sonorities

At 40, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME) Gets New Look and Web Site

Gregory DeNardo, associate professor and editor of the Bulletin

Family and friends occasionally view our fortieth birthdays as creative outlets. Humorous displays of old photos by these pranksters are presumably intended to chide us into believing we are over-the-hill. Judging from the newly designed cover shown on this page, this is not the case for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. The new cover is one of several innovations being introduced to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME) in the School of Music, Division of Music Education, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The inaugural issue of the Bulletin was edited by Professor Emeritus Richard Colwell and distributed in June 1963 as a service to music education by the School of Music. From its inception, the primary mission of the Bulletin remains to “critique research studies in such a manner as to make them meaningful to the practicing music educator and to disseminate, as widely as possible, news of major research projects in progress.” Colwell initially advanced this statement of purpose in a correspondence with a national music education leader in 1964. This mission was carried out by the founding editor until his retirement in 1990 and advanced by subsequent members of the School of Music faculty who assumed the editorship. Among these are the late Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman, Eunice Boardman, John Grashel, Deborah Sheldon and Gregory DeNardo.

The Bulletin is published quarterly and received by nearly 1,000 individuals and libraries throughout the world. It continues to be recognized as one of the premier scholarly journals in the music education profession and one of the most frequently cited by researchers in the field. A distinguishing feature of the Bulletin is the publication of diverse research studies, thought-provoking invited articles by music education leaders, and reviews of exemplary doctoral dissertations. However, publication of the Bulletin is one of several unique services provided by the Council for Research in Music Education.

The Council regularly compiles and distributes an index of Dissertations in Progress (DIP) in music education. DIP is intended to provide dissertators and their advisors with an informed sense of current research activity being conducted in doctoral- granting programs. It may also be regarded as a venue for promoting contact and possible collaborations among novice researchers.

The Outstanding Dissertation Award (ODA) was presented by CRME for the first time in 1982. A carefully designed nomination and review process undertakes the systematic task of awarding the ODA each academic year. Recipients receive their awards at the CRME Advisory Board meeting held at respective national conventions of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. The most recent ODA awards were presented to Sheila Faye Shaw (University of Washington) and Randall Everett Allsup (Teacher’s College, Columbia University) in March at the MENC Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These awards were named in honor of Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman and the recipients received a commemorative plaque and monetary award.

Subscribers can anticipate greeting the new cover and layout design in upcoming Bulletin issue number 161. We are also pleased to announce that a CRME web site will be launched in January 2005. It promises to be among the most innovative resources provided to the music education profession. Music educators and researchers will have on-line access to Tables of Content and Abstracts of all articles published over the past forty-years. The site will also feature an up-to-date list of Dissertations in Progress and include information for subscribing and publishing in the Bulletin.

Elsewhere in this issue of sonorities, readers will have the opportunity to learn about the significant contributions made to the School of Music by the Zimmerman Foundation. The Council for Research in Music Education was no exception. The most noteable birthday greeting came in the form of a generous grant to support the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Research for Young Scholars program that distributed over 100 complete sets of the Bulletin to music education programs in every state, the development of the CRME web site and, of course, the Bulletin’s face-lift. CRME is happier than ever to be revitalized moving into the future.

WINTER 2005