SKU: GI.G-10069
ISBN 9781622774517.
Help music students learn more in less time, reach higher goals, and become active participants in their education. This important book takes you through the steps needed to create an effective music education curriculum for you, your school, and your district. This Second Edition now aligns with the national standards for music released in 2014 (The National Arts Standards for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts). A sequenced music curriculum is the ultimate win-win for your program: it gives direction to your teaching, builds cohesion among your colleagues, engages students and parents in goals you set, and builds awareness and support from your school??s administrators. Music Curriculum Writing 101 (Second Edition) contains the blueprint and examples to help you build the right curriculum for your music program, demystifying the processes of developing a standards-based curriculum with related assessments of student learning. This book provides help with three simple steps: S.O.S. Sequence curriculum throughout the year so music understanding unfolds for the student instead of teaching ??from cover to cover.? Organize curriculum and documentation of student progress??essential if you are to build on prior learning. Standards are here to stay and help focus the breadth and depth of learning that is to take place, producing better musicians over time. Contents include: Overview of the National and State Music Standards Documents Aligning District Standards to the National or State Standards Suggested Activities for Each National Standard Sequencing Method Books, Literature, Theory, and Teaching Aids Designing an Organized Curriculum Lesson Plan Assessments Organizing Assessment Documentation Student Involvement Curriculum Sample Resources and Websites Denese Odegaard taught fifth through ninth grade orchestra for twenty-five years in Fargo (ND) Public Schools and was the District Performing Arts Curriculum Specialist for eleven years. She is a past board member of the American String Teachers Association and is a past president of NAfME (National Association for Music Education). She was on the third through fifth grade writing team for the 2014 National Music Standards.
Help music students learn more in less time, reach higher goals, and become active participants in their education. This important book takes you through the steps needed to create an effective music education curriculum for you, your school, and your district. This Second Edition now aligns with the national standards for music released in 2014 (The National Arts Standards for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts). A sequenced music curriculum is the ultimate win-win for your program: it gives direction to your teaching, builds cohesion among your colleagues, engages students and parents in goals you set, and builds awareness and support from your school’s administrators. Music Curriculum Writing 101 (Second Edition) contains the blueprint and examples to help you build the right curriculum for your music program, demystifying the processes of developing a standards-based curriculum with related assessments of student learning. This book provides help with three simple steps: S.O.S. Sequence curriculum throughout the year so music understanding unfolds for the student instead of teaching “from cover to cover.” Organize curriculum and documentation of student progress—essential if you are to build on prior learning. Standards are here to stay and help focus the breadth and depth of learning that is to take place, producing better musicians over time. Contents include: Overview of the National and State Music Standards Documents Aligning District Standards to the National or State Standards Suggested Activities for Each National Standard Sequencing Method Books, Literature, Theory, and Teaching Aids Designing an Organized Curriculum Lesson Plan Assessments Organizing Assessment Documentation Student Involvement Curriculum Sample Resources and Websites Denese Odegaard taught fifth through ninth grade orchestra for twenty-five years in Fargo (ND) Public Schools and was the District Performing Arts Curriculum Specialist for eleven years. She is a past board member of the American String Teachers Association and is a past president of NAfME (National Association for Music Education). She was on the third through fifth grade writing team for the 2014 National Music Standards.
SKU: GI.G-7850CG
ISBN 9781579999124. English.
