Midwestern Region

Grant Beglarian

ARRAND PARSONS, Director

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Midwestern Regional Council, comprised of representatives from the participating universities, has undertaken the development of a test to be used by the five schools of music for purposes of placement of entering freshmen; in time, it is the thought of the Council members that the test might come to be used as a part of the admissions battery. It is hoped that the test, which is being developed along the lines of the Council's interpretation of "comprehensive musicianship," will have the indirect effect of offering some guidance to courses in music at the high school, even the elementary school, level. The Council expects to have the test ready to give to the freshman classes of the respective schools by early October 1967. This initial administration of the test will be the first step in making an evaluation of the effectiveness or usefulness of the test.

In its various contacts at the college and the pre-college levels, the Council is propounding the idea that the implications of comprehensive musicianship at the college level are the same for all levels of education.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

Region, Director and Administrative Center			Institutions and Program Heads
				Eastern Michigan University, Howard Rarig
				Indiana University, William Thomson, Vernon Kliewer
MIDWESTERN REGION				Northwestern University, Arrand Parsons
	Arrand Parsons		*	University of Chicago, Jeanne Bamberger
	Northwestern University			University of Illinois, Thomas Fredrickson
			*	University of Michigan, Paul Cooper
*	Program starting September, 1967

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 
ARRAND PARSONS, Program Head

The IMCE experiment at Northwestern University is at the sophomore level, involving a combination into one course of the existing sophomore music history and music theory. The control courses require 9 contact hours weekly; the experimental course, taught by one instructor, also requires 9 hours weekly.

The experimental course is taught by Alan Stout, assistant professor of theory and composition. A random sampling (the names were drawn from a box) of 22 students make up the experimental class; the control group is the remaining members of the sophomore classapproximately 55 studentswho attend the required courses in music history and theory.

The experimental course must give the students the equivalent in content of the control classes. It is hoped that the combining of the work of the two classes with a new curriculum and with one instructor will result in a more effective learning situation.

The experimental course takes performance and the realization of the score in performance as its point of departure. In this sense, it is considered an example of teaching "comprehensive musicianship." It is expected that the students will develop a scholarly point of view toward musical performance; it is also expected that they will develop an enthusiasm for and about music of all times which will remain with them after graduation.

The course presents the historical periods, the basis for the organization of the content, in a non-chronological order. The order, for the three quarters of the academic year, is as follows:

Fall:	Classical and Romantic
Winter:	Baroque and Renaissance
Spring:	Medieval and Twentieth Century

At the end of the year evaluations will be made on the basis of examinations to the two groups. Also, the students will be given examinations at the end of their junior year to test retention.

The use of one teacher is of significance here. The theory is that the best theory or music history teacher is a "comprehensive" teacher; we should plan our curricula in such a way that this type of teacher may be produced.

It is planned that the experiment will be repeated with a new sophomore class in 1967-1968. Alan Stout will again be the instructor.

Pre-college project at Northwestern University

A seminar consisting of teachers from the schools of the Chicago area, both elementary and high school, and School of Music faculty is nearing the last of the nine meetings set up for this year. The early meetings were devoted to explorations of the meaning of comprehensive musicianship. More recently each teacher who is interested has been given the opportunity of presenting to the seminar a proposal of a project to be carried out in his classroom during 1967-1968. From these proposals, which are still in the process of being reviewed, school projects will be chosen for IMCE projects. The projects are now at various stages of formulation. One of the major activities is at the high school level: several high schools in Chicago and in the Chicago area will be working along similar lines, and in some cases jointly, to develop "comprehensive" courses. This high school activity will tie in closely with the development of a college entrance test in music by the Regional Council. In order to make it possible to plan the new course for 1967-1968 certain teachers are being asked to devote time during the summer on a released time basis for which the funds of IMCE will be used. This is an effort to apply at the local public school level the same general principles of freeing time for faculty planning at the university level.

EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY 
HOWARD RARIG, Program Head

During the year, two sections of the freshman theory class have been designated as IMCE experiments; both classes will be continued at the sophomore level during 1967-1968. The two sections are taught by different instructors. Ear training and sight singing are included as a responsibility of the classes. One section has emphasized the training of the musician as a composer, and has centered the year's activities on species counterpoint, using the Felix Salzer Structural Hearing as a point of departure, but not as a required text. During the second year this class will become involved with analysis and, with the acquired foundation of species counterpoint, will compose freely; any stylistic studies included in the course are not related to composition.

The second section of the IMCE experiment aims at structuring theoretical principles from the study of music. Music from different periods and styles is studied and analyzed.

During the summer of 1967, one instructor was released from teaching in order to work out the details of the curriculum for the sophomore year.

Pre-college project at Eastern Michigan University

During the first semester of 1966-67 Eastern Michigan faculty members demonstrated to public school music teachers analytical approaches to the score. During the second semester the public school teachers were called upon to develop projects within their own schools to be carried out during 1967-1968. These projects are in process of formulation; it is evident from talking with this group of approximately fifteen teachers that they have difficulty in translating the ideas of "comprehensive musicianship" into meaningful terms. It is still possible that a few worthwhile projectsworthwhile as demonstrations of comprehensive musicianship at various grade levelsmay come out of the Ypsilanti area.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
WILLIAM THOMSON, Program Head, 1966-67
VERNON KLIEWER, Program Head, 1967-68

The IMCE project at Indiana University consists of two distinct phases, each of which represents one segment of the broad educational ambition fostered by the Contemporary Music Project. One phase is centered in the School of Music undergraduate program, while the other is a cooperative venture between the School of Music and the University Laboratory School.

