Abstract
Elizabeth Green (1906-1995) was an influential string music education and a nationally known conducting pedagogue whose career at the University of Michigan spanned from 1942 to 1975. She wrote numerous articles and books on conducting, practicing, and string pedagogy. She was known for her dedication to her students and her careful pedagogical analysis of conducting techniques and string playing. An important aspect of her career was her successful advocacy of string music education, an effort to make it more accessible to non-string playing musicians. Green’s prominent mentors were conductor Nikolai Malko and violin professor Ivan Galamian. She assisted them with their respective books. Both books remain in print.
The author, Jared Rawlings, is Associate Director of the School of Music and Associate Professor of Music Education at University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has taught both winds and strings. Although he did not have Green as a teacher, his interest in her work began during his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan where Green made her career.
Rawlings’ book has five sections, the first two are biographical. The information is arranged largely in chronological order and categorized by activity type. In the last three sections, Rawlings analyzes Green's pedagogy qualitatively using materials from interviews. Interviews were gathered from Green’s former students and colleagues, forming a personalized account of her teaching style and philosophy. Information from the interviews provided insights into why her students so valued her as a mentor and detailed her teaching style as a professor. This blend of qualitative analysis and traditional historical research is unique and leads to a much deeper understanding of Green as a teacher.
In the third chapter, Rawlings constructed Green’s teaching philosophy based on exercises and assignments that her students remembered, using a qualitative approach. The link between Green’s actions and her beliefs makes for a compelling account of what it would have been like to learn from her. “Elizabeth Green’s goal was always to achieve that musical moment. Every tool, every mechanism, every imagination, every part of your existence, that was part of our job” (149). In chapter 4, Rawlings analyzes Green’s teaching using the conceptual framework, relational capacity, to examine her “presence in music teaching” and her ability to “cultivate rapport and trust.” She was described as someone who would “do anything to help you” (162), but she also strongly believed in her students’ aptitude (p 163). In chapter 5, Rawlings describes Green’s belief in teaching by example and the encouragement she gave her students to continue to pass on what they learned from her. Her salient belief that “telling is not teaching” (184) was manifested in how she modeled what she expected of students and how her classes involved active participation. One of her students remembered her saying, “you never stop learning and you never stop questioning” (193-94). Green’s teaching embodied this advice.
In the preface, Rawlings cites Marie McCarthy and acknowledges that “studies of women music educators can uncover an alternate view of the history of music education.” 1 This book answers McCarthy’s call for diversity because both string educators and women are underrepresented in historical research in music education. He missed an opportunity, however, to examine the ways in which Green’s gender substantially affected her career trajectory. For example, how did her salary compare to men in her field? How did her status as an unmarried woman affect her ability to obtain housing, credit, or social status? Rawlings mentions that her papers did not communicate vulnerability and that to appear strong “was probably a needed characteristic of female leaders” (193). He also briefly mentioned that Green was a religious and a private person which may explain why Rawlings avoided topics related to Green’s private life. Similarly, although general references are made to the Depression Era and World War II, Rawlings could have better situated her story in the context of historical events and the culture of the different places that Green lived and worked. This element of “storytelling” would have served to make a really good book even better. 2
Instrumental music educators, college professors responsible for teacher preparation, conductors, and music education historians will find this book to be an important resource. Historical researchers may take special interest in Rawling’s appendix concerning methodology where he details how he collected data and made crucial analytical decisions. Rawlings describes the research as oscillating “between life history and oral history research” and one that deviates from “most texts written for professional educators” (21). His book is interesting, informative, and methodologically unique.
Elizabeth Green was an innovative and imaginative educator and a prolific writer. Her influence remains strong in the fields of string and conducting music education. Rawling’s richly sourced book filled with helpful photographs is a needed addition to a scant literature.