Joel Krosnick, a top performer of avante-garde music, urges students to recreate the fantasy that the composer visualized in creating the music through gestures, expression, and coloration. (AM)

Describes the structural similarities inherent in musical and linguistic compositions and how they reflect basic human impulses and principles of effective composition. Uses Bach's "Passacaglia" to illustrate the characteristics of good composition. (JMF)

Discusses how Holst's composition can be used in high school band classes. Background information on the composer and his work is included. The themes of each movement in the Suite are analyzed for problems they might pose for student musicians. (AM)

Discusses the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project's concentration on the purpose, substance, and means of music instruction. Describes improvisation as the dominant means for teaching concepts, knowing how music works, and knowing how to make musical sense. Urges that the same goals of aural acuity, creative thought, and musical facility are…

Discusses an alpha-numeric system of encoding musical notation--ALPHAMUSE--which is based on fundamental concepts of tonal statements. Encoding problems for pitch, duration, and superpositions are described and solutions offered. (RAO)

The author explores some of the possibilities and problems involved in teaching musical composition, describes three approaches to songwriting, and offers suggestions for ways teachers can reinforce efforts of student songwriters. (KC)

Asserting that children are particularly open to novelty in music, the author analyzes four examples of twentieth-century avante-garde music and suggests how they can be presented in a children's music class. (SJL)

This article presents a rationale for using songwriting in the elementary grades and outlines a plan by which a whole class of fifth- or sixth-graders can work together to write a song. (SJL)

Describes how a student teacher used the Comprehensive Musicianship approach to introduce high school choruses to contemporary music. Choir students participated in the entire composition process from text selection to musical analysis of a choral work. Student discussion of the completed work reinforced their understanding of musical principles.…

Provides a selected list of contemporary performance literature suitable for middle school and junior high bands. Considers both quality and consistency, as well as the ability of a composition to remain interesting and challenging throughout rehearsal, as selection standards. Groups the 100 works according to difficulty level. (LS)

Discusses how computer-generated music can be used as a starting point to explore the science of sound. Listings for programs which focus on pitch (including a pitch matching game), beat, and frequency are included. (JN)

The author states that in a melody/harmony/rhythm sense, improvising on a synthesizer is no different from improvising on any other instrument. The capabilities of synthesizers are described, and exercises and methods to be used with synthesizers are outlined. (KC)

Recent developments affecting educational institutions provide guidelines: first, for the videotaping and use of television programs by nonprofit educational institutions and, second, for the copying of music. (Author/MLF)

Presents activities for discovering and exploring sound in the environment and for creating a "musical" composition from everyday sounds. (SJL)

Describes features of five new software programs--Songwriter, Musical Ideas, Musicalc I, Musical Construction Set, Musicland, and Music Designer II--which facilitate musical composition and musical creativity in a variety of ways. Shortcomings are briefly discussed, and sources for further information are given. (MBR)