instructor

Jerry Kerlin, PhD

office: Music Building, Room 28

office telephone: (914) 323-5256

email: kerlinj@mville.edu

office hours:    

• Tuesday 12:30–2:00p

• Thursday 7:00–8:30p

course location
and time

Music Building, Room 112

Tuesday 7:00–9:30p

prerequisites

Suggested prerequisite: Undergraduate degree in music.

course
description

History and current debates of philosophy, praxis, and materials for the transmission (teaching and learning) of music at elementary and secondary levels. Emphasis on the work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Zoltán Kodály, Carl Orff, Comprehensive Musicianship (with its roots in the work of the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project), and music technology in the classroom. Reaction papers to monographs and articles, including the work of Robert Abramson, Lois Choksy, Avon Gillespie, David Woods, Frank York, Bennett Reimer, David Elliott, The New Companion for Research in the Teaching and Learning of Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, Council for Research in Music Education, the MayDay Group, etc. Bibliography/sonography/videography assignment of current materials. National Standards for Music, Dance, Drama, and the Visual Arts, and the New York State Standards for music.

required text

• Blacking, John. 1995.   How Musical Is Man?  Seattle: University of Washington Press.

• Blacking, John. 1967/1995. Venda Children's Songs: A Study in Ethnomusicological Analysis. University of Chicago Press.

• Choksy, Lois, Robert M. Abramson, Avon E. Gillespie, David Woods, and Frank York. 2000. Teaching Music in the Twenty-First Century.  2^nd ed.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• Elliott, David J. 1995. Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press.

course content

1. Western philosophy and the transmission (teaching and learning) of music: ontology, epistemology, and axiology. Curriculum writing in the transmission of music: The Beginning Point, Song List, Yearly Flow Chart, Daily Lesson Plan, Activity Plan (Strategy). Vocal parameters: Range, Register, Tessitura assignment.

2. History of music education in the West. Bibliography/Sonography/Videography assignment.

3. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze: history, philosophy, and praxis. Rhythm games from the work of Robert Abramson.

4. Zoltán Kodály: history, philosophy, and praxis. Singing games.

5. Zoltán Kodály: history, philosophy, and praxis (continued). Levels of inquiry and the circle of induction/deduction exemplified by the Kodály philosophy. From song to hand to staff: music oracy to literacy (from the body to the page).

6. Carl Orff: history, philosophy, and praxis. The Orff instrumentarium: origins, from speech and song to instruments.

7. Comprehensive Musicianship: philosophy and praxis. Technology in music education: intent, delivery, technology of the piano and other Western instruments, software. Advancing from singing games to dance in movement curriculum. Reaction paper to Choksy, et al., (2001) assigned.

8. Shinichi Suzuki: from Japanese sensibility and pedagogy to a diaspora pedagogy: Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education. Music and transmission (teaching and learning) as a social phenomenon and as social expression. Rationale for teaching music as culture. Sources/resources for world musics in the classroom. The work of ethnomusicologist John Blacking: How Musical Is Man? Sources/resources for the musics of Africa in the classroom. Examples of musics from Africa for the classroom (continued).

9. Africa as a continent with three language groups and many cultures. The work of ethnomusicologist John Blacking: Venda Children’s Songs: A Study in Ethnomusicological Analysis. Venda children of the 1960s. Examples of musics from Africa for the classroom (continued).

10. The African Diaspora. Sources/resources for the musics of African Americans. African American children’s songs: singing games, call-response songs, etc. Spirituals and other religious songs. Reaction paper to the work of John Blacking assigned.

11. Bennett Reimer as a modern voice in music education philosophy. Sources/Resources for the transmission (teaching and learning) of the musics of the Asias and Macronesia.

12. David Elliott as a modern voice in music education philosophy. Sources/Resources for the transmission (teaching and learning) of the musics of the Asias and Macronesia.

13. David Elliott: contexted musicing and praxis in music education in the twenty-first century (continued). Sources/Resources for the transmission (teaching and learning) of the musics of the West: Ireland and The Six Celtic Nations.

14. David Elliott: contexted musicing and praxis in music education in the twenty-first century (continued). Towards the rethinking of your own philosophy of music education, including ontology (What is music?), epistemology [How do we know music (transmission, teaching and learning), and axiology (What are the values of music?). A personal philosophy of music transmission (teaching and learning) assigned. Sources/Resources for the transmission (teaching and learning) of the musics of the West: Canada and the United States.

15. Rethinking a personal philosophy of the transmission (teaching and learning) of musics.

Ongoing discussion:

• towards a philosophy of musicing (music making): articulation of ontogeny (What is music?), epistemology (How do we know music?), and axiology (What are the values of music?)

