Music Education in America's Public Normal Schools - by Danelle D Larson & Jill M Sullivan (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book provides a history of music education (1839-1960), capturing the beginning of music participation and engagement in many of the 213 public universities that started as normal schools.

Book Synopsis

Capturing the beginning of music participation and engagement in many of the public universities that started as normal schools, this book provides a history of American music education in the 19th and 20th centuries.

American music-teacher education evolved from teacher education in public normal schools, many of which eventually became state universities. For social and religious reasons, students learned hymns, European art music, folk songs, and military music; segregated Black and Native American normal schools included Jubilee choirs and powwow music. Student- and teacher-led music ensembles were ubiquitous, mirroring music-making in American society. Eventually, normal schools educated music teachers and music supervisors. In this book, the contributing authors discuss the early history of arts education, specifically music, in the first public normal schools in America through the lenses of class, gender, and race, revealing both celebratory and troubling beginnings. Schools were built on confiscated Native lands and segregated by race, and separate spheres existed for men and women. The embodied experiences of teacher-education students would live on to influence music teaching and learning curricula not only in the K-12 schools where they taught, but also nearly two centuries of music education in the colleges and universities from which they stem.

Review Quotes

Music Education in America's Public Normal Schools is an important and unique contribution to the history of teacher education in music in nineteenth- and early-twentieth century America. The authors chronicle the development of music in normal schools through case studies that represent diverse regions of the United States. Collectively, these rich institutional narratives as well as the book's framing chapters draw on diverse primary sources. Each narrative sheds light on how music was integrated into the education of teachers and how class, gender, race, and institutional location shaped the culture of music in normal schools. Heretofore untold stories of women music educators are presented in several chapters; narratives of music in normal schools for Black and Native American students expand the canon of historical scholarship on music in educational institutions. The book represents a major collaborative scholarly effort on a unified theme, the first of its kind in book form and surely a prototype for historical inquiry in music education in the future.
Department of Music Education, University of Michigan, USA

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, with normal schools pioneering teacher training in America, music education was at the center of both celebration and controversy. Tracing how these institutions shaped the nation's earliest formal music teacher preparation, this book balances enthusiasm for music's civic and academic value with debates over curriculum, gender, religion, and professional identity. Drawing on rich archival sources, noted music educators, and teachers of teachers, Danelle D. Larson and Jill M. Sullivan, gather their work along with that of fourteen insightful contributors into a compelling look at the beginnings of music teacher education and their lasting influence on today's classrooms.
Department of Music, Film & Creative Enterprise, University of St. Thomas, USA

This carefully researched volume takes a deep look at a rarely discussed topic germane to the history of higher education: music education and performance in US normal schools. Filling this gap in the history of higher education is an equity project because, as contributors to the volume observe, normal schools educated women and other marginalized groups when educational opportunities at other types of institutions were denied to them. When taken collectively, these essays comprise a rich tapestry that portrays the exciting and varied musical opportunities at normal schools from throughout the United States. Significantly, this book also shines light on the women who taught music at these schools. In addition, by providing detailed information about the history of music instruction and performance at specific schools, each chapter makes an invaluable contribution to the history of that school. By crowdsourcing this massive undertaking and using many projects created by students in a graduate seminar as a starting point for the chapters, Drs. Sullivan and Larson model an innovative, effective pedagogical practice that merits emulation by everyone who teaches courses that include archival research.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Mead Witter School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

About the Author

Danelle D. Larson is Professor of Music Education and Music Education Division Director at Eastern Illinois University, USA.
Jill M. Sullivan is Professor of Music Learning and Teaching and Graduate Coordinator within the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, School of Music, Dance and Theatre, at Arizona State University, Tempe.