BiblioVault - Books about Music Education

Basic Concepts in Music Education, II

Richard J. Cowell

University Press of Colorado, 1991

First published in 1958, Basic Concepts in Music Education served as the standard text for a generation of music educators. Providing the basics on aesthetic philosophy, of education, and of music education, this popular volume remained in print for twenty-five years.

A continuation on the first edition, Basic Concepts in Music Education, II features revisions and updates by the living authors as well as contributions by new authors who delineate concepts of music education that are particularly important to the nineties and beyond. These topics include growth processes, learning theory, functional music, messages for teachers, the range of musical experience, technology, and evaluation.

Chapters from the most noted authorities in music education promise to provide definitive guidance in Basic Concepts, II that Basic Concepts, I has provided for the past quarter century. Among the contributors are Charles Fowler, Harry S. Broudy, Foster McMury, Wayne Bowman, Marilyn Zimmerman, Bennett Reimer, Clifton Burmeister, Richard Colwell, Robert Ehle, and Allen P. Britton. Like its predecessor, Basic Concepts, II offers rich and stimulating discussions on the most pertinent issues facing music education today - discussions that are vital to professionals and enlightening to the general reader.

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If Colors Could be Heard

Narratives About Racial Identity in Music Education

Edited by Christopher Cayari, Jason D. Thompson, and Rekha S. Rajan

Intellect Books, 2025

A deeply personal and scholarly exploration of how race and ethnicity shape the ways we learn, teach, and experience music.

If Colors Could Be Heard: Narratives About Racial Identity in Music Education is a groundbreaking collection of firsthand accounts by music educators, artists, activists, and students from the Global Majority. These deeply personal narratives explore how race and ethnicity shape experiences in music learning, making, and teaching.

From stories of childhood discovery to reflections on navigating racial identity in the classroom, these voices paint a complex and vivid portrait of music education in the United States. Going beyond a collection of research studies, this book embraces self-reflective storytelling as a legitimate and essential method of inquiry, offering a scholarly mosaic of lived experience.

By centering voices often marginalized in academia, If Colors Could Be Heard challenges dominant narratives and reimagines music education through a lens of equity, identity, and belonging. A must-read for students, educators, and researchers committed to fostering an inclusive and just musical future.

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In Search of Music Education

Estelle R. Jorgensen

University of Illinois Press, 1997

      What is music education, and what ought it to be? By challenging narrow
        and inadequate conceptions of the field, Estelle Jorgensen raises the
        possibility of alternative views that can dignify the teacher's task,
        enrich and enliven the profession, and validate an exciting range of additional
        ways in which music education can be undertaken in the contemporary world.
      One of the most respected leaders in music education, Jorgensen emphasizes
        world music and ethnomusicology as equal partners alongside the more conventional
        sounds and styles that have dominated the classroom. Exemplifying sound
        scholarship, thorough research, and compelling argument, In Search
        of Music Education will be especially welcome wherever teachers strive
        to deal with requirements for responsible music education.

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Music Education in the United States

Contemporary Issues

J. Terry Gates

University of Alabama Press, 1988

Reflects the current issues in music education and the ongoing attempt to overcome obstacles to excellence in teaching music

This solid collection of essays, written by outstanding American music educators, reflects the current issues in music education and the ongoing attempt to overcome obstacles to excellence in teaching music. It stands as the most important and far-ranging professional overview of the discipline since the publication of the landmark Basic Concepts in Music Education in 1958, and early reviews indicate that it will generate both critical discussion and acclaim.

Several themes recur:(1) that music and, therefore, music education exist in a variety of social and cultural contexts, even when examined in controlled situations; (2) that music teaching has not yet freed itself from its traditional over-reliance on technical training, in spite of attention to aesthetic education; and (3) that there is a remarkable undercurrent of agreement among this diverse group of authors concerning the profession’s basic obligation to expand and refine the musical sensitivity of all age group of Americans. This book reflects some advanced thinking about these themes, which establishes new foundations for next generation theorizing and research.

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