• parameters of musicing, first through oracy (hearing and performing), then through literacy (notating)

• Kodály, Bartók, and 20^th century nationalism

• Kodály, Reimer, and Elliott—the politics and poetics of transmission philosophy

• an introduction to the history, development, and current discourse in the anthropology of  music and dance

• ethnography as research method 

• prescriptive and descriptive transcription of field recordings

course activities 

and assignments

•  reading and discussion of assignments in required texts and reserve texts and articles 

•  from readings and experience development of a personal philosophy of the transmission (teaching and learning) of music

•  discussion and development of advanced classroom strategies

•  writing of curriculum for elementary and secondary music learning (beginning point, song list, yearly flow chart, daily lesson plans, activity plans or strategies)

•  preparation and teaching of choral repertory for young children

•  prescriptive and descriptive transcription of field recordings

•  traditional song analysis and beginning of a personal collection

•  song circle: performance of traditional songs learned through oracy with attention to stylistic and improvisational parameters

assessment

20%   • reports and discussion from observation

20%   • synopsis and discussion of class readings and teaching problems with  

           reaction papers

20%   • transcription, analysis, and collection of traditional songs

20%   • bibliography/discography/videography of traditional song and dance 

           collections, compilations, and teaching materials

20%   • final project: choice of:

                • music curriculum project (including beginning point, song list, yearly flow chart, 

                daily lesson plans, and activity or strategy plans) for an upper elementary school 

                grade or a middle school grade

                • research paper relevant to readings in philosophical thought and praxis in 

                music education (15-page minimum)

supplementary
texts
(not required)

and readings

• Bruner, Jerome. 1960. The Process of Education.  New York: Vintage Books, A Division

of Random House.

• Bruner, Jerome. 1974. Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Bruner, Jerome. 1990. Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Bruner, Jerome. The Culture of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Campbell, Patricia Shehan. 2004. Teaching Music Globally: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Colwell, Richard, and Carol Richardson, eds. 2002. The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning.  A Project of the Music Educators National Conference.  New York: Schirmer Books, A Division of Macmillan.

• Elliott, David J. 2005. Praxial Music Education: Reflections and Dialogues. New York: Oxford University Press.

• McCarthy, Kevin F., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Loura Zakars, and Arthur Brooks. 2004. Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation MG218. Free download from www.rand.org

• Reimer, Bennett. 2003. A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision.  3d ed.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• Suzuki, Shinichi, with Waltraud Suzuki: Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education. 2nd ed. Suzuki Method International. ISBN-13: 978-0874875843.

• Thomas, Ronald B., Americole Biasini, Lenore Pogonowski, et al. 1970. Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program: MMCP Synthesis—1970: A Structure for Music Education. Purchase, NY: Manhattanville College. 

• Wade, Bonnie C. 2004. Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press. 

journals

for supplementary readings

British Journal of Music Education

1984–   Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 

Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 

1963–   Urbana IL: Council for Research in Music Education.  

Canadian Music Educator, Journal of the Canadian Music Educators’ Association 

1959–   Toronto: Canadian Music Educators’ Association.

Ethnomusicology, Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology

            1953–   Middletown, CT: Published for the Society for Ethnomusicology by

                        the Wesleyan University Press (1956/1957–1980).  Currently, Ann

                        Arbor, MI: Society for Ethnomusicology.

International Journal of Community Music

            2004–   David J. Elliott, Founder and Editor. Kari K. Veblen, Associate Editor.

New York University electronic journal: www.education.nyu.edu/music/meducation/ijcm

Journal of Research in Music Education, Research Journal of the Music Educators National Conference (USA)

1953–   Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference.

Music Educators Journal, Journal of the Music Educators National Conference (USA)

1934–   Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference.

websites as supplementary resources

International Society for Music Education

www.isme.org

MayDay Group: Action for Change in Music Education

www.maydaygroup.org

Music Education Resource Base (MERB) • Including the Canadian Music Index
University of Victoria, Faculty of Education

www.merb.org

Music Educators National Conference

www.menc.org

Dalcroze Society of America

http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/

International Kodály Society

http://www.iks.hu/

Organization of American Kodály Educators

http://www.oake.org/

Kodály Society of Canada

http://kodalysocietyofcanada.ca/

The Kodály Organization of New York

           http://kony.oake.org/KONY/Home.html

American Orff-Schulwerk Association

http://www.aosa2.org/

The American Folk Song Collection at Holy Names University

http://kodaly.hnu.edu/

Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

            www.pzweb.harvard.edu