The Gunther Schuller Society
Festschrift
Gunther Schuller: The Compleat Educator
By Susan Calkins, DMA
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Born in 1925, Gunther Schuller benefitted from an education that was rich in the humanities. Though he would jokingly describe himself as a high school dropout, he was in fact a highly educated autodidact who had been blessed with a strong aptitude for music and propelled by a natural curiosity and relentless drive. Schuller became widely recognized as a performer, conductor, composer and author. He was also an educator whose significant contributions to the field of music education have continued to be influential.
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Gunther’s exposure to classical music began when he was very young. His father, a successor to generations of classical musicians, was a violinist with the New York Philharmonic. At the age of six, Gunther was sent from New York to attend a private boarding school in Germany which provided him with the fundamentals of a liberal arts education. It was when he returned to New York at the age of eleven that his musical talents became increasingly evident. After his parents discovered that Gunther had a beautiful singing voice, they enrolled him in the Saint Thomas Choir School. There, he became immersed in musical studies, developing proficiency at playing the flute and the French Horn while singing in the choir.
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By the age of fifteen, Gunther was performing professionally in New York and, at seventeen, was hired as principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony. In addition to his engagement with the Cincinnati Symphony, he was appointed to teach at the Cincinnati College of Music and The Cincinnati Conservatory. Just eighteen years old when he first started, he was younger than most of his students. This was the beginning of a teaching career that continued for many years. Once he’d returned to New York to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Gunther taught at the Manhattan School of Music (1950 to 1953) and was later hired as Professor of Composition at Yale University (1964-67). He also taught at the Tanglewood Music Center (1963-84) and later became its Artistic Director.
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A desire to share one’s knowledge and experience is one of the most fundamental and essential characteristics of a dedicated teacher. It has also been said that “the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”1 And, while being an accomplished artist does not necessarily endow someone with the ability or the desire to teach, Gunther proved to be one of those artists who was both eager and able to articulate his insight and knowledge for the benefit of others.
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By 1962 Gunther had moved on from his career as a horn player to focus on conducting and composing. It was then that he published his first book, entitled Horn Technique, based on both his professional and pedagogical experience. The book included a comprehensive list of horn repertoire and detailed instructions on performance techniques for the instrument. Horn Technique is still considered an essential resource for developing players.
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In his recent study of teachers and their views on lifelong learning, Sevi Koç determined that continued engagement for learning is a “crucial [element] for personal development, professional success, [and] adaptability to change.” He went on to say that teachers play a “significant role” in promoting lifelong learning “because they are role models.” He argued that, providing teachers with opportunities to continue their education would also contribute to maintaining “a vibrant and dynamic society.”2
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Gunther’s motivation for learning developed early on. As young musician he had an extraordinary appetite for discovery in a variety of subjects that later influenced his unique approach to music education. How many young teenagers of his generation would have been thrilled to discover a Sunday morning radio program entitled Invitation to Learning, hosted by what he called “an astonishingly knowledgable” roster of bibliophiles presenting “informative discussions” about “great world literature.”3 His sense of curiosity seemed to come naturally and, later on, he hoped that his students, in their efforts to develop as ‘compleat musicians,’4 would show the same kind of enthusiasm for learning in order to broaden their horizons and enhance their musical development.
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As a lifelong learner, Gunther openly encouraged his students to immerse themselves in literature, arts and the humanities. His vision of quality music education included experiences that would foster life-long appreciation for the arts and sciences along with an awareness of the value of ethical citizenry. In reminiscing about his role as President of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) 5 he said,
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Gunther expected that his students would become self-motivated learners. He also displayed confidence in his hand-picked NEC faculty, encouraging them to establish their own teaching methods and strategies.
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Until his teens, Gunther’s musical exposure had been limited to European classical music. But, after a brief initial introduction to jazz, he became infatuated with this new and exciting music. In a 2009 radio interview with Schuller, journalist Andrea Shea recounted Gunther’s story of how he first became enamored with jazz:
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One night, sitting in the kitchen doing schoolwork, he heard something on the radio that completely rocked his world... [and] jazz became Schuller’s new obsession. 7
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The introduction to jazz was a life-altering experience for the young Schuller:
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“I said to my father, ‘You know, Pop, I heard some music—Duke Ellington—last night, and that music is as great as Beethoven’s and Mozart’s’...and he almost had a heart attack because that was a heretical thing to say.’” 8
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He was eager to learn more about jazz: “I wanted to be into the middle of it as a horn player.”9 From that point on, Gunther began frequenting the many jazz venues that existed in New York City at the time. Eventually, he became acquainted with jazz pianist and composer John Lewis.10
Lewis became Schuller’s musical mentor, introducing him to a host of the city’s top jazz musicians, facilitating his debut as a jazz performer and later collaborating with him on musical projects. In 1949, Lewis arranged for Schuller to be hired as a horn player in a series of seminal recording sessions featuring trumpeter Miles Davis with arrangements by Gil Evans.11 Playing horn on these sessions was a remarkable and life-changing experience for Gunther.12 He once remarked that, as a “young, white, classical musician,” he’d benefitted from an extraordinary opportunity—making music at the highest level with an elite group of “almost entirely black” jazz musicians.13
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As he immersed himself in the language and working culture of jazz, Gunther realized that “jazz performance was guided by a set of rigorous professional standards.”14 Over time, Gunther (the ‘high school dropout’) became aware of a lack of scholarly literature on jazz. This realization compelled him to begin writing a “serious analysis of its techniques and actual musical content.”15 Over the span of two decades, he completed two important books on jazz—Early Jazz: Its Roots and Development (1968) and The Swing Era (1989)—both of which are still considered to be essential resources for jazz scholars and musicians.