The first phase developed from the realization that the study of music history and literature at the sophomore level was not achieving a maximum goal of historical perspective and genuine understanding of a wide sampling of music. To improve the effectiveness of such a study it was decided to scrap the traditional historical-chronological period studies in favor of a topical outline of subject matter that was correlated with the theoretical studies of the sophomore students. A format was developed from an outline of musical forms and genres which are a part of the subject matter within the second, third and fourth semesters of basic theory studies. These topics are presented in the theory class from the structural point of view, then examples of music which manifest the form principle are performed, heard, and dissected in the literature class. Each class is taught by a specialist, a theorist and a conductor-musicologist, thereby ensuring two points of view and expertise in each. This arrangement was so successful during the past academic year (1966-67) that it has now been established as the norm for the future. Although a chronological survey course was retained as a control reference group during the first year of the project, it has been discarded for the coming year as a less desirable alternative.

The second phase of our program during the past year consisted of a seminar composed of Music School faculty and Laboratory School faculty from the Elementary, Junior High, and High School levels of instruction. This group met twice monthly in an attempt to formulate more productive and imaginative means for teaching music in the public schools. The result of this series of seminars has been an exciting explosion of enthusiasm for a new look at music in the local schools; our own small program has been expanded for the second year to the extent that it has now been superceded by a larger group that represents the entire metropolitan school district and the administration of the University School of Education. This program will begin two experimental projects in the local schools this fall (1967), and a long-range (five year) curriculum revision study has been initiated. The total K-through-12 gamut of public instruction is to be examined and, when desired, overhauled to create a continuous sequence in music that will ensure a comprehensive and meaningful experience in music for the general student as well as for the talented who may pursue music as professionals in their adult lives.

In our opinion, both of our programs have been successful to a degree unanticipated at their initiation. In a sense, both phases were finished in one year: the undergraduate literature course proved to be so successful that it can no longer be regarded as "experimental," and the public school dialogues have led to a project so ambitious that our limited Institute Project could not have underwritten it.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
JEANNE BAMBERGER, Program Head

Unlike most of the other activities under IMCE where the concern is for music majors, the University of Chicago program is closely related to the humanities division and is aimed at the general student. In effect, the University of Chicago plan is to apply principles of comprehensive musicianship to the old music appreciation course. The fall quarter of 1967-68 will be devoted to completing plans for a new course which will be taught to one of the humanities sections on an experimental basis during the winter and spring quarters. In addition, plans are now being formulated for an experimental course at Chicago's Kenwood High School.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THOMAS FREDRICKSON, Program Head

The University of Illinois was unable to initiate an active program for 1966-67. The following is a resumé of the proposed IMCE project, to begin in September, 1967.

A class of 15-18 superior students will be taken from the entering freshman class by interview and treated as an honors section in a course to meet two hours a day, five days a week, which will be taught by two professors and a graduate assistant. The professors are Benjamin Johnston, composer and theorist, and Royal MacDonald, musicologist. The course will run for four semesters and take the place of all freshman-sophomore courses in theory, history, sight singing and ear training. The general plan is to offer a comprehensive survey of music the first year and to concentrate on specific works the second year. An outline of the course is enclosed.

Professor Daniel Perrino of our Music Extension has been working on the public school aspect of the project and will be cooperating with Mr. Edward Jones, music supervisor of the Plainfield, Illinois school system. What will be done in this area is still tentative, but this small city will be used as a pilot-demonstration center. A course of study will be developed from this pilot by Music Extension and offered for public school music teachers.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PAUL COOPER, Program Head

Commencing in the Fall of 1967, the Department of Theory and Music Literature of the School of Music at the University of Michigan will inaugurate curricular changes involving format, contact hours, content, philosophy, and application for the two-year sequence of lower division courses:

I.

Theory

A.

Lecture-laboratory format

		1.	Correlation of written, analytical and aural skills
		2.	Keyboard classes separate but correlated
		3.	Separate honors in theory section for exceptionally gifted students
		4.	Two lectures, two labs per week for average students
		5.	Two lectures, four labs, two listening-room assignments per week for deficient students

B.

Content and philosophy

		1.	First semester: usual fundamentals; intensive work in pitch and rhythm; application to applied music; physics of sound; introductions to form and instrumentation.
		2.	Semesters two through four:

a.

General chronological approach to the study of tertial music (c. 1500-1950): examples, analysis, creative work as indicated.

				1)	Late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
				2)	Seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
				3)	Late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
				4)	To 1950 (tertial orientations only)

b.

Highly varied original projects

				1)	Longer creative and recreative projectsmaking complete short compositions
				2)	Projects in analysis of stylediscursive and written
				3)	Short research projects
				4)	Projects relating theory to performance

II.	The entire sequence of four semesters correlated with Music Literature lecturesthree per week.