I wish to express my appreciation to those individuals who have helped me in the past several years while working toward the completion of my degree and this thesis.  First, I would like to thank the faculty of the music education department at the University of Minnesota for their outstanding guidance, mentoring, and obvious commitment toward music and music education.  Thank you to the members of my dissertation committee, Stephen Schultz, Paul Haack, Claire McCoy, Charles Furman, and Alex Lubet,  for your skillful and careful guidance.  To my family, friends, and colleagues who encouraged and enabled me to continue, and to the “wise powers that be” who saw the wisdom of offering teaching sabbaticals-thank you.  And finally, my deepest love and thanks to my wife Teresa Tolmie, for your seemingly limitless support, encouragement, and friendship.