TN Musician Vol. 72, No. 3

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PRELUDE - A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Michael Chester // Stewarts Creek High School As a music teacher, perhaps more than at any other time in history, we can see how the value of what we teach in the music classroom is so essential to our survival. There have been very few moments in the course of human history where an event of epic proportions has so galvanized the world. Even more so, rarely do these events trickle down into our daily way of life. Most of these events are nothing more than headlines that make the nightly news and talk radio segments. During my brief lifetime, I have witnessed from afar many of our civilizations’ most horrific and tragic events that end up making a page in the history books. Yet through the drama and peril, leaders emerge, and our society endures. We get through these crises, and we learn just a little bit more about what it takes to push the boundaries of human ingenuity just a little bit further. We ostensibly prepare for the next crisis that awaits us. And while there is no question that when such tragic events make the newswires, they tend to be horrific. However, it often seems that many of us and our way of life are seemingly insulated from these tragedies. We merely go about our daily lives, perhaps a bit more appreciative of our blessings at that moment. Moreover, these events seldom affect our teaching in the music classroom, save for the occasional class discussion. Now in this century, it seems that we are once again witnessing a crisis of historic proportions. Except this time, rather than watching this from afar, this crisis now impacts our entire way of life. COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, has drastically changed everything in its wake. We now have no choice but to take drastic steps to face this invisible enemy head-on. This is the great awakening. I first learned of the COVID-19 from Morning Edition on NPR. It was early January as the first reports of a virus in Wuhan, China emerged. At that time, it seemed like a problem that was far away. Like every other kind of upper respiratory illness that had some clever acronym, I really didn’t give it much thought. Sure, it seemed like a troubling situation. It would make the headlines on the radio as I drove home. It occupied a quick segment on the nightly news. It even made its rounds on the late-night shows during the monologue segments. Indeed, this virus was so far away. It was still, in a sense, an abstraction. Fast forward to March. The virus, by this point, is now classified as a global pandemic. It has slowly been spreading in the United States. Schools begin to close. Events like recitals, concerts, and performance assessments get canceled. Professional sports begin to either cancel or postpone their seasons entirely. In fact, the cancellation of our very own TMEA Professional Development Conference and the All-State Ensembles was yet just another in a series of disruptions to our usual way of life. There is no way to put the COVID-19 pandemic into any discernable context at this time, nor would I assume to do so. Yet I would say it is safe to consider that every single one of us has been affected by this pandemic, either directly or indirectly. It’s hard to make sense of all of this. So many activities and opportunities that we normally engage in have subsequently all but vanished due to cancellation. This pandemic has forced all of us to face an abyss of uncertainty. In these troubling times, I find it comforting to immerse myself into the throughs of history. I tried to find out more about other pandemics and epidemics. Many of you may have read the historical accounts of the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1920. The information and references surrounding this particularly deadly pandemic somehow became rather obscure (up until now). Many experts believe that this was due to the news of the day regarding the First World War. I wanted to know more about the effects of this pandemic on music education. I wanted to see if there was any literature regarding how music educators dealt with that crisis. Try as I might, I was not successful in finding anything specific or of value to this editorial. A cursory search at the past issues of the Music Educators Journal from 1918-1921 found nothing except one small sentence regarding the terrible influenza pandemic. As I combed through the editorials and state reports, it was as if there had been no pandemic at all. I also found nothing concerning music education and the peak of the polio epidemic in the 1950s. I have to believe that in those two specific examples that all educators were affected to some degree. It seems inevitable that music educators adapted what and how they taught during those times. Hopefully, as we move forward, our scholarly music education journals will reference our current pandemic. There is so much to document, from how this pandemic affected us, what we did in the interim to create music education in a time of social distancing, and how we ended up defeating this virus. Hopefully, we can leave that message in a bottle, or rather an accurate historical account for the next generations of music teachers so that they may learn something from the past that helps them in the future. 6 | TENNESSEE MUSICIAN | 2020 | Volume 72, No. 3
Searching through other historical writings during a time of crisis, I also came across the first inaugural address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Written mostly by his close aide Raymond Moley, I found a quote from this address that strikes a rather poignant tone in our current times: . . . we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. - Franklin D. Roosevelt Regardless of one’s political views or opinions about Roosevelt and the world during this period in time, understand that all of history tends to be cyclical. Something to consider during times of emergency is that leadership emerges from all sides, and compromises are made to benefit the whole. We have a unique perspective in our present-day to debate the merits of those solutions, to analyze and contextualize the leadership and decisions made, and hopefully to learn as we work together during our current crisis. teach students multiple skill sets, creative problem-solving, teamwork, and the ability to try, to fail, and to try again. Even as you read this editorial, we have so many people who are striving to do their part in defeating COVID-19. Right now, our healthcare workers and scientists are on the frontlines, caring for the sick, and trying to study this virus and develop treatments, tests, and a vaccine. They are working in teams, problem-solving. We have economists who are studying and analyzing data. We have people in the field of logistics who are trying to find new supply-chains. So many people are working together, across professions to solve this crisis. Even the high school teenager who sanitizes your cart and stocks your shelves in your local grocery store is contributing. Everyone is playing a role. There are so many great examples of people who are working together to support another team. Then, in turn, that team works together to support yet another team. Everyone is working to accomplish the same goal — to eradicate this disease. Eventually it will be the job of artists to react and to respond with subsequent works that will help all of us memorialize and work through the myriad of emotions we all face during this time. It is apparent that the next few months will be far from easy. We may have to alter our paradigm, and we may all have to stretch ourselves in new and creative ways. There is no question that we will emerge from this. While the timeline has yet to be determined, what remains is that music instruction will somehow find a way to endure, and it will force us to innovate in new and clever ways not yet realized. We have seen numerous extreme crises in our shared history as a nation and the world. Yet subsequent generations left us with their solutions that moved the world forward through progress. We will undoubtedly do the same. As a music teacher, perhaps more than at any other time in history, we can see how the value of what we teach in the music classroom is so essential to our survival. Music and the arts Michael Chester Managing Editor Tennessee Music Education Assocation | www.tnmea.org | 7
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TN Musician Vol. 72, No. 3

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