Edgar B. Gordon: A Pioneer in Media Music Education

Abstract

Although he is remembered primarily for his work as president of the Music Supervisors National Conference during the mid-1920s, Edgar B. Gordon's most unique contributions were associated with his highly influential but less publicized involvement with radio instruction in music. His pervading social philosophy, nurtured in the Chicago settlement movement and in the community arts activities of Winfield, Kansas, motivated him to participate in perhaps the earliest radio instruction in the nation (1921) as well as to devise materials and teaching techniques that would effectively teach music via radio to approximately one million rural Wisconsin children over a twenty-four year period (1931–1955). The author traces Gordon's professional development, details his radio involvement, and analyzes his instructional techniques and materials.