Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1934 – 2016

With deep sadness we report that Sir Peter Maxwell Davies died on Monday, 14 March. The BKA has been honoured to have him as one of our Patrons.

Sir Peter was a great composer of music for children. From 1959 he taught music for three years at Cirencester Grammar School, where he wrote specific pieces for the pupils.

In 1981 the International Kodály Society commissioned Sir Peter to write for the centenary of Kodály’s birth. The resulting set of songs, to texts by the composer, was given its world première performance in Budapest on 13 December 1982, by a Hungarian children’s choir conducted by Janos Remenyi.

On that occasion Sir Peter’s description of his songs included homage to Kodály:

“Seven Songs Home was commissioned by the International Kodály Society and first performed in 1982 in Budapest on the occasion of the Kodály centenary. The work is a tribute to the great composer of music for children. It is scored for unaccompanied children’s voices, and the story line concerns events and adventures experienced by an island child between leaving school and arriving home for tea.”

For more details on Sir Peter’s life please visit his website at http://www.maxopus.com/resources.aspx

An Appraisal of Sarah Glover’s Norwich Sol-fa Method by Celia Waterhouse

AN APPRAISAL OF THE NORWICH SOL-FA METHOD AND MATERIALS FOR CHOIR TRAINING AND MUSIC TEACHING, DEVISED BY SARAH ANNA GLOVER IN 19TH CENTURY NORWICH.

Much of this methodology was carried forward through John Curwen’s
Tonic Sol-fa method, to have an influence on Zoltán Kodály

by Celia Waterhouse
Independent Music Teacher based in Cambridgeshire, UK

Presented at the 19th International Kodály Symposium in August 2009, Katowice, Poland

Sarah Glover’s method for music education has a special value in the history of the Kodály movement, as the first example of a systematic programme of practical musicianship training through unaccompanied singing and relative solfa. Much of this methodology was carried forward, through John Curwen’s Tonic Sol-fa method, to have an influence on Zoltán Kodály.

Sarah Anna Glover (1786 -1867) was the daughter of the curate of St Lawrence’s church Norwich. As a young woman she began directing the music in church, and teaching with her sister at local parish schools, charity schools and Sunday schools. At that time Sunday Schools were schools for poor children who had to work on weekdays, when the more fortunate children attended regular school. She was well educated, had a lifelong interest in many subjects and was familiar with contemporary educational philosophy, scientific theory, scholarly treatises and histories of music. An accomplished amateur musician and pianist, Sarah Glover was also a gifted and inventive teacher.

The singing of her young pupils soon gained a reputation, and she began to receive requests to train others to teach music. Studying music at the time consisted of fact learning, with various devices to facilitate stave reading. European methods favoured, numbers to represent degrees of the scale, or were based on fixed-do solfa. In England an old gamut-derived solfa, far removed from Guido’s original concept, and probably more of an obstacle than an aid to learning, was still in use.1 Over the next twenty years Sarah Glover experimented with teaching methods and materials, rejecting traditional methods, and devised her own adaptation of Guido’s solfa, extending it to a full relative solfa system. This was published anonymously in 1835 as Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational.2 Glover used the term Psalmody in her title to refer to the singing of hymns in church worship.

Introduction to her Scheme
Sarah Glover was deeply influenced by the words of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, in his Charge to the diocese of London, written in 1790, and reprinted in 1811, when Sarah was twenty-five years old. She was just starting to take responsibility for music in church and in various schools. The Bishop exhorted the clergy to promote singing, and suggested that much could be achieved by training charity children and Sunday School children to sing.

