with experienced instrumental music teachers served as the primary data set. Additional participants (music colleague and administrator) were interviewed and student volunteers were asked to complete an open-ended survey to under- stand what impressions students have about the topic, adju- dicated events, and how their teachers (study participants) prepare and participate within the curricular framework of the academic year. In this study, the single case of the mu- sic classroom is of interest because it captures the descrip- tions and perceptions of participants and stakeholders about the purpose of the study. All participants are members of the Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) and have served on curriculum design committees as well as attend adjudicated events through the year.
Transcripts were made of all interview data sets. To insure accuracy, teacher participants received electronic copies of their interview transcripts and had an opportunity to verify their thoughts, opinions, and observations. The process of member checks allowed participants the opportunity to rephrase and rearticulate their thoughts, should they feel differently about what was initially stated. Through the interview process, the investigator used clarifying question- ings to confirm the details of the interview(s). The multiple data sources provided several lenses, through which the re- searcher was able to analyze the phenomenon presented in this study, in addition to presenting a rich description of the lived experiences of the participants. After coding the tran- scripts, the researcher asked another peer researcher to code the transcripts to corroborate findings from the transcripts.
Presented in three classroom profiles, findings support past discussions of curriculum in music education. Participants described that planning short- and long-term curricular goals is an ongoing process for optimal student learning. Unique intersections with philosophies of music education and programming repertoire emerged throughout the inter- views. Teacher participants, students, and music colleagues confirmed the importance of attending adjudicated events as an important curricular event as a part of the learning process, while administrators revealed the importance of adjudicated events being a capstone experience to the end of the learning process. Utilitarian and aesthetic reasons for attending adjudicated events were listed during data collection. The final paper includes a full discussion of the findings and implications for the field.
Terese Touhey, Wayne State University (retired) Irving Emerson, Connecticut Music Educator: 1843-1903
In music education history, much biographical information is focused on the pioneers of the profession. As a result, the names of 19th Century music educators such as Lowell
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Mason, Luther Whiting Mason, John Tufts, and Hosea Holt are familiar ones to music educators today. However, many other music teachers during this period are not recognized in these histories. This research focuses on one of them: Irving Emerson of Hartford, CT.
Hartford, CT, was a bustling place and one of the wealthi- est cities in the United States in the last quarter of the 19th Century. Following the Civil War, a commercial core of insurance and manufacturing companies put Hartford well ahead of many other large cities in the United States.
It
was a city of “firsts” and “oldests,” e.g., the Columbia Elec- tric made in Hartford was one of the first electric automo- biles in the US, and the Hartford Courant is the oldest con- tinuously published newspaper in the country. It was also a literary city with both Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Harriet Beecher Stow in residence during the 1880s. Hartford also had a longstanding educational system, and boasted the Hartford Public High School (HPHS), the old- est public secondary school in the country, and the second oldest public high school. Emerson was hired to teach vocal music in the Hartford schools in 1871. He joined the staff of the HPHS in 1873, and continued to teach in sev- eral of the grammar schools (K-8 schools) until 1902.
Emerson was a respected musician and teacher in Hart- ford. He wrote his own texts, composed music, and was a well-known organist and choir director in Hartford. Sterrie Weaver and Benjamin Jepson knew him; in 1896 Weaver, Jepson and Emerson were all involved in establishing the Connecticut Music Teachers Association. Emerson was the first treasurer for the new organization, and had he lived longer, most likely would have been an active member of the Music Supervisor’s National Conference (MSNC/ MENC/NAfME).
Emerson was a community musician as well as a public school music teacher. He conducted the Emerson Chorus (a community chorus) often arranging the music himself, directed and conducted several operas in the city, was the organist for several churches as well as his Masonic lodge. His Grammar school students sang in end-of-the- year concerts, often with over 500 students participating at each event. Under Emerson’s directions, these students also performed for President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 during his visit to Hartford. Although the HPHS choir did not present formal concerts, they sang for the opening and closing exercises for the 1889 Connecticut State Teachers Association meeting held in Hartford, and regularly per- formed at high school debates and graduation ceremonies.
Emerson lived through three decades of change, from horse and buggy transportation to electric automobiles, from out- houses to indoor plumbing, and from candles and gas lamps
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