Determination of Biases in Sight-Singing Textbooks Published Between 1980 and 2018
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2020 Determination of Biases in Sight-Singing Textbooks Published between 1980 and 2018 Beth Huey University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Music Pedagogy Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Huey, Beth, "Determination of Biases in Sight-Singing Textbooks Published between 1980 and 2018" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations. 1934. https://doi.org/10.7275/17423307 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1934 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Determination of Biases in Sight-Singing Textbooks Published between 1980 and 2018 A Dissertation Presented By BETH ANN HUEY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2020 Department of Music and Dance ©Copyright by Beth Ann Huey 2020 All Rights Reserved Determination of Biases in Sight-Singing Textbooks Published between 1980 and 2018 A Dissertation Presented By BETH ANN HUEY Approved as to style and content by: _____________________________________________ Gary S. Karpinski, Chair _____________________________________________ Brent Auerbach, Member _____________________________________________ Joseph Pater, Member __________________________________________ Salvatore Macchia, chair Department of Music and Dance DEDICATION I dedicate my life’s work in music to God. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph. 3: 20-21) I also dedicate this work to my family. First, to my husband Daniel, who offered much support and believed in me. He has given me much encouragement throughout the dissertation process. Then, to my parents, who encouraged my pursuit of music as a child and have continued to do so. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank several people who helped make this dissertation possible. To my advisor, Gary S. Karpinski, thank you for your guidance, critiques of my work, and your valuable ideas. To Brent Auerbach and Joseph Pater, thank you for your service on my committee, critiques of my work, and your helpful input. To Sara Huyser, access services coordinator at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA, thank you for helping me to locate and obtain materials. Special thanks go to my husband (Daniel Huey), my mom (Sally Moury), and Donald Dodson for their review of my dissertation. Special thanks also go to my church family, who has been an incredible support to me. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. All glory to God who provided me with the courage and drive to complete this dissertation. v ABSTRACT DETERMINATION OF BIASES IN SIGHT-SINGING TEXTBOOKS PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1980 AND 2018 MAY 2020 BETH ANN HUEY, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Gary S. Karpinski In sight-singing classes at colleges and universities in the United States, there are various solmization methods in use, such as movable do, scale-degree numbers, and fixed do. Few sight-singing textbooks and other related books are willing to stake a claim of preference for one method over the other. Since many textbooks and other books are unwilling to take a pedagogical stance on a solmization system, instructors need to research each book in order to determine the biases in the book and how well it works for their classes. To aid them in that endeavor, this dissertation determines the biases in textbooks and reveals which textbooks work well for which systems. The dissertation begins with short descriptions of solmization systems as gathered from articles, textbooks, and other aural-skills related books along with a review of the literature. Then, it discusses elements of music to evaluate, reveals which elements receive an evaluation in the textbooks, and indicates why some were not chosen. From here, the dissertation lays out the expectations for each category evaluated using support from aural-skills related books and articles. After laying out the expectations, the dissertation describes the approaches of each textbook in select categories, reveals biases in the textbooks, and identifies textbooks that align more closely to movable pedagogical methods and others that align more closely to fixed pedagogical methods. The results of this dissertation reveal that most books use pedagogical methods of multiple solmization systems, but still have a bias for predominantly one method. About 64 percent of the textbooks (14 books) use more movable system approaches, whereas vi approximately 36 percent (8 books) use more fixed system approaches. When twentieth- century idioms occur, most of the books use fixed approaches for that material. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ..............................................................................................................x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 II. SOLMIZATION SYSTEMS ..........................................................................................7 III. APPLICATION OF SOLMIZATION ........................................................................17 IV. SELECTION OF ELEMENTS FOR STUDY AND EVALUATION PROCESS .....27 V. PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES ASSOCIATED WITH PARTICULAR SOLMIZATION SYSTEMS ............................................................................................29 Notated solmization syllables ...............................................................................30 Scales ....................................................................................................................30 Key signatures .......................................................................................................32 Organization ..........................................................................................................34 Characteristics of melodies in earlier chapters ......................................................36 Minor mode ...........................................................................................................37 Modal collections ..................................................................................................40 Applied chords, tonicization, and modulation ......................................................42 Repertoire ..............................................................................................................45 VI. ANALYSIS OF TEXTBOOKS ..................................................................................48 Sight-singing only textbooks ................................................................................49 Sight-singing and dictation textbooks ...................................................................60 Sight-singing books that are popular with instructors using certain solmization systems ..................................................................................................................63 Notated solmization syllables ...............................................................................68 viii Scales ....................................................................................................................74 Key signatures .......................................................................................................80 Organization ..........................................................................................................89 Characteristics of melodies early in textbooks ...................................................106 Minor mode .........................................................................................................112 Modal collections ................................................................................................121 Applied chords, modulation, tonicization ...........................................................129 Repertoire .............................................................................................................137 Question 1—What are the goals of sight singing? ..............................................155 Question 2—What instructions does the text provide with regard to a solmization system? ............................................................................................163 Question 3—What instruction does the text give when teaching major mode? ..................................................................................................................171 Question 4—What instruction does the text give when teaching minor mode? ..................................................................................................................177 Question 5—What instruction