The Burmese arched harp, known as "Saung Gauk," is the national icon of the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar (once called Burma). It is both ancient and contemporary, and its music frequently carries stories that are threaded with long-standing philosophical principles of the Burmese. The music of the Saung Gauk consists of five…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the process of composing educational music. As part of a research project titled "Sound Connections: Composing Educational Music" Canadian composers completed email interviews, responding to semi-structured questions about the process of composing educational music. Using…

The ability to recognize and distinguish among varying musical styles is essential to developing aural skills and musicianship. Yet, this task can be difficult for music learners, particularly nonexperts. To address this challenge and guide music education practice, this study drew on cognitive psychological principles to investigate the effect of…

This article describes a project in which contemporary music is studied and created in primary-school classrooms in the presence of a composer. Listening to and analyzing a composer's works fosters musical creation processes in students, who subsequently present and discuss their works in a meeting with the composer. Finally, the students' works…

To mark the centennial of "Music Educators Journal" ("MEJ"), this article explores the relationship of music education and the making of musical America across the century. Several interwoven themes are developed to show changing narratives of American music and music education, using voices from the pages of "MEJ."…

Contemporary African-American classical composers Cedric Adderley, John Lane, and Trevor Weston intertwine strands of culture and individual experience to produce musical works whose distinct designs offer cultural resources that music educators can use to integrate diversity into instructional settings. Of special interest is their ability to…

This study considers the way children listen to classical music composed for them and the effect of age on their spontaneous invented notations and verbal responses. The musical selection is a piano piece for children by Claude Debussy:"'Jimbo's Lullaby" from "Children's Corner". Two hundred and nine children 4-9.5-years-old…

For the Tower-Tannerts of Texas, music education runs in the family, and that's been the case for more than 100 years. Matriarch Mollie Gregory Tower is a lecturer at Texas State University and a former elementary school teacher, textbook writer, music supervisor, and president of the Texas Music Educators Conference (TMEC). Her daughter Debbie…

In this case study, the author investigated intersections of secondary students' musical engagement in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC) and outside of school. The study traces the experiences of three individual participants and three participant groups (six embedded cases in total) in the creation, performance, recording, and production…

One of the most enduring lessons that the author learned as a musician is that sometimes the most expressive notes are the ones never played. This lesson continues to teach him as he learns to correctly use it within his compositions, as well as in live performances. The author has used music as a tool to connect with students, and has written…

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was the ultimate child prodigy. It is said that Mozart, after attending a service at the Vatican, wrote down an entire sacred piece of music after one hearing. There are countless examples of the amazing feats that Mozart accomplished through his childhood, not to mention his huge compositional output through…

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 purpose of the study is to teach urban young children music concepts and English by composing creative music and songs with contrast elements. The subjects were seven urban young children aged from three to four in a Taiwan kindergarten. The duration was twenty-four weeks, with two sessions per week. The teaching contents included Hello Song,…