On November 15, 1981, the University of Illinois British Brass Band performed its first concert, conducted by University of Illinois Assistant Director of Bands James Curnow. The ensemble's antecedents lay in the brass bands established in Victorian England that were populated by members of the working classes, while its 1980s founding occurred in…

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of black women band directors at the secondary and collegiate levels. The goal was to understand their experiences that shaped them as educators and contributors to the profession. A secondary goal was to explore the personal and structural factors that served as support systems and…

This qualitative research examines the influence of learning Javanese gamelan on aspects of musicianship, attitudes and approaches relating to the learning and performance of Western instruments experienced by a sample of UK university music students. In addition to benefits to musicianship, students delineated positive developments in attitudes…

Seven excerpts of modern jazz piano improvisations were selected to represent a range of perceived complexities. Audio recordings of the excerpts were played for 27 listeners who were asked to indicate their level of enjoyment on 7-point scales. Indications of enjoyment followed an inverted-U when plotted against perceived complexity of the music.…

This article describes a collaborative and emergent approach utilizing Tupac Shakur's "Brenda's Got a Baby" to leverage theory education. This song/video uses a fictionalized account of a pregnant 12-year-old African American girl to chronicle the ecological realities of life in the inner city (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug addiction and…

For many people, the appeal of music lies in its connection to human emotions. A significant body of research has explored the emotions that are experienced through either the formal structure of music or through its symbolic messages. Yet in the instrumental music education field, this emotional connection is rarely examined. In this article, it…

Music has pervaded American history since the founding fathers sang hymns aboard the Mayflower. From that time until the present, music has been so embedded in U.S. society that it is experienced subconsciously in events and activities that are a part of daily life. Learning and instruction take place in the home, in churches, in the community,…

The present chapter offers a general survey of music education in the United States during the past decade and aims to give a bird's-eye view of the whole range of music education in this country during the past decade by discussing briefly a number of the more important fields of this work and some of the more prominent agencies engaged in them.…