The State of the Study Guide 2004-08

This page serves to provide information on the State of the MLC Study Guide between the years 2004-08. The first part of this page shows the contributions by Christian McGuire. The second part is concerned with coach feedback addressing questions pertaining to the Ethnomusic Chapter and the Writing Style of the Study Guide. Coaches feel free to add your response.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Since his first appointment as Musicologist in late June of 2004, Christian McGuire has tried to stay on top of academic and popular trends to create a readily useful, reader friendly Study Guide for Educators and Students across the state. Below is a brief listing of a few of his contributions which distinguish the current state of the MLC Study Guide from its predecessors.

* Replaced the Featured Global Perspectives chapter with Featured Ethnomusic - [i.e. the former took the anachronistic approach of featuring composers from the "established" Western Canon and included their exoticist perception of a foreign culture. i.e. Mozart's Rondo a la Turk ---
The Ethnomusic chapters introduced a sampling of Middle Eastern Music, Music from the African Continent, The Blues.

* Timelines comparing significant world history events and personalities with compositions at the beginning of each chapter heading.

* Included Bibliography, Discography and weblinks for further independent study

* New Motto: "Enriching the Active Mind through Music" (the old Motto: "The Intelligent Consumption of Quality Music")

* Active Learning study sheets (replacing a list of "Terms to Know") to help students make their own observations of distinguishing musical elements.

* Encouraged students to engage their active minds - Not to think of music (and history and philosophy) as arbitrary "facts" to be memorized or universally true aesthetic judgments to be appreciated, but as concepts to be understood and debated.

* Awareness of probable music library resources in all districts: For example: It does not make much sense to include Handel's Messiah, Watermusic or Fireworks nor Vivaldi's Gloria and Four Seasons as those works are for the most part readily accessible by everyone. It is a better strategy to include a lesser known work by those composers in the Study Guide, SAVING the afforementioned works for use in the Mystery Rounds.

* Awareness of age appropriate presentation and philosophical sensitivities for a diverse student populace and educational institutions: public, charter, homeschool, religious, secular, etc. Although this is a high school contest meaning it must be written at an 8th grade reading level, some jr. high schools participate each year.

* Saved the MLC money by using own studio and voice over rather than paying for outside studio and voice talent.

* Donated over 150 hours of time to build, maintain, and host website

Various other items
* Speaking engagements on behalf of the MLC to various teacher conferences both in and out of state
* Sought publicity through various news organizations (print, television, radio)
* Informed Minnesota State Legislators and Executives of the contest, its purpose as well as announcing regional and state winners.

Writing Style of Guide 2004-08

Having read through the coaches and student comments from the past year, I sent out an email to press coaches for specifics as to which direction they would like to see the MLC as an educational tool go. Below are the replies I have recieved thus far regarding the writing-style of the study guide (along with my rationale for its current state).

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Dear MLC Coaches;

In the Minnesota High School Music Listening Contest's continuing efforts to provide educational value to your students, I ask that you take some time to provide your own detailed thoughts (as well as solicit feedback from your students, parents, and volunteers) as to the current writing style and presentation of the guide.

For the past 4 years since my involvement, the MLC Board has requested that the guide maintain a conversational, non-academic voice written at an 8th grade reading level. This is done to minimize frustration with what might seem intimidating material as well as to avoid the dryness of 1st edition Grout. The truest representation of my work in this style has been the 2005-06 guide.

Obviously I take a different approach in writing the study guide than I do when writing the results of my own legitimate research. When one of my undergraduate students turns in a paper written in a similar non-academic style (complete with personal anecdotes and free use of 2nd person singular) I either dock them a few points or request that they rewrite certain passages to make clear they understand the basic distinction between objectivity/subjectivity. If I expect more from my students, then I am certain the faculty at your schools expect more.

Writing style is going to remain a tricky issue every year as no one style is perfect for all students, learning styles and personality types. For this reason, I would like to collect your critical concerns and thoughts to present at the MLCs next board meeting in April.

Thank you in advance for taking time out of your busy schedule to provide your valued thoughts.
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COACHES COMMENTS on WRITING STYLE (10 comments thus far)
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I FEEL THAT THE WRITING STYLE IS 100% APPROPRIATE FOR THE STUDY GUIDE -- AND VERY WELCOMING FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS. EXPERIENCED TEAM MEMBERS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO YOUR "VOICE" AND WOULD MISS IT. IN GENERAL, MLC KIDS ARE FLEXIBLE AND BRIGHT AND UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN THE PROVERBIAL "CHAT." THEY UNDERSTAND THAT THE RESULTS OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH CAN BE PRESENTED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS WITHOUT DIMINISHING ITS WORTH OR VALUE. AFTER ALL, THE USE OF LANGUAGE IS A FINE ART ALSO, AND THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO USE IT TO COMMUNICATE AND INSPIRE.

M.S.

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I have no complaints or actual comments about the study guide. Sorry. I am writing this to suggest something. The new Minnesota Arts Standards have a standard dealing with the Minnesota Native American Culture. Perhaps the study guide next year (and maybe each year) have a section on Minnesota Native music as one way to help teachers teach the standard.

