Music Commons^™

Learning To Drive, Daniel Abrahams

Visions of Research in Music Education

Parents serve in many roles, one of which is a mentor. At an early age, I accompanied my father to school and helped sort paperwork, observed choir rehearsals, attended concerts, and watched him mentor undergraduate and graduate students. Unbeknownst to me, I entered into an apprenticeship in the music education community. The present text reflects on how Frank Abrahams transformed my identity as a music educator through mentorship and our collaborative nature outside our father-son relationship. His actions personify not only those of a dad but those of a critical pedagogue. Furthermore, his actions created transformative spaces for me to …

Quite Frankly: Learning From The Pedagogical Art Of Joyful Disgruntlement, Gareth Dylan Smith

Visions of Research in Music Education

In this article, I describe professional encounters with Frank Abrahams, personally and through Abrahams’ writing. The paper includes reflection on Abrahams’ tireless work in testing and pressing the boundaries of normative, small-c conservative music teaching and learning traditions, in Abrahams’ beloved Westminster Choir College and beyond. I recall watching Abrahams teach, both in formal classroom contexts and in other areas of working with students and peers, such as co-authored publications and conference presentations. I recount my role as an unwitting mentee in Abrahams’ careful modeling of critical pedagogical approaches within and without the classroom. Drawing on personal anecdotes and several …

Honor Their World: Advocacy In The Work Of Frank Abrahams, Ryan John

Visions of Research in Music Education

Frank Abrahams’s career in music education has been marked by a theme of advocacy for others. This article examines three areas of advocacy apparent in his work and publications: advocacy for students, advocacy for teachers, and advocacy for people historically marginalized in American society. Through books, articles, research, book chapters, music series, and his actions, Frank Abrahams has advocated for stakeholders in education and in society through music education for decades in his roles as a teacher, administrator, and author.

Editorial Volume 40: Frankly Speaking, Cara Faith Bernard

Visions of Research in Music Education

No abstract provided.

On Becoming Pedagogical: Encounters, Challenges And Freirean Criticalities In The Key Of F, Patrick Schmidt

Visions of Research in Music Education

What does it mean to be a pedagogue? To become part and contributor to pedagogical processes? In this article I look back at the work Frank Abrahams developed around the legacy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and its efforts fomenting conditions for critical pedagogies to flourish. Following Freire’s interest in connecting reality and theory, I construct a narrative from the word (Freire’s, Abrahams’ and mine) onto the world, highlighting in particular, the impact conceptual framing can have on programmatic development. As I see it, and experienced first-hand, the focus and nature of Abrahams’ work has always been pedagogical, highly conscious …

2022-2023 Master Class - Webb Wiggins (Harpsichord), Webb Wiggins, Dina Bikzhanova, Jonathan Dills, Sergei Skobin, Sungkyun Lee, Rosa Ortega, Frederic Renaud, Silvia Valdivia Villasante, Marina Machado

Master Classes

No abstract provided.

Haydn’S Schemata And Hexachords: Two Analytical Case Studies, Gilad Rabinovitch

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Two analytical case studies, from Haydn’s minuet al roverso (from the Symphony Hob. I: 47) and the opening movement of the String Quartet Op. 50, no. 6, show the interaction of galant schemata (Gjerdingen 2007) and the hexachordal solmization of the solfeggio tradition (Baragwanath 2020). Haydn plays upon conventional galant schemata—presumably elements of style shared by listeners who are closely familiar with the idiom (even if they do not have explicit schema labels); he also plays upon a more esoteric element of his own training and that of many other musicians in the period: hexachordal solmization. By considering both schemata …

Inner Song Phenomenological Description Of A Musical Object Of Phantasy, Ellen Moysan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is the phenomenological description of a musical object of phantasy I call “inner song,” i.e., the music that the musician “sings in his or her head” while practicing his or her instrument. It describes the specific inner song of a single musician playing a melodic instrument, and rehearsing in a solipsistic situation. The description is based on three resources: my personal experience as a cellist; the third person experiences of other musicians I have interviewed on that topic since 2010; and the Husserlian corpus. Each chapter starts with excerpts of interviews focusing on specific aspects the inner song. …

