[CAUT] Tonmeister, baccalaureate degrees, etc.

[McNeilTom at aol.com]

Greetings, Colleagues -
 
When I was working at SUNY Fredonia School of Music, 'til '95, they had a  
very good program in sound recording technology.  It was highly regarded  and 
had very high entrance requirements.  Some of our best musicians were  in this 
Tonmeister program, which was a baccalaureate degree with all the usual  core 
requirements of other music major programs.
 
Yes, Prof. Owen Jorgensen developed a baccalaureate program in piano  
technology at Michigan State University, College of Music. That ran from  the early 
'70s until he retired in the early '90s.  I was privileged to be  a guinea pig 
in his developing program in the late '60s.  The  degree program also had the 
same core requirements as all the  other music majors.  I returned as a guest 
lecturer in some of the classes  during and after my graduate studies (in 
musicology: organology).  The  program was excellent, and a few of our most 
esteemed colleagues came from  it.  However, it suffered from one defect in its 
concept:   Eighteen-year-olds almost never enter college with dreams of becoming a 
piano  technician!
 
When I lectured in the program, in the late '70s, early '80s, we had an  
interesting mix of students.  Many of the students already had music  degrees, 
even graduate degrees.  And some came from other walks of life; I  even had one 
student who was a physician (M.D.)!  But we had relatively few  students who 
entered - and stuck with - the program through its four-year  degree curriculum. 
[ I think this must have been an important consideration  when MSU decided to 
retire the program along with Jorgensen, its founder.]  I always felt the 
program would "work" better if approached as a master's  degree curriculum, along 
the lines of how Library Science is presented.   Prerequisite would probably 
be an undergrad music degree, or liberal arts degree  with music emphasis.  I 
hope someone picks up this ball and runs with  it!
 
~ Tom McNeil  ~
Vermont Piano Restorations
VermontPiano.com

346 Camp  Street
Barre, VT 05641
(802) 476-7072  

 
In a message dated 8/28/2008 7:28:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jim_busby at byu.edu writes:

 
Thanks  Alan.  
Hey  Ric, any help on this? 
Jim 
 
From:  caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of  
reggaepass at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:58  PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Degrees in Piano  Technology?
Jim,  
 

 
You might want to at least take a look at what is required  to become a 
"tonemeister" (our closest equivalent would be a well musically  educated recording 
technician) in Germany.  Ed suggested looking at  recording technicians 
programs here in the states, which is a good idea, but  those may not be 
high-powered enough on the music education side of the  equation for a B. A.
 

 
Alan  Eder


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Busby  <jim_busby at byu.edu>
To: poppyspys at yahoo.com  <poppyspys at yahoo.com>; College and University 
Technicians  <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:22 am
Subject: Re: [CAUT]  Degrees in Piano Technology? 
 
 
 
Thanks,
 

 
But…  there are no “degrees”? Anywhere? Does anyone know if U. of Western 
Ontario  offers a degree? I couldn’t get that out of their  website.
 

 
If  anyone should be given the right to give a college degree it would be 
NBSS.  They are fantastic! Many other programs are very good too, but as  someone 
pointed out to me, anyone can offer a “certificate” but if an actual  
accredited University has a degree if has a lot more weight with academia.  (Not my 
words…)
 

 
I  understand that Owen Jorgensen had a degree offered where he was. Does 
anyone  know?
 

 
I’m  being pressed by a new University to pursue this but want to find a 
precedent,  if one exits. It’s always harder to “reinvent the  wheel”.
 

 
Thanks,
 
Jim
 




 
  
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