performance in 1974. During his tenure, the High School Choral Clinic and Christmas Candlelight Concert, modeled after the English Lessons and Carols, were started and have continued annually throughout the scope of this study. Couch grew the popularity of both the clinic and the Candlelight Concert, took the Concert Choir on two European concert tours, and cultivated collaborations with many professional orchestras. </p><p> This study concludes that the Concert Choir is a choral organization influenced by the sacred a cappella choral traditions; however, it was not dominated by it. This study further identifies that the development of the annual Christmas Candlelight Concert and spring tour were foundational for the choir's activities each year. Documentation illustrates each director's willingness to accept this heritage and develop the Concert Choir accordingly throughout its history.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the social and historical foundations of the music education program in the Baldwin Park Unified School District in terms of personnel, organizational structure, performance activities, funding, and district support in order to gain an understanding of how the program has developed, sustained, and thrived despite significant challenges during the years 1950-2015. Whereas many school districts in California have elected to drastically reduce or cut funding to music programs, BPUSD has maintained a robust music program in the schools for more than 65 years. Demographic information indicates that the city of Baldwin Park, fifteen miles east of Los Angeles, is one of the lowest socio-economic regions in the state; this economic factor is among the challenges the district has faced throughout the years. </p><p> Data from this historical overview include interviews with former BPUSD music teachers and artifacts in the form of district personnel records, school yearbooks, concert programs, photos, newspaper clippings, and personal correspondence. Data also revealed there was strong leadership due to the administrative position of Music Coordinator held by Bob Greenwell from 1960 to 1986 and by Danny Wagner from 1986 to 2005. Under Greenwell&rsquo;s leadership, a graduated music program was implemented for grades four through 12 &ndash; a structured program having elements that are still recognizable today, more than 60 years later. Collegial interactions between music teachers provided an environment for all BPUSD students to have equal opportunities to quality musical training and experiences. Program elements such as traditional performance activities &ndash; concerts, parades, field shows, and evaluation festivals &ndash; are examined with a particular focus on the role and perceived value of competition. </p><p> The investigation into this musical tradition will be beneficial to music teachers, school administrators, students and parents alike, by providing an understanding of the social and historical influences. This study will serve to fill a gap in the comprehensive history of California public school music education, documenting the early historical events occurring in this district. It will contribute to the general field of knowledge of historical music education and will benefit the Baldwin Park Unified School District by conveying a detailed account of past music education activities and providing school leadership a strategic tool for future planning.</p><p>

<p> Dr. Charles Hirt and the Department of Church and Choral Music at the University of Southern California (USC) produced some of America's most successful choral conductors and administrators. Many of those students are conducting or administrating at the finest colleges and universities, secondary schools, churches, and community choral organizations in the nation. From the earliest moments of his career, Charles Hirt himself received a seemingly endless string of accolades. Always focused on the betterment and future of the choral arts, he was a "founding father" of significant choral organizations such as the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Choral Conductors Guild of California, and the International Federation of Choral Music. It was also his visionary mindset that served as a hallmark of his tenure at USC and arguably earned him the right to stand as an equal alongside the greatest of American choral conductors. </p><p> It is the aim of this study to examine Hirt's significant contributions to the University of Southern California and his legacy as it continues on in his students and the subsequent generation of choral leaders they generated. </p>

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0505. Adviser: John Grashel. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-521) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The Ward method of music education was created in the early part of the twentieth century to promote the use of liturgical chant by teaching children vocal music reading skills. Its author, Justine Bayard Ward, was a newcomer to the Catholic Church and to the field of education, yet her approach proved successful and spread throughout the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. The goal of this dissertation is twofold: to document the influences that led the author to write and promote her method, and to trace its origins from pedagogical and notational antecedents. The ancient tradition of choral training in the Church, Wards upbringing, her musical training and aesthetic inclinations, and her zeal in furthering the liturgical and musical reforms of Pius X fostered the ideal environment for the creation of the Ward method. Evidence shows, however, that the materials and procedures were largely appropriations of pre-existing ideas. For example, the work in sight-singing was taken from the Galin-Paris-Chevé school, which flourished in nineteenth-century France, and the educational philosophy originated from her publisher, Rev. Thomas Shields. Ward's mentor, Rev. John Young, S.J., had combined bel canto vocal technique with Chevé exercises and, under Shields's guidance, Ward reshaped it. Separation of musical elements, principally rhythm and pitch, and graduated exercises were key ingredients Ward inherited from Chevé. Students learned accurate pitch discrimination through daily sight-singing drills where numbers corresponded to the sung solfège syllables in moveable “do.” Justine Ward's contributions lie in skillfully incorporating the Chevé sight-singing drills, Young's vocal training, and Shields' theories of aesthetics and childhood development to attain her goal of teaching children music of quality. The repertoire consisted of classical melodies, European folk tunes, and Gregorian chant. The Ward method spread through several avenues. Catholic Education Press began systematic publication of textbooks in the 1910s. Leaders in Catholic education were won over by demonstrations led by Justine Ward. More importantly, the Ward method spread through teacher training courses. It evolved in subsequent publications largely due to her recasting the material to reflect trends in music education and newer rhythmic theories in Gregorian chant.

