Music is a part of our American culture.
Or, at least, that’s how Paul Mayhew, an assistant music education professor at Ohio University, explains it as he sips a coffee and nibbles on a snickerdoodle at Brenen’s Coffee Cafe.
It’s more than a class in high school or a means to boost ACT scores; music, he explains, touches every part of our lives.
“We use music every day as we drive, as we work out; we want music at our weddings, we want music at our funerals, we want music at our worship service, we want music when we want a collective sense of community,” Mayhew said.
Even in our country’s darkest moments, it’s music we turn to for comfort — and that’s justification enough for teaching it, in Mayhew’s opinion.
“When the planes hit the towers on 9/11, the members of Congress went out and stood on the steps of the Capitol Dome and sang,” he went on. “We have music as part of our lives, including collective singing, so if it’s part of our culture then we should teach it.”
March is “Music in our Schools Month,” which highlights the importance of music education. But though many might point to the academic benefits of studying music at a young age — pointing specifically to how music can raise ACT scores — Mayhew and Andrew Trachsel, director of bands at Ohio University, said this is a flawed logic.
“If we hang our hat on that being the only reason why music is important, then we’re really missing the point,” Trachsel said. “There is no one in the School of Music — student or professor — who is in music for those reasons. It’s because we want to be creative, we want to be artistic and we want to express ourselves through that medium.”
Thursday, 65 students from two periods of Melanie Horne’s high school choir will join forces with the students of Nelsonville-York High School, the Choral Union, OU’s Woman’s Ensemble group and will be backed by the OU Wind Symphony. This is the first time a collaboration of this kind has happened between the two levels of education in at least 18 years.
For the students at the high school level, the directors said they hope this is an opportunity to connect with college students who have the experience to teach them more about music and college life than they can.
“It is so important to develop a sense of community, and see that singing is something that can enrich our lives long beyond high school classes,” Horne, Athens High School choral director, said in an email. “The OU and community members have an opportunity to mentor younger musicians, and my high schools students can learn from hearing and working with different choirs and conductors.”
However, there continues to be a looming concern for funding of the arts. Mayhew said the Athens programs took a hit during the 2008 recession due to budget cuts all around. And though those funds have made a resurgence in successive years, it’s not back to where it started.
“Music is one of the subjects that is viewed as both curricular and extracurricular,” Mayhew said. “It’s curricular in that almost every state in the country requires a fine arts credit for graduation. … But the things that go with it, like traveling to contests … all require extracurricular money. And that’s often times where the cuts get made.”
Mayhew pointed to the low socioeconomic status of the area as a large contributor to why music programs see less funding, because the main income for these programs is local taxpayers.
Because of cuts in the late ’80s, Athens schools cut all orchestra programs, which haven’t returned since.
Elizabeth Braun, director of Athens Community Music School and interim assistant dean for academic budget planning, runs the only community program that allows students at any level to learn string instruments and even play in an orchestra with other students and Athens residents.
String instruments can have an association with wealth, whereas marching bands are associated with the beloved American sport of football. That perception, she explained, causes another barrier in parts of Appalachia, adding that string instruments can be some of the hardest to learn and play.
“It requires so much coordination; it’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. … It’s a lot of high-level cognitive ability that’s required to be successful,” Braun said. “In general, your largest programs are going to be band and choir.”
And though bands might need funding, that doesn’t mean music needs to be cut completely.
“It’s free to sing,” Mayhew said.
If You Go
What: American Voices
When: 7:30 p.m., Thursday
Where: First United Methodist Church, 2 S. College St.
Admission: Free
Check out the story online (CHORALUNION) about this event at www.thepost.ohiou.edu/xxxx
wh092010@ohiou.edu
@Wilbur_Hoffman