Of all the services of our church, none appear to me to have sunk to so low an ebb, or so evidently to need reform, as our parochial psalmody.3

In her Prefatory Remarks,4 Sarah Glover commented on

the lamentably low state of psalmody in most of the churches belonging to the Establishment. Summarising the general lack of musical skills and singing ability amongst what she referred to as the superior orders of the community, she noted that Psalmody is therefore usually abandoned to the care of the illiterate, some of whom derive aid from a degenerate species of sol-fa-ing. 5

She outlined her vision:

Let singing become a branch of national education, not only in schools for the children of labourers and mechanics, but in academies for young ladies and gentlemen, … A very little practice well directed, would soon produce a sufficient degree of skill, to render this employment highly attractive to the pupils.6

She stated that two things were needed to achieve a better standard: a general acquaintance with notes, and practice in not only melody but harmony, so that all voices could take part. Her New Notation was designed to help beginners to learn, but in addition, she believed that those who could already read music would benefit from:

the practice of sol-fa-ing, so favourable to the production of accuracy in tune and so convenient to the practitioner who desires to avoid attaching sacred words to an air till all mechanical difficulty is surmounted. 7

The Scheme includes a teachers’ manual, as well as two pupils’ books of beginner repertoire in solfa notation. The first of these is a book of “German Canons” 8 providing a set of progressive lessons for teaching intervals, if sung merely in unison; but, when performed in parts, exercise the pupils likewise in harmony. The second is a book of Psalm Tunes in two-part arrangement, for the cultivation of harmony in schools for children. She also mentions an edition in preparation, with solfa in parallel with stave notation, to assist stave readers to study the new notation.

Sarah Glover writes that the Method’s effectiveness is proven:

I think I may assert from experience acquired in a school consisting of more than sixty poor children, that vocal powers are very generally attainable, and the art of singing at sight from the sol-fa-ing notation easy.9

Glover reasons that if musical people learn her method in order to teach others and cultivate their own voices to lead singing in church, psalmody will be much improved. She suggests that parents should engage a nanny who knows solfa in order to give their children the benefit of an early start. She acknowledges the effort and discipline required to achieve good psalmody, but states that this could bring many collateral advantages. She proposes that such learning exerts a good moral tendency, promoting health and recreation, and unites students with their leader, their school, and each other. Music, she says, composes while it raises the spirits, refines the mind, and under judicious regulations, is calculated to favour piety.10

Piety apart perhaps, we in the Kodály movement in the 21st century can still connect with many of Sarah Glover’s aims, beliefs and values:

  • Singing should be for all, as a part of national education. Everyone can sing – it is possible to achieve good results with regular appropriate practice.
  • Musical literacy, like linguistic literacy, should be available to all.
  • Music education should begin at an early age.
  • Music provides positive, uplifting, recreational and unifying values.
  • Music teachers must be well trained.

Her practical solutions to address the task also resonate with those of the Kodály Movement. She proposes:

  • A method to facilitate reading from the stave, develop harmonic hearing, improve tuning and intonation, and enable learning of music to take place before text is added.
  • Learning material organized in a progressive from simple to complex.
  • Materials that include singing in unison, in canon, and in parts
  • A curriculum designed for the needs of children rather than for adults

Arguing the case for Solfa
Sarah Glover summarises the limitations of stave notation:

  • There is no differentiation between tones and semitones.
  • There is a bewildering array of key signatures, though the construction of a scale is always the same
  • A change of clef turns the same symbol into a different note
  • Different symbols denote the same note – she cites all the C’s on the piano-forte. In contrast she asserts that Solfa needs no key signatures, clefs or ledger lines.

In contrast she asserts that Solfa needs no key signatures, clefs or ledger lines. She lists its other advantages:

  • It defines Rhythm more clearly.
  • It characterises each Interval within a key.
  • It marks the Mode.
  • It expresses the relationship existing between keys where Modulation occurs.
  • It renders Transposition easy.
  • It furnishes a set of syllables favourable to good Intonation.

The tendency of these improvements is …. to lead the pupil to sing better in tune, sooner at sight, and to imbibe more correct notions of the theory of music.11

Glover goes on to add one further advantage of solfa over stave notation highly relevant in the 1800s. It could be printed in common type, bringing down production costs and making printed music affordable and accessible to all. She suggests that the principal objection to her method is likely to be that students taught through solfa will be unable to read stave notation. However, she insists that solfa is a good introduction to stave notation, and that it enables students to make more rapid progress than they do if starting with the stave. Later she gives instructions for the transition from solfa to stave reading.12

She asserts that those who need music only for church psalmody will find solfa notation ample enough for all the purposes of social and congregational worship. The implication here is the lower classes, and given the social context, this is not a surprising statement. She was already breaking with convention by offering a practical means for all social classes to learn music, an opportunity previously available only to the wealthier.