The purpose of the study was to write a history of the professional career of D. O. Wiley as a music educator from 1921 to 1963. To give focus to the career of Wiley, answers were sought to three questions, stated as sub-problems: (1) What were the important events and influences in the professional career of D. O. Wiley as a college/University band director? (2) What impact did Wiley have on the development of Texas public school bands that earned him the title "Father of Texas Bands?" and (3) What role did Wiley play in the development of the Texas Music Educators Association and other professional music organizations.

In this dissertation I examine the discourse of music educators as it relates to musical aesthetics in the United States from the creation of the Music Supervisors’ Conference in 1907 to the year of the publication of Basic Concepts of Music Education: The Fifty-Seventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part 1 in 1958. The purpose of this dissertation is to show that philosophical discussion, especially in relation to musical aesthetics, was much more comprehensive than previously acknowledged. The conventional view that the arguments supporting music education were primarily utilitarian is a limited interpretation of the discourse prior to 1958. In actuality, arguments about music extended beyond its practical social, economic, and political utility. Additional aesthetic theories guided the field and girded ideas of musical understanding and informed instruction. A better understanding of the discourse of this period contributes to more informed conversations about musical aesthetics and its relation to music education. Utilizing philosophical analysis and archival research, I argue in this dissertation that the philosophical discourse relating to musical aesthetics was rich, varied, insightful, and pervasive. The evidence in this dissertation refutes the standard interpretation which eschews the possibility of discourse on aesthetics taking place prior to 1958. I show that there was deeper philosophical analysis than what is currently acknowledged by those who presently make the claim that what was intended to happen generally in the field of music education and during instruction was solely guided by utilitarian philosophy. In other words, it expands the current understanding of philosophical discourse relating to musical aesthetics in music education before the Music Education as Aesthetic Education movement that is argued to begin with the publication of Basic Concepts.

The watershed of music education in the United States originated with tributaries from Puritan families, churches and communities of the 1630s. For more than three hundred years, Dickinson family members have been influenced by music educators. In turn, the Dickinsons, as ministers, educators and music educators, influenced innumerable students and communities. The purpose of this narrative case study was to describe the influence of music educators on students' lifelong learning and musicianship. Utilizing a nested case study approach focusing on two individual cases within a larger family case, this inquiry examined the ways music educators addressed critical issues in music education in Dickinson communities prior to 1860. Further, this study investigated the ways music educators influenced the lives and relationships of Martha Dickinson Bond and Clarence Dickinson and the ways the Dickinsons were influential in their students' lives. Sources of data were drawn from the Clarence Dickinson Collection of Sacred Music at William Carey College; private collections from the estate of Martha Dickinson Bond; and collections from libraries, churches, historical societies, and archives in former Dickinson communities. Data sources included interviews with students of the Dickinsons, artifacts, records, diaries, letters, recorded and written music, photographs, participant-observations, and direct observations. Content analysis involved developing chronologies and case profiles; identifying and coding patterns from data; utilizing matrix displays for within-case and between-case analysis; synthesizing emergent constructs and themes; and illustrating themes with examples from data. Data analysis revealed themes about the influence of music educators holistically over three centuries (1630s-1930s): Religion; Relationships; Character Development; Literacy; Musical Development; Community Contributions; and Inspiration . Recommendations for music educators, music therapists, and teacher educators were organized by five identified stages of musical development over the human lifespan. Recommendations for further study corresponded to guiding research questions.

Felix Saul (1883-1942) var verksam som körledare, musikskribent och musikpedagog, och undervisade främst i sin egen musikskola, Stockholms privata konservatorium (SPK). Syftet med studien är att undersöka den pedagogik som Felix Saul tillämpade i sin musikundervisning i barngrupper på SPK. Empirin utgörs av intervjuer med Sauls tidigare elever, och av hans egna artikelserier om musikpedagogik. Materialet har analyserats utifrån ett övergripande kulturpsykologiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att Sauls undervisning som syftade till att utveckla elevernas musikalitet i stor utsträckning följde Tonika-do-metoden som den beskrivs av samtida litteratur, men att han lade större vikt vid ackordfunktioner och rytmikövningar, och att lek var en central del av undervisningen. Genom undervisningen fick eleverna tillgång till en omfångsrik verktygslåda med kulturella verktyg i form av konventioner att strukturera, uttrycka och representera musik, som de i fortsatt lärande kunde kombinera till individuella strategier för notläsning, interpretation och i musiklyssnande. Av studien har också framkommit att Saul var en betydelsefull musikpedagog trots att han inte fullt ut var accepterad av etablissemanget. / Felix Saul (1883-1942) was engaged as a choiremaster, music writer and music teacher, mainly at his own music school: Stockholms privata konservatorium (SPK). The purpose of this study is to describe how Felix Saul tought children's groups at SPK, and what pedagogy he employed. The empirical material consists of interviews with students who participated in Saul's children's groups and Saul's own series of articles about his music pedagogy. The material has been analyzed from a cultural psychological perspective. The result show that the teaching methods used by Saul to a large extent followed the Tonika-do method as it was described in the contemporary literature, but with a bigger emphasis on harmonic theory and eurhythmics, and that playing games was a central part of the educational activities. The education gave the students access to cultural tool-box a variety of tools in the form of established music-cultural conventions of structuring, expressing and representing music, that they could combine to create individual learning strategies for sight reading, interpretation as well as listening to music. In this study Saul has emerged as an influential music educator even though he was not fully accepted by the establishment.