Music Education in

th
19 Century Post-Civil
War America
S T E PHE N R USSE LL
IT HACA CO L L E GE
S E MINA R IN MUS IC E D U CATI ON
D R . K E IT H K A ISE R
Table of Contents
Review: Education in Colonial and Antebellum American Schools
Post-Civil War America: Historical Overview
Key Philosophers and Theories
Putting it all together: relationship to today/our current education
Review
Review: Colonial American Music Education
3 Educational Boundaries: North (craftsmen), Mid. (religious
instruction), South (apprenticeship)
Formation of a New Nation: promote single citizenship
Free Public School System: segregated, strong Pestalozzian influence
Founding Fathers: Franklin, Jefferson
Other Important names: Mason, Neef, Mann
The American Civil War (1861-1865)
Effects of the Civil War
Emotional exhaustion
Collapse of the public school
system in the South
Northern and Western states
expanded public education at
all levels
Advancement of teacher
education in the North

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfcpDLDY2FA
A New Frontier
Development of payphone
George Eastman develops the Kodak
Sound recording technology
Growth in school population in the North
Increased focus on teaching efficiency rather than expression

Activity: Dialectic/Rhetoric debate

Shift towards Scientific Thought
Development of Pragmatism William James (Americas 1st
Philosopher)
Students affection for their teachers, positive attitudes towards
public performances
Emphasis on music reading skills
Pragmatists were not interested in the enjoyment or beauty of music;
aesthetic enjoyment would not be used as rationale for music in the
public schools for another century or so
Administrators wanted subjects to be organized scientifically and
evaluated accurately
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
English biologist, sociologist,
philosopher
Concept of physical evolution
1864 - Principles of Biology
Survival of the fittest

Aim of Education individual,

social, and racial self-preservation
Utilitarian Education
High regard for science, secondary
regard for music
Music can be taught scientifically
Public School - Music Specialists
Began teaching music scientifically
Skill development turned over to classroom teachers
Music Specialists became supervisors who visited schools
Supervisors also planned books, charts, and exams
Development of Graded Music Series after Civil War
Graded Music Series
People began believing in the concept of sight before sound
Multiple graded music series advocated either for or against this
concept
Lowell Mason The Song Garden (1864)
Joseph Bird To Teachers of Music (1850)

Which supports note? Which supports rote?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdCLTb2H2z8
Graded Music Series
Daniel Batchellor and Thomas Charmbury Tonic Sol-fa Music Course
George Loomis The First Steps in Music (1866)
No clefs, meter, key signatures, accidentals
Placement of numbers on the staff to signify scale degrees
Luther Whiting Mason (1818-1896)
Born in Turner, Maine
Worked in Cincinnati and Boston
public schools
Stressed European model of teaching;
teaching rote songs
5 notes of G scale
Simple-complex
The National Music Course (1870)
Elements of Music from The Young
Singer
Invited by Emperor of Japan to bring
western influence to Japanese Schools
The National Music Course (1870)
Published by Ginn Brothers of Boston; helped them get financial
stability to become a leading publisher of school texts
Co authors: Julius Eichberg, J. B. Sharland, and H. E. Holt
7 books: 5 readers, an intermediate book (includes books 3 & 4), and
an abridged fourth reader
Sequential approach
Influenced by German folk music; emphasized cultural significance
 Normal Schools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GXNuxk3dFc
 Normal Schools
Schools that trained students to become teachers
Educated students in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum (now
called Teachers Colleges)
In the United States, students were trained to be primary school
teachers
Began in the Columbian School in Concord, VT (Rev. Samuel Reed
Hall)
Developments in the North (CT, RI, MA, Oswego - NY), South (AL,
LA) and Midwest (IL, MI, CA)
Benjamin Jepson (1832-1914)
One of the first primary school
music teachers in the U.S.
Introduced music to the public
schools of New Haven, CT in
1865
Public School Music Rehearsal
The Elementary Music Reader
(1865)
Hosea Edson Holt (1836-1898)
Woodturner and singing school master from Boston
Student of Benjamin Baker and John Tufts
Co-writer of The Normal Music Course (1883) with John Wheeler Tufts
Music teacher at Wheaton Seminary and Bridgewater Normal
School
Joined Boston public schools from 1869 until his death
Arranged for the development of a summer school in Lexington,
MA, for music teacher-training
John Wheeler Tufts (1825-1908)
Studied piano with Ignaz
Moscheles and theory with
Moritz Hauptmann in Europe
Taught in Boston Music School
Organist at Kings Chapel
Developed two-part
contrapuntal exercises for The
Normal Music Course
The Normal Music Course (1883)
 The Normal Music Course (1883)
Concern that music was becoming more entertainment than
educational
Written by H. E. Holt and John W. Tufts
Went back to 1830s ideal of music functioning as a scientific subject
Series of 5 books
Sight singing was the only means by which students could truly
understand music
Julia Etta Crane (1855-1923)
Founder of the Crane Normal
School
Joined Potsdam faculty in 1884
Inadequate experiences as a
student
Expanded the music
curriculum: The Special Music
Course
The Special Music Course
Curriculum for the education of music teachers
Music Theory: all major, minor, and chromatic scales, intervals, triads,
7th chords, part singing, harmonization
Principles of good teaching
Reconciled differences between rote and note learning
Rote: primary grades
Note: grammar grades; 3 steps:
1) Be able to hear the scale
2) Be able to accurately sing scale
3) Be able to learn and understand the symbols
The Special Music Course
Stages of learning:
Infancy: parents provide wholesome musical atmosphere
for children
Transition (6-8y/o): Present music to child by ear
8-12 y/o: Formal Learning
The Public School Music Course (1889)
Charles E. Whiting
Use of ta and te