We today value the same basic components for teaching music:

  • A teaching system to facilitate sound musical progress.
  • An affordable method readily accessible to all.
  • Simplified notation that allows musical understanding to develop, while paving the way to mastery of the stave.

Sarah Glover’s Solfa Notation
Most of Sarah Glover’s Anglicised spellings of the solfa names are still common in Britain:

Doh Ra Me Fah Sole Lah Te

In notation these were abbreviated to capital initials: D, R, M, F, S, L, T. She invented Te instead of Si for the seventh degree (to avoid confusion with Sole/S), and Bah and Ne for the sharpened sixth and seventh of the minor scale, also distinct from other solfa letters.

Lah Te Doh Ra Me Bah Ne

Curwen’s adaptations of these are summarised in the Appendix.

A chromatic note was indicated by a vowel change, to oy for a flat, and ow for a sharp. Modulations used a series of vowel-changes, the most frequent being u for the dominant and i for the subdominant.

A change of octave was shown by an accent over a note: a grave accent ( ` ) for the lower octave, and an acute ( ´ ) for the octave above. She made Lah the lowest note of the range,13 but later changed this to Sole, giving Doh central position in the scale.14

The tetrachordal view of the scale has led me to alter in some measure the arrangement I made of the accents in the two former editions of this work.

She credits various sources, but insists this change is the result, not of imitation, but of independent thoughts and experiments.15

Rhythm notation
In Sarah Glover’s approach, rhythm notation consisted of the careful spacing of notes, with punctuation marks showing beats.16

  • A vertical line ( | ) is shown for 1st beat, and dots ( . ) for subsequent beats. In quadruple meter, an exclamation mark ( ! ) is used for the 3rd beat.
  • A horizontal line is used to lengthen notes. Shorter notes are set closer together between dots.
  • A plus sign (+) represents a 1-beat rest. Longer rests are counted backwards from the overall number of beats down to 1.
  • The ‘foot’ at the head of the music indicated metre and the basic form of each metric unit (upbeats, slurred beats etc).

This simple system worked well with the rhythmically regular repertoire it was designed for. In addition, pupils always beat time together, tapping beat 1 on a wooden book-rest, and marking subsequent beats lightly on the arm. It may well be this technique which defined rhythm more clearly, as she claimed, rather than the rhythm notation itself.

Inventions and classroom aids
Sarah Glover invented a pitch classification system for the twelve keyboard pitches using letters, distinct from both the note letter-names (A – G), the solfa names, and from the letter I, which could be confused with a Roman numeral. Her solfa music had a code at the top giving the classification name for do and the starting pitch. 5

Note Letter Name   Norwich Solfa Classification
A#                               J
B / Cb                        K
C                                 O
C# / Db                     P
D                                Q
D# / Eb                     U
E                                 V
F                                 W
F#                               X
G                                 Y
G#                              Z

Most churches and schools had no piano or organ, and, in any case, few teachers could play. Glover invented a didactic musical instrument, which she named the Solfa Harmonicon. It was cheap to manufacture, like a small glockenspiel with chime bars of glass. Each semitone step was aligned and equally spaced, with a range of two octaves from G below Middle C,the complete range of children’s singing voices. Each pitch was labelled with letter name and classification name. Its purpose was solely to give keynote and starting pitch. Singing exercises, canons and psalms, even two-part singing, were unaccompanied from the start.

She devised a chart, showing solfa scales set out horizontally in twelve positions, which fitted on a roller inside the harmonicon. This was turned until do was lined up with the correct pitch. She also made a Pianoforte Card to fit behind the piano keys, indicating classification names for each key. Even a non-player could thus find do and the starting pitch, or any note of the scale, on either instrument. These practical solutions made it possible for ordinary teachers in parish schools and churches to use the Scheme.

