TN Musician Vol. 71 No. 4

TMEA BACK THEN
In this issue, then TMEA President,
John R. Bright penned his final letter.
Bright’s term as TMEA’s 13th President
was coming to an end. In his message,
he thanked many of the individuals who
had served as members of the TMEA
Board of Control as well as numerous
select committee chairs of the TMEA
Convention and Tennessee All-State
Ensembles. His letter also acknowledged
the closer working relationship that
was established with the Tennessee
Department of Education. He credited
this based upon the committee work that
was undertaken by T. Earl Hinton as it
related to teacher certification, and by
Jay Craven who headed the committee
on elementary education and curriculum.
Craven would succeed Bright as TMEA
President on July 1, 1972.
The feature story of this issue was a
salute to TMEA’s first editor, Dr. J. Clark
Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes had recently retired
from the University of Tennessee at
Knoxville where he had served for almost
twenty-five years. He was appointed as
a Professor of Music Education in 1955
and would hold that position until his
retirement. Tapped as the first editor
of the Tennessee Musician, he served
in that position from 1948-1950 and
then again during the years 1967-1969.
He also served on the editorial board
for the Music Educators Journal. Dr.
Rhodes also served as a president of the
American Choral Directors Association,
and first president of the Tennessee Music
Teachers Association. His influence in
Tennessee and beyond helped TMEA
to establish a solid foundation for more
significant equity in access to music
education throughout all parts of the state.
His quirky and humorous editorials from
the first issues can be found on the TMEA
website. A music scholarship in his name
was announced in this issue and is still
listed on the website of the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville School of Music.
A report of the Elementary Music
Committee that was chaired by Jay
Craven appeared in this issue. His
committee was charged with three
areas of review – 1. To evaluate the
present elementary general music
curriculum. 2. To recommend upgrades
and improvements to the curriculum. 3.
To recommend and select outstanding
clinicians for special interest sessions for
the TEA Conventions. The report detailed
a list of the committee’s findings and
recommendations and asked for feedback
from the TMEA membership.
Then TMEA Editor Pat Cooney
published a copy of a letter that was
written by then TMEA President John
Bright and sent to the then Assistant
Commissioner of the Tennessee
Department of Education Dr. John
Cox. The letter was a request to place
limits on the class sizes of general
music classes. In 1970, the Tennessee
State Board of Education had adopted
language with regards to class size limits.
It was deemed that “Class size limits
could be exceeded for Band, Orchestra.
Chorus, and Glee Club provided that the
instructional program in those areas is not
impaired.” School administrators were
misunderstanding the language set forth
and were interpreting general music as a
performance-based class. Bright’s letter
petitioned the Tennessee Department
of Education to revise the language
(mentioned above) with the following
addition, “. . . but shall not be exceeded in
non-specialized music classes, such as
general music, grades K-12.”
THE TENNESSEE MUSICIAN (MAY 1972)
Volume 24, No. 4—24 pgs.
John R. Bright, TMEA President
Lawrence P. Cooney, Editor
36 | TENNESSEE MUSICIAN | 2019 | Volume 71, No. 4