Band Directors Research Articles

A Sousa Reader: Essays, Inter views, and Clippings ed. by Bryan Proksch

Reviewed by: A Sousa Reader: Essays, Inter views, and Clippings ed. by Bryan Proksch William Berz A Sousa Reader: Essays, Inter views, and Clippings. Edited by Bryan Proksch. Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc., 2017. [xx, 184 p. ISBN 978-1-62277-212-4. $19.95] John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) has long attracted the attention of band aficionados and those interested in American culture during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. This was a golden era of the professional band movement in the United States. It was a time where the concert band served as an extremely popular form of entertainment. While Sousa was not the earliest popular bandmaster, he was undoubtedly one of the most well-known. At the high point of his career, the Sousa band played regularly for audiences numbering in the thousands. The band toured regularly, both nationally and internationally. Sousa became an extremely popular celebrity of the time, an action that Sousa certainly helped to advance. He became an American icon. His life story was the subject of "Stars and Stripes Forever", a 1952 Hollywood classic film starring Clifton Webb as the famous band leader. The "March King" was even featured on the two-cent Famous American Composers stamp issued in May 1940. Sousa is a recognised American composer, and his marches and operettas were very popular during his lifetime. His marches continue to receive countless performances from all kinds of bands, including military, school, and community ensembles. As he was very patriotic, so are his marches. John Philip Sousa IV describes his famous great grandfather in the book's foreword as the "Pied Piper of Patriotism" (p. xiii). Composed in 1888, Semper fidelis is the official march of the United States Marine Corps. His most famous composition, The Stars and Stripes Forever was composed in 1896 and is the official National March of the United States. It is difficult to imagine Independence Day in the United States without hearing The Stars and Stripes Forever. Many of the early publications about Sousa, including his own autobiography Marching Along, focuses primarily on his popularity as a musical and cultural figure. During most of his career, he fostered his own image through embellishing facets of his life story. As Patrick Warfield writes, "the plethora of tall tales should not be terribly surprising: the March King was, after all, a character, and John Philip Sousa wrote the drama in which he played" (Patrick Warfield, Making the March King: John Philip Sousa's Washington Years, 1854-1893, [Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013, 1]). Published by GIA Publications, A Sousa Reader: Essays, Interviews, and Clippings is a collection of articles, letters, interviews, and other material written by or about the famous bandleader. It includes approximately sixty items of varying length, a number of which are introduced with commentary by the editor, Bryan Proksch. The materials are grouped around themes that relate to issues that arose during the general periods of Sousa's professional life (1880-1893, 1894-1905, 1905-1906, 1908-1917, 1917-1918, and 1919-1928). The number of entries per period range from six to sixteen, and the length of these periods vary considerably—single years to over a decade. As expected in a publication of this nature, the length of the entries themselves vary, although most are relatively brief. The included materials come from a variety of sources, although many are housed at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music (SACAM) at the University of Illinois (p. xvi). Sousa and the band director at the University of Illinois at the time, A. Austin Harding (1880-1958), became good friends; the band at the University was considered one of the leading college programs in the country at this time. Sousa donated a large amount of his materials to [End Page 230] Illinois, which arrived in Champaign shortly after his passing. SACAM holdings feature the world's single largest archive of original compositions and arrangements by John Philip Sousa. The Sousa Press Books, a source for a number of the articles cited in this book, are also found at the University of Illinois. As can be expected in such publications, editor Proksch has included materials on...

