Dictionary of Music Education

Collins, now 83, has been teaching at both public schools and universities for 50 years. Interviewed for the Winchester Star, she commented, 'I've always wanted a music education dictionary--because there wasn't one like this.' To remedy the lack she outlines the precursors to the discipline in a detailed chronology dating back to the Greeks in the sixth century BCE. She follows this with dictionary entries covering from Canadian bandmaster Eric Abbot to Johannes Zumpe, a German-born maker of English square pianos. Her focus extends beyond the United States to include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK. Lists of organizations, of publications arranged by country, and of examining institutions and a bibliography complete this groundbreaking source.
Collins, the founder of the Journal of Music Teacher Education, has compiled a useful resource for her colleagues in the field. Concise and thoroughly cross-referenced entries explain terms, define key concepts, and discuss significant people and organizations. Other helpful features include a key to organization abbreviations; a chronology tracing the history of music education; lists of organizations, publications, and institutions that include complete contact information; and a bibliography. This very specialized source is best suited to a collection supporting a music-education program.
Collins offers a music education dictionary that focuses on significant persons, terms, events, and organizations in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Some biographies (e.g. Julia Crane, Charles Leonhard, Lilla Belle Pitts) are informative, and the brief commentaries on British, Canadian, and Australian organizations are useful. Regrettably, errors and omissions detract from the value of this dictionary. For instance, valve mechanisms for brass instruments were developed by 19th-century inventor Friedrich Blühmel, not by 20th-century musicologist Friedrich Blüme. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. . . Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.
The top-quality Dictionary of Music Education is an alphabetic dictionary of words utilized in the learning of music including important associations, people, words, and occurrences. Author Irma H. Collins has a Temple University music education DMA. The dictionary contains a contents, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, list of acronyms and abbreviations, organizations and abbreviations, chronology, introduction, the A-Z dictionary, and four appendixes (a list of organizations, a list of publications, and instructions for examining institutions for music. The work concludes with a bibliography. The 11-page chronology is from 6th c. Greece BCE to 2011 with divisions BCE, AD Medieval/Middle Ages (5th-15th c.), and Beginning of the Discipline of Music Education. The 17-page List of Organizations has sections for Australia and New Zealand, Canada, International, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and United States divulges for example Early Music America (EMA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 20 page List of Publications is divided into sections Australia and New Zealand, Canada, International, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and United States. The Bibliography is separated into categories: 'Dictionaries and Encyclopedias' and 'Books and Journal Articles.' Examining Institutions for Music includes two parts: Australia and United Kingdom. The Dictionary of Music Education will be very useful for music learners, public and academic libraries, and music libraries.
I would recommend [the] Dictionary of Music Education . . . I am a supporter of having dictionaries available in the classroom for students to reference without the unreliability of Internet sites, and [this book] fits that purpose well.
Irma H. Collins, professor emerita of music education and founder of the Journal of Music Teacher Education, has authored a uniquely diverse dictionary of music education. It will certainly broaden the horizons and vocabulary of general readers....Its primary strength is its broad coverage, especially of history, persons, and place. One finds terms from antiquity, such as shofar, alongside those for recent technology, such as Skoog. There is a rich selection of succinct biographical sketches of persons from the 19th and 20th centuries. Included among these are performers, conductors, composers, researchers, authors, professors, and school music teachers and supervisors. These portraits provide varied historical context that conveys an understanding of the origins and growth of music education.

The Dictionary of Music Education is a practical source of information on music education in English-speaking countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The book is a broad survey of notable individuals, important terms, significant events, and major organizations in music education. . . .While there are many dictionaries of music, this Dictionary of Music Education is a unique contribution to the literature because it describes the intersection of music and education.
Irma Collins made an excellent contribution to music education with this new Dictionary of Music Education published by Scarecrow Press. There is certainly much to recommend in this work. To begin with, the book is comprehensive in its coverage. . . .this dictionary goes beyond standard terms in both music and education. The coverage of music education is similarly broad - it includes events, terms, organizations, and people that influenced music education over a broad span of time in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. . . .[T]his immensely valuable resource stands out as being comprehensive, context-specific, and reader-friendly. This dictionary is highly recommended for undergraduates, graduates, college professors, researchers, and even members of the international audience who wish to learn more about music education in Western countries.
The dictionary is well-presented and nicely laid-out. . . .this is a useful book.