R.K.

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I like the informal writing style, I think it helps keep the contest fun even when you're studying. Some of the personal anecdotes got a little much for my tastes, but I can deal with them. Thank you for all your hard work on the project; my students and I enjoyed the experience and we are excited to compete next year.

J.B.

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Please continue to try to find a balance between dry academic writing and a
writing style with character, humor, and accessibilty.

If the content remains extensive and the demands of the exams are high...I
don't think it matters what writing style the material is presented in.

I think you do a fine job.
Keep up the great work and thank you.

M.O.

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I love the writing style used in the study guides. I don't think it
talks down to the students, but is still very informative. We really
don't need another dry text on musicology - that market is already
flooded! Please just keep doing the fine work that you have been
doing - and accept some well deserved thanks for it!

M.E.
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I've been teaching for 14 years, and coaching this event for 7 years, and I think your work has been fantastic, first for the fact that there is someone like yourself with the commitment and drive to be the steward of this high quality event each year, and secondly because you put up with what sounds like a fair amount of criticism, though I am not sure why. Sure there are typos (like in your subject line of this message, : ) Big deal. We aren't dealing in pharmaceuticals here. There are typos most of the scores I read.

Regardless of what voice you write in, the fact remains that sooner or later all of our students are going to have to learn to wade through heavier text and adjust themselves to the writing, not the other way around. While it certainly helps to have some of the material "dumbed down," I wouldn't sweat it if some of it gets a little heady. Again, the kids shouldn't be spoon fed everything, and yet if you're not careful, art snobs can kill art, so I know it has to be a delicate balance and I think you are already doing that pretty well.

If you are hearing nit-picky complaints from some of the concrete-sequential, spelling-bee champs in our circle, blow them off. My experience in both trying to be one of those people (a long time ago), and then just dealing with them has taught me that they are never happy so it doesn't pay to try to please them! : ) The minute you fix something, they'll find something else to pick at and it becomes a vicious circle.

Oh, and if you get too much advice from any one person, offer to have them write the study guide for a year and see how they do.

R.R.
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I very much appreciate the more informal writing style. It's accessible for the kids and that, I believe, is its most important asset. Believe me, I wouldn't have gotten the students to compete if they had to study Grout. I have a master's in musicology and even in grad school, I hated a lot of our readings. I think at this level it is our responsibility to turn kids on to music in a way they can relate to --- then in college when they are more serious about their musical studies (and more sophisticated in their reading ability) they can handle Grout (maybe) .... :-)

B.M.

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I also like the style. I do have students reading Grout and Machlis, the former being gobbled up by two students...not all high school students are like that, and if they are, they can use the more heavy duty texts as back-up! That has worked really well for us.

My students had a pretty negative response to all the personal comments. I would tend to agree with them that the biographical notes should be held for the back of the guide. A couple of my more astute students didn't like "wading through" the personal info.

E.W.

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I think the current conversational writing style is good. It makes music listening contest personable and fun for the students. Many students learn much more because of the entertaining style of writing.

S.S.

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Wow, I get offended when the pop machine won't accept my dollar, so it's
amazing that you have such thick skin. I REALLY enjoy you're writing
style and have learned much being a coach for a few years. The style is
not stuffy or academic which wouldn't work with all HS level students.
My only suggestion is that the testable titles not be quite so long. I
served as a judge this year and many students would be "off" by one
letter in a 7 word French or Italian phrase.
Thanks for all that you do.

JN

 

Featured Ethnomusic of Guide 2004-08

Having read through the coaches and student comments from this past year, I sent out an email to press coaches for specifics as to which direction they would like to see the MLC as an educational tool go.

Below are the replies I have recieved thus far regarding the Global Perspectives / Ethno-music chapter (along with my questions and rationale for the current state of the study guide)

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Dear MLC Coaches;

Thank you to those who have already responded with valued feedback concerning the writing style of the MLC study guides. We are still gathering ideas and thoughts as we begin work on next years contest.

If it is not too much trouble, I would appreciate your additional comments on the Global Perspectives / Featured Ethno music chapter.

The questions at issue are:

1) Would you prefer the study guide to return to the concept of Global Perspectives which features music of other world societies through the lens of Western composers (for instance, instead of true middle eastern music the chapter would be dominated by compositions like Mozart’s “Rondo a la Turk,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” and Verdi’s “Aida” with maybe one example of authentic middle eastern music.

OR

2) Do you prefer the current trend of Featured Ethno-music? That is using the chapter as an opportunity to expose your students to a wider perspective of what other cultures value as legitimate music; providing an exercise for students to study the music without making value judgments on the culture from which it originates.

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3) Still a third but more difficult option because of both its potential danger to make unfair comparisons and value judgments and to find the actual inspirational source for the western composer, is to blend the two: providing an authentic version with a western composer version for each example.

Still another thought, If option (1) is the preferred route, why have the chapter at all? Would it be just as useful to weave those works into the other chapters?

Keep in mind the MLC is still primarily concerned with introducing students to the canon of Western Art Music so the 7 additional chapters on period, featured composer, and genre will still reflect current trends.

