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Amber Colvis
History of Music Education
World Events
Music Events
600 BCE
ca. 500-400 BCE
Golden Age of Athens
ca. 580-500 BCE
Pythagoras discovers intervals
ca. 450-325 BCE
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle write out music and music education
ca. 364-304 BCE
Arisotexenus advocates ear training
ca. 323 BCE
Peak of Alexander the Great's Empire
0 CE
ca. 200 BCE
Roman Conquest begins
ca. 6 BCE - 30 CE
Jesus Christ
ca. 900 BCE
Greek civilization emerges: music contests and festivals
476
Roman Empire collapses
800
800
Early plainchant codified
800
Charlemagne crowned emperor
936
Otto I established Holy Roman Empire
ca. 991-1050
Guido d'Arezzo developed solfege system
1095
First Crusade
ca. 878-942
St. Odo of Cluny used letters to represent musical pitches A-G
ca. 475-525
Boethius wrote De Institutione Musica
ca. 95
Quintilian writes of early music in Institutio Oratoria
354-430
St. Augustine writes of music and education in De Magisero
and Confessions
1200
ca. 1260
Mensural notation emerges
1215
Magna Carta
1337-1453
Hundred Years' War
1348-1350
Black Death strikes Europe
1378-1417
The Great Schism
1492
Christopher Columbus voyages to the New World
1501
Petrucci publishes first movable type music book
1500
1564
First permanent European settlement in New World (St. Augustine, FL)
1517
Martin Luther's 95 Theses
1538
Martin Luther's preface to Symphoniae incundae
1607
Jamestown, VA first permanent English settlement established
1534
Henry VIII breaks with Rome to form the Church of England
1521
Cortez conquers Mexico
1592-1670
Comenius writes the Great Didactic
1618-1648
Thirty Years' War
1600
1612
Henry Ainsworth writes Book of Psalms brought by Pilgrims to the US
1521
Pedro de Gante uses music to convert natives to Catholicism
1540
Juan de Padilla uses music to convert natives to Catholicism
1540
Coronado conquers New Mexico
1620
Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony, MA
1698
Bay Psalm Book was the first music printed in the colonies
1721
Rev. John Tufts wrote An Introduction to The Singing Psalm Tunes and established singing schools and fasola singing
1701-1713
War of Spanish Succession
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1700
1746-1827
Johann Pestalozzi writes about the purpose of education to elevate the moral, physical, and mental faculties
1740-1748
War of Austrian Succession; Frederick II rules Prussia
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1635-1636
Boston Latin School established; Harvard established
1754-1763
French and Indian War
Seven Years' War (1756)
1762
Rousseau writes Emile
1775-1781
American Revolution; Declaration of Independence (1776)
1787
Northwest Ordinance
1778
William Billings writes Rules for Regulating a Singing School
1792-1872
Lowell Mason "Father of Singing" in the US; first Superintendent of Music; authored Manual of Instruction based on Pestalozzi (1834)
1812
Michael Traugott Pfeiffer and Hans Georg Nägeli applied Pestalozzian principles to music
1837
Boston School Committee Report (aka Magna Charta of Music Education) establishes vocal music in Boston public schools
1800
1833
Boston Academy of Music established by Lowell Mason and George Webb
1789
US Constitution
French Revolution
1804
Napoleon becomes Emperor of France
1830
William Woodbridge and Elam Ives Jr. brought Pestalozzian principles of music to the US
1642-1648
MA Bay School Laws and the Old Deluder Satan Act
1663-1728
Cotton Mather organized African American singing schools (1674); wrote The Accomplished Singer (1721)
ca. 1684-1693
John Locke wrote Some Thoughts on Education
1844
Horace Mann report Vocal Music in Schools
1861-1865
American Civil War
1859
Darwin writes On the Origin of Species
1791
Bill of Rights
1812-1815
War of 1812
1837
Friedrich Froebel established the first kindergarten; wrote The Education of Man (1908)
1897
John Dewey wrote The Aesthetic Element in Education
1865-1950
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze created eurhythmics method of music instruction
1884
Julia Etta Crane opens Potsdam Musical Institute for music supervisors
1882-1967
Zoltan Kodály created music curriculum based on literacy
1898
Spanish-American War
1873
Panic of 1873 economic depression
1875
Civil Rights Act
1857
National Teachers Association (NEA) established
ca. 1860
First graded music series developed
1900
1896
Earliest grammar school orchestra at Nathan Hale School (CT)
1880-1920
Great Immigration
1862-1888
Theodore Thomas Orchestra tours the US
1855
