Charles Leonhard

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Charles Leonhard (December 8, 1915 - January 31, 2002) was an American music educator and academic. He was one of the first to argue for a focus upon aesthetic education within music education. [1] For most of his career, he was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Leonhard was the son of Morris and Dora McRae Leonhard. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma (Bachelor of Music in piano) and Teachers College, Columbia University (Master of Arts and Doctor of Education). Many of Leonhard's teachers were former students of John Dewey, whose ideas influenced Leonhard throughout his career. During his doctoral program, Leonhard studied aesthetics with Susanne Langer. In 1953, as the music education profession was just beginning to rethink its philosophy, Leonhard published his article "Music Education—Aesthetic Education." [2] In this article, Leonhard urged music educators to eschew the instrumental values of music education and to stress the aesthetic value of music.

Anadarko, Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, United States

Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. This city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 6,762 at the 2010 census, a 1.8 percent gain from 6,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County.

University of Oklahoma public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States

The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. In Fall 2018 the university had 31,702 students enrolled, most at its main campus in Norman. Employing nearly 3,000 faculty members, the school offers 152 baccalaureate programs, 160 master's programs, 75 doctorate programs, and 20 majors at the first professional level. David Boren, a former U.S. Senator and Oklahoma Governor, served as the university's president from 1994 to 2018. James L. Gallogly succeeded Boren on July 1, 2018.

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring proficiency in an instrument, voice, or conducting. In Canada, the B.M. is often considered an undergraduate degree. Programs typically last from three to four and a half years.

While a graduate student, Leonhard concurrently worked as an instructor and assistant professor of music education at Teachers College. He had previously served in the United States Army during World War II as a field artillery officer. In 1951 he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was appointed professor of music and education, and chair of the graduate program in music education. He was the primary advisor on nearly 100 doctoral dissertations, including those of Eunice Boardman and Wayne Bowman. In addition to Bowman, many important philosophers of music education can trace their lineage back to Leonhard. For example, Bennett Reimer was a student at Illinois who worked with Leonhard and Harry Broudy. Reimer later went on to supervise the dissertations of David J. Elliott and Paul Woodford.

United States Army Land warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Bennett Reimer was an American music educator. He held the John W. Beattie Endowed Chair in Music at Northwestern University from 1978 until retirement in 1997, where he was Chair of the Music Education Department, Director of the Ph.D. program in Music Education, and founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Education and the Musical Experience, a research group of Ph.D. students and faculty. A native of New York City where he was born in 1932, he was on the faculties of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (1965–1978) where he held the Kulas Endowed Chair in Music and was Chair of the Music Education Department; the University of Illinois, Urbana (1960–1965); Madison College, Harrisonburg, Virginia (1958–1960); and the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary, (1955–1957). He held the bachelor's degree in Music Education from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and master's and doctorate degrees in Music Education from the University of Illinois, where he worked with Charles Leonhard and Harry Broudy. He began his career in music as a clarinetist and then oboist. Reimer then became a specialist in the philosophy of music education, curriculum development, theory of research, and comprehensive arts education programs.

In 1986 Leonhard retired from his position at the University of Illinois. In 1988 he was appointed the Director of Research at the National Arts Education Research Center; a post he held through 1994. He died in 2002 at the age of 86. He had been married to Patricia Hagman since 1950. The couple had two children together.

Important Contributions

In 1958, Leonhard's essay on evaluation appeared in Basic Concepts in Music Education. Along with his student, Robert House, Leonhard published Foundations and Principles of Music Education in 1959. In 1963, Leonhard and Richard Colwell initiated the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. In 1964, Leonhard was a presenter at the Seminar on Comprehensive Musicianship. In the 1970s, Leonhard edited a series of books called Contemporary Perspectives in Music Education. The series aimed to establish “a pattern for music teacher education based on the areas of knowledge and processes involved in music education rather than on the levels and specializations in music education.” [3] According to Leonhard, the “mastery of all of these processes and areas of knowledge is essential for the successful music educator regardless of his area of specialization and the level at which he teaches.” [4] Six titles were published: [5]

Basic Concepts in Music Education is a landmark work published in 1958 as the Fifty-Seventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. In 1954, the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) had formed its Commission on Basic Concepts in an attempt to seek a more soundly-based philosophical foundation. The work of the commission resulted in the publication of Basic Concepts, which advocated an aesthetic justification for music education. According to the aesthetic philosophy, music education should be justified for its own sake rather than for its extra-musical benefits.

The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education is a quarterly academic journal covering music education. It is published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Council for Research in Music Education.

In 1965 the Seminar on Comprehensive Musicianship was held at Northwestern University. Its purpose was to develop and implement means of improving the education of music teachers. In 1967 a symposium was held at Airlie House in Warrenton, Virginia to discuss means of evaluating comprehensive musicianship. The resultant document, Procedures for Evaluation of Music in Contemporary Education, offers guidelines for the evaluation of techniques and attitudes acquired through comprehensive musicianship studies.

Recognition as a Leader in the Field

In 1994, the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) placed Leonhard's name alongside those of William Billings, Lowell Mason, Frances Elliot Clark, Karl Gehrkens, Mabelle Glenn, James Mursell, Lilla Belle Pitts, and Allen Britton in the MENC Hall of Fame. Mark and Gary acknowledge the importance of Leonhard's contributions to the history of music education in the United States. [10] David J. Elliott puts Leonhard in the company of Peter W. Dykema, Karl Gehrkens, James Mursell, Lilla Belle Pitts, Harry Broudy, Abraham Schwadron, Bennett Reimer, and Keith Swanwick as leading thinkers in music education.

Further reading

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References

  1. ↑ McCarthy, M., & Goble, J. S. (2005). The praxial philosophy in historical perspective. In D. J. Elliott (Ed.), Praxial music education: Reflections and dialogues (pp. 19-51). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  2. ↑ Leonhard, C. (1953). Music education—aesthetic education. Education, 74, 23-26.
  3. ↑ Reimer, B. (1970). A philosophy of music education (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  4. ↑ Reimer, B. (1970). A philosophy of music education (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  5. ↑ According to Heller (1995b), only the six titles listed in the entry were published as part of the series. However, looking at dust jackets from 1970 editions of the Reimer, Gordon, and Madsen and Madsen books, two other books (viz., The Role of Method in Music Education by Charles Leonhard and Improving Instruction in Music Education by David L. Wilmot) may have been slated to be published as part of this series. Also, on the dust jacket of the 1970 edition of the Colwell book, House’s book is not noted, but the title The Dynamics of Change in Music Education by Robert H. Klottman (sic) is listed.
  6. ↑ Reimer, B. (1970). A philosophy of music education (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  7. ↑ Gordon, E. (1970). The psychology of music teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  8. ↑ Colwell, R. 1970). The evaluation of music teaching and learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  9. ↑ Madsen, C. K., & Madsen, C. H. (1970). Experimental research in music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  10. ↑ Mark, M. L., & Gary, C. L. (1999). A history of American music education (2nd ed.). Reston, VA: MENC—The National Association for Music Education.
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