A Measurement of Self-Efficacy Among Oklahoma Secondary Band Directors in Concert, Marching, and Jazz Ensemble Pedagogy

The purpose of this study was to examine secondary band directors’ self-efficacy toward concert, marching, and jazz ensemble pedagogy. Secondary purposes were to investigate potential relationships between secondary band directors’ self-efficacy in concert, marching, and jazz ensemble pedagogy and their respective (a) demographics and (b) previous professional and preservice experiences. Oklahoma high school band directors were invited to participate in a researcher-designed survey that included questions pertaining to their professional teaching background and preservice music teaching experiences. Participants ( N = 133) also identified their level of agreement to items on the Band Director Pedagogy Self-Efficacy Measure. Results indicated that mean differences for self-efficacy beliefs for all three ensemble settings were significantly different. Self-efficacy for concert band pedagogy was the highest, followed by marching and jazz band, respectively. Professional and undergraduate experiences significantly affected director pedagogy self-efficacy, particularly in the jazz setting.

Marching Forward: The Music Education Innovation and Legacy of James R. Wells (1931 – )

James R. Wells, retired professor of West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, could be considered one of the most influential and innovative band directors of the late twentieth century. Wells influenced and mentored many current leaders in the music education field as well as created educational music programs that continue today. In the 2016–2017 school year, Wells’s ensemble music adjudication festival programs involved more than 220,000 students. To gain further insight into the origin and development of these leaders and programs, I conducted an oral history case study with Wells. I collected interviews, e-mail correspondence, and artifacts provided by former students and colleagues of Wells’s to provide additional facts and corroborate Wells’s memories. Results demonstrated Wells incorporated comprehensive musicianship and aesthetic education in marching band pedagogy, professional development and educational experiences for music educators through films, workshops, and adjudicated festivals. He also empowered student leadership and promoted gender equality in instrumental ensembles. Knowledge gained from this study provides insight into the origin of these important music education individuals and programs. I hope that the findings in this study serve as an inspiration to future music educators as they continue to improve and create new experiences and opportunities for students.

Does School Band Kill Creativity? Embracing New Traditions in Instrumental Music

In schools, band is often seen as a class where students and teachers can be creative. But is this true? Many schools use a traditional band model, which may not allow space for creative activities. This article, inspired by the Music Educators Journal March 2017 special focus on teaching for musical creativity, examines and critiques the traditional model of school band with respect to the space offered for creative music experiences and offers ideas for band directors of how to structure their programs to help foster more creative musical activities.

Music and Brain Development.

When I was young, I remember my parents used to play the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun" in the morning on the old record player. My mother helped hire the first band director at my middle school, and my father played opera in the car on my way to elementary school. I dabbled with different instruments, and played trumpet (cornet actually), flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, and Ukulele. I also sang in several choirs and still sing today. What did all this musical influence do to my developing brain? This article reviews some of the existing evidence about music and brain development, to make a case for exposing children to music at an early age and supporting school music programs. [Pediatr Ann. 2018;47(8):e306-e308.].

Attitudes of High School Band Directors in the United States Toward Solo and Ensemble Activities

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes of high school band directors in the United States toward solo and ensemble activities. Independent variables such as teaching experience, level of education, National Association for Music Education (NAfME) division, personal solo and ensemble experience, teaching assignment, and director-centered external factors were used to investigate potential differences in attitudinal responses. Subjects were high school band directors (N = 557) who completed an online researcher-designed questionnaire that gathered demographic and attitudinal information regarding directors’ perceptions of benefits to students from participation in solo and ensemble activities, their importance to directors, and perceptions of local, regional, and state events. Analyses indicated no significant differences in director’s perceptions of benefits to students according to any independent variables, but significant differences were found in the importance of solo and ensemble to directors and perceptions of solo and ensemble events according to NAfME division, directors’ experience with solo and ensemble as a student, and director-centered external factors. Results indicate directors understand and believe strongly in the benefits of solo and ensemble activities, but factors such as time constraints, job demands, program expectations, and festival and contest adjudication, format, and schedule may hinder directors’ use of solo and ensemble activities as an integral part of their program.

