Title: Music Education’s Professional Beginnings in America: Early Eighteenth-Century New England Singing-School Teacher Qualifications and Program Goals Author(s): J. Terry Gates Source: Gates, J. T. (1990, Spring). Music education’s professional beginnings in America: Early eighteenth-century New England singing-school teacher qualifications and program goals. The Quarterly, 1(1-2), pp. 43-48. (Reprinted with permission in Visions of Research in Music Education, 16(1), Summer, 2010). Retrieved from http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme/ It is with pleasure that we inaugurate the reprint of the entire seven volumes of The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning. The journal began in 1990 as The Quarterly. In 1992, with volume 3, the name changed to The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning and continued until 1997. The journal contained articles on issues that were timely when they appeared and are now important for their historical relevance. For many authors, it was their first major publication. Visions of Research in Music Education will publish facsimiles of each issue as it originally appeared. Each article will be a separate pdf file. Jason D. Vodicka has accepted my invitation to serve as guest editor for the reprint project and will compose a new editorial to introduce each volume. Chad Keilman is the production manager. I express deepest thanks to Richard Colwell for granting VRME permission to re-publish The Quarterly in online format. He has graciously prepared an introduction to the reprint series. Music Education's Professional Beginnings in America: Early Eighteenth-Century New England Singing-School Teacher Qualifications and Program Goals By J. Terry Gates State University of New York at Buffalo he decade of the 1720's in New any historical analysis of music instruc- England marks music education's tion. In the absence of participant- T professional beginnings in America. observers' reports that we can use to In that decade, almost a half-century be- compare printed curricula with typical fore William Billings became active as a practice, we must assume that program singing-school teacher, Boston's controver- goals from the 1720s Singing-reform sial "regular singing" movement reformed movement, as today, would reflect class- American psalmody through singing schools room instruction more faithfully than do (Temperley, 1981). The controversy will the specific activities printed and implied not be discussed; it has been well treated in tune-book instructions. by others who have revealed the reformers' aims for singing schools and explored the specific instructional objectives printed in "We cannot assume that printed tune-book introductions. Britton (1989) curricula reflect accurately the recounted the teaching principles found content of classes, especially in in the writings of late eighteenth-century the arts. This caveat clouds any singing teachers. The qualifications of early eighteenth-century Boston singing- historical analysis of music school teachers and these teachers' pro- instruction. ~ gram goals, however, deserve further anal- ysis, if only to establish more firmly the The time constraints on these early thread that bound Billings and his fol- teachers (10 to 14 evening sessions over a lowers to old-country musico-religious two- to three-week period) do not sup- values and the mechanisms through port the assumption that tune-book con- which singing-school teachers conveyed tents, as presented in print, were learned these to the young. in singing schools. The singing school An account of program goals-the pur- teacher's function was to reverse thor- poses behind the teacher's classroom oughly entrenched and well-loved singing plans-is needed to complete the picture habits that the reformers declared were of early American music education. Pro- unacceptable. Given that daunting task, gram goals are the mid-level purposes these teachers would have had little that, in this case, connect the objectives choice but to narrow their focus to implied by specific early tune-book con- music-reading instruction and use any tents with the broad social aims for early motivation techniques that would result singing schools. in students' progress toward this end. We cannot assume that printed curric- In this article, the singing-school reacher's ula reflect accurately the content of classes, qualifications and program goals in sing- especially in the arts. This caveat clouds ing schools as articulated by early The Quarterly Volume I, Numbers 1 & 2 43 eighteenth-century writers will be dis- sufficiently musically literate to be con- cussed. The assumption is that these vincing teachers of music reading. Walter goals, as stated, were distillations of early (1721), the writer of the first music- eighteenth-century singing-school teachers' instruction book written in America