Abstract
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Music Educators Journal. The final issue of this volume (June 2014) will focus entirely on the centennial. Each issue in the centenary volume includes the reprinting of a historically significant article selected by one of MEJ’s editors.
The 25-year span 1939 to 1964 marked a period of ambitious growth for Music Educators Journal (MEJ) and the organization it represented, the Music Educators National Conference. This growth was evident in readership (listed as more than 50,000 in the late 1950s) and a more comprehensive agenda of published topics relevant to the music teacher. The pioneering contributors to the periodical—Osbourne McConathy, Frances Elliot Clark, Philip Hayden, Thaddeus P. Giddings, Edward Bailey Birge, and Will Earhart—were passing away, and new leadership was emerging. Vanett Lawler, Wiley Housewright, Marguerite V. Hood, Lilla Belle Pitts, and Hazel Nohavec Morgan rose as able successors. Some dabblings in international affairs (UNESCO), technology (television, mainly), and politics moved MEJ well beyond its parochial roots, when the focus was primarily on music instruction alone.
There were several common themes persisting throughout the period. One was encouraging the readership to use the highest-quality music for instruction. The debate over whether to use “jukebox” music and jazz occurred in almost every volume. The pendulum stubbornly inched toward greater acceptance of all genres from all cultures.
Another theme pervasive through the era was either defining or defending music’s place in general education. The teaching of music moved to the domain of the specialist music teacher during these years—a move supported by both classroom teachers and the specialists. But, the word frill was used often when describing music’s place in the curriculum, and MEJ published no fewer than two dozen articles advocating music as part of a complete education. This reaction was especially prevalent during the 1950s after James Bryant Conant redefined “the basics” and Sputnik spurred on a push for more science and technology in the school curriculum. (Sound familiar?)
The music education profession, in part through MEJ, was attempting to establish a foothold of legitimacy as a research discipline during this era. Contributions by James Mursell, E. Thayer Gaston, Allen Britton, and Jacob Kwalwasser, along with the new periodical Journal of Research in Music Education, pushed forward an agenda with mixed results. In 1960, Robert House, chairman of the Music Education Research Council, wrote in MEJ, “The plain fact is that music education is not a research discipline in the sense that the various natural and social sciences are. Music education is essentially a practice. Members of the profession accordingly interest themselves primarily in how to do better what they are doing and not in any systematic way uncovering of the facts relating to their task.” 1 Baby steps, but still progress.
Finding an article that had a significant impact was no easy task. There were brilliant people writing for MEJ during this era. Do I choose an article that was prescient but had no immediate influence or one that affected the institution immediately but is now a footnote? (e.g., American Federation of Musicians President James Petrillo signs Code of Ethics with MENC President Luther Richman” 2 ). Ultimately, because it speaks to more current concerns today, I chose “Music and Education in Our American Democracy” (Sept/Oct. 1958, p. 27) by Leon Mones, who at the time served as an assistant superintendent of schools in Newark, New Jersey.
Do school superintendents like this still exist, and if yes, could we hear from you?