Edited By:

Clint Randles

David Stringham

Steering Committee:

Maud Hickey

Alexander Koops

Linda Thornton

Clint Randles

David Stringham

Foreword by:

Peter R. Webster

Advanced Praise for Musicianship: Composing in Band and Orchestra

“A Big Step Forward in Making Bands and Orchestras in the Schools More Relevant to the Musicality of Their Members.”

Over the past several years there has been a strong and exciting movement in the music education profession toward expanding musical learnings in schools beyond the single, traditional way that has dominated the profession’s offerings for centuries. That is, through performance, and particularly performance in large ensembles, meaning bands, orchestras, and choruses. In that endeavor the profession has achieved remarkably successful results. Unfortunately, those results are limited to the small number of students who choose to participate.

Now we have been served by a number of efforts to include composing and improvising as basic, necessary, and delightful ways that students can be musical. These are ways that are foundational for the practice of music in the U.S. and around the world. We are beginning to harvest the benefits of this movement toward expansion of opportunities for the many students who find themselves drawn to these fundamental ways of doing/thinking/knowing as only music can provide. And as a profession we are becoming relevant to far more students, who find these musical roles to be right for them, exciting for them, meaningful for them.

This book addresses the musical needs of a key group of students; those who are involved in bands and orchestras, so are clearly attracted to being musical. Their Director’s expertise in involving them in composing will expand their learnings, making their performances more soundly based. It will also open new horizons for them by exploring another basic way music is produced. Their musicality, and thereby their selfhood, will be enhanced by their Director’s expanded competence the book enables so powerfully. It can transform our instrumental performance programs (and can do the same for choral programs), in both the depth and breadth of their students’ understandings and expertise. This is a major contribution to the welfare of both teachers and students of music in the schools.

Bennett Reimer, John W. Beattie Professor of Music Education Emeritus, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Those who work with bands and orchestras are increasingly engaged in efforts to rethink notions of ensemble: finding new ways to work together, to help students collaborate, and, increasingly, new ways to promote creativity and composition. Musicianship: Composing in Band and Orchestra contains essential ideas to support these efforts, with outstanding contributions from writers with a variety of backgrounds—public school teachers to composers, doctoral students to full professors. The result is a truly invaluable collection that ranges from theoretical work to classroom lesson plans that will help lead to enhanced ensembles everywhere.

Matthew D. Thibeault, Assistant Professor of Music Education and Education (Affiliate) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author of the “Secondary Scene” column that appears in General Music Today.

The desire to be creative through music is a naturally ubiquitous phenomenon among children. Instrumental music teachers who wish to guide their students so that they can more easily acquire the tools and dispositions necessary for finding their own voice through music embark on a noble and important task. To express one’s self by creating music is a deeply enriching and intrinsically rewarding activity – an activity that every music student should feel capable of participating in. This book works to address the value and importance of expanding notions of what music curricula for the large instrumental ensemble can potentially include.

For at least the past 60 years, many in the music education profession have been developing curricular models that stress a comprehensive view of the ways children can function as musical beings. The authors of this volume have provided a terrific set of practically-minded resources for taking real steps towards expanding band and orchestra curricula. Music teachers who draw from these materials can open up spaces and opportunities for children to engage in music in ways that go beyond performance.

This book speaks to a key area of concern cited by many music educators for some time, that being a lack of confidence and understanding regarding how to implement creative activities in the classroom and ensemble settings. The primary sections of this book – based on Wallas’ notions of preparation, incubation and illumination, and verification (The Art of Thought, 1926) – are planned clearly and strategically to help instrumental music teachers think through some central issues regarding purposes and processes for engaging students in creative work. Music teachers who take the time to engage with these materials will have a foundation of knowledge and practical ideas to draw from when working to incorporate composing and improvising in the ensemble setting.

It is important to recognize the value and significance of the sheer breadth of the voices that are represented in this collection. Contributors to this volume include: current school music teachers, retired school music teachers, collegiate music teacher educators, music researchers, composers of national and international acclaim, band specialists, orchestra specialists, and specialists from both, elementary and secondary school emphases. Music teachers who look to this book for inspiration and advice will find much that is useful.

Peter Miksza, Associate Professor of Music Education, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

This book is a welcome resource for teachers who wish to engage their students in music’s full potential for creativity and self-expression. While much can be gained through the traditional performance activities of school bands and orchestras, clearly students’ musicianship is incomplete without experience as composers. Not only do the authors convincingly establish the need for such learning opportunities, they offer practical teaching tips that will work with today’s kids. One impressive quality of this book is that the ideas shared throughout are grounded in current research in creativity, human learning, and educational practice. Though the contributors are accomplished scholars in this way, there is is little academic jargon to get in the way of its powerful message. More student composing will only enrich the value of music education in schools. The possibilities are endless.

Robert H. Woody, Associate Professor of Music Education, School of Music, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

This important and engaging book has great depth of field. It contains creative, inventive, practical composition lessons for all levels of band and orchestra students, and it situates them within a context of vital educational strategies and philosophical frameworks. A work of great range and depth, it should be essential reading for all band and orchestra teachers.

Daniel Deutsch, Founding Chair, Council for Music Composition, National Association for Music Education, and student composition program director, Three Village Central School District, Stony Brook, NY

For music educators who care about their students’ ability to continue creating and performing music throughout their lifetimes, this book is an invaluable resource. The authors are among the best teachers, scholars, and composers working in music education today. The various sections of the book provide an in-depth view of how composing works as well as many, many specific ideas for lesson planning and assessment. Future generations of music educators may well consider this volume to be the door that opened to a new and more comprehensive world of instrumental music education.

John Kratus, Professor of Music Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI