Peter William Dykema

MENC President 1916-1917

Born November 25, 1873, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Died May 13, 1951, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Education:

B. L Degree, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1895

M. L. Degree, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1896

Vocal study with Franz Arens, New York, 1903-1904

Music theory study with Frank Shepard, Institute of Musical Art, New York, 1904-1905

Music theory study with Edgar Stillman Kelly, Berlin, Germany, 1911-1912

Ear training and composition Study at Juilliard School, 1912-1913

Work:

English and German teacher, Aurora (Illinois) High School, 1896-1898

Principal, P.S. 8 Indianapolis, Indiana, 1898-1901

In charge of music, Ethical Culture School New York, 1901-1913

Professor of music University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1913-1924

(Leave of absence 1918-1919 to serve as Supervisor of music for Commission on Training Camp Activities of the War Department.)

Professor, chair of music education department, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1924-1940

Professor Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1940-1951

Significant Publications:

Dykema, Peter W., ed., Twice 55 Community Songs (7 volumes), Boston: C.C. Birchard,

1919-1927.

Dykema, Peter W., and Karl W. Gehrkens. The Teaching and Administration of High

School Music. Boston: C.C. Birchard, 1941.

Dykema, Peter W., and Hannah M. Cundiff. School Music Handbook. Boston: C.C.

Birchard, 1933.

Kwalwasser, Jacob, and Peter W. Dykema. Kwalwasser-Dykema Music Tests. New York:

Carl Fischer, 1930.

Professional Accomplishments:

Editor, first official MENC publication, The Bulletin, founded 1914

Editor, remained through 1921 (name changed to Music Supervisors’ Journal 1915)

Member, MENC Editorial Board from 1930 formation until 1934

Member, MENC Educational Council from 1918 inception through 1929 (became Music Education Research Council in 1923)

Chair, Music Education Research Council 1928-1929, 1938-1950

Chair, MENC Council of Past Presidents 1948-1951

Peter Dykema was an important force in the growth of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference and the music education profession. Although he was not one of the founding members of the organization, he attended his first convention in 1908 and was listed as a new member in 1913. That year, he addressed the body at the request of then-president Henrietta Baker Low, reading a paper called “The Effect of the Festival and Pageant Revival on the Teaching of Music.” Before this time, Dykema had been active in the Music Teachers National Association and the National Education Association Department of Music Education.

After his 1913 speech, Dykema quickly became an active member in the Conference, and remained involved after his presidential term concluded in 1917. He was perhaps best known for his position as editor of the Conference journal, first called The Bulletin and renamed The Music Supervisors’ Journal in 1915. Dykema used the publication to keep members informed about the profession and the organization, writing frequent columns about such topics as community singing, musical tests, new movements in music education, and issues within the Conference.

Although Dykema did not have a formal music degree, he organized choirs at all of the schools where he worked, included arts in his classes, and promoted music education in his faculty positions at the university level. When he taught high school English, he included a unit on arts education, and he developed one of the first music appreciation courses in the country. During his tenure at Teachers College, Columbia University, he increased music education course requirements for the master’s degree and helped develop the first doctoral program in the music education department.

Dykema promoted music making and music education wherever he went. He was known as an inspiring choir leader and untiring worker, continuing to travel, write, and lecture about music after he retired from his faculty position at Teachers College in 1940. Heavily influenced by a Dutch Calvinist background that included family and church singing, Dykema advocated community music, believing that towns and cities should insure that their populations have access to musical groups, performance halls, and competent directors. He thought it was important that adults should have opportunities to study instruments as beginners, and he urged teachers to foster such a love of music that students would continue playing and singing after compulsory lessons and classes ended.

Personal Biography:

December 24, 1903 married Jessie Dunning

Children: Karl Washburn Dykema, Roger Dunning Dykema, Alice Mary Barnes, Helen Cargan Denglier, Peter Scot Dykema

Quotes:

“The music teacher has got to look forward to the time when the children will swarm about the room almost like so many ants, instead of sitting in straight aisles like so many wooden puppets.”

Peter Dykema, “The Effect of the Festival and Pageant Revival on the Teaching of

Music.” Journal of the Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting of the Music Supervisors

National Conference, (Rochester, New York: The Conference, 1913): 70.

“We suggest that there be devoted two pages in the Journal for the free discussion throughout the year of every side of this problem. . . . If there be such agreement that we can begin with next year to put this into effect, well and good. If there must be another year for discussion, well and good. Eventually, we must work out a plan which shall make our conferences more valuable than they are at present.”

Peter Dykema, “The Future of the Conference,” Music Supervisors’ Journal 10, No. 5

(May 1924): 28.

“Eventually, I believe, one valuable measure of the success of all teaching will be the voluntary continuing of it by the student. . . . Music must be so attractive that people will want to have it for its own sake rather than because it will make them wiser or more socially prominent.”

Peter Dykema, “Music in Community Life,” Music Supervisors’ Journal 20, No. 4

(March 1934): 35.

Sources Used:

Beattie, John W. “The Unknown Peter Dykema,” Music Educators Journal 37, No. 3

(June/July 1951): 11.

Birge, Edward B. History of Public School Music in the United States, new and expanded

ed. Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference, 1966.

Dykema, Peter W. “The Effect of the Festival and Pageant Revival on the Teaching of

Music.” Journal of Proceedings of the Sixth Meeting of the Music Supervisors

National Conference, Rochester, NY. 7-11 April, 1913, 64-71.

________. “The Future of the Conference,” Music Supervisors’ Journal 10, No. 5 (May

1924): 24, 26, 28.

________. “Music in Community Life,” Music Supervisors’ Journal 20, No. 4 (March

1934): 34-35, 73-74.

Eisenkramer, Henry E. “Peter W. Dykema: His Life and Contributions to Music

Education.” Ed. D. diss., Columbia University Teachers College, 1963.

Gordon, Edgar B. “Peter Dykema: An Educator Who is Bringing Music to the Man on

the Street,” Musical America 27 (July 6, 1918): 26.

“The Journal’s First Editor,” Music Educators Journal 37, No. 3 (June/July 1951): 12.

Mark, Michael L., and Charles L. Gary. A History of American Music Education, 2d

ed. Reston, VA: MENC-The National Association for Music Education, 1999.

Reed, Larry W. “The History of the Department of Music and Music Education Teachers

College, Columbia University – The Early Years: 1887-1939 (New York)” Ed.D.

diss., Columbia University Teachers College, 1982.

For more information, consult the following source:

Arneson, Jon. The Music Educators Journal Cumulative Index 1914-1987. Stevens Point,

WI: Index House, 1987.

Submitted by Kaye Ferguson, November 2002