Statewide Public School Music Competitions/Festivals in Kansas and Oklahoma: The Beginnings of the School Music Contest Movement in the United States

Music competitions have an ancient history dating back some two thousand years. In the United States, early music contests mimicked the German Saengerfests and Welsh Eistoddfods; however, some of the earliest continuously running music competitions held in America are the state contests for secondary school students. This article identifies for the first time Kansas and Oklahoma as holding the two earliest state school music competitions and corrects some long-standing erroneous information. It studies these two state events through historical analysis of primary sources and triangulates the data with secondary sources. Frank Beach at Kansas State Normal School in Emporia and Fredrik Holmberg at the University of Oklahoma were found to be the two initiators. These two state music contests were influenced by several things including the state track and field meets, previous music contests, the western pioneering spirit, European music systems, and the music specialties of the founders. In the end both contests were seen as promoting the cause of public school music by increasing both the quality and numbers of music education programs and as leading to the exponential growth of state music competitions throughout the United States.