This article presents a project, Shapes of Water, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, which gave music education students the opportunity to compose children's songs about climate change with the help of artists from two fields (contemporary circus and music) and a scientist (chemistry). The article outlines the ways in which the composing…

Music, movement, and imaginative play are essential for young children to explore and understand the world around them. It is important for educators of early primary students to consider how they can facilitate meaningful learning experiences that are practical, engaging, and allow children to investigate unfamiliar musical ideas in supportive,…

In this column, I discuss a soundscape composition activity that I implemented with primary/elementary music classes. During this activity, students used the iPad app, iMovie, to record, organize and edit sound to accompany photos of artworks that they had created. Overall, I found iMovie to be a useful app for music composition with general music…

In this article, we situate songwriting in elementary spaces as a vehicle for personal and musical expression and informed by popular music practices. We offer insights for how educators can anchor students' work by encouraging them to create songs for a specific purpose like shedding light on social issues relevant to their lives. This article…

iPads are becoming increasingly prevalent in schools and offer significant potential as both a compositional and pedagogical tool in general music classes. In this article, I discuss a composition activity that I implemented with general primary/elementary music classes in Australia. This activity involved using iPads, namely the apps iMovie and…

Despite its rich heritage and enduring popularity, country music has historically been marginalized in American music education, usually in favor of more "high-brow" musical practices. This article explores potential explanations for this imbalance within the context of a general overview of cultural and social considerations and…

German-born composer Ernst Mahle (b. 1929) holds a respected position in the music field in Brazil, his adopted country since 1951. Mahle is the artistic director and co-founder of the "Escola de Musica de Piracicaba," one of the most important musical institutions in Brazil. His work has focused on conducting, composition, and…

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)

This listing includes currently available unison and two-part secular vocal music by American women composers, suitable for the primary and middle school level. Citations include information regarding collection, arrangement, publisher, accompaniment, difficulty, vocal range, and special effects that may be incorporated in the composition.…

The children's song cycle is a group of related songs composed for children, to be sung by adults. Although children's song cycles as a genre have never commanded such attention, these cycles are valuable educational tools that can serve as an introduction to classical music and art songs. (Author)

The composer of an opera for elementary students describes his composition and the process of taking it out to the schools of southern Ohio. This article is part of a theme issue on opera. (SJL)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between students' self-assessments of their musical compositions and experts' assessments. College students (N = 54) who were enrolled in a music fundamentals course for elementary education students participated in this study. Each student completed three composition-performance…

This book introduces music reading skills in 21 lessons that focus on the violin but which may be applied to the study of any musical instrument. The lessons are designed for beginning music students and build upon previous lessons in the book. This volume focuses on the violin because of the large number of students presently learning to play it…

Seven music teachers state their needs to those who write music for the elementary grades. (SJL)