by Terese M. Volk

Journal of Research in Music Education

Volume 42 Number 4

Presentation by Cori Patterson

Folk Music and Increasing Diversity in American Music

Education: 1900 - 1916

Little research had been completed on multicultural music education

Recorded instances of multicultural music educationStatis Coleman developed a “Creative Music”

program that included world musical instruments in Washington D.C (1916) and New York (1918)

Folk dancing movement and folk music presentations were in music appreciation classes at turn of century

Need for study:

The purpose of this study is to research multicultural

music education from 1900 – 1916.

Early multicultural music education was not the same as it is today

The researcher believes, “that the increasing diversity of musics used in American schools (even by predominantly Caucasian teachers of largely Anglo-Saxon decent) was an important antecedent for later multicultural developments.”

Music education at the time was Eurocentric and focused on Western classical music, especially German music

Early Multicultural Music Education

America was segregated into white and “colored” populations

The Supreme Court ruling Plessy V. Fergusson validated segregationRestrictions placed on Asian AmericansAfrican Americans segregatedNative Americans were ignored

Southern and European Immigrants continued to move to America

Historical Context

Social Darwinism became one of the major philosophiesEnglish philosopher Herbert Spencer made this

popularUsed by people to justify keeping America pure

and putting restrictions on immigrants

America became known as the “Melting Pot”This term coined after Israel Zanwill’s 1909

play The Melting Pot

Americanization: Assimilation and the Melting Pot

Progressive reformers and Harvard philosopher William James valued uniqueness, individuality, and diversity

African American W.E.B. DuBois founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910

Horace Kallen promoted “unity from diversity” in his book Culture and Democracy in the United States in 1924

Early Cultural Pluralists

Social worker Jane Addams worked at the Hull House in Chicago and believed in the importance of sharing immigrants’ “arts, crafts, sons, dances, and festivals”

Henry Street Settlement in New York City encouraged immigrant celebrations and folk dancing

Addams and John Dewey advocated teaching foreign languages and about students’ cultures in school

The Settlement Houses and the Promotion of Immigrant Cultures

Initially, immigrants were expected to assimilate into American culture.

It was found immigrant students performed better at bilingual schools

In a 1908 speech before the National Education Association, Addams recommended that “ethnic-cultural elements” should be included in the curriculum.

Immigrant Education

In 1905, a Folk Dance Committee was formed as part of the Playground and Recreation Association of America

Folk dancing became part of the physical education curriculum in the New York City schools by 1908

Physical education teachers believed students benefitted from folk dancingStudents began to respect their own and other

culturesCould be performed inside and outsideGreat form of exercise

Folk Dancing in Physical Education

Music education in the early 1900s did not include multicultural elementsFolk music was thought of as “primitive”

The book Folk Songs of Many Nations by Louis Elson, the cofounder of the Music Teacher’s National Association, included songs from around world. However, few schools used it as part of the curriculum.

English and French folk songs began to appear in school music series around 1916

Music Education

Music teachers started to become aware of folk songs, folk dancing and multicultural teaching as they attended conferences

Music teachers were slow to incorporate their music from other cultures into their curriculum

Conferences

“We, the melting-pot nation, can amalgamate all these divers peoples more quickly through music than in any other ways.”Educators started using folk music in their

classroomsImmigrants felt at home when singing their

folk songsThis helped students assimilate into American

cultureFolk festivals and pageants included folk music

Folk Music for Americanization

Folk dances were recorded on the Victrola. This allowed authentic music to be played in the classroom setting.

Music classes started teaching folk dancingTeachers used the folk dances to for rhythm

exercises, movement exercises, cultural studies1911-1916 – The National Summer School gave

classes on teaching folk songs, dances, and games

Anne Faulkner’s What We Hear in Music Victrola recording was used in music appreciation classesIncluded music from around the worldIncluded information the cultures represented by

the music

Folk Dancing Enters the Music Classroom

Little Native American and African music was used in schoolsNative American music was often

misrepresented and called “primitive” African music was labeled as “slave” or “old

Southern”

African and Native American Music

Multicultural education entered the education system initially with the study of folk dancing in physical education classes

Folk music was used initially to “Americanize” immigrants

Music educators were slow to incorporate ethnic music into the curriculum, but it was eventually used in the form of folk dancing and singing folk songs

Summary

“Multicultural music education is far more than folk music and dance. Yet the increasing

diversity of school music resulting from profound social and cultural changes in the American population during 1900 to 1916

may be one of the beginnings of multicultural music education.”

- Terese M. Volk

Volk, Terese M. 1994.“Folk Musics and Increasing Diversity in American Music Education: 1900-1916.” Journal of Research in Music Education 42 (4): 285-305. Print