John Philip Sousa’s Historic Resistance to Technology in Music Learning

In this article, I explore John Philip Sousa’s historic resistance to music technology and his belief that sound recordings would negatively impact music education and musical amateurism. I review Sousa’s primary arguments from two 1906 essays and his testimony to the US Congress from the same year, based on the fundamental premise that machines themselves sing or perform, severing the connection between live listener and performer and thus rendering recordings a poor substitute for real music. Sousa coined the phrase “canned music,” and I track engagement with this phrase among the hundreds of newspapers and magazines focused on Sousa’s resistance. To better understand the construction of Sousa’s beliefs, I then review how his rich musical upbringing around the US Marine Band and the theaters of Washington DC lead to his conception of music as a dramatic ritual. And I examine the curious coda of Sousa’s life, during which he recanted his beliefs and conducted his band for radio, finding that in fact these experiences reinforced Sousa’s worries. The discussion considers how Sousa’s ideas can help us better to examine the contemporary shift to digital music by combining Sousa’s ideas with those of Sherry Turkle.

A Historical Perspective from Folklorist Henry Glassie: Roots of Folk Songs in Music Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the sociocultural roots of folk songs from the perspective of renowned folklorist Henry Glassie. Dr. Henry Glassie holds the rank of Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, where he previously served on the faculty for the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Primary sources included Glassie’s archived collection of folk song transcriptions, recordings, and field notes from the Appalachian region between 1961-1967, housed at the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University. A total of 1,665 titles from elementary general music sources were cross-referenced with Glassie’s collection, 26 of which appeared in the archived account. Two oral history interviews with Glassie revealed that folk songs that are commonly used in elementary general music classrooms have historical roots of which teachers may be unaware. The songs in this study raise ethical and moral questions regarding their use in the general music classroom and suggest that teachers carefully research folk songs and their related meanings.

The Arrival of Graded Music Exams in New Zealand: A Case Study of Dunedin up to 1916

Toward the end of the nineteenth century a number of external music examining systems were introduced to New Zealand. Two of them, Trinity College, London, and the Associated Board, gained a strong following and became de facto standards in the absence of a national music conservatorium. This article briefly outlines the beginning of external exams in England and follows their export to various overseas members of the British Empire. Graded music exams as a form of tuition engendered considerable debate as to efficacy, merit, and overall validity. Trinity College arrived first in New Zealand, in 1888, followed by the Associated Board in 1897, and their rapid assumption in the southern city of Dunedin is documented and used as a case study of their progress up until 1916. There is a background discussion on the growth and use of post-nominal letters in the local music teaching profession, and the increasing use of formal qualifications by music teachers is noted. These included the professional diplomas from both schools, and the role they played in the formation of a local professional body is explored.