Editorial, Volume 39: New Beginnings For Visions, Joseph Michael Abramo

Visions of Research in Music Education

Editorial, Volume 39

Dispositional And Trait Perceptions And Beliefs: A Snapshot Of Three Stakeholders, Natalie Steel Royston, Jill Wilson

Visions of Research in Music Education

The assessment of student dispositions is an important part of teacher preparation programs in the United States. To explore the beliefs and perceptions of in-service educators and teacher education students, we used a researcher-designed survey to examine responses of three groups: a) in-service music educators, b) collegiate music education majors, and c) collegiate education majors (not music) in a Midwestern state in the United States. The survey included questions that asked participants to describe dispositions, rank and rate the importance of the dispositional traits, and to rank their opinion on the importance of dispositions in comparison to content knowledge and …

Comparative Analysis Of The Associate Board Of The Royal Schools Of Music Of The United Kingdom And The African Music Curriculum Of Kenya, David O. Akombo, Barbra A. Akombo

Visions of Research in Music Education

The music curricula and the pedagogical methods used in the United Kingdom and in Kenya share trends that are both common and diverse. In this article we present our comparisons of the Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and the Kenyan music curriculum. We approach this comparative study using Ralph Tyler’s definition of curriculum as a theoretical framework. The paper evaluates how the two curricular are shaped by Tyler’s sociocentric model by addressing the following four question:(1) What are the roles of a music education curriculum in the United Kingdom and in Kenya?; (2) What factors influence …

Finnish Classroom Teacher Students' Experiences Of An Online Music Course During The Covid Pandemic, Katri-Helena Rautiainen, Mikko Vesisenaho

Visions of Research in Music Education

When studying music, skills are often practised with a teacher, face-to-face, in a classroom. What are the experiences of classroom teacher trainees when music teaching becomes asynchronous, i.e., an individually completed online course? This question, among other things, was explored at a Finnish University's Teacher Education Department in autumn 2020, resulting in the production of a two-credit online music course on the Moodle learning environment. It was implemented for the first time during the summer term in 2021. The students’ experiences with the functionality of the e-learning module were analysed through data-driven content analysis. The study represents an intensive case …

Planning For Multi-Modal Listening And Digital Meaning Making: Music Stream-Ing Literacy As A Didactic Activity, Cecilia Ferm-Almqvist

Visions of Research in Music Education

While “access models” represented by subscription services such as Spotify make vast libraries of music practically accessible to teachers, digital streaming programs also introduce new complexities to classroom settings. Therefore, the concept of digitalization in relation to listening requires the attention of researchers in education and didactics. This article examines the ways in which Swedish teachers use Spotify, including how usage influences teachers’ didactic choices and approaches to planning for music teaching and learning. Research participants included eight music educators with experiences in streaming music services in music classrooms. Findings show that digital literacy and the listening, teaching, and learning …

Lived Experiences: Music Educators’ Stress In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Karen Koner, Jennifer Potter Gee, Brianne Borden

Visions of Research in Music Education

The purpose of the study was to examine music educators’ stress and stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this multiple case study (Creswell, 2012; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), we examined practicing music educators’ stress and stressors pertaining to teaching and life experiences. Participants all self-identified as females and were practicing music educators (N = 16) from various geographical locations in the United States, representing K-12 general music, ensemble conducting, applied lessons, and university instruction. All participants participated in weekly focus groups over a 12-week period during the spring of 2021. We analyzed data through open coding (Gibbs, 2007), yielding four …

Toybox: A New Approach For Auxiliary Percussion Instruments At The Beginning Level, Spencer Craig Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, there exist little materials to introduce elementary students to auxiliary percussion instruments. There is a need for the creation of more instructional material for this age group that provides pedagogy descriptions for the instruments as well as playing examples. The purpose of this project is to create a method book that provides pedagogy examples for auxiliary percussion instruments while also providing playing examples to use.