This Curriculum Guide is designed to help teachers get the most out of the book Starting Early: A Boy and His Bugle in America During WWII, the first in the Adventures with Music series...a series where the heroes are young musicians! Intended for readers in Grades 4 through 8, the Adventures with Music series fosters a love of reading while exposing students to American history and the foundations of music. The musician characters provide positive role models for any child, but especially students who like music or play an instrument. This Curriculum Guide will assist teachers in developing language, literacy, content, and music skills in their classroom by providing a framework to strengthen student literacy skills while enabling students to develop or enrich their base of musical knowledge. This Guide will also help educators blend the teaching of music with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. Included are vocabulary suggestions, active reading questions, enrichment activities that cover the entire book. In addition, this Guide contains quizzes, music literacy vocabulary, student worksheets, and much more. Written by the authors of Starting Early, this Curriculum Guide is an essential resource for any teacher hoping to bring positive experiences with music and literacy beyond the classroom. Paul Kimpton grew up in a musical family and was a band director in Illinois for 34 years. His father Dale was a band director and professor at the University of Illinois, and his mother Barbara was a vocalist. When Paul is not writing, he is reading or enjoying the outdoors. Ann Kimpton played French horn through college and went on to be a m other, teacher, and high school administrator. Her parents, Henry and Laryalyce Kaczkowski, both educators, instilled an appreciation for the fine arts and the outdoors in all of their children.
SKU: GI.G-8093CG
ISBN 9781579999315. English.
This Curriculum Guide is designed to help teachers get the most out of the book Dog Tags: A Young Musician’s Ultimate Sacrifice During WWII, the second in the Adventures with Music series…a series where the heroes are young musicians! Intended for readers in Grades 4 through 8, the Adventures with Music series fosters a love of reading while exposing students to American history and the foundations of music. The musician characters provide positive role models for any child, but especially students who like music or play an instrument. This Curriculum Guide will assist teachers in developing language, literacy, content, and music skills in their classroom by providing a framework to strengthen student literacy skills while enabling students to develop or enrich their base of musical knowledge. This Guide will also help educators blend the teaching of music with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. Included are vocabulary suggestions, active reading questions, enrichment activities that cover the entire book. In addition, this Guide contains quizzes, music literacy vocabulary, student worksheets, and much more. Written by the authors of Starting Early, this Curriculum Guide is an essential resource for any teacher hoping to bring positive experiences with music and literacy beyond the classroom. Paul Kimpton grew up in a musical family and was a band director in Illinois for 34 years. His father Dale was a high school band director and professor at the University of Illinois, and his mother Barbara was a vocalist. When Paul is not writing, he is reading or enjoying the outdoors. Ann Kimpton played French horn through college and went on to be a mother, teacher, and high school administrator. Her parents, Henry and Maryalyce Kaczkowski, both educators, instilled an appreciation for the fine arts and the outdoors in all of their children. .
SKU: GI.G-J168
English.
A revision of this beginning band series makes Jump Right In easier to use and more musical than ever before! Includes high-quality CDs of folk songs that: • Comprise many styles, tonalities, and meters • Span many cultures and many centuries • Are ideal for listening and playing along Features performances by some of the world’s greatest performers: • Artist faculty members from Eastman School of Music • Members of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra • Rhythm and Brass Helps develop musicianship beyond instrumental classroom with: • Progress from sound to sight in logical, common sense sequence • Opportunities for improvisation from early stages of instruction • Tools to help students learn to read and write with better comprehension • Arrangements of familiar songs in each book Sequential and proven materials are: • Designed specifically to attend to individual differences • Based on current experimental and practical research • Based on the music learning theories of Edwin E. Gordon • Relevant to National Standards and include suggestions for measurement and evaluation Extensive Teacher’s Guide: • Contains lesson plans • Includes teaching procedures • May be used independently or in conjunction with Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum and Developing Musicianship through Improvisation.
SKU: CF.YPS217F
ISBN 9781491156551. UPC: 680160915095. 9 x 12 inches.