A large chart, the Table of Tune, showed all the keys in columns in solfa, tones and semitones in proper ratio, following circle of fifths order. As time went by this was simplified into the Compound Ladder or Norwich Solfa Ladder, depicting only three solfa columns, the home key in the middle, the dominant on the right, and subdominant on the left. The Ladder was a crucial visual aid for practising solfa singing and simple modulation. Sarah Glover explains its importance:

Sol-fa-ing may be viewed as the Art of calculating the sound of an unperformed musical interval from one that has just preceded it. This power is obtained mainly through a familiar acquaintance with the perpendicular succession of the sol-fa syllables,… of which the diatonic scale is composed, & also of the horizontal succession of the sol-fa syllables which may be termed synonymous, being notes the same in pitch but differing in name. 17

Beginners sang exercises on the tonic chord of D major.

If the children have been much unaccustomed to singing, they will at first perhaps not be able to reach more than Doh, Me, Sole, if so, the upper Doh must be omitted for a time. 18

Once pupils could sing the tonic chord, simple harmonic exercises were begun, as a preparation for the German Canons. These are similar to the first exercises in Kodály’s Let Us Sing Correctly. Glover suggests hearing each child’s voice individually when the timidity and merriment, usual on these first efforts, have subsided, and putting the most competent children together to gain confidence from each other. These more able singers later became group leaders when dividing into voices – this was a great strength of the method, enabling part-singing to begin at an early stage.

Directions for instructing a school. 19
Sarah Glover sets out many enlightening guidelines showing her practical approach to teaching melody, harmony, rhythm, beating time, tone and expression. These contain much that is familiar to Kodály practitioners, and reveal her inventive and practical approach.

For experiencing metre and feeling the beat, she suggests:

Strike the palms together to express a loud beat, bend the hands into fists and strike them together for a soft beat. She begins with 2-time, the teacher counting and the pupils imitating the actions of her hand. … The Teacher might sing what she intends to teach the children (next), while the beating continues.

For initially teaching a canon:

She will herself dictate alone, half of it, and then require the class to imitate and join her in the repetition of it; the same with the latter half.

For teaching two-part singing:

When the pupils are capable of performing it well alone, the instructress may add a second part softly, with the syllable ah, then louder with the Sol-fa syllables. The same process happens when introducing a third or fourth voice ‘till all the four parts are distributed amongst four companies; one girl in each company should beat time as soon as it is the turn for her company to begin.

For beginning two-part songs:

When they are able to sing (the second part) without the aid of their instructress, she will insinuate the upper part with the syllable ah, increase the sound by degrees, and in due time add the Sol-fa syllables.

For intonation:

Care must be taken to prevent a tune from degenerating. … The principle defect will probably be flatness; and the flatness will chiefly occur at Me and Te; especially in the descending scale. … Practise Me with the Doh below, and with the Sole above; Te with the Sole below; then with the Ra above.

For varying the activity and keeping the energy flowing:

Let the tune be read in turn by the girls who compose each company. … Let small portions of a tune be sung in turn by the companies.… Let one half of the scholars beat time, while the other half sing, and vice-versa.… Let them write the words of a psalm and insert the bars. … Those who are more advanced, might transfer tunes from the old into the new, and from the new into the old notation.

Sarah Glover writes at length about the character of the music and the importance of the text. The principal perfection of music consists in speaking a language more refined than words can convey. 20

She wanted the spirit of the music to be fully accessible, and therefore gave performance directions in English, avoiding use of foreign terms, which might confuse pupils. Some succinct examples are: Soothing, Dignified and Plaintive, Spirited and Triumphant, Spirited and Dignified, Expressive of Holy Awe.21

Sarah Glover did not teach only children from the middle class, but also poor children from charity schools, some of whom had never sung before. Her method used unaccompanied singing, with activities and repertoire appropriate for beginners. The teacher played a crucial role as a model of good singing. She stated, a female’s voice is more easily imitated by children than a man’s.