experience and formed the basis of their (Gates, 1988), defined the literate singer classroom activities from the 1720s until by analogy: Billings emerged as an exemplary singing- school teacher in the 1770s.1 We don't call him a reader, who can re- cite memoriter a few pieces of the Bible, Singing-School Teacher and other authors, but ... cannot tell Qualifications ten words in a page. So is not he worthy of the name of a singer, who has gotten Cotton Mather was singing-reform's eight or ten tunes in his head, and can most powerful social and religious advo- sing them like a parrot by rote, and cate in the 1720s. He stated that the most knows nothing more about them, than important reason for singing Psalms rather he has heard from the voices of others; than chanting them was that singers and show him a tune that is new and could acquire a richer, deeper understand- unknown to him, can't strike two notes of it (p. 2). ing of Psalm texts (1718, 1721). In this he followed Calvinist as well as Augustinian The duties of singing leaders in churches doctrine. Symmes (1720, 1723) and other were well known. From the first Bay writers also argued for reform, and Tufts Psalm Book (Cotton, 1640), it was noted (1723 and later editions) and Walter (1721 that one musical task of singing leaders and later editions; 1722) wrote and ar- (usually the church's clerks) was to set ranged tune books to achieve Mather's the tune's pitch according to the follow- vision of a reformed psalmody. ing directions: Surprisingly, these men did not include as an important part of their agenda the First observe how many Notes compass systematic development of qualified the Tune is. Next the place of your first singing-school teachers. There were sing- Note; and how many Notes above and ing schools already in existence around below that: so as you may begin the Boston by the early 1720s (Thacher, Dan- Tune of your first Note as the rest may forth, & Danforth, 1723). Their effective- be sung in the compass of your and the people's voices, without Squeaking ness was supported by reform leaders, above, or Grumbling below (p. 419, and reformers apparently saw no reason 1698 edition, italics his). to suggest that these teachers should pos- sess qualifications different from those Besides being skillful at "pitching" and they already had. "lining out" tunes, leadership abilities Mather's call for a deeper understand- were also prized. Tufts said of church ing of biblical texts through competent singing leaders that ". great Regard singing was reflected in Chauncey's (1728) ought to be had in the Choice or Ap- description of the kind of skilled singer pointment of Persons to this Service, that likely to be chosen as a singing-school they be such as are skillful, that they may teacher. Chauncey advocated testing the with a becoming Courage lead their Breth- singer's knowledge of biblical admoni- ren in singing the Songs of the LORD" tions that singing should be skillful, his (1723, p. 3). This brief advice about the insight about the texts of the songs, and courage of singing leaders (along with his acquaintance with " . the true rule their knowledge of psalmody and their and manner of performance" (1728, music-reading skill) presumably applied p. 26). In addition to these cognitive at- also to singing-school teachers. Surpris- tainments, Chauncey noted later (p. 36) ingly, little was written about them that performance technique-singing directly. skill-was needed as well. Singing-school teachers were not uni- But the reformers expected all singers versally held to be above reproach, de- to read music. Singing-school teachers, spite their religious affiliations. Rowe, then, were chosen from those who were writing to the colonies from England 44 The Quarterly (1722), cautioned that singing-school 1721, however, was not the absence of teachers were crassly commercial, and American instructions for singing; rather, their services weren't really necessary if it was the lack of Psalm tune repertoire parishioners would buy his numerical known by Americans and the low-culture music notation system instead. Some con- taste reflected in their continual singing gregation members objected to singing of those few tunes they did now. Only a schools on the grounds that singing few of the Bay Psalm Book's 13 tunes teachers were "lewd and loose persons" were used in 1720 (Symmes, 1720; Walter, who led young people to neglect family 1721; Temperley, 1981). By contrast, devotions in favor of the more sociable Walter's 1721 book contained 24 tunes in surroundings of the singing schools. three parts. Tufts's 1723 book contained Symmes (1723, p. 6) countered their ob- 34 tunes in two parts, and his 1726 book jections by pointing out that some social contained 37 tunes in three parts. These activities of youth had much more poten- men were rapidly expanding the tune tial for harm than singing schools did.