Hope Remains Within was commissioned by and composed for the Mount Nittany Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Concert Bands. Having heard the students of Mount Nittany perform another work of mine, I was very excited when their director, Johanna Steinbacher, approached me about writing a piece specifically for them. I knew right away that I wanted to write something that would tie in with their non-music curriculum in some way, but I wasn't exactly sure how, or what. Johanna talked to some of her students and learned that, in 7th grade, the students spend a good deal of time studying mythology in their English class. In particular, two clarinet students mentioned how much they enjoyed the story of Pandora. As such, I decided to use that story as the basis of this composition. Hope Remains Within doesn't attempt to re-tell the story, event by event, in musical terms. Instead, my goal was to address what seems to be one of the central issues of the Pandora myth. Though there are some variations, we probably all know the basics as told by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Zeus decides to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humans. He and the other gods create Pandora, a beautiful and deceitful woman, and they give her to Prometheus's brother Epimetheus as a bride. Pandora is herself given a jar (according to many sources, jar seems to be a more accurate translation for what we commonly call Pandora's box) which contained numerous evils, diseases, and other pains. Out of curiosity, Pandora opens the jar and releases all of these evils into the world. But one thing remains in the jar: hope. The issue of hope seems to be one of the big interpretive questions of the Pandora myth. Why does hope remain within the jar? Why doesn't it come out of the jar to help humanity? Is hope being held on a pedestal of some sort? Is hope deliberately withheld from humanity? Why was hope in the jar with all those evils in the first place? I'm not enough of a mythological scholar to claim to have definitive answers to those questions, but these are the questions that I've tried to engage from a musical perspective in Hope Remains Within. I encourage the students and listeners to consider their own ideas of what hope is, and where you can find your own hope when needed. Musically, Hope Remains Within draws one of its main themes from the Prometheus Symphony by Alexander Skryabin (Scriabin). The note sequence F-D-Gb -F, heard near Hope's beginning played by alto saxophones and chimes, comes from the opening measures of Skyrabin's work. Given the important role that Prometheus plays in the Pandora myth, this seemed like an appropriate musical gesture to quote. This Prometheus motive is varied throughout the course of the piece, and even provides closure at the end, recast in a major key. Additionally, I have tried to involve a manageable amount of chromaticism in this piece. I have worked from the key of Bb major, no doubt familiar to every student who has ever played an instrument in a band. But I have added three extra notes: Db, Gb, and Ab, which are drawn from the key of Bb minor. During the piece's slow opening, I have allowed these minor key pitches to mingle freely within the Bb major tonality, adding extra color and (I hope!) beauty. As the piece progresses, though, the tempo increases, and we lose sense of the Bb major key entirely, and these extra notes play a more important role. But finally, Bb major returns triumphantly and all the extra notes are gone, except for a brief memory near the very end. (Ok, there are a couple of E-naturals that sneak in there along the way. I couldn't resist.).Hope Remains Within was commissioned by and composed for the Mount Nittany Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Concert Bands. Having heard the students of Mount Nittany perform another work of mine, I was very excited when their director, Johanna Steinbacher, approached me about writing a piece specifically for them. I knew right away that I wanted to write something that would tie in with their non-music curriculum in some way, but I wasn’t exactly sure how, or what. Johanna talked to some of her students and learned that, in 7th grade, the students spend a good deal of time studying mythology in their English class. In particular, two clarinet students mentioned how much they enjoyed the story of Pandora.As such, I decided to use that story as the basis of this composition. Hope Remains Within doesn’t attempt to re-tell the story, event by event, in musical terms. Instead, my goal was to address what seems to be one of the central issues of the Pandora myth. Though there are some variations, we probably all know the basics as told by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Zeus decides to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humans. He and the other gods create Pandora, a beautiful and deceitful woman, and they give her to Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus as a bride. Pandora is herself given a jar (according to many sources, “jar” seems to be a more accurate translation for what we commonly call “Pandora’s box”) which contained numerous evils, diseases, and other pains. Out of curiosity, Pandora opens the jar and releases all of these evils into the world. But one thing remains in the jar: hope.The issue of hope seems to be one of the big interpretive