Second to None: Engaging Secondary Sources in the Music History Classroom

How should undergraduate students, and music students in particular, make sense of secondary sources within a shifting scholarly landscape—particularly since secondary sources are often long, hard to navigate, and difficult to read? This article proposes an approach based on Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's They Say/I Say, which focuses primarily on the interaction between student and secondary source. It anchors academic research and writing within the frame of "Scholarship as Conversation" and positions undergraduate research not as a discussion among experts but as a dialogue between students and sources. Using examples from undergraduate music history courses at Furman University, this article demonstrates that this methodology is uniquely consonant with music research. It anticipates three major objections to claims about such consonance and shows that these objections may be satisfactorily answered. Finally, it posits that Graff and Birkenstein's framework is not only a sound methodology but a useful one for music librarians as they provide instruction and research assistance to their undergraduate students.