Achieving Greater Musical Independence in Ensembles through Cognitive Apprenticeship

Musical independence is a common objective for large-ensemble classes, but traditional, teacher-centric instructional practices for these groups may discourage rather than promote students’ critical thinking and decision making in music. Cognitive apprenticeship provides an instructional approach through which student musicians can develop skills for musical independence, including critical thinking and problem solving, while at the same time maintaining high-quality large ensembles. This process involves three stages of instruction: modeling, coaching, and fading. This article presents examples from several band directors who use a cognitive apprenticeship approach that can be applied to all types of large ensembles to help students develop the skills and competencies needed to engage with music meaningfully on their own, both within and outside the music classroom.

From band director to chief data cruncher: Trump’s choice to lead U.S. education statistics agency raises eyebrows

From band director to chief data cruncher: Trump’s choice to lead U.S. education statistics agency raises eyebrows

Perceptions of Cooperating Music Teachers on Service Motives, Relationships, and Mentoring Strategies During Student Teaching

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of four cooperating teachers concerning their role in the music student teaching experience. Participants included an elementary music educator, middle school band director, high school band director, and a high school choir director. Research questions were (a) What are the personal and professional motivations for hosting a student teacher? (b) How do cooperating teachers describe relationships with student teachers? and (c) What strategies do cooperating teachers use in mentoring student teachers? Data collected included two interviews with each participant and a focus group interview. Participants expressed a desire to help the next generation of music teachers and an eagerness to learn new teaching strategies from interns and collaborate with them in a co-teaching model. Relationships were built around student teachers’ skill sets, personality, and work ethic. Mentoring strategies included modeling, facilitating learning opportunities, and regular discussion and reflection activities.

The Jazz Republic: Music, Race, and American Culture in Weimar Germany by Jonathan O. Wipplinger

Reviewed by: The Jazz Republic: Music, Race, and American Culture in Weimar Germany by Jonathan O. Wipplinger Sharon M. Wailes and Monika Herzig Jonathan O. Wipplinger. The Jazz Republic: Music, Race, and American Culture in Weimar Germany. U of Michigan P, 2017. 311 pp. Paper, $39.95. Jonathan Wipplinger presents a thorough analysis of the impact of jazz as a musical art form rooted in African American culture on the young democracy of Germany, specifically the city of Berlin. His research digs [End Page 174] deep into articles, news reports, publicity materials, concert programs, and also translations of the poetry of Langston Hughes, while also providing an analysis of the political context in order to document the impact of the arrival of jazz as a symbol for American culture. Wipplinger refutes the commonly held notion that legitimate African American jazz was unknown in Weimar Germany apart from its "diluted commercial imitations" (12). Furthermore, he argues that the overwhelming publicity that symphonic jazz and the white band director Paul Whiteman received in Weimar Germany eclipsed the presence of African American jazz artists, leaving the initial impression that Germans were unfamiliar with African American jazz. Wipplinger offers a badly needed alternative narrative in which the musical contributions of African American jazz performers and composers become visible and in which the complexity and "messiness of cultural transfer" are acknowledged (13). The modernism of the 1920s, observed in Dadaism and expressionism, was largely facilitated through the cultural friction associated with jazz that allowed the development of a new identity. During this dynamic period, American Sam Wooding and his jazz orchestra from New York premiered in Berlin. Wooding's presence points to an influence on Weimar culture of African American jazz directly from America. Wipplinger discusses the strong (both positive and negative) reception of the group and then moves to the theoretical level, engaging with modernist theory. He uses the concept of aural shock, based on the theories of Theodore Adorno and Walter Benjamin, along with socially constructed ideas of Blackness and images of the modern metropolis in his analysis. Wipplinger acknowledges Adorno's negative writings on jazz but nonetheless applies his theories, deliberately reading Adorno "against the grain" (70), a valid move consistent with the book's innovative approach. The paradoxical juxtaposition of the modern and the primitive was found in jazz—the machination and noise of the modern city reflected in the instrumentation and overwhelming nature of jazz, and Blackness in its associations for Weimar Germans with the syncopated rhythms of the "jungle" representing the primitive—yielding the concept of a "techno-primitive hybrid" (45). Wipplinger also argues that perceptions (and misperceptions) of African American musicians in Weimar Germany influenced modernist thought. With the rise of the Nazi party, racial discrimination led to the rejection of jazz. Nazis conflated Blackness, modern jazz, and Jewishness, as shown in an image at the exhibition Entartete Musik (Degenerate music), [End Page 175] depicting a caricature of a black saxophonist with a large hoop earring and a Star of David on the lapel (234). Yet German Jewish writers and artists were attracted to jazz because they saw parallels between the plight of African Americans in American culture and their own circumstances as outcasts. In uncovering an alternative narrative of history, Wipplinger also engages with gender directly. His chapter on Girlkultur discourse of the mid-1920s analyzes a new conception in which the feminine was cast as the foreign, even threatening other. Although the dancing girls of the era were white, Fritz Giese posits a primitive black ancestry to their rhythmic dancing. The ideas surrounding Girlkultur give jazz, race, and gender an interrelatedness that was perceived to drive the process of modernity. A thorough, in-depth document of the impact of jazz culture on the Weimar Republic, The Jazz Republic satisfies a need to see jazz from a transnational perspective and can function in the classroom as a springboard for fruitful discussion of German modernism and the complexity of cultural exchange. Wipplinger offers a list of alternative figures on the Weimar jazz scene whose presence can serve as an antidote to the prominent white males featured in textbooks for German foreign-language instruction. His narration supplements the usual...

