Relationships between Pitch-Matching and Grade Level, Gender, Ethnicity, and Classroom Teachers’ Use of Music in Grades K-3,

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between pitch-matching and grade level, sex, ethnicity, and classroom teachers’ use of music among K-3 students (N = 289) taught by the same general music teacher. Portions of the data from a pitch-matching exercise that functioned as the music teacher’s roll-taking procedure during the 2005-06 school year were treated as pre- and posttests. There were no significant pretest differences between ethnic groups (Hispanic, White, Other). There were significant pretest differences among classes taught by different classroom teachers, as well as the female students scoring significantly higher than males. Covariance analysis (pretest as covariate) revealed significant improvement by girls over boys on the posttest. There were no significant pretest differences among grade levels, suggesting a lack of carryover of pitch-matching skills from previous years, despite significant improvement (pre-post) for every grade level during the year under study. The boys performed poorly relative to girls in higher grades, though the interaction was not significant. Finally, the study revealed relationships between classroom teachers’ reported use of music and student gain scores (pre-post) in pitch-matching

Claude V. Palisca as Music Educator: The Yale Seminar on Music Education and the Norton Anthology of Western Music

Claude V. Palisca (1921–2001) was a prominent American musicologist and music educator. He authored books and articles about Renaissance and Baroque music theory and developments in musicology, but is most widely known as the founder and first editor of the Norton Anthology of Western Music (NAWM) and coauthor of A History of Western Music, the two music history textbooks that are still in use in classrooms worldwide. In this article, we trace Palisca’s first idea of the NAWM’s structure, content, and purpose through his writings and activities between the 1950s and late 1970s. The central part among Palisca’s activities in music education belongs to his organization of the Yale Seminar on Music Education, his seminar report, and the listening curriculum designed to instill more balance between performance and academic study in largely performance-oriented public school music programs. In his listening curriculum, Palisca argued for emphasis on understanding music through listening within the historical and theoretical context of the music work, an approach he would later pursue in the NAWM. Palisca hinted that a similar teaching “package” is needed for the undergraduate level, thus identifying the listening curriculum from his Yale Seminar report as the first glimmer of the future NAWM