ABSTRACT
The learning and teaching of music has taken many forms within the United States and Canada, from the singing schools of Lowell Mason to the shape note traditions of the rural south, from the European-inherited schools of classical music to the American traveling singing master, from the notated score of the diva's studio to the oral/aural tradition of the back porch. Part of this history is bound up with the development of various school music education programs in both countries and their role in socializing children to be musical "Americans" or "Canadians." Government, too, has played its part in the encouragement and regulation of musical practices in these two countries. Governmental agencies such as the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities in the United States and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) have been crucial to the development of various musical cultures within their borders.
