Abstract
Beyond the Notes: Thoughts on Meaningful Music Making
by Paula A. Crider. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2024; www.giamusic.com
Paula Crider, after more than five decades as a music educator and conductor, shares some of her main pedagogical and conducting ideas and unveils some of the “secret ingredients” that help turn notes on a page into meaningful musical experiences. Chapter 9, “Creating a Culture of Caring,” is especially appropriate for today’s teachers and students. She quotes Aristotle: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
Music, Education, and Religion: Intersections and Entanglements
edited by Alexis Anja Kallio, Philip Alperson, and Heidi Westerlund. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019; www.iupress.indiana.edu
Music, Education, and Religion explores the important role that religion can play in formal and informal music education. Research in music education has tended to sidestep the religious dimensions of teaching and learning. This book considers ways in which the forces of belief can both construct and complicate the values and practice of music education. The contributors to this volume embrace a range of perspectives from a variety of disciplines and include religious, agnostic, skeptical, and atheistic points of view.
Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1900–1960
edited by Laurel Parson and Brenda Ravenscroft. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022; www.oup.com
This volume explores a variety of musical structures ranging from text settings to harmonies in works written in the first half of the twentieth century by composers Alma Mahler-Werfel, Rebecca Clarke, Dame Ethel Smyth, Ruth Crawford, Florence B. Price, Galina Ustvolskaya, Johanna Beyer, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. This second volume in a four-volume series of analytical studies of music by women will challenge and stimulate a wide range of academic readers and is of value to soloists, ensemble directors, and conductors.
Go On, Tell Your Story! Voices of Women Band Directors
by LaToya A. Webb and Julia L. Baumanis. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, 2023; www.giamusic.com
This book is a collection of real-life stories told by trailblazing women band directors of a range of experience and identities. The stories are organized by theme into four sections: Pride, Affirmation, Togetherness, and Happiness. A resource for all musicians and educators as they grow throughout their lives and careers, the book also includes uplifting quotes, a playlist of inspirational songs, and space for readers to reflect on their own challenges and triumphs.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
adapted by John M. Feierabend; illustrated by Isiah Timmons. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2024; www.giamusic.com
An entertaining and engaging version of the folk song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” this book, part of a John Feierabend series called First Steps in Music, is a wonderful resource for teachers of young children. The “animals” consumed are baked goods and candies. The illustrations by Isiah Timmons enhance the text and draw readers in. The book includes a link to an MP3 download of the song.