Maintains that choral music conductors strive to choose a variety of musical styles, genres, and historical periods. Discusses three types of programming approaches: (1) chronological; (2) thematic; and (3) concept. Includes four tables illustrating selection and pacing of choral music during a concert. (CFR)

Analyzes orchestral repertoire data as indications of musical taste. Collects data from 34 U.S. and Canadian symphony orchestras from 1982 through 1987. Summarizes and compares programing of 600 composers and 10,500 works. Reveals that Mozart was most frequently performed, and Beethoven was given most time. Shows relationship between student and…

Summarizes discussions at a symposium of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) of multicultural music education. Offers ideas about the teaching of African-American, Native American, Asian-American, and Hispanic music. Presents MENC's resolution supporting multicultural music education. Describes the symposium as a major event in…

Describes a summer school program in which secondary students collaborated to build an opera company. Details the activities of seven days in the first stage of the three-stage project. Concludes that the experience built democratic values. (CFR)

Describes a college level course in opera for nonmusic education students. Contends that students benefited from the enriching experience of the course. Includes a list of 10 operas recommended for an introductory course. (CFR)

Reports on a study to examine the role of music in the deaf culture and to relate the findings to music education programs for hearing-impaired students. Finds that cultural identification is a major factor in deaf individuals' involvement with music. Concludes that music can have an important role in the education of most hearing-impaired…

Explains that instead of using the popular arts to make studying humanities relevant to the lives of students, educators can focus on positive examples from the fine arts that students can identify with and introduce their students to a new world of alternatives in music, literature, and art. (CMK)

Explains that in order to achieve a balance between the goals of preparing music for performance and developing capable musicians during choral rehearsals, teachers should employ four rehearsal techniques: (1) the Whole/Part/Whole approach; (2) discovering relationships within compositions; (3) repetition with meaning; and (4) gesture-based…

Discusses the similarities of adult musicians' experiences in five Japanese community and company bands and the experiences encountered in the United States. Focuses on the profile of the Japanese musicians, their reasons for being musicians, the teaching methods and funding of the bands, and rehearsal/performance experiences. Addresses…

Asserts that music teachers must encourage discussion of musical interpretation and interpretive choices as opposed to only focusing on fingerings and tunings in the performance aspect of music education. Provides various strategies for building student creativity in musical performance, such as encouraging divergent thinking or the interpretation…

Music teachers who strive to provide a broad range of experiences for their students are usually careful to include music listening among them. Although students have many opportunities to hear music in their everyday lives, most teachers agree that music listening involves skills that must be taught to children. Some might even argue that…

Cognitive neuroscience is identifying neural networks in the brain that support multiple ways of knowing. This notion is also supported by evidence from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other related disciplines. These human knowledge systems provide a means for sharing, expressing, understanding, knowing, and gaining insights into one's…

This paper focuses on the relationship between the cognitive and affective aspects of listening to various music styles. The document describes two cross-sectional studies of the same sample of 275 subjects drawn from 5 age groups (9-10 years; 14-15 years; 18-24 years; 25-49 years; and 50+ years). The first study deals with the development of…

Thirteen experts in the visual arts, literature, music, dance, and theater responded to the arguments of E. D. Hirsch's "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know", focusing particularily on his alarm at the serious slippage that has occurred in the background knowledge and information prerequisite for effective communication.…

While the capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty may be inborn in all of us, participation in the arts as an audience or artist usually involves a learning process. What is the relationship between childhood and early adult experiences with the arts and later participation? In 1982, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the…