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A very brief background on the importance of this issue:

The MLC began in the late 1980s as a way to help music educators introduce their students to music--namely what was then considered the standard canon of Western Art Music.

In an overly-simplistic nutshell the “old view” of this canon: As musicology was primarily founded by Germans in the later half of the 19th century, any composers who could be traced as having historical significance in the context of German Romanticism should be praised and studied – everything else is considered “exotic” or “nationalist.”

Around 1990, a movement among professional musicologists (begun right here in Minnesota) finally, it seemed, brought musicology into the 20th century (other disciplines: history, literature, art, etc. had already made this transition 20-30 years earlier). It forced the field to discuss and re-evaluate the methodologies used to determine the core canon.

18 years later, women and minority composers are now recognized and included in the Grout, played on MPR and programmed by major symphony orchestras. Ethnomusicology has become a required element in most university & college curricula and the serious study of popular music is now a respected discipline [in the fall of 2004 the prestigious Journal of the American Musicological Society published an article by Albin J. Zak III entitled “Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix: Juxtaposition and Transformation "All along the Watchtower"]

The Internet has magnified this phenomenon by making available all sorts of music from all around the world. Students today (I hope) are more knowledgeable of cultural diversity than we were.

Since I began my tenure as MLC musicologist in late June 2004, part of my philosophy has been not only to create lifelong performers and supporters of music, but to ease the transition of the study of music history for incoming college students who might not be familiar with the current state of the core canon.

To assist you in helping your students (or better understand where I am coming from) the following is a short list of the texts your students will most likely encounter in college:

The text I use for non-music majors is the 6th edition of Kerman’s “Listen.” The texts I use for music majors are the 7th edition Grout/Palisca/Burkholder “A History of Western Music” and the 5th edition Norton Anthology of Western Music. “Worlds of Music” by Jeff Todd Titon is the standard text I’ve used for an introductory course in ethnomusicology.

Additional readings are drawn from Stolba’s “Development of Western Music”; “The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians”; and Richard Taruskin’s “Oxford History of Western Music.”

Thank you once again for taking time and devoting some critical thought to the MLC.

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COACHES COMMENTS on GLOBAL / ETHNO ISSUE: (10 coaches have responded)

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I personally prefer the original ethnic music ( I think that is #2). I also like the idea of the original music that the western composer was influenced by. The world is too small to ignore other cultures and their music.

R.K.
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My vote is for the current trend of Featured Ethno-music.

From an educational standpoint it seems like going backwards to favor Mozart's take over the originals and ignore authentic music that just happens to be outside the Euro-Western box.

Thanks for all of your hard work.

R.R.
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I personally like the format as is, and if I had to pick I would go with either option 2 (as is) or option 3 (as is, plus influences on European music). I think the ethnomusic helps expose students to different areas of the world (how many students can name and locate more than 4 or 5 countries in Africa?), and I think they enjoyed learning about the different timbres and performance practices from these regions.

On a separate topic, if your concern is that the whole scope is getting too broad, I would suggest keeping the European composers to more of the mainstream composers (IE Haydn instead of Albrechtsberger), especially for the earlier eras. I think the 20th century needs to show the different styles composers are experimenting with; so more obscure composers there are fine.
J.B.

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My vote is #1 but weave those works in,

D.D.

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Please maintain option 2!

M.O.

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I believe that the current trend of Ethno-music is an invaluable part of the music listening experience. It is a reminder that all musics should be appreciated and can be approachable even for high schoolers. In some cases the Ethnomusic you choose may warrant option #3 (comparing authentic with their western counterparts), in which case the other classical comparison pieces can be presented in the other chapters or included in the ehtnomusic chapter with the others. In some years you may not want to choose any traditional music to pair with the authentic music. I think getting rid of the authentic ethno-music would be a mistake and relegate the music listening experience to a very small portion of what is out there.

M.L.

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This was our first year participating but I really enjoyed the ethno section both musically and academically. I think it's a great addition and does expose the kids (and myself!) to a more diverse musical palette. I would strongly support keeping it in its current or very similar form.

 

B.M.

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In terms of Global Perspectives/Ethno music....the third option sounds
really neat, but I understand that yes it is dangerous. Otherwise I
think it is important to have the featured Ethno music and get away from
only Western Classical music for a bit. The African music this year,
for example, really showed how music is such an important part of
culture all over the world. It also challenges students hear unfamiliar
sounds and know that this is the music of many people.

S.S.

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As far as the last section, I think it's very important for students to learn that there is music in other parts of the world. I would love to see some Asian music study...I have often thought that the influence on early Gregorian chants could be an interesting comparison. (I guess I'm thinking of the language inflections and connection with speech...) Just a thought...

E.W.

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I'd like a combination of Ethno-Music and one or two western pieces influenced by the ethnic music. I agree that all ethno- influenced western music could be a part of the chapters on Western Music. I do feel the importance of exposing the students to pure ethno-music sounds. If some analysis or comparison to western music is possible, I think that could help students appreciate the ethno-music. Thanks for your interest in our opinions.

K.L.