questions of the Pandora myth. Why does hope remain within the jar? Why doesn’t it come out of the jar to help humanity? Is hope being held on a pedestal of some sort? Is hope deliberately withheld from humanity? Why was hope in the jar with all those evils in the first place?I’m not enough of a mythological scholar to claim to have definitive answers to those questions, but these are the questions that I’ve tried to engage from a musical perspective in Hope Remains Within. I encourage the students and listeners to consider their own ideas of what hope is, and where you can find your own hope when needed.Musically, Hope Remains Within draws one of its main themes from the Prometheus Symphony by Alexander Skryabin (Scriabin). The note sequence F-D-Gb -F, heard near Hope’s beginning played by alto saxophones and chimes, comes from the opening measures of Skyrabin’s work. Given the important role that Prometheus plays in the Pandora myth, this seemed like an appropriate musical gesture to quote. This Prometheus motive is varied throughout the course of the piece, and even provides closure at the end, recast in a major key.Additionally, I have tried to involve a manageable amount of chromaticism in this piece. I have worked from the key of Bb major, no doubt familiar to every student who has ever played an instrument in a band. But I have added three extra notes: Db, Gb, and Ab, which are drawn from the key of Bb minor. During the piece’s slow opening, I have allowed these minor key pitches to mingle freely within the Bb major tonality, adding extra color and (I hope!) beauty. As the piece progresses, though, the tempo increases, and we lose sense of the Bb major key entirely, and these extra notes play a more important role. But finally, Bb major returns triumphantly and all the extra notes are gone, except for a brief memory near the very end. (Ok, there are a couple of E-naturals that sneak in there along the way. I couldn’t resist.).
SKU: CF.YPS217
ISBN 9781491156544. UPC: 680160915088. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: GI.G-7850
ISBN 9781579998059. English.
Adventures with Music Book 1 A new adventure series where the heroes are young musicians! Dale and his friends waited for this moment, and now it was here: they were finally old enough to play an instrument. Little did Dale know that his decision to play the cornet would take him on an adventure of a lifetime... This first book in The Adventures with Music Series begins in the U.S. during World War II. Paul and Ann Kimpton bring to life this unforgettable story about best friends, their dog Scout, bike rides, forts, foot races, and heroism—capturing the spirit of a remarkable time and the sheer joy of making music Excerpt from the book... The Conn instrument factory was on fire, and only one person could save the town.... Hurry, Dale! You have no time to spare! Grandpa warned as Dale hopped on his bike. He put the bugle to his lips, but nothing came out. Remember what you have been taught, Grandpa advised. Dale licked his lips and tried again. This time the Fire Call came out loud and clear. The sound echoed across the valley. Grandpa shouted, Now ride to each corner and play it as loud as you can. This is going to be your most important performance ever! Paul Kimpton grew up in a musical family and was a band director in Illinois for 34 years. His father Dale was a band director and professor at the University of Illinois, and his mother Barbara was a vocalist. When Paul is not writing, he is reading or enjoying the outdoors. Ann Kimpton played French horn through college and went on to be a mother, teacher, and high school administrator. Her parents, Henry and Maryalyce Kaczkowski, both educators, instilled an appreciation for the fine arts and the outdoors in all of their children. How to use the Adventures with Music series: 1. Parents, Teachers, Librarians: Intended for intermediate readers in grades 4 through 8, these books capture the interests of both boys and girls. The series fosters a love of reading while exposing students to American history and the foundations of music. The musician characters provide positive role models for any child, but especially students who like music or play an instrument. 2. General Music Classroom: Support reading across the curriculum in your classroom! The Adventures with Music series promotes musicians as can-do kids. Musical concepts are embedded throughout each high-interest story, thus reinforcing what students are learning in your classroom. Provide your students with a background rich in music history in an exciting context. The books are written to appeal to a variety of reading levels, and as a result, support differentiated instruction in your classroom. 3. Instrumental Music Teachers: Build interest when recruiting beginners, and maintain that excitement, as students develop their musical skills. The Adventures with Music series provides students with positive role models of well-rounded, active musicians. Students see how music can be an essential part of their lives and are drawn to the exciting stories that reinforce the concepts they will encounter when they play an instrument. The series’ characters learn to read music, rehearse, and persevere all while developing leadership skills in their school’s music program. Music history is woven throughout, helping you keep the legacy of music alive for young musicians. .
