One way to build a comprehensive, inclusive, and equitable music education is through the inclusion of popular music in curricula. However, it can be challenging for teachers to bring popular music into the classroom for many reasons. We suggest that since many teachers are educated in the Orff Schulwerk approach, this can be one way to teach…

This article is part of an ongoing series by the authors and the Deep Play Research Group, which focuses on the intersection of creativity and technology in education. In this article, Dr. Anthony Brandt, professor of composition and theory at Rice University shares his thoughts about the study of creativity. He uses his experiences as a musician…

The praxial philosophy of music education in "Music Matters" (2015) argues that music educators should teach democratically, creatively, and ethically toward empowering students' abilities to achieve full human flourishing through critically reflective music making and listening of all kinds. Moreover, "Music Matters" contends…

If music education is going to meet its full potential in the twenty-first century, then people may need to rethink their assumptions about the central values of school music. The author fully supports all effective, educative, and ethical ways of teaching and learning music, as well as students' critically reflective and democratic engagement…

In this article, the author shares his experience with Burent Arel, an established composer of orchestral, chamber, and classical electronic music. At first, the author found the music of the 20th century deeply disturbing. Yet, Professor Arel converted him and his skepticism into evangelical fervor. Finally understanding the role of the artist in…

There is a long history of debate over what opera is. Since it's more or less formal beginning in the sixteenth century as a reconstruction of ancient drama, opera as an art form has been controversial. The received understanding--emphasized by the genre's founders and in periodic efforts at reforming the standards of composition and…

The author states that among the various approaches to music education, her dialectical and epistemological view offers a way of thinking about music and education and deciding how to go forward in teaching and learning music. In this article, she shows how this particular philosophical perspective can play out in teaching for the development of…

The repetitious nature of music is thought to be very similar to the repetitious nature of computer algorithms. Subroutines are seen to be very effectively applied to music notation, through reducing repetitious entry and the amount of memory required to represent a musical score. Examples of subroutine use are provided. (MP)

Discusses the life of William Billings, an early American composer and a leader in one of the earliest forms of organized music education in the United States: singing schools and singing societies. Examines his contributions to the U.S. musical heritage and briefly surveys his publications. (GEA)

Ellen Zwilich was the first young woman to earn a doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School, and in 1983, she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. In this interview, she discusses many topics, including her music and what she looks for in an audience. (RM)

William Grant Still died in 1978, but excerpts from a 1968 interview are now made available. Still discusses his life and work, especially his experiences as a Black composer in a still largely segregated America. He attempted to integrate his classical training with his roots in Black culture. (CS)

In this article, the author examines the intersections of three concepts, form, feeling, and isomorphism, in the work of Susanne Langer, as they are fundamental to an understanding of her aesthetic theory and to the construction of a philosophy of music and music education. These three concepts hold meanings that differ among musicians and…

John Heiss, a teacher and composer, describes how he came to write "Songs of Nature," a song cycle with text by nineteenth-century American poets. Heiss believes that, though a composer must know his craft, there should be room for intuition and the emotions in the creative process. (CS)

The object of empirical musical sociology is to study the social interaction and interdependence of musicians or composers, their music, and the public. Trends in historical and contemporary musical sociology and the constituents of the musical process are examined. (AM)

In many ways, culture is rooted in the arts. While one may argue that "public policy debates are connected to information technology" (Snyder, et. al., 1999), public policies are also profoundly influenced by the sounds and images that form the content of all aspects of broadcast and print media. Contrary to an information technologist's…