Her fundamental principle was:

In teaching children music, I think it best to instruct them on the same principle as they are taught speech; that is by deducing theory from practice rather than practice from theory. 22

Sarah Glover’s school was one of the very few to receive positive comments on music teaching when the first national school inspections took place a few years after the Scheme was published. In spite of this endorsement, her method was not chosen for England’s first national school music teaching programme. Instead, a method using fixed-do, with a massive following in France, was adapted for use in England.

John Curwen and the start of the Tonic Sol-fa Method
Because his work so closely followed Sarah Glover’s, a brief summary must be included here of the work of John Curwen (1816 – 1880) and of Tonic Sol-fa.

Curwen took up his first post as a Congregational Minister in 1838. He was a brilliant Sunday school teacher with a reputation as a progressive. He took a keen interest in educational method, and was familiar with Rousseau and Pestalozzi, among others. As a result of his writings and lectures on education he was invited to write some articles outlining his approach to teaching, including the teaching of vocal music, and to become editor of a new nonconformist publication, the Independent Magazine.

With no musical training, he embarked on self-study in order to teach music. He was soon leading singing with large groups of children, and quickly realised the limitations of the fixed do method. In 1841 he was commissioned by a conference of Sunday school teachers to find the best method to teach music. When a friend showed him the recently published Scheme as a possible answer to his quest, he was astounded by its sound methodology. He describes his moment of realisation:

I now saw that Miss Glover’s plan was to teach, first, the simple and beautiful thing, music, and to delay the introduction to the ordinary antiquated mode of writing it, until the pupils had obtained a mastery of the thing itself. Her method was, beyond all controversy, more deeply established on the principles of the science than any other; and ….. I became convinced that it was also the most simple of all – the most easy to teach, and the most easy to learn. 23

He began to appraise the method and experiment with modifications. He compiled a children’s hymn book in solfa notation incorporating these modifications, and prepared a series of articles to present this adapted notation in the Independent Magazine. In October 1841, just before publication, he wrote to compliment Sarah Glover on her method, explained the modifications that he was convinced were improvements, and told her of his forthcoming publications.24 This was the start of the Tonic Sol-fa Method. Curwen chose this name to distinguish his use of relative sol-fa from the prevailing fixed do method.25 He saw no need for either Sarah Glover’s note classification system or for her ingenious harmonicon. He indicated key by giving the fixed pitch letter name as doh at the top 8 of the tonic solfa music.

He adopted the Ladder, and re-named it the Modulator. It became a standard feature of primary classroom walls in schools up and down the country, and remained a key component of the Curwen Method until after 1950. Curwen wrote:

The Modulator is used in teaching tunes. The teacher points to the pattern, both while he gives the pattern and while the pupil imitates it. This measures to the eye the exact intervals which the voice is taking. And the constant use of the solfa syllables in this connection always with the same intervals, helps the mind to recall those intervals with greater ease. 26

It is interesting to note that although Kodály did not adopt the modulator, many Kodály practitioners use classroom exercises and visual aids that perform a similar function.

Tonic Sol-fa became Curwen’s life’s work, spread by means of his publishing firm, by the Movement’s magazine The Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, and by the training of teachers. Sarah Glover’s Scheme had been preoccupied with a very limited style of music, church music, for a particular purpose, congregational singing. However, Curwen saw a much wider purpose, and greatly extended the repertoire. He continued to refine the Method and to incorporate new ideas, such as the French Time Names, 27 which first appeared in a revised version of his Standard Course in 1872. He always meticulously acknowledged his sources.

