In the study described here, we used an open-ended written essay to identify the factors that lead students to become music teachers. Ninety music education majors were given the instructions to indicate in their own words their earliest remembrances of when they considered becoming a music teacher, including age, place, who was with them, how they felt, their thoughts at the time, and any other aspects they considered important. Essays were analyzed and classified according to these areas of interest; additionally as a more qualitative assessment, total responses were analyzed to discern some of the nuances evidenced in individual responses. Results indicated that the age at which the decision was made and influential people in their lives were the most important factors affecting these subjects' decision to become a music teacher. The decision was vividly remembered, with school music teachers exerting the primary influence. Of the subjects, 76 % decided to become a music teacher before entering a teacher preparatory program. Students who did not decide until they were of college age remained ambivalent about their choice.

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57This study was designed to investigate empirically the "aesthetic experience" as individually defined by each subject. Subjects (N -30) were faculty members and advanced graduate students at a large university school of music. Each subject listened to a 20-minute excerpt from Act I of Puccini's La Boheme and simultaneously manipulated the dial of a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) to indicate perceived aesthetic level. The CRDI dial represented a negative/positive continuum along a 256-degree arc. Data collected were charted graphically to indicate levels of aesthetic response across time. Subjects completed a questionnaire designed to estimate frequency, duration, location, and magnitude of perceived aesthetic experiences and also indicated whether dial manipulation roughl corresponded to these experiences.Results indicated that there were different responses throughout the excerpt by all subjects. Heightened aesthetic responses were evident during certain parts of the excerpt. "Peak experiences" were relatively short (15 seconds or less in duration), preceded by a period of concentrated focus of attention, and generally followed by an "afterglow" ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes. Al subjects reported having at least one aesthetic experience and also reported that movement of the CRDI dial roughly approximated this experience. "Aesthetic responses"for subjects seemed to cluster at many of the same places in the music, with one collective "peak" experience that was represented by the highest and lowest dial movements.Pleasingness and the representation of beauty in music has current as well as historical significance. For centuries, musicians and philosophers have pondered those attributes of music that give it meaning and lead the listener to a heightened sense of emotion, intellectual engagement, or "aesthetic" responsiveness. Also, certain musical compositions and the need for artistic expression seem to be enduring and timeless in their perennial appeal to listeners.Langer posited that "great art is not a direct sensuous pleasure. If it were, it would appeal-like cake or cocktails-to the untutored as well as to the cultured taste"

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