Expert High School, College, and Service Band Director’s Opinions Regarding The Concert March in America: A Qualitative Study

Expert High School, College, and Service Band Director’s Opinions Regarding The Concert March in America: A Qualitative Study

Content Analysis of an Open Online Forum for Band Directors

Abstract Music teacher concerns have been described using case studies, surveys, and mixed methods, but no research exists that compares music teachers’ online interactions with professional development offerings or how these online discussions may evolve over the school year. I used a content analysis approach (Neuendorf, 2002) to describe 6,430 topics in an online open discussion forum for band directors and the professional development sessions (N = 215) offered by one state’s music educators’ association and bandmasters’ association in 1 calendar year. Music repertoire, employment, festival rules and procedures, program administration, and work environment were chief conversation topics for this group of directors. Directors of beginning bands had specialized conversations differing from their peers. As directors moved through the calendar year, their top concerns evolved from music repertoire to festival rules, employment, and program administration. Professional development sessions mostly involved ensemble or individual pedagogy and program administration.

Was band director's comparison to ‘spirit squad’ director enough to establish different treatment?

Was band director's comparison to ‘spirit squad’ director enough to establish different treatment?

Was band director's comparison to ‘spirit squad’ director enough to establish different treatment?

A Title IX investigation in July 2014 revealed the culture of The Ohio State University band facilitated acts of sexual harassment. It also concluded Director Jonathan Waters reasonably should have known about that culture and failed to eliminate it.

Teaching the ‘people’s music’ at the ‘people’s college’: Popular music education in the junior college curriculum in Los Angeles, 1924–55

Abstract The historical foundations of formal popular music education in post-secondary institutions in the United States has rarely been explored. This article provides an overview of the seminal popular music courses and degree programmes at three post-secondary public institutions, from their establishment in the 1920s until the 1950s. Several important music educators responsible for these innovative programmes are profiled, including band director Audre Stong at Pasadena City College, department chair Leslie Clausen at Los Angeles City College and band director Dwight Defty, who introduced the first popular music degree programme, Modern Music, in 1936 at Long Beach City College. Factors that led to the introduction of popular music in the curriculum included the expansion of vocational education in California public schools, softening the boundary between highbrow and lowbrow musical traditions in the Los Angeles music scene, strong local public school music education and the democratic movement towards student- and community-centred education.

