Journal of Research in Music Education

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the role of music in the deaf culture and to relate the findings to current practices in music education programs for hearing-impaired students. Secondary purposes of the study were to accumulate data that would either substantiate or refute the writings of hearing authors regarding the value of music to the deaf and to examine factors that determine deaf individuals' involvement with music. Data were collected by (a) a questionnaire sent to a random sample of deaf Americans from across the country, and (b) videotaped personal interviews with a random sample of deaf community members in a large midwestern metropolitan area. Based on their primary language and socialization practices, respondents were identified as members of the deaf culture, members of the hearing culture, or those that interact within both cultures. A summary of the results indicates that (1) cultural identification is a strong influential factor in deaf individuals' involvement with music, (2) deaf individuals that do involve themselves with music do so in ways similar to hearing individuals, (3) musical activities enjoyed most by deaf individuals are singing/signing songs, listening to music, and moving or dancing to music, (4) most respondents believed that music instruction should be optional for deaf students, (5) certain factors related to family involvement with music and musical training seem to be indicators of the role music will play in the lives of deaf individuals, and (6) deaf individuals do not participate to the degree that hearing individuals do in most common ritual uses of music. Quotes from respondents and implications for music educators teaching hearing-impaired students are given.

The purpose of this three-phase investigation was to develop and evaluate a computerized adaptive test of tonal memory. In the first phase, characteristics of commercially available tonal memory tests (instrument timbre, rhythmic complexity, tonality) were systematically varied and compared to determine the types of items most likely to yield reliable and valid scores. Results from ANOVA, factor-analytic, correlation, and regression analyses indicated that synthesizer-produced, varied-rhythm tonal and atonal melodies of four to nine notes would provide reliable and concurrently valid scores over a wide range of ability levels. In the second phase, the adaptive test was constructed, and its measurement precision and efficiency were evaluated in a series of computer-simulation analyses. Results showed that the adaptive test required 5 to 11 items to yield reliabilities from .80 to .90, and 80% fewer items to surpass the reliability of the Seashore Tonal Memory Test. In the final phase, the adaptive test was field-tested on the PLATO computer system. In line with the computer-simulation findings, the adaptive test required an average of 6.05, 8.55, and 11.60 items to reach reliabilities of .80, .85, and .90, respectively.

In 1967, secretary-general of ISME Egon Kraus challenged music educators to become multicultural in their perspective, a challenge spurred on by the Tanglewood Symposium. Music educators in the United States have long been interested in the musics of other cultures. Often they have learned about these musics and how to implement them in the classroom through the pages of the Music Educators Journal (MEJ). The MEJ has covered multicultural perspectives in music through its articles, special issues, book reviews, and reports from MENC conferences and symposia. A study of the MEJ from 1967 to 1992 revealed the growth of multicultural music education. During the 1970s, a greater depth of interest in, and knowledge about, world musics developed. Throughout the 1980s, this initial interest grew steadily into a need for methods and materials for the implementation of multicultural music studies in the classroom, as did the need for teacher training in these musics. A formal declaration of commitment to multicultural music education was adopted at the MENC Multicultural Symposium in 1990, leading to a broad world perspective for music education. The three MEJ special focus issues on multicultural music education epitomized each of these growth areas.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of textural and timbral factors on graduate and undergraduate music majors' ability to detect performance errors. Specifically, subjects' discrimination of pitch and rhythm errors in music excerpts that were counterbalanced for error type, textural placement of errors (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices), and timbre (single and multiple) was examined. In the development of a stimulus audiotape for error detection, the Yamaha SY77 digital synthesizer was used to record and perform two contrasting, six-measure music excerpts selected from the wind band literature. The original excerpts were edited to include purposeful errors resulting in a stimulus of 20 total excerpts, 16 of which included performance errors. Subjects (N - 60) listened to the recorded excerpts and attempted to identify pitch and rhythm errors by circling appropriate places in the scores.

Results of a four-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures on correct responses indicated significant main effects of error type (subjects were more discerning of rhythm errors) and timbre (subjects were more discerning of errors in the single-timbre condition) and no effects regarding voice placement and degree status. There was a significant three-way interaction among the variables of error type, textural placement, and timbre.

Additionally, descriptive comparisons were made concerning incorrect responses.