Online music education information and resources at music-ed.net

The music-ed.net series of websites has been developed to provide information on several aspects of music education, particularly those dealing with the historical background of music education, as well as links to other websites of interest to Australian music educators. The objectives of this series of websites are to provide a resource for both music education professionals and the wider community and to act as an archive of information that may otherwise be unavailable in the future. Links to the series of websites are included in the following order on the main index page at http://music-ed.net/.

The Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER) website

Begun in 1989 as a collaborative project between the Australian Society of Music Education (ASME) and Robin Stevens (then Research Editor of The Australian Journal of Music Education), BAMER is a database of music education research studies undertaken at Australian universities or by Australian music education researchers at overseas institutions covering the period 1936 to 2012/13. There are over 570 entries of ‘completed’ and ‘in progress’ research studies that include not only masters and doctoral theses and dissertations held in university libraries, but also smaller research studies such as research papers and other research reports undertaken for MEd, MMusEd and MMus degrees that are generally held only in departmental libraries or by the individual researchers concerned.

Given that the National Library of Australia’s Trove website at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ now lists all Higher Degree by Research studies undertaken by postgraduate students at Australian universities, it was decided to discontinue the updating of the BAMER database. Many of these Trove listings have links to a digitised version of these research studies which may be downloaded from university websites as PDF files.  Accordingly, the BAMER listings of research studies on this website covers a period of seventy-seven years from 1936 to 2012/13. The BAMER website will continue to be available through both the dedicated music-ed.net website at http://music-ed.net/bamer and will also be available for access through the Music in Australia Knowledge Base—http://musicinaustralia.org.au/—which is a project of The Music Trust (http://musictrust.com.au/).

The History of Music Education in Australia website

This website at http://music-ed.net/History/ includes an overview of the development of music education in Australia, a listing of bibliographic sources on Australian music education history, and a ‘gallery’ featuring brief biographies of and references for ten notable early Australian music educators.

The Curwen Method (Tonic Sol-fa) website

This website includes a general summary of Curwen’s Tonic Sol-fa music teaching method, and pages providing a more detailed history of the development of Tonic Sol-fa, a detailed summary of the Tonic Sol-fa pedagogy, and details of the Tonic Sol-fa system of music notation. There is also a link to The Curwen Bicentenary 1816–2016 which celebrates two hundred years since Curwen’s birth on 14 November 2016. The URL for The Curwen Method website is http://music-ed.net/Curwen/.

The International History of Music Education website

This extensive website is a project of the History Standing Committee of the International Society for Music Education. Initiated in 2011, it is an attempt to  provide music educators and music education researchers with a series of country-specific histories of music education that will represent a source of information, references and additional resources. Each of the national profiles—which will be progressively added to over time to include as many ISME-affiliated countries as  possible—will include an historical overview (a summary of the major developments, some including a timeline of significant  events), or one or more key reference(s)(published article or book chapter sources), or an external website for each country. In  addition, several of the national profiles also include a listing of representative bibliographic sources including theses, journal articles, conference papers and other documentation of the history of music in educational settings in the various countries. Some national  profiles may also have information about prominent music educators (including portraits and brief biographies) for the particular countries.

To date, thirty-two countries are represented on the website together with other relevant information on historical research in music education and links to relevant website such as The Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. This website site can be accessed via the ISME website URL at https://www.isme.org/our-work/standing-working-committees/history-standing-committee-hsc or via music-ed.net at http://music-ed.net/ihme/.

Some lesser-known Australian Musicians and Music Educators website

The purpose of this website and its constituent webpages is to provide an internet resource that celebrates the lives and work of Australian musicians and music educators whose achievements have often gone largely unrecognised. The lives and work of many such people may not qualify as being well known and therefore nationally prominent. Nevertheless, they have made a contribution to the nation in their particular spheres of influence and to a greater or lesser extent have left a legacy of new knowledge, artistic achievement and/or exemplary practice as musicians – composers and/or performers – and as music educators.

This website attempts to document and celebrate the lives and work of these musicians and music educators. Aside from biographical summaries, the respective webpages for these individuals include (where possible) downloadable PDF copies of relevant research reports, articles, books, compositions, etc. or links to these where available at other websites. The direct link to this website is http://music-ed.net/aust-musns/.

The John Curwen Bicentenary 1816–2016 website

This website aims to promote and celebrate the life and work of John Curwen, the developer of the Tonic Sol-fa, and to recognise the contribution of Sarah Ann Glover (1785–1867), inventor of Norwich Sol-fa upon which Curwen based his music teaching method and its notational system. Aside from celebrating the bicentenary of Curwen’s birth (14 November 2016), the website records some of the special events that were organised as well as including listings of Curwen’s publications and major secondary references (with downloadable documents where available) and a summary of the contemporary applications of Curwen’s method. The direct link to this website is http://music-ed.net/curwenbicentenary/.

The Australian Online Journal of Arts Education website

The Australian Online Journal of Arts Education was established as an internet-based, open-access scholarly journal in 2005.  It aimed to promote the arts at all levels of education as well as to encourage research, discussion and debate regarding the role, development and implementation of arts programs in both formal and informal educational settings. The journal provided an avenue for the publication of articles by both individual researchers and research groups as well as arts education practitioners. One of its aims was to support the work of undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as practicing arts educators by providing a freely-accessible source of information about and research findings in arts education. The journal was established as fully peer-referred by a panel of international referees (the Editorial Board) and was managed by an Editorial Committee appointed annually from members of the former Arts in Education Faculty Research Group within the then Faculty of Education at Deakin University.  With the retirement of the founding editor—Robin Stevens—in 2008, the journal ceased accepting articles for publication. The Australian Online Journal of Arts Education is no longer hosted by Deakin University but in order allow on-going access to its published articles, this music-ed.net website will host the AOJAE archive. The direct link for AOJAE website is http://music-ed.net/aojae/.

Music in Action: An archive of issues of the magazine 2003-2011

Music in Action was published by the Australian Music Association as an educational resource that aimed to enrich, empower, inform and support Australian educators in their work as music teachers. Its regular features covered five major topics in each issue: Advocacy (how to promote music in schools), Technology (using technology in new classroom environments), Profile (the opportunity to learn from curriculum initiates of colleagues, Nitty Gritty (practical suggestions for curriculum implementation) and Project (showcasing activities beyond the classroom, often involving community music making). Most, if not all, of the articles published in Music in Action are still relevant to present-day educational settings.  The direct link to this archive of downloadable PDFs is http://music-ed.net/music-in-action.

Links to selected music education podcasts and documents

This webpage includes links to ABC radio programs which focus on music advocacy and its benefits to the education of young people. In addition, there are links to important documents – mainly government reports – that advocate for music education in schools. Included in this list of document resources is the only current link to a downloadable PDF of the 2005 report of the National Review of School Music Education.  The direct link to this webpage is http://music-ed.net/podcasts/.

All of the above websites are accessible from the main index page at http://music-ed.net and all the constituent websites at this URL will be progressively updated. Comments and suggestions are most welcome – please contact Robin Stevens at <robinstevens@music-ed.net>.