Sing and Shout! The History of America in Song, Music Department

I propose to develop a new 100-level general education course that will immerse students in an innovative learning process about music that is based on history of the United States. America has a rich cultural tradition, one that is more thoroughly understood when students are given an opportunity to study its people, history and culture through singing American folk songs. Typically, courses in the arts are either conducted as academic classes, such as music appreciation, or as performance ensembles with a final concert. This course, however, adds another dimension that distinguishes it from either of these traditional models. Drawing on the widely held notion that folk music is best understood when experienced, singing the music we will talk about in class will be an integral part of the course. The goal is to develop a deeper understanding of historical and cultural contexts of the songs and the people who sang them, how they sang them and why.

This course will satisfy the Group 1 Humanities and Arts requirement and add a new dimension to the music department’s course offerings in general education that now consists of courses that feature only Western Music (MUSI 191 Music Appreciation and MUSI 112 Orchestra) and World Music (MUSI 190 World Music). There will be no prerequisites for the course; however, students will be expected to sing as a part of the class. Enrollment could easily exceed 150 students with qualified graduate assistants to lead the discussion sections.

* Course objectives

Students will

recognize music as a component marker of its time and culture.
perform a repertoire of songs using appropriate performance style.
acquire an overview of their own musical heritage and why music is an essential ingredient of all human culture.
respond emotionally and intelligently to a wide range of music represented by many styles and cultures.

* Innovation in content and/or mode of instruction

This proposed course is innovative both in content and mode of instruction. Conceptually, it will build on the idea that students are familiar with many types of music, but few if any have an understanding or awareness of the wealth of American folk songs. The folk songs featured in this course will include children’s songs, play parties, ballads, work songs, blues and spirituals and other genres that date from colonial times through the early 20^th century in all regions of the United States. The repertoire for the course will represent a broad variety of cultures and groups including, most predominantly, Anglo-American, African-American, and Native American. An important consideration will be to teach and performance each of the songs using the appropriate performance style, which may include singing, shouting, yelling, howling moving and/or clapping. During the “discussion groups” students will play children’s games, dance play-parties, sing in harmony and refine their performance style under the guidance of qualified graduate assistants. The purpose of all singing, however, is for students to experience firsthand the aesthetic quality of the songs and to acquire a deeper understanding of the people of the past. It is not to work toward a final performance. Students, as a by-product of this experience, will also be aided in understanding that musical styles have an inherent social significance which gave birth to and is articulated by a particular musical style.

* New content and/or modes of instruction addressing issues of diversity and multiculturalism

Folk music is a music of people, and as such, give voice to those who may not otherwise be heard and is a reflection of their status and circumstances. This includes women, as well as underrepresented or repressed populations such as African Americans, Native Americans, Irish Americans and others. A principal aim of this course is to help students understand that a folk song begins life like any other song: as a musical and poetic expression of someone’s feelings or ideas, and that a song becomes a folk song when it is passed along and rephrased or used by others for whom it also functions as a way of articulating shared attitudes or feelings.

* Innovations in the assessment and evaluation of student learning

Students will create individual e-portfolios of songs that they choose to research which will include the history of the songs, its cultural context, recordings of several variants of songs, excerpts from movies, educational films and other sources, as well as their own individual performance of the songs. Students will analyze the song from several perspectives and articulate what they recognize to be the critical aspects of the song and the circumstances giving rise to its creation.

Each student will have an opportunity to be recorded during the course of the semester and assessed within the context of whole group singing, discussion groups, and in-class activities.

If the lecture hall is equipped with a PRS (personal response system), students will be engaged more actively in the academic and musical parts of the course. The PRS also provides a means to assess perceptions, opinions and feelings as well as mastery of content and class participation.

* New and improved applications of technology

Now that the entire Smithsonian Folkways Recordings are available for download online, I can easily create a listening list that students can access on their own. For a sample of recordings to be used in the course visit www.folkways.si.edu.

* New off-campus 3-4 week intersession courses

Additional course options may include offering the course on location at a Native American Reservation or in Appalachia, including a visit to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

* Linking faculty scholarship to general education courses

My areas of expertise include both choral conducting and American folk music. As conductor/founder of the University of Connecticut Treblemakers Children’s Choir from 1993-2004, I released two award-winning recordings that feature American folk songs. The third Treblemakers recording Treblemakers Jazz It Up!, which was released this past fall, was funded by a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Council and the Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University. During my fellowship leave, I studied more extensively African American folk songs and vocal styles with Pamela S. Wood, Senior Lecturer At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With the Provost’s General Education Course Development Award, I will have the opportunity to research African American folk music in the Sam and Ann Charter Archives at the Dodd Center and Native American folk music at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Ledyard CT in order to expand my knowledge and understanding of the historical and cultural significance of the songs. I also will continue studying with Pamela Wood to further develop my own performance styles of African American folk songs. In addition, I plan to become familiar with all aspects of WEBCT so that it can be used extensively as a part of this course.

March 31, 2005

To: Dr. Hedley Freake

From: Dr. Robert Thayer, Interim Head of Music

Re:    Sing and Shout! The History of America in Song

       I am pleased enthusiastically to support the proposal by Professor Mary Ellen Junda for a new general education course, Sing and Shout! The History of America in Song. Dr. Junda, who is widely known and respected as a choral conductor, is eminently well qualified to develop and teach this course. In addition to her work as an active performer/conductor, she has studied folk music extensively, with special emphasis on African American music. The presence on the University of Connecticut campus of the Sam and Ann Charter Archives, plus the availability of the nearby Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, will allow for continuing study of a variety of folk music.

       The course will help expand the impact on the University of Connecticut campus of the arts in general and music in particular. It will fill a need for additional general education opportunities for students. Perhaps most significant of all, it will combine the scholarly study of music as a central force in people’s lives with the powerful emotional experience of active performance.