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Schuller’s teaching, writings and work as an arts administrator benefitted countless developing musicians. As President of NEC (1967-1977), one of his primary goals was to create an environment in which musicians would not be limited by studying a single musical genre. He encouraged students to familiarize themselves with a broad spectrum of musical styles. One former student of Jazz Studies at NEC, Scott Cowan, who currently teaches jazz at Western Michigan University highlighted an important principle of jazz education that he adopted while studying with Gunther Schuller: “I find it critically important as a jazz educator...to see that students are exposed to the canon of traditional masters.”16
Schuller’s success in developing a degree program in jazz studies at NEC—the first to exist in any postsecondary institution—reinforced the legitimacy of jazz as “an American treasure”17 and prompted the development of jazz programs in many other educational institutions. In addition to his establishment of a jazz studies program at the school, Gunther initiated an innovative new field—Third Stream Studies. Third Stream (a term coined by Schuller) was defined as the result of combined elements of classical and jazz styles. (The concept and approach to Third Stream improvisation and composition has expanded over the years to include elements of almost any musical tradition, including ethnic and folk musics, classical forms and hybrid styles from around the world.)
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At NEC, Gunther Schuller effectively established an academic environment in which musicians could thrive and develop as creative artists. This was accomplished as a result of his vision and decisive actions, propelled by remarkable conviction in his role as a music educator. It is without question that his initiatives as President of the Conservatory impacted the ongoing offerings and overall musical culture of the school.
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But Schuller’s contributions to the field of music education were not limited to postsecondary studies. In 1967, he was invited to be an active participant in the Tanglewood Symposium, a 10-day-long conference of scholars, musicians and educators that was sponsored by the Music Educators National Conference (MENC). The goal of the Symposium was to define the role of music education in contemporary American society and to establish recommendations for music education in K-12 public schools.
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Speaking at the conference, Gunther declared that jazz was an “American treasure” and insisted that the study of jazz should be an essential element of every American child’s music education. The Symposium culminated with the The Tanglewood Declaration, which outlined the basic principles for what became the National Standards for Music Education (NSME). That document also called for music to be part of the core curriculum in every public school.
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Public and private schools in the United States today refer to a more recent version of the NSME, the National Core Arts Standards, which includes curriculum guidelines for all K-12 fine arts programs. The music guidelines include the teaching of improvisation, composition, performing, responding to, and analyzing music. They also call for the inclusion of musics from a variety of cultures, genres and styles. The teaching of jazz—its language, rhythms, history and performance techniques—are now securely woven into 21st century elementary school music education methods and curricula. Jazz ensembles have also become increasingly prevalent in middle and high school music programs across the nation.
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Gunther Schuller had an expansive vision of what 20th century school music education programs could and should be. He promoted the the inclusion of jazz and world musical forms as integral aspects of quality public school music education. It could be argued that his involvement in the Tanglewood Symposium provided a lasting influence on K-12 music education in America and that has carried on into the 21st century.
As new forms and styles of music emerge and institutions are faced by political, societal and economic challenges, the question arises as to how educators and institutions will adapt to create new programs that will accommodate the academic needs of students and the changing professional demands of working artists. Gunther Schuller was an industrious, innovative educator whose wealth of knowledge and experience was shared through his teaching, his writings and his actions as an arts administrator. His legacy should serve as model for future music educators, administrators and educational institutions.
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Mark Van Doren, Liberal Education, Beacon Press, Jan. 1 1959.
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Sevgi Koç, Teachers’ Views on Lifelong Learning, International Journal of Contemporary Educational Research, Volume 11, Number 2, June 2024, Page 250-261.
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Gunther Schuller: A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty, 2011, University of Rochester Press, p. 270.
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Schuller employed the term Compleat in a 1967 address delivered at the 100th anniversary celebration of New England Conservatory of Music The Compleat Musicians in the Complete Conservatory. It was later published in a collection of his essays entitled Musings (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). This archaic form of complete is generally found in titles of handbooks. Modern usage of this term is often considered an imitation of or in reference to Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler (pub. 1653), a collection of prose and verse celebrating the art of fishing. The term ‘compleat’ was also employed in musical treatises of the 17th century.
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Schuller became President of New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in 1967. He was responsible for instituting the Jazz Studies degree program, one that has been in operation since 1969.
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Gunther Schuller, from an interview with Susan Calkins conducted his home on November 2008.
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Andrea Shea, transcribed from the radio program: Weekend Edition, Sunday, May 24, 2009, accessed online at 
 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104437778&sc=emaf
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Ibid
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Gunther Schuller, interview with the author, November 2008.
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John Aaron Lewis (May 3, 1920 – March 29, 2001), American jazz pianist, composer.
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These sessions continued into 1950 and the recordings gleaned from them were later compiled and released as Miles Davis’ groundbreaking album, The Birth of the Cool.
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The French horn had, until that time, rarely been employed in a jazz context. It was Gill Evans who pioneered its use during the 1940s in his arrangements for the Claude Thornhill Band.
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Gunther Schuller, from an interview with Susan Calkins conducted his home on November 2008.
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Ibid
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Gunther Schuller, from the Preface to Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, 1968, Oxford University Press.
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