Tanglewood Report-Significant Points

"Music is best when its integrity as an art is maintained. Music of all periods, styles, forms, and cultures belongs in the curriculum. The musical repertory should be expanded to involve music of our time in its rich variety, including currently popular teen-age music and avant-garde music, American folk music, and the music of other cultures. Schools and colleges should provide adequate time for music in programs ranging from preschool through adult or continuing education. Instruction in the arts should be a general and important part of education in the senior high school. Developments in educational technology, educational television, programmed instruction, and computer-assisted instruction should be applied to music study and research. Greater emphasis should be placed on helping the individual student to fulfill his needs, goals, or potentials. The music education profession must contribute its skills, proficiencies, and insights toward assisting in the solution of urgent social problems as in the "inner city" or other areas with culturally deprived individuals. Programs of teacher education must be expanded and improved to provide music teacher who are specially equipped to work with the very young, with adults, with the disadvantaged, and with the emotionally disturbed".
(Cohen, 2009, pp.1)

Cohen, Mary. “Tanglewood”. Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from: http://homepage.mac.com/wbauer/hpmused/current/timeline/elements/tanglewood.html

Early 20th Century Expansion of Music Education in Schools

At the beginning of the 20th century music educators formed organizations like Music Educators National Conference (MENC, today’s National Association for Music Education) . With the rise of associations in music education, formal standards were devloped. MENC’s Educational Council adopted the first national standards for elementary school music instruction in 1921. These are the forerunners of the 'National Music Education Standards' and 'Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Music Technology' that MENC has available to educators today.
(Music, 2007)

Instrumental music instruction began with Will Earhart starting a school orchestra in1889 in Indiana, and Albert F. Mitchell teaching strings in Boston in the early 1910s. By 1913 piano classes were being taught in Cincinnati as well as other communities. After WWI school boards employed Army bandsmen to start school band programs. With great touring bands and the growth of the public secondary schools enrollment, instrumental ensembles expanded to greater numbers.
(Abeles, 1995)

Abeles, H. F.; Hoffer, C. R.; Klotman R. H. (1995). Foundations of Music Education.
Belmont, California: Thomson Schirmer.

N.A. (2007). “Music Education in America”. Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from: http://www.amcmusic.com/musicmaking/history/america.htm

Lowell Mason

In the summer of 1834, under the auspices of the Boston Academy of Music, Mason and other instructors held classes for music teachers. After being exposed to Pestalozzi’s work in Europe, Lowell Mason petitioned the Boston school board to include vocal music in its elementary school. This lead to music being taught experimentally in four Boston public schools in 1837 and as part of the permanent curriculum in 1838. European models guided Mason’s preferences, as well as those of other early immigrant composers. Their actions served to spread musical knowledge, but unfortunately also took away appreciation of the power of native hymnody, such as shape-note singing in the southern states and the works of Billings and others. Musical education was limited to vocal music in elementary schools because it was only deemed necessary for children to learn about church and congregational singing. Mason justified the inclusion of music in the school curriculum by his believe that music would help develop the well being of each child.
(Abeles, 1995)

Abeles, H. F.; Hoffer, C. R.; Klotman R. H. (1995). Foundations of Music Education. Belmont, California: Thomson Schirmer.

American Followers of Pestalozzi

Pestalozzi had an educational philosophy of self-learning and free investigation.

Educators who developed their own systems of education based on Pestalozzi's ideas used many different methods, most 19th century schools in the United States stressed external control and were authoritarian in their approach. In the middle of the 19th century, Friedrich Froebel's concept of the kindergarten, which incorporated ideas of Pestalozzi, was introduced into the United States and Elizabeth Peabody adapted it into a teacher-directed system stressing external control. In contrast to Peabody and her followers, other educators brought to the American kindergarten movement a more authentic form of Pestalozzi's ideas that stressed internal control. Music education, primarily vocal, remained most common in women's schools, though many private academies also existed, offering boys and girls instruction in orchestral instruments like the violin, cello and piano.
(Pestalozzi,1992)

Joseph H. Naef, a member of Pestalozzi’s staff, started an elementary school in 1809 modeling Pestalozzi’s method giving every student a proper music education.
(Abeles, 1995)

Many guidelines inspired by Pestalozzi are still used today. Children are taught to read music at a young age, they are exposed to a hands on learning approac, and are encouraged to experiment with different instruments.