SKU: GI.G-10049
ISBN 9781622774333.
Musi c teachers know their students don’t just learn to play music, they are also exposed to universal life skills along the way. But that’s just part of the story. Currently, most students are largely left to learn these universal skills—like problem-solving, patience, focus, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication—on their own and often not very effectively. The Transposed Musician is a practical guide to teaching these universal skills within the context of a traditional music lesson. The results not only empower students to better confront the challenges of the twenty-first century, they significantly improve musicianship—a double benefit. Author Dylan Savage spent two decades refining his approach to teaching universal skills through music, and he shares them in this book. Each of the eight chapters of The Transposed Musician focuses on a specific universal skill (problem-solving, focus, patience, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, improvisation, and creativity) and shows how students can apply that skill to music. He then shows how teachers can guide those students to “transpose” that skill to life and back again to music with far deeper understanding and musicianship. With practical examples and clear writing, this book is for music educators wishing to help their students become both better musicians and also better-equipped citizens of the world. Students truly become “transposed musicians” for life and for music. Dylan Savage is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte. He is also a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, a Capstone Records Recording Artist, and a winner of the Rome Festival Orchestra Competition. https://thetransposedmusi cian.com/ This book is priceless and contains a wealth of music teaching information that every teacher should apply to their studio. Dylan Savage’s use of universal skills transforms music teaching into a viable and essential part of education in the twenty-first-century. This teaching approach of using universal skills can revolutionize teaching music in both the private studio and college level and will give teachers a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction in their work. This book challenges many preconceived ideas about teaching music and mastering performance. Bravo for shaking up the status quo. —Randall Hartsell Composer, Clinician, Teacher This book asks and explores fascinating questions about what it means to study music in a changing world. Are there skills we can learn in our music lessons which can enrich our lives in other non-musical areas, and then can we bring those expanded skills back into our study of music itself? Too often our conservatories are dead-ends, stuck with outdated, one-dimensional approaches which can lead to stunted personal development. This book suggests ways in which we can break down doors, for students and teachers alike, and celebrate music as something life-affirming, in and out of the studio. —Stephen Hough Pianist, Composer, Writer Dylan Savage has given us a fresh and creative pedagogy to guide our music students toward life as twenty-first-century musicians. His career as pianist and teacher, and his firsthand experience in the marketplace of business and industry, allow him to forge a systematic approach to teaching universal skills in the music lesson. In each of the eight chapters, skills such as problem-solving, focus, critical thinking, collaboration, and improvisation are defined and applied to musical skills. These in turn are “transposed” to non-musical applications. We observe the music lessons and the active “transposition” or transfer of universal skills exemplified through descriptions of particular lessons. The anxieties, confusions, and ultimate comfort and understanding of students are guided by the questions of the teacher. The book is beautifully organized and is enriched by quotations of artists, musicians and philosophers, and suggested readings and references. I really think this is an important and helpful book with a point of view that is much needed. The empathy and knowledge of the author steer the reader toward the realities of today’s musical world, a world that requires skilled musicians to have universal skills that benefit their lives, regardless of their ultimate career paths. —Phyllis Alpert Lehrer Professor Emerita, Westminster Choir College of Rider University Artist Faculty, Westminster Conservatory In The Transposed Musician, Dylan Savage combines a visionary’s deep understanding of the challenges music students and teachers face with an eminently practical way to meet those challenges. Using a master teacher’s insight, Savage “transposes” eight potential stumbling blocks into eight universal skills that can be acquired through a beautifully organized, step-by-step approach. In turn, he shows how these skills can be applied to other areas in our rapidly changing world, helping us lead more satisfying, meaningful, and fulfilling lives, not only as musicians, but as human beings. For students and teachers alike, an inspired and inspiring book. —Barbara Lister-Sink, Ed.D. Producer, Freeing the Caged Bird The Transposed Musician is an important contribution