The hand signs, one of Curwen’s few original features, were not invented until 1870. 28 In spite of their practical application in the classroom, he wrote:

But these signs do not give that picture of interval and the relation of keys which is supplied by the Modulator, and can never take its place. … The Tonic Sol-fa method has three assistants in the teaching of tune – first, the hand signs; second, the memory-helping syllables; and third, the Modulator. 29

Tonic Sol-fa made a huge impact on musical literacy and music teaching throughout Britain and the Empire. By 1891, two and a half million British children were learning through Tonic Sol-fa in elementary schools. Curwen always acknowledged Sarah Glover as the founder of the Movement. A foundation stone in her memory was laid when his Tonic Sol-fa College was founded in 1879. Curwen’s fundamental educational precepts, set out and described in Chapter I of The Teacher’s Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method, are:

  • Let the easy come before the difficult.
  • Introduce the real and concrete before the ideal or abstract.
  • Teach the elemental before the compound and do one thing at a time.
  • Introduce, both for explanation and practice, the common before the uncommon.
  • Teach the thing before the sign, and when the thing is apprehended, attach to it a distinct sign.
  • Let each step, as far as possible, rise out of that which goes before, and lead up to that which comes after.
  • Call in the understanding to assist the skill at every stage.

The Method was still prevalent in Britain when Kodály visited fifty years after Curwen’s death. What he saw in English schools deeply influenced his thinking. According to Bernarr Rainbow:

Upon discovering the systematic method of training the inner ear which formed the basis of Curwen’s teaching, Kodály determined to make it the basis of a system designed to meet the special needs of Hungarian schools. 30

Summary
For Sarah Glover the religious and moral value of music gave rise to her mission to build a musical church community. Her insights into teaching children inspired her fresh and practical approach. Bernarr Rainbow wrote:

….whatever refinements Curwen added to her original system, the unique character of her basic method and the understanding of a child’s problems which it demonstrates are sufficient to justify for her an honoured place in her own right in the history of musical education. 31

Curwen found Sarah Glover’s method fundamentally at one with his own purpose and enlightened educational values. Through his vision and genius as a teacher, his position in society, and the opportunities he forged to spread his message, he developed the method on a much wider scale than she could have imagined, enriched with inspiration from many other sources.

Kodály acknowledged the inspiration he found in Curwen’s legacy: 32

In the course of a number of visits to England since 1927 I observed the highly developed singing in schools. To this I am indebted for much stimulation, which helped me gradually to complete my work for children. I am now very pleased to return to the English what I learned from them, and was able to adapt to our needs in Hungary.

Something of Sarah Glover’s practical insight into teaching music in the classroom has indeed been passed down, from Sarah Glover, through Curwen, to Kodály. For the benefit of mankind, these universal values of good music teaching continue to inspire us today.

