Music education research literature indicates that there is a need not only for more biographical studies of well-known music educators from this and recent generations, but also for more studies of those about whom we are unaware. Gray Perry, now in his eighty-ninth year, is an important American piano pedagogue whose contributions to piano teaching and performance seem to be largely unknown outside the community of Florida piano teachers. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to add to existing empirical knowledge in music education by examining the life and teachings of an individual, Gray Perry, isolate and identify the traits that seem to have contributed to his effectiveness, establish him as a role model, and invite others to emulate him. / The procedure was two-fold. First, Gray Perry's pedagogical heritage was examined against the historical perspective of trends in piano pedagogy from Ludwig Deppe (1828-1890) to the present. The heritage of velocity from Isidor Philipp, the Leschetizky tradition of tone production acquired from Ethel Leginska and Franklin Cannon, and the pedagogical thoroughness of A. M. Virgil have been linked and combined by Perry into broad-based pedagogical methods. The comparison of Perry's collection of exercises to those of some of his pedagogical ancestors--A. M. Virgil, Malwine Bree, and Marie Prentner--indicated a grasp of pianism that is both eclectic and efficient. / Second, a list of characteristics that can enable teachers to be effective was developed based upon (1) data from a review of literature in education, music education, and piano pedagogy and (2) the evidence of those characteristics in pedagogues from Leschetizky to the present. Events from Perry's life, statements from former students, activities of past and present students, and/or anecdotes from the lives of his pedagogical ancestors and contemporaries provided documentation for each characteristic. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1310. / Major Professor: Amy L. Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76281 |
| Contributors | Trice, Patricia Jean., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 209 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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