Music and Education

1. Music and Education A study of the importance of music in formal school settings today. By Jonathan Angress

2. Early Forms of Music NotationMedieval Notation • According to most musicologists, music in a formal setting began with the advent of Gregorian Chant in the churches of Europe during the Medieval period. • Notation back then included trope symbols and square-shaped note heads with a four line staff instead of the modern five line staff and round note heads used today. • The little telephone shaped character is what determines the key signature of the piece. • This is important in understanding the role of music in education. The more a person understands the fundamentals of music, the more he will understand the role it plays in a child’s life.

3. Renaissance Notation • Stemming from the notation of the Medieval time period, Renaissance style notation is similar in the regards that it maintains the same integrity and authenticity as Medieval notation. • In this example, you can still see the use of single note heads to portray half notes (2 beats) or whole notes (4 beats). However, a new style of transcription is introduced, the note stem. This is functional in representing a quicker note. So wherever there are stems, those notes are played faster than the other notes. • This style looks more closely like modern notation as we know it today.

4. Baroque Transcriptions • Obviously during the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, music was not officially printed since the printing press did not yet exist. If a composer needed individual parts of his music for every instrument in the orchestra or every singer in the choir, the composer would hire a scribe to transcribe everything over and over or the composer would do it himself. • This is an example of a transcription from the “King of Baroque” Johann Sebastian Bach. As you can see, there are now five lines to the staff and the notation is practically identical to modern music today. The only difference is that the part is hand written and therefore harder to read or preserve it’s accuracy.

5. The Importance of Learning Music in Schools • Whether you are learning about different bands, learning to play the violin, or analyzing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, science has proven that children who grow up on speaking terms with music or a musical instrument generally perform better in their other classes and activities (except perhaps, sports). This is known as the Mozart Effect. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791

6. The Mozart Effect • As most if not all psychological experiments are preliminarily done on rats, the Mozart Effect is not an exception. The University of Wisconsin Department of Psychology conducted an experiment where the classical music was played to a group of rats in the womb and shortly after birth. Minimalist music was played to a second group. And the third group had no music. The rats were then compared while attempting to finish a maze. The rats who listened to classical music completed the maze more quickly than the other rats. • Similar studies have been done with children where three different groups were set the same task while listening to three different types of music (or silence). The result was the group who listened to classical music achieved the highest result.

7. School Music Programs • Music programs in schools vary by size, age group, location, and concentration. Generally speaking, most primary school music programs involve one or two music teachers that teach general “music” to grades K – 6. This includes learning songs, rhythm, recorder, and perhaps fundamental music reading skills. Usually, a music teacher will elect to have a unison or two part choir consisting of students from the upper grade levels (4th, 5th, and 6th grades).

8. Junior High School • In middle schools, students graduate to playing standard musical instruments in bands and orchestras as well as singing in three part or four part choirs. Students also begin to study their instrument or voice privately with an instructor. • Middle school choirs are always apt to change their song repertoire as well as their voicing since boys of this age tend to go through puberty and thus their voice changes. Most choirs of this age group are made up mostly of girls and the few boys in these groups sing in the tenor range or in the soprano/alto range.

9. High School • Among high school music programs, there are different flavors. The most common is the type found in public schools. Generally, public school programs will have a band, orchestra, and choir. They will usually tend to play regular repertoire (nothing rearranged for easier playing) and have all instruments and voices. Programs of these kinds tend to be fairly large. • Music programs in private schools can range from being the same size as a public school program or could be very small. Since private schools do not receive the same type of funding from the government, financial support for extra-curricular activities is a little bit harder to come by. Musical ensembles tend to be smaller in private schools and song repertoire tends to be significantly diminished. • Magnet schools come in both the public and private varieties. These schools specifically concentrate on music, art, and sports. Therefore, the programs here are significantly more elaborate than that of a public school. There could be several different orchestras, bands, and choirs to choose from.

10. Theatre • Many classical musicians, music theorists, and musicologists view the genre of Musical Theatre music to not be a legitimate form of music and as “icing” on the over-fluffed cake which is theatre. Within this genre, many other genres of music are replicated inaccurately and often parodied as well. The style of playing and singing is very forced and the goal is not to produce a beautiful sound but just to make sure the sound is there. Regardless, many theatre programs in schools are synonymous with the adjoined music program. If you go to any given high school, you will find at least half of the choir are also in the theatre as well.

11. Program Cutting • All across the country, music programs are being cut in schools because of lack of funding and lack of interest in the proper education of children. Earlier this fall, the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave a conference call emphasizing the importance of music and art in education:

12. Material Pertaining to Cutting Music Programs This is the statistics of a narrowing curriculum put out by the Center on Education Policy: http://www.cep-dc.org/press/Curriculum%20Release%20Final.pdf Read the letter from U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan: http://www.supportmusic.com/Arts_Education_Letter.pdf

13. Response in Hollywood Below is a clip from the 1999 film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep and Gloria Estefan about the East Harlem Violin Program and its trouble staying alive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruw-pwkCrJU

14. Response in Hollywood con’t And here is a clip from the 1995 film Mr. Holland’s Opus starring Richard Dryfuss who plays a music teacher having his program cut as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng3l4vEN3Dk