Teaching Signal Processing Design For Effect Pedals: Making Signal Processing Tangible, V J. Manzo, Ryan Mckenna, Matthew Halper

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Teaching digital audio processes and their uses in musical contexts is a challenging subject area for music technology instructors. While there are many books and resources that explain audio processes using diagrams and charts that merely require the reader to have modest skills in mathematics, computer science, or electrical engineering, these extra-musical subjects still pose great challenges for music students. Given the time and scope limitations implicit in a single semester, pedagogy for effects processes often has to be reduced to qualitative descriptions and audio examples. The more ambitious task of implementing such processes, realizing an algorithm via a plugin …

Defining The Hourglass Framework Of Technical And Musical Concepts In Music Technology Education With Two Case Studies In Course Development, Timothy Hsu

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

As the field of music technology connects music with a vast array of technical fields, a mature music technology program ideally challenges and develops students that incorporate musical contexts of technical ideas and the technical concepts of musical ideas. The educational challenge of music technology programs lies in the balancing of technical and musical material in the curriculum. In structuring this balance, this paper proposes an hourglass framework, where music technology sits at the neck of two sides, where one side is built on the tradition of Western and non-Western music history, theory, and repertoire, and the other side is …

Belonging And Banding Together: Perspectives And Insights Of Newly Recruited Ell Musicians, Edward Luckey, Edward Luckey, Edward Luckey

Education Doctorate Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to bring forward the lived experiences of English Language Learner (ELL) musicians who were new to the band program as of the Spring of 2021. This study was born out of previous coursework and reflection where it became apparent that more must be done to provide access to our band program for students who are in our ELL program. Therefore, the research question that guides this study is “What are the lived experiences of ELL band students?” The methodology is primarily a pursuit of the stories and lived experiences of the ELLs via a …

Disposizione Scenica Per L’Opera Simon Boccanegra: An Insight Into Verdi’S Sense Of Drama And A Valuable Tool For Contemporary Performance, Giordana Rubria Fiori

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: while it aims to provide a valuable tool for performers and all artists involved in a production of Simon Boccanegra, it also simultaneously explores and outlines several instances in which Verdi’s all-encompassing idea of drama shapes and directs this opera.

Throughout this process, the disposizione scenica to Simon Boccanegra constitutes the central document that connects the practical and the aesthetic perspective of this dissertation. Each chapter is dedicated to a different character of Simon Boccanegra, allowing the reader to follow each character on a journey through the opera as it is presented in …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

An Annotated Bibliography Of String Method Books And Theory Books For Pre-College String Students, With A Focus On Music Theory Concepts And Sequence Analysis, Rebecca Zou Hale

Master's Theses

The Hattiesburg Public School District (HPSD) Strings program, one of the largest public school string programs in the state of Mississippi, has been utilizing a method book series titled Essential Elements for Strings (EES) in their curriculum since the early 2000s. After almost two decades of use, the HPSD Strings staff has noticed that a majority of intermediate and advanced strings students struggle with fundamental music theory concepts. The current music theory deficiencies necessitate an improvement in the HPSD Strings curriculum's choice of instructional materials.

Referencing established music curricula and music theory textbooks, the instruction of fundamental music theory concepts …

A Poet's Voice: Music In Service To Poetry: Elements Of Text Painting In Juliana Hall's Song Cycle "How Do I Love Thee?", Hayley Z. Coughin

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composer Juliana Hall has established a reputation as one of the leading composers of contemporary American art songs, having composed over 60 song cycles, totaling over 300 works for the voice. Hall’s song cycle How Do I Love Thee? expresses a narrative arc told through five selections from Victorian-era poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poems selected include Sonnet 3: “Unlike,” Sonnet 43: “How Do I Love Thee?,” Sonnet 37: “Pardon,” Sonnet 21: “Say Over,” and Sonnet 41: “Thank You.” Hall’s cycle describes the relationship between the lover and the object of their love, including …

An Investigation Of The Violin Teaching Method Of Lin Yaoji From A Personal Perspective, Mo Zhou

Dissertations, 2020-current

As a Western musical instrument, the Violin has a history spanning more than three hundred years. Contemporary approaches to its performance and pedagogy have been developed and influenced by the Russian, the Franco-Belgian, and the German Violin Schools. It was not until the 1920s and '30s, that the violin entered the public realm of Chinese society.

