A history of music education at the University of Kansas from 1866-1936

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to trace the development of music education at the University of Kansas from its inception through the time·when Otto Miessner became the Department's chairman in 1936. Tracing that development will show how and why music education holds the position it has today at the University of Kansas.

Several questions arise while pondering the present position of music education at the University.

1. What were the attitudes of the early Kansas settlers toward music and what were the backgrounds that fanned these attitudes?

2. Where did education, in general, rank in importance to the lives of the settlers and how did they provide for it?

3. When did the University of Kansas begin to include music as a part of its curriculum and what emphasis did they place on it?

4. What kind of musical training did the early Normal students receive?

5. When did teacher training become a recognized need within the Department of Music and how did its curriculum develop?

6. When did music become a part of the public school curriculum and why?

7. Once Public School Music became a department within the School of Fine Arts, how did it become involved with the School of Education?

The answers to these questions are vital in determining how and why music education developed. This study will also shed light on the development of music education not only at the University of Kansas, but in public schools, colleges, and universities throughout the Midwest and West because of the similarities of backgrounds of the settlers.