to our literature on teaching essential life skills including problem-solving, patience, focus, critical thinking, and creativity within the traditional music lesson. Teachers and students both can benefit from the study and application of these skills. Applications are made both to the traditional lesson as well as to non-music applications. —Jane Magrath Pianist, Author, Teacher University of Oklahoma Twenty-five hundred years ago Plato recommended music first in his ideal curriculum for potential leaders of Athens—before sport, mathematics, and moral philosophy. None of his candidates, one may assume, aspired to become a professional musician. Nevertheless, throughout centuries, otherwise people have acknowledged that the study and practice of music generates collateral benefits essential to human fulfillment. In his new book The Transposed Musician, Professor Dylan Savage of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte identifies eight of these benefits—Problem Solving, Focus, Patience, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Improvisation, and Creativity—and calls them “universal skills” which may be developed consciously and systematically within the context of traditional music lessons. Doing so takes what has been implicit all along and makes it explicit. Music is good for us! Music teachers, even at the highest conservatory level, learn from Professor Savage that they are not so much professional trainers as guides to a happier, more successful life. —Dr. Joseph Robinson Principal Oboe, New York Philharmonic (1978–2005) Successful author, teacher, producer, and arts advocate Savage's excellent book couldn't be more timely, unique, clear, full of wisdom, and exactly what we need. As he points out, music teachers have known for generations—in a rather generalized way—that musical skills can strengthen life skills in many ways. Dylan Savage is the first to address this 'transposition' intentionally, with specific exercises in the transferrable skills. What better gift could there be for music students facing an ever-changing world? —William Westney Award-winning concert pianist (Geneva Competition) and teacher Author of The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self.
SKU: CF.FAS135F
ISBN 9781491165188. UPC: 680160924097. Key: D major.
Snow Suite is the soundtrack to childhood’s winter adventures. Tasting snowflakes, watching a snowstorm through the living room window, or falling in the soft snow is always exciting and sparks the imagination. Each movement of this suite paints a scene. In Snowflakes, the pizzicato notes depict flakes landing on a nose or finger long enough to be marveled at before melting away. Snowstorm’s perpetual motion feel, with dramatic changes in dynamics, draws the listener into imagining wild winter winds. Finally, after the storm, children and adults alike fall into the powdery snow creating charming and delightful Snow Angels.Performance NotesMost students are adept at pizzicato by the grade 1 orchestra level, and this piece provides the opportunity to review pizzicato technique for good tone. Recommended pizzicato technique includes the thick part of the fingertip over the fingerboard, producing tone with depth and allowing the resonance to create a rich orchestra sound. The detaché bowing is truly detached in Snowstorm with contrasting legato bow strokes in Snow Angels.For schools that encourage writing across the curriculum, teachers may encourage students to write a short imaginative story about the snow themes in this music. STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts, and Mathematics) lessons may include snowflake crystal structures and snowstorm weather patterns.
SKU: FJ.FJH2280
ISBN 9781619282445. UPC: 241444395400. English.
Creative activities like matching time, fill in the blank, and completing scales and cadences make this a fun book! Also includes Ear Training, Follow the Leader, Parrot Play, Time to Compose, Rhythm, and Writing---icons used throughout this method that thoroughly reinforce theoretical concepts. This book engages the student and completes a well-rounded curriculum.
SKU: CF.FAS135
ISBN 9781491164785. UPC: 680160923694. Key: D major.
SKU: HL.4004285
UPC: 888680067953. 9x12 inches.
Each of the five movements of this innovative work is designed to invoke a particular type of emotion associated with leadership. Courage is stately in nature and played in a marcato style. Vision has a playful sense and focuses on mixed meters as well as mixed emotions. The lyric and sensitive Compassion is meant to stir the soul, while the contrasting Selflessness offers some of the most intense and demanding music of the set. The energetic final movement, Heroes, will bring to mind your own favorite superhero! Educator and speaker Scott Lang helped develop the concept for this unique work, and has made available supplemental curricula centered around leadership and character development. This material is tied to the Common Core Standards relating to reading, writing, music, art, and critical thinking. Each movement and accompanying curriculum can stand on its own, allowing the director the flexibility of using as much or as little as desired. A tremendous resource for today's teacher! Duration: 9:20.
