How Much Do We Practice?: Defining a Course of Study for the Applied Pianist
type: CreativeWork
description: Histories of higher education isolate the conservatory/music school from their purview by omission, while histories of music education and individual music schools give overviews but do not address in depth the traditions, development, effects, and tensions buried within courses of study and the particular needs of the music student. That consideration is the purpose of this study. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, professional music education emerged as independent schools, or schools and departments within university settings. As the university accepted and acknowledged a broad and diverse range of fields of study, it developed new areas of specialization in its curricula. Concurrently, `art' music as a cultural pastime was finding its place in the American social consciousness and inviting, as a consequence, a means of education directed to this pursuit. Encouraged by European immigrants who themselves were musicians, or those for whom art music was a cultural tradition, and also by responsible philanthropy of new wealth acquired from the Industrial Revolution, America began to embrace the currents and interests of its immigrant population. In so doing it created a need for teachers of music, for improved instruments and organizations to engage in music-making, and for performers to provide entertainment. The recognition of professional education in new university institutions made it an opportune time for music to establish itself as a viable part of American higher education. Music schools proliferated, standards notwithstanding with regard to courses of study, faculty, and student requirements. Gradually, however, America pooled its resources and called upon its own ingenuity to clarify the ideology of the professional musician and to define how the training and education for that ideology might be accomplished. By the twentieth century America could offer professional study for the applied musician on a par with its European counterparts. This thesis …
abstract: Histories of higher education isolate the conservatory/music school from their purview by omission, while histories of music education and individual music schools give overviews but do not address in depth the traditions, development, effects, and tensions buried within courses of study and the particular needs of the music student. That consideration is the purpose of this study. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, professional music education emerged as independent schools, or schools and departments within university settings. As the university accepted and acknowledged a broad and diverse range of fields of study, it developed new areas of specialization in its curricula. Concurrently, `art' music as a cultural pastime was finding its place in the American social consciousness and inviting, as a consequence, a means of education directed to this pursuit. Encouraged by European immigrants who themselves were musicians, or those for whom art music was a cultural tradition, and also by responsible philanthropy of new wealth acquired from the Industrial Revolution, America began to embrace the currents and interests of its immigrant population. In so doing it created a need for teachers of music, for improved instruments and organizations to engage in music-making, and for performers to provide entertainment. The recognition of professional education in new university institutions made it an opportune time for music to establish itself as a viable part of American higher education. Music schools proliferated, standards notwithstanding with regard to courses of study, faculty, and student requirements. Gradually, however, America pooled its resources and called upon its own ingenuity to clarify the ideology of the professional musician and to define how the training and education for that ideology might be accomplished. By the twentieth century America could offer professional study for the applied musician on a par with its European counterparts. This thesis …
author: Nimetz, Janice
language: English
keywords: Education, History, Music--Study and teaching (Higher), Performance practice (Music), Conservatories of music
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:44:25Z
provider: Columbia University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Columbia University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.7916/D80G3SB0