Gilmore held the first Promenade Concert in the US
1847
Benjamin family offers violin classes and private lessons; Benjamin Brothers Musical Academy (1880)
1898
Murdock Company offers violin classes in Maidstone
1903-1904
Ivan Pavlov classical conditioning
1908
Model T Ford invented
1914-1918
World War I
1917
Russian Revolution
1919
Treaty of Versailles
1929
Great Depression;
Jean Piaget published The Child's Conception of the World
1905
Austin Harding established college marching band at U of IL
1907
MSNC formed from Keokuk Meeting
1910
Francis Elliott Clark introduced technology in the music classroom with the phonograph; Albert Mitchell forms violin classes in the US
1911
MSNC suggests credit hours for high school music courses
1913
Charles Farnsworth and Peter Dykema bring Dalcroze methods to the US
1917
Edgar Gordon used radio for statewide music program in WI
1918
Joseph Maddy made the first Supervisor of Instrumental Music
1920
Band contests established
1924
Carl Orff and Dorothea Günther formed the Günther-Schule; MSNC Instrumental Affairs Committee repertoire list leads to standardization of band instrumentation
1926
Joseph Maddy formed the first National High School Orchestra
1928-1942
Walter Damrosch hosted NBC's Music Appreciation Hour
1934
MSNC changed to MENC
1939-1945
World War II
1936
Marguerite Hood started the Montana School of the Air
1929
First national orchestra contest held in Iowa City
1939
National contests suspended and never resumed
1919
Carl E. Seashore published Measures of Musical Talents (rev. 1938)
1920
1940
1948
Cold War
1944
William Revelli created instrumental music program (early BM) at U of MI
1954
Brown v. Board of Education
1957
Soviet Union launches Sputnik I
1958
National Defense Education Act enabled extra funding for music; American teachers exposed to Sinichi Suzuki's Talent Education via film;
1952
Regional contests eliminated and state contests become highest level of MENC events
1953
International Society for Music Education formed
1950-1953
Korean War
1964-1973
Vietnam War; Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts
1969
US launches Apollo 11; ARPANET invented
1964
Julliard Repertory Project; Suzuki demonstrated in the US
1959
Woods Hole Conference
1959
Young Composers Project founded
1963
Contemporary Music Project (ended 1973);
Yale Seminar; Comprehensive Musicianship (Seminar 1965, ended 1969)
ca. 1960-1970
Allen Britton, Charles Leonhard, and Bennett Reimer created aesthetic music education philosophies
1960
Jerome Bruner wrote The Process of Education, introducing spiral curriculum
1966-1970
Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project
1965
Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds low-income students/schools which benefits music education; National Endowment for the Arts founded
1967
Tanglewood Symposium
1968
Hawaiian Music Curriculum Program;
International Association for Jazz Education (ends 2008)
1969
Project GO! implemented Tanglewood
1960
1970
Bennett Reimer wrote A Philosophy of Music Education
1973
Alliance for the Arts
1972
Title XI of Education Ammendments
1975
Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1990 IDEA)
1975
El Sistema founded by José Antonio Abreu
1980
Edwin Gordon wrote Learning Sequences in Music, establishing Music Learning Theory
1980
1983
A Nation at Risk published
1994
National Standards for Music Education created by MENC
1989
Berlin Wall dismantled; end of Cold War; World Wide Web invented
1995
David Elliott wrote Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education
1999
Vision 2020 Housewright Symposium reminiscent of Tanglewood
2000
2002
No Child Left Behind Act
2004
National Anthem Project
2007
MENC Centennial Declaration
2014
National Standards for Music Education revised
2015
Every Student Succeeds Act
2001
9-11 Bombing of the World Trade Center; beginning of US War on Terrorism
2008
Economic Recession
1978-Present
War in Afghanistan
1973
Mobile phone invented
References
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Bonds, M. E. (2013). A history of music in western culture (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
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Feldman, E. & Contzius, A. (2016). Instrumental music education: teaching with the musical and practical in harmony (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
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Mark, M. L. (2008). A concise history of american music education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
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