ELIZABETH A. H.

GREEN 1

Elizabeth A. H. Green: String Class Advocate and Pedagogue

Born in Mobile, Alabama to father Albert Wingate Green and mother Mary Elizabeth

Timmerman Green, Elizabeth Adine Herkimer Green is regarded as legendary in the world of

music education. She is considered the first to advocate for effectively teaching beginning strings

in groups, and that through the implementation of effective string pedagogy, non-string players

could effectively teach string classes. In her 89 years, Green published numerous articles and

books, as well as compositions and etudes, that have shaped the development of modern string

teaching. Green was immersed in music at an early age, beginning her violin studies with her

father at the age of three. In her adulthood Green attended Wheaton College, where she obtained

a Bachelor of Science degree, before going on to teach strings classes in the middle and high

schools of Waterloo, Iowa. Green spent fourteen years in the Waterloo schools, and her

responsibilities included giving “50 private half-hour lessons each week, [attending] the senior

orchestra rehearsals daily, and often the junior high school orchestra, too. Then also […] a

sectional rehearsal at 7:30am every day of the week” (Shipps 72). She also founded the Waterloo

Symphony Orchestra. She soon obtained a Master of Music degree from Northwestern

University, where she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda – an honorary fraternity. During some

of the summer months in her time working in the Waterloo schools and obtaining her degrees,

Green studied viola with Clarence Evans and violin with Jacques Gordon – principal violist and

concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, respectively – at Music Mountain,

Connecticut. Through her studies with these musicians, Green met and began studying

conducting with Nicolai Malko, the great Russian conducting master. She documented his

teaching practices and orchestrated them into what is now used as standard text for conducting

study, The Modern Conductor.

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After the fourteen years in Waterloo, Green was appointed as assistant professor of music

education at the University of Michigan. During this time, she also became the concertmaster of

the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra – a position she held for twenty years – and director of the

Ann Arbor High School Orchestra – developing the orchestra into one of the nation’s strongest

string programs of the time. Green also studied violin with Ivan Galamian during this time at

Meadowmount Music School. In the time after she had concluded her studies with Galamian,

Green pressed him to publish his philosophy, and after a few years, she aided him in writing

Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching, however when asked about the book, she denied the

importance of her role in producing it. In an interview with Stephen B. Shipps, Green elaborated

on the respect she held for Galamian and the professional relationship she had developed with

him in her time studying with him. She expressed that Galamian had “solved the problems of

violin playing so accurately and could teach so much in so little time and with so few words”

(Shipps 71).

She went on to spend the rest of her life writing and composing. In the last years of her

life, she published Ivan Galamian’s biography, Miraculous Teacher: Ivan Galamian and the

Meadowmount Experience. Green passed away at the age of 89 after a brief battle with cancer,

for which she refused treatment in order to complete writing her last book. Her loved ones

remember her as warm, friendly, and caring, and her colleagues remember her unyielding

dedication to her students.

Green’s works have guided the development of string pedagogy from its very beginnings

to where it currently stands, and they continue to shape the future of string pedagogy, as well.

There was a time when her books were the only resources available for establishing, developing,

and maintaining string programs in the public schools. Additionally, Green’s students went on to

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become successful in many different musical fields, including conducting, performing, teaching,

musicology, and composition. According to Green, many college students pursuing teacher

education are dissatisfied with general education classes because many general education

professors have never experienced teaching outside of the college level, and one cannot teach

what they do not understand (Shipps 71). In regards to Music Education specifically, the habit of

recruiting college music teachers directly from high schools results in college music teachers

having a greater understanding of teaching outside of the college level, and thus students are

more likely to be engaged in that learning process. Ultimately, Green believed that developing

students’ self-control and enabling teachers to command students’ attention was the most

important and effective goal in establishing any sort of functional program, and the skills to do

this are often missed by those who never teach in elementary or secondary schools. This puts all

educators at a disadvantage, especially music educators, because according to Green, a broad

academic background benefits the learning environment as a whole. A music teacher who is

knowledgeable on subjects that are not only of interest to herself, but to her students is better

prepared to engage her students for the extended period of time that is often normative of music

classrooms. This also serves to make the musical experience more meaningful by reinforcing

material students are learning outside of the music classroom and creating opportunities for

connections between the happenings inside the music classroom and the happenings outside the

music classroom. The example Green used in an interview is that teaching a student to read

English can create bridges in teaching the same student to read music, saying that “if a child

cannot link a sound to its symbol, he cannot learn to read” (Shipp 72).

In the classroom, Green advocates for solo opportunities for students in addition to the

group activity. Such opportunities give students the chance to learn how to present themselves in

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front of an audience – a life skill that can be applied inside and out of musical contexts. An

appropriate balance of solo and ensemble performance opportunities also helps students

differentiate between what sort of presentation works best when working alone as opposed to

when presenting themselves as a part of a group.

As a result of her success as an academic and an educator, Green stood as an impressive

female role model in a profession where there were very few women involved. Her success

spurred the development of string programs led by women and non-string players nationwide.

Green expressed that she felt a lot of music education research is done in vain, as much of it only

reports numbers rather than making positive, practical suggestions to solve a problem or improve

a situation (Shipps 72).

Green’s works include:

The Modern Conductor

Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching

Miraculous Teacher: Ivan Galamian and the Meadowmount Experience

Musicianship and Repertoire for the High School Orchestra (1962)

Increasing the Proficiency on the Violin (1967)

The Dynamic Orchestra (1987)

Orchestral Bowings and Routines (1949)

Teaching String Instruments in Classes (1966)

In addition to her books and articles, Green also published a few compositions, including

Theme and Variations (1960), Twelve Modern Etudes for Advanced Violinists (1964), and an

arrangement of Johann Stamitz’s Sinfonia in D (1970).

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References

Elizabeth A. H. Green 1906 – 1995. (1995). American String Teacher, 45(4), 21-25.

https://doi.org/10.1177/000313139504500403

Galamian, I. (2017). Principles of violin playing & teaching. Brattleboro, VT: Echo Point Books

& Media, LLC.

Green, E. A. (1967). Increasing the proficiency on the violin. An intermediate book for the violin

sections of the orchestra. Philadelphia: Elkan-Vogel.

Green, E. A. (1972). Musicianship and repertoire for the high school orchestra. Byrn Mawr, PA:

Theodore Presser.

Green, E. A. (1987). The dynamic orchestra: Principles of orchestral performance for

instrumentalists, conductors, and audiences. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Green, E. A. (1990). Orchestral bowings and routines. Reston, VA: Publications Dept., Music

Educators National Conference.

Green, E. A., Galamian, J., & Gingold, J. (1993). Miraculous teacher: Ivan Galamian and the

Meadowmount experience. Ann Arbor, MI: Elizabeth A.H. Green.

Green, E. A. (1999). Teaching stringed instruments in classes. Bloomington, IN: American

String Teachers Association with National School Orchestra Association by Tichenor Publ.

Green, E., & Gibson, M. (2003). The Modern Conductor. New Jersey, US: Prentice Hall.

Shipps, S. B. (1992). An Interview with Elizabeth A.H. Green Part I. American String Teacher,

42(3), 71-73. https://doi.org/10.1177/000313139204200330

Shipps, S. B. (1992). An Interview with Elizabeth A. H. Green Part II. American String Teacher,

42(4), 85-87. https://doi.org/10.1177/000313139204200433

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