Facebook Band Director’s Group: Member Usage Behaviors and Perceived Satisfaction for Meeting Professional Development Needs

The purpose of this study was to investigate participation in a Facebook social media community known as Band Director’s Group (BDG) through examination of members’ demographic profiles, self-reported usage behaviors, and perceptions about how group activity satisfies their professional development needs. Respondents to an online survey ( n = 336) reported near-daily interaction with BDG, with a notable trend toward lower average levels of contributing new content compared with relatively higher levels of passive and semipassive engagement such as reading and “liking” posts of other users.

Women Music Teachers as Military Band Directors during World War II

The purpose of this study was to determine how women music teachers became the United States’ first female military band directors. Interviews with seventy-nine World War II military bandswomen revealed that seven of the ten chosen female directors were music teachers prior to their enlistment in the Army, Coast Guard, or Marines—band and orchestra teachers, music supervisors, and a college professor. Six of those seven directors are included in this study. Research questions pertained to their childhood music education, formal schooling, music-teacher employment, why they quit teaching to enlist, military education, military leadership and performance experiences, how they continued music making after the war, and the meaning of this experience for their lives. Corroboration of interview responses with primary and secondary sources—census data, school records, city directories, social security index, newspaper articles, photographs, diaries, military documents, military and WWII books—revealed that these music educators had accurate memories, outstanding music education and performance backgrounds, substantial leadership experiences, and diverse musical backgrounds that made them good choices for leading military bands and ensembles. All were part of significant firsts for women in the military. Near the end of their lives, they believed that their service as a military band director and musician had substantial impact on their lives and in some cases valued as “the most important” experience of their lives.

Effects on Practice Frequency and Efficiency of Teaching Practice Strategies to Band Students

Achieving a high degree of mastery and success on an instrument is often a goal of band students, as well as that of their parents, band directors, and lesson teachers. The ability to practice consistently and to make lasting improvements during practice sessions is essential to this mastery. Teaching practice strategies is important for stimulating desire to practice and ensuring productive individual practice. This study explored the correlation between providing band students in grades 6-8 instruction on how and why to practice, and the frequency and efficiency of their individual practice time. During the instructional phase of this study, students learned and applied various practice strategies. Reporting of practice time, knowledge of practice strategies, and practicing ability data was collected prior to and at the conclusion of instruction on practice strategies. The pre- and poststudy data was analyzed, and results supported the hypothesis that an increase in practice frequency occurs following instruction on practice strategies. The data was less conclusive concerning the influence of teaching practice strategies on practice efficiency.

Examining Pedagogical Content Knowledge of an Expert Band Director Teaching Lips Slurs

The purpose of this case study was to describe how one band director used pedagogical content knowledge while working with beginning-band students to help them develop the skill of playing brass lip slurs. Data were generated from (1) video recordings of each class over two different weeks during the school year, (2) “think aloud” interviews in which the teacher described what educational actions and decisions the teacher was making, and (3) detailed observation notes. I used cognitive task analysis to develop a concept map illustrating components of pedagogical content knowledge the teacher used during instruction. The teacher combined content knowledge, knowledge of students, and curriculum knowledge providing examples of how pedagogical content knowledge manifests itself in teaching beginning band. Examining the teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge revealed core teaching practices that may be useful for music teacher educators to understand and develop.

An Examination of University Conducting Faculty Members’ Score Study Attitudes and Practices

The purpose of this study was to examine university conducting teachers’ attitudes about score study, the source materials they used to teach score study, their personal score study practices, and the score study approaches they taught their undergraduate conducting students. Respondents ( N = 236) were members of the College Band Directors National Association who taught undergraduate conducting courses. Our findings indicated that “developing an interpretation of how the music should be performed” was considered the most important reason to study the score, that respondents spent an average of 6 hours in score study per week, and that The Art of Conducting by Donald Hunsberger and Roy Ernst was the most frequently used undergraduate conducting textbook. The two most frequently used personal score study practices, which were also reported as the two most frequently taught practices to undergraduate conductors, were “define all unfamiliar music terms” and “initial, casual read-through of the score.”