Abeles, H. F.; Hoffer, C. R.; Klotman R. H. (1995). Foundations of Music Education. Belmont, California: Thomson Schirmer.

N.A. (1992). Pestalozzi: “Foster Father of Early Childhood Education”. Retrieved online
01/21/2009 from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/13/37/a5.pdf

Early Efforts to Create a Form of Music Notation.

Early systems of music notation were developed by the ancient Sumerians, by the Egyptians, by the Chinese in the 3rd century BC, and later by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Most likely music notation developed alongside written language, and that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians devised symbols to accompany the system of hand signs they used, indicating the pitch and shape of the melody; the Chinese had a sophisticated system of notation as early as the 3rd century BC. During the 7th century the medieval Church members were about the only people who could read and the general public needed a method to note their plainsong music (that was an oral/aural tradition). A form of notation using signs called Neumes appeared noting accents representing the rise and fall of the melody, but did not give a precise placing of pitch or rhythm.
(Notation, 2004)

Neums developed into a complex system in which an individual Neume could represent a single note or as many as four notes in a particular sequence. The Neumic system gave a very graphic indication of the shape of a melody, but the addition of a horizontal line removed its main drawback by fixing an absolute pitch as a point of reference.
(Abeles, 1995)

These graphic signs showed the rise and fall of the notes of a melody. The system of using notes on a stave or staff of horizontal lines first appeared in the 11th century, and was invented by an Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo.
(Notation, 2004)

N.A. (2004). "Notation". Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from: http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/notation+(music)

Abeles, H. F.; Hoffer, C. R.; Klotman R. H. (1995). Foundations of Music Education. Belmont, California: Thomson Schirmer.

The Greek Doctrine of Ethos

The ancient Greek ‘doctrine of Ethos’ encouraged a great change in the previous methods of music instruction. The doctrine explored the influence of sound on human behavior, character, emotion and moral. The doctrine arranged music into separate scales that were stated to have specific influences on human behavior. Some evoked feelings of happiness, some sorrow, some rage, some mental concentration, some lethargy, and some other emotions.
(Abeles, 1995).

The doctrine incited the exploration of sound vibrations on the human condition and new identifications of harmony. This was the beginning of western scales and chord progressions. The Doctrine of Ethos specifically talked about incorporating non-instrumental components into music and its effect on the mind and soul (Preview, 2006).

“Aristotle, in his Politics, explains how the different kinds of music, imitating specific feelings (anger, kindness, love), can affect a human being with the same kind of feelings. Therefore, says Aristotle, someone who listens to the wrong kind of music will grow up to be a bad person, and vice-versa. Consequently, Aristotle (and also Plato) recommended the right kind of music in the education of young citizens”.
(The Ancient, 2009, pp.1,)


Abeles, Harold A., Hoffer, Charles R., & Klotman, Robert H. Foundations of Music Education, 2nd
ed. Belmont, CA: Thomas Higher Education, 1995.

N.A. (2006). “Preview of Doctrine of Ethos”. Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from:
http://www.azete.com/preview/62591

N.A. The Ancient Greece. Retrieved online 01/21/2009 from
http://www.guitarpress.com/hsp1.html

My Teaching Philosophy

In my music classes, I teach many types of musical styles. However, most of the compositions I teach are traditional or popular western music pieces. We mainly stick to western scales and western chord progressions. I think western scales are an important foundation for American music students that will help them understand harmony, musical divisions, and frequencies. Once my students learn these basics they can then take their knowledge and enhance it by the studies of other cultures’ musical organization of sound. I believe music is an important component in developing curriculum for educating children. Children can learn discipline, organization, pattern recognition, harmony, expression, and many other qualities important in life by studying music. I think music is a vital component in communities, societies, and the world. People can relate to each other, express to each other, and share emotional and spiritual communication to each other through music. Life is energy and music is the organization and expression of life through physical vibrations. Music is one of the more important resources we have at our disposal as the human race.