Volume 6, No. 1 September 2008

Bruce P. Gleason, Editor

Welcome to the sixth issue of Research and Issues in Music Education (RIME), an on-line peer-reviewed journal devoted to thorough research and commentary that advances the practice and pedagogy of music teaching. Our international editorial board, comprised of noted scholar-practitioners is dedicated to these purposes, and has worked diligently to bring this forum to fruition. Members of the editorial board and I, look forward to your insights, comments, and article submissions. 

Notes from the Editor, Bruce Gleason

Several Sundays ago, during my alter ego career as a church choir director, I was reminded of the power of multi-generational music making when the seventy voices of the children’s, youth and chancel choirs of Diamond Lake Lutheran Church performed Caldwell and Ivory’s magnificent Hope for Resolution. Because of the strong choral tradition in the area, I’m blessed with singers who have sung with some of the top choirs in the country, and combining these trained voices with the pure sounds of children’s singing is a sound I never tire of. Perhaps it’s the social idea of people of several age groups making music together—thus binding goodness across generations, or maybe it’s a theoretical acoustical premise of pure treble voices lightly floating above trained adult sounds. Or maybe it’s the lonely chant melody from an ancient European tradition coupled with the rhythmic, homophonic African chorale that moves me. I expect that it is a combination of all of these. Teaching people of all ages to make music together is still one of the most satisfying parts of my career, and as I share music making, teaching, and research with my University of St. Thomas graduate students as well as scholar-musicians around the world through RIME, I remember why I do this. Music is simply good for our souls.

Kenneth Phillips of Gordon College and the University of Iowa responds to David Hebert’s 2007 RIME article about online education in Graduate Music Education.

David Hebert responds to Ken Phillips in Forms of Graduate Music Education: A Response to Kenneth Phillips.

Ryan Fisher of the University of Central Arkansas examines current research, trends and thought on assessment in music education in Debating Assessment in Music Education.

Dale E. Johanson, Director of Comprehensive Arts, Long Beach Public Schools, Lido Beach, New York, examines music teachers’ needs and concerns in A Study of the Comparative Perceptions of Non-Tenured and Tenured Music Teachers and Music Supervisors Regarding the Needs and Concerns of the Teacher in Music Performance Education.

Patricia E. Riley of the University of Vermont investigates children’s composition processes in A Comparison of Mexican Children’s Music Compositions and Contextual Songs.