From the 1980s until today, several generations of violinists have emerged as Violin Educators in China. Among them, Lin Yaoji was the most famous. This study will research and examine Lin Yaoji’s violin teaching method. Specifically, this document will consist of five chapters discussing …

The Modern Keyboardist In Commercial Music, Cooper R. Thompson

Recital Papers

This paper provides an understanding of the skills and knowledge needed for the modern keyboardist to successfully function in commercial music. An overview of multiple keyboard instruments is presented and includes a brief history of each instrument, performance techniques specific to that instrument, and sound replication options available to the keyboardist. This paper also shows the influence of keyboards in commercial music.

Remedial Rhythm Reading: A Semester-Long Project In Sixth Grade Band, Hannah Fisher

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted student outcomes in all disciplines, but especially in the performing arts. As I began clinical teaching, I found my sixth-grade band students, particularly the students not involved in choir (my “small band”), lacked the music literacy and fluency expected for second-year band students. I designed a one semester rhythm-reading unit to address this issue. The overall objective for the unit follows:

“Students will be able to read, write, perform, and compose rhythms containing whole notes, half notes, dotted-half notes, dotted-quarter notes, quarter notes, paired eighth notes, single eighth notes, paired sixteenth notes, and corresponding rests …

Creative Practice For Classical String Players With Live Looping, Caleb Yang

Student Theses

In recent years, string pedagogy discussions have highlighted the greater need for creative practice as classical string players. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, string methods have shifted towards a limited scope of improvisatory techniques, parallelling the decline of improvisation in Western classical music performance practices. This thesis explores live looping as a practice tool to facilitate learning concepts and help string players develop musicianship skills including improvisation, participate in non-classical genres, and explore their creative voices. Examining the results of string educators that incorporate live looping into their own teaching reveals the tool’s effectiveness in bridging curricula …

The Evolution Of American Musical Drama And Its Effects On Modern Soprano Repertoire, Toni Richardson

Recital Papers

This paper offers a brief history of opera in the United States and how it influenced the development of musical theatre. This paper also details the logistics of cross-training for the soprano voice type in opera and musical theatre styles.

A Performance Practice Guide For :Only.Just.Almost.Never For Solo Vibraphone By Jay Alan Yim, Dustin Ray Haigler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Currently, there exists little scholarship on Dr. Jay Alan Yim’s percussion music, and none exists for :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone. Establishing a performance practice guide will allow future percussionists a glimpse into the compositional process of Yim and allow them to expand their repertoire to include this challenging music. The purpose of this project is to create a comprehensive performance practice guide for :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone by Jay Alan Yim.

Resources Required

This project relies mainly on the score of :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone. I have also conducted multiple interviews with Yim regarding his compositional process, sketches, and …

Ysaye Sonata No.4 - A Sonata Of Past And Future, Naiyin Hou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A golden age of violin playing arose during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Different violin schools were established, with their own beliefs concerning technique and interpretation. Some violinists displayed high virtuosity in their playing; whereas, others pursued establishing a noble and simple interpretation following the composer’s musical instruction. Different playing styles were developing, and people had their own preference on one or another. Eugène Ysaÿe was able to present qualities from different schools altogether in his playing, and developed a style of playing that was admired by the later generation. Many violinists in the late 19th century were …

Vocal Athleticism: An Exploration Of Exercise Physiology Principles In The Voice Studio, Katherine Lawrence

Student Theses

Despite the physicality of singing, the application of exercise physiology principles in vocal development has only recently been explored and is not standard practice in training. Due to the correlations between sports and singing, an integration of exercise physiology principles and practices in the voice studio informs training methods and contributes to enhanced performance as well as vocal wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to explore practical applications of exercise training principles in voice study and their role in fostering optimal production while decreasing the potential for injury.