SKU: GI.G-10368
ISBN 9781622776276.
This is a fascinating and important book for everybody even remotely interested in the history of American bands. Bryan Proksch has done some painstakingly thorough research in putting together an amazing assemblage of documents… This is a must-have book! —Jon Ceander Mitchell The Wind Music Research Quarterly: Mitteilungsblatt der IGEB (March 2022), 14–15 For the scholar, each entry presents an opportunity for expansion. For the teacher, this work provides source readings for courses on wind band history or for complementing Strunk or Weiss-Taruskin in university music history courses. That said, these documents stand as an enriching and entertaining read in their own right for anyone interested in the subject. —Michael O’Connor Historic Brass Today 1/2 (Spring 2022), 32 The Golden Age of American Bands is ideally suited for courses on the history and literature of bands in America. Indeed, this volume could suffice as a textbook for adventuresome teachers in that it touches on the major musicians, instruments, ensembles, and functions expected of such a course. . . . Both private and classroom band instructors will find compelling glimpses into the history of their craft. [It is] bursting with opportunities to inspire curiosity in their students while effectively supporting their own curricular goals. —Benjamin D. Lawson and James A. Davis The Journal of Music History Pedagogy Proksch’s new collection of documents is a most welcome step in the direction of getting [the story of bands] under control. The juxtaposition of documents from so many levels and types of ensembles proves to have a cumulative effect: one begins to see the subtle and long-lasting connections among them despite the big differences. It is easy to envision it as a supplemental text in a course on band history and literature, but the book is also just an absorbing read. There is much to learn here, and much to enjoy. —Ken Kreitner Notes 79/2 (December 2022): 217-218 This is the story of the American wind band, told chronologically by those who experienced it in real time from 1835 to 1935. How did bands become bands? How did they rise in popularity? Which figures had insights and specific impacts on the development of the genre? Through source documents and articles, Bryan Proksch takes us on an extraordinary journey from the time of the first brass bands in the 1830s, through the Civil War and the golden ages of Gilmore and Sousa, to the cusp of the wind ensemble just before World War II. Hear from a young Frederick Fennell about his efforts to create the first band at Eastman. Read the outline of Allessandro Liberati’s unpublished trumpet method book. Eavesdrop on Karl L. King as he muses on the fate of bands after the death of Sousa. See Patrick Conway’s first undergraduate music education curriculum. Gawk as trombonist Fredrick Neil Innes embarrasses “world’s greatest cornetist” Jules Levy at Coney Island. Explore as Alan Dodworth revolutionizes bands. Retreat with a military band in the middle of a Civil War battle. Find out what it felt like to sit in a Sousa Band rehearsal. Ask Herbert L. Clarke why he thinks you should be playing a cornet instead of a trumpet. Find out how P. S. Gilmore managed to pull off the biggest concert events in American history. The book includes numerous rare and unknown illustrations to show you the places where band history happened. The documents include rare periodical excerpts, handwritten letters, and other writings taken from archives throughout the United States. These first-person accounts are certain to further refine and deepen our understanding and appreciation of American band history on a grand scale. Contents: Beginnings (1835–1859) The Civil War (1860–1865) The Jubilees (1866–1879) The Gilded Age (1880–1896) The Band Age (1897–1914) World War I (1915–1919) Transition and Decline (1920–1935) Click here to download a FREE addenda. Bryan Proksch is a distinguished faculty lecturer and associate professor of music history and literature at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. This is his third book. His A Sousa Reader: Essays, Interviews, and Clippings (GIA Publications, 2016) explores the documents relating to the life and career of John Philip Sousa.
