JMHP : from the editor

by C. Matthew Balensuela

As the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Music History Pedagogy I am pleased to announce that the new issue (vol. 4, no. 1) is now available HERE. Perhaps “pleased” is not the mot juste. I am, in turns: relieved, anxious, proud, terrified ... you name it. As a scholar interested in fourteenth-century music theory, editing a journal on teaching and learning has been an improbable turn of events for me. Mostly, I’m grateful.

I’m grateful to my colleagues. Editing the JMHP has been a daily reminder that nothing good gets done without cooperation. There would be no journal without the contributors, external readers, board members, and editors who freely give their time, energy, and patience to the idea that good teaching is something that can be studied, developed, and objectively discussed. Everyone on the project has been remarkably patient, as I have grappled to learn skills of editing a journal. While many in musicology lament the lack of pedagogy classes in PhD programs, I wish I would have had the “How to Edit a Journal” course.

I’m grateful to the readers. The biggest question I had when we started the JMHP was, “I wonder if anyone will read this thing?” Thanks to using the Open Journal Systems [blog ed.'s note: this is really cool: check it out] to deliver the JMHP, we know that it is normal to have a thousand views of articles within six months of publication. So a big “Thank you!” to everyone who reads the JMHP.

I’m grateful it will soon be over, at least for me. Healthy journals have a regular rotation of leaders, and the next Editor-in-Chief (Stephen Meyer, Syracuse University) will take over in 2015—the blink of an eye in “journal time.” I have honestly loved every minute of being the editor these past years, but I would have appreciated having a few more minutes to prepare each issue

And I’d be even more grateful if you would take a moment to click over to see the new issue for yourself.

C. Matthew Balensuela is Professor of Music at DePauw University and the co-author with David Russell Williams of Music Theory from Boethius to Zarlino (Pendragon, 2007).