Music in education
Music education in the United States of America prior to 1900
For the purpose of this meeting, it is not necessary to dwell on music
in the United States of America prior to 1900. However, it is necessary
to realize that although there were great economic and certain political
developments attained by the United States of America by 1900, our
cultural moorings and concepts were those of a colonial people. Music
instruction in the schools was scattered. It was without focus or plan
and was largely in the hands of professional musicians-some good,
some not so good as musicians-people whose imaginations were
stirred by the necessity of professional adjustments, it is true, but
whose best efforts did not take them beyond some valiant attempts to
imitate European traditions in methods of teaching and in materials as
well. This statement intends to cast no aspersions whatsoever on our
magnificent European heritage. The situation was such that, with the
advent of the opportunity for expanding the programme of music
teaching in the schools as a part of the educational programme, imita-
tions of methods used under entirely different circumstances on the
European scene were inadequate. Materials which were prepared for
the schools as imitations of European materials were similarly inade-
quate. The result was that around the period of 1900, there was a static
quality in the teaching of music in the schools-sort of a calm before
the door to a new era and a new profession in the field of music began
to open.
There have been two conspicuous developments in the jield of music education in
the United States of America since 1900Therefore, at the very turn of the century, many of the same people
who prior to 1900 had been making sporadic attempts to adapt to the
public school system in the United States of America a way of teaching
music which clearly belonged to the individual teacher whose prin-
cipal work was the training of the professional student in music, many
of these same people laid the foundation for what we can now say are
the two most conspicuous developments in the United States of Ame-
rica in the field of music during the first half of this century: (a) emerg-
ence of the professional, voluntary and non-governmental organi-
zation belonging to the music teachers in the schools as the symbol of
unity and authority within the profession and as the recognized spokes-
man for the profession of music education in the United States of Ame-
rica; and (b) recognition of music education as a profession in the field