Similar to The Normal Music

Course
Not successful, considered
more of a hindrance
Publishers Schools
To introduce The Normal Music Course, Holt arranged for a summer
music school in Lexington, MA, for music teachers
Success of the school led Ginn & Company to establish the National
Summer School of Music to promote The National Music Course
Extended out to Chicago and Wisconsin
1891 renamed the American Institute of Normal Methods
Expanded the influence of The National Music Course, The Normal
Music Course, etc.
The National Education Association
Founded in Philadelphia in 1857
as National Teachers
Association
Became NEA in 1870 after
merging with the American
Normal School Organization,
the National Association of
School Superintendents, and
the Central College Association
The National Education Association
Data collection in 1889 the
condition of music education in
the U.S.
1078 sent out, 621 returned
Increases in music education
Music should be regularly and
systematically taught in public
schools
Henry Barnard (1811-1900)
Born in Hartford, CT
Graduate of Yale University
Us. Commissioner of Education
(1867-1870)
Editor of American Journal of
Education
Educational Model based on
Horace Mann
Launched the American
Association for the Advancement
of Education
Henry Barnard (1811-1900)
Advocated for state to control
public education
Tax Support of Schools
Called to Rhode Island to help
transform education there
Granville Stanley Hall (1846-1924)
Born in Mass.
Founded American Journal of
Psychology
Studied child development
Humanism: child-centered
education
1st Doctorate student of
Psychology at Harvard; studied
with William James
Importance of psychology
Progressive education John
Dewey
Granville Stanley Hall (1846-1924)
Structure schools in line with
what is being learned by
children
Music study should aid the
childs emotional development
Col. Francis W. Parker Educate
the whole child

Strongly influenced the child-

study movement
Journal Questions
Take a minute and look at your guided journal questions for this unit.
Choose at least three societal issues affecting schools during this
time period and compare them to today. Have these issues impacted
your teaching experiences? If so, how?
Why do some issues continue to resurface throughout different eras
of music education (i.e.: assessment, teaching styles, etc.)? Are we
doing something wrong? Are we actually making progress and not
realizing it?
Rapid-Fire Review
Effects of the Civil War on American public education
Innovations, the New Frontier
Scientific approach
Specialists
Graded Music Series
Normal Schools
Barnard, Mason, Holt, Tufts, Jepson, Crane, Spencer, Hall