Sunday, January 25, 2009
Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason is known to many educators to be the “father” of music education in the United States because of his role in propagating elementary music in Boston public schools in the early 19th century. As the United States’ first public school music teacher, his efforts were limited to vocal music for various reasons.
Mason grew up learning several different instruments, singing, conducting and composing. He became president of the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston in 1827. In order to improve the society’s performance quality, he established a vocal instruction studio. During this time, he learned of the Pestalozzian music education philosophy (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 11-12). Because of Mason’s experiencing in teaching vocal music and because of Pestalozzi’s emphasis on first teaching children to sing before they read or write music, his initial petition to the Boston school board to include music instruction in elementary school was limited to vocal music.
Mason and the committee that approved his petition advocated including music instruction in elementary schools based on three standards: intellectually, morally and physically. Their explanation harped back to the Greek doctrine of ethos, which suggests music could be “directed and arranged as to produce those habits of feeling of which these sounds are the type,” as well as the Greek belief in the importance of physical education (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 12). They also justified their belief based on the medieval idea of the seven liberal arts, with music being part of the quadrivium including arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Philosophically, they believed that “Through vocal music you set in motion a mighty power which silently, but surely, in the end, will humanize, refine and elevate a whole community” (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 13).
After Mason visited Europe to learn more about the Pestalozzian approach, he returned to the United States to use the method in his own classrooms, eventually leading to his employment as the country’s first public school music teacher. The belief that vocal music is of the utmost importance in elementary music instruction is still advocated in today’s classrooms by followers of the Kodály philosophy of music education (Organization of American Kodály Educators 2004). Furthermore, the importance of music instruction in enriching the quality of life, as the Boston committee pointed out, is still touted by modern music education philosophers such as Bennett Reimer (2003). To Mason, “music contributed to the well-being of the individual…. It created better homes, better citizens, and happier human beings” (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 13). Vocal music education was the means by which these goals could be achieved.
Abeles, Harold F., Charles R. Hoffer, and Robert H. Klotman. Foundations of Music Education, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomas Higher Education, 1995.
Organization of American Kodály Educators. “Kodály Philosophy.” 2004. http://oake.org/php/kodalyphilosophy.php (accessed January 25, 2009).
Reimer, Bennett. A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision, 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Mason grew up learning several different instruments, singing, conducting and composing. He became president of the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston in 1827. In order to improve the society’s performance quality, he established a vocal instruction studio. During this time, he learned of the Pestalozzian music education philosophy (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 11-12). Because of Mason’s experiencing in teaching vocal music and because of Pestalozzi’s emphasis on first teaching children to sing before they read or write music, his initial petition to the Boston school board to include music instruction in elementary school was limited to vocal music.
Mason and the committee that approved his petition advocated including music instruction in elementary schools based on three standards: intellectually, morally and physically. Their explanation harped back to the Greek doctrine of ethos, which suggests music could be “directed and arranged as to produce those habits of feeling of which these sounds are the type,” as well as the Greek belief in the importance of physical education (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 12). They also justified their belief based on the medieval idea of the seven liberal arts, with music being part of the quadrivium including arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Philosophically, they believed that “Through vocal music you set in motion a mighty power which silently, but surely, in the end, will humanize, refine and elevate a whole community” (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 13).
After Mason visited Europe to learn more about the Pestalozzian approach, he returned to the United States to use the method in his own classrooms, eventually leading to his employment as the country’s first public school music teacher. The belief that vocal music is of the utmost importance in elementary music instruction is still advocated in today’s classrooms by followers of the Kodály philosophy of music education (Organization of American Kodály Educators 2004). Furthermore, the importance of music instruction in enriching the quality of life, as the Boston committee pointed out, is still touted by modern music education philosophers such as Bennett Reimer (2003). To Mason, “music contributed to the well-being of the individual…. It created better homes, better citizens, and happier human beings” (Abeles, Hoffer, and Klotman 1995, 13). Vocal music education was the means by which these goals could be achieved.
Abeles, Harold F., Charles R. Hoffer, and Robert H. Klotman. Foundations of Music Education, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomas Higher Education, 1995.
Organization of American Kodály Educators. “Kodály Philosophy.” 2004. http://oake.org/php/kodalyphilosophy.php (accessed January 25, 2009).
Reimer, Bennett. A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision, 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
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