Endnotes
1 Old English solfa, Lancashire Solfa, or ‘Fasola’, in The Land Without Music, by Bernarr Rainbow, (Novello, 1967), pp 14-28
2 Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational, 1835, by Sarah Glover. Republished in the series Classic Texts in Music Eduction ed. Bernarr Rainbow (Boethius Press 1982)
3 The Life of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London by Robert Hodgson (1813): from the Bishop’s 1790 Charge to the diocese of London, reprinted in 1811.
4 Scheme, pp 5-14 (Boethius Edition: 23-32).
5 Scheme, p 6 (24)
6 Scheme, p 7 (25). The emphasis is Sarah Glover’s.
7 Scheme, p 8 (26)
8 Musikalisches Schulgesangbuch von Carl Gläser, cited as source of her German Canons in an article on Scientific and Unscientific Singing in The Teacher’s Visitor (1848), an educational magazine ed. William Carus Wilson. (Strangers’ Hall Museum, Norwich). Further reading – see article Early 19th century music pedagogy – German and English connections by Jane Southcott (BJME 2007).
9 Scheme p 12 (30)
10 Scheme p 14 (32)
11 Scheme pp 17-18 (35-36)
12 Scheme, Appendix pp 69 (87)
13 Scheme, pp 34-35 (52-53) She was fascinated by Newton’s discovery of the analogy between the proportions of prismatic colours in the light spectrum, and the divisions of a musical 10 string in the ascending minor scale. She cites Newton’s analogy as her reason for choosing la as lowest note for the purpose of accents. For further reading, see Glover’s Intellectual Odessy by Jane Southcott (1995).
14 A Manual of the Norwich Sol-fa System for teaching Singing in Schools and Classes, Glover, 1848, pp 27-31
15 Ibid, p 31.
16 Sarah Glover’s rhythm notation is not unique and bears resemblance to Proposal of a Musical Short Hand or Literal Notation by J. Marsh (1822), which is among the books in the Strangers’ Hall collection. In 1827 Sarah Glover sent an unpublished version of the Scheme to Marsh for his comment. Several of her early manuscripts have pencil annotations and comments made by Marsh.
17 Unpublished hand-written book Rules for Sol-fa-ing, in the Strangers’ Hall collection.
18 Scheme, p 40 (58)
19 Scheme, pp 38-68 (56 – 86)
20 Scheme p 62 (80)
21 Solfa Tune Book, 3rd Edition (1939) pp. 10-23 (108-121). Republished with the Scheme (Boethius Press 1982 op.cit.)
22 Glover, 1848 op.cit. p 66.
23 Reprinted in John Curwen – A Short Critical Biography by Bernarr Rainbow (Novello 1980) pp 17-18
24 The letter is reprinted in The Land Without Music, Rainbow 1967, p 175. Sarah Glover’s reply to Curwen has been lost. He always acknowledged her as founder of the Tonic Sol-fa Movement and Method. They met amicably on several occasions, he visited her school, and they corresponded on cordial terms. Sarah Glover and her sister were invited to the first Tonic Sol-fa Jubilee in London in June 1857. Fuller discussion of the discord between John Curwen and Sarah Glover after he published her modified method – see Rainbow, and articles: Sarah Glover: A Forgotten Pioneer in Music Education by Peggy Bennett (1984), and “Dear Madam” – the letters of Sarah Glover and John Curwen by Jane Southcott (2003).
25 After Curwen began to publish books and articles about the Tonic Sol-fa Method, Sarah Glover published The History of the Norwich Sol-fa (1845) and republished her Scheme in 1848 as A Manual of the Norwich Sol-fa System for teaching Singing in Schools and Classes.
26 The Teacher’s Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method by John Curwen, 1875 (4th edition) p 100, § 330
27 La Langue des Durées by Chevé, Galin-Paris
28 Memorials of John Curwen by J. Spencer Curwen (1882), p 58-9.
29 Curwen 1875, op.cit. p 96 § 319.
30 Music in educational thought and practice Bernarr Rainbow with Gordon Cox (Boydell Press 2006), p 309
31 Bernarr Rainbow’s Introduction to the re-published Scheme (Boethius Press1982) op.cit.
32 Foreword for a publicity brochure following publication of the first English version of Kodály’s Choral Method in July 1962, in Rainbow 2006 op.cit. Appendix p 386.

The Kodály Concept by Gillian Earl

The Kodály Concept of music education is not a method as such, neither are there any Kodály instrumental methods. The Concept is unique in that Kodály combined elements from existing approaches to music education, (Dalcroze, Curwen, the Galin – Paris – Chevé movement etc.) and in that he initiated a comprehensive system of music education from nursery age to high levels of professional training. It began to evolve and to be put into practice during the 1940s by some of Kodály‛s colleagues and teachers working under his guidance.

The Concept embraces a philosophy; it came about mainly for the following reasons: – Kodály‛s harmony students at the Liszt Academy could not hear in their heads: he considered that Hungarian culture needed to be re-established following a long period of the dominance of German culture: concerts were not well attended – audiences, who did not understand the music, stayed away. At the heart of it was Kodály‛s belief that, “Music should belong to everyone,” because, “Music is the spiritual food for which there is no substitute . . . . there is no complete spiritual life without music . . . . there are regions of the human soul, which can be illuminated only through music.” The only way that music could belong to everyone was to make it accessible by teaching musical literacy throughout the schools from the nursery schools through to teacher training and conservatoire levels. Kodály thus set out to train the nation to become the audiences as well as the teachers and professional musicians of the future.

When the Concept emerged after the Second World War its success was seen as phenomenal. Consequently, since the ‘sixties‛, Kodály societies have sprung up worldwide and an international network of Kodály educators is held together through the International Kodály Society. In 1975 the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music was opened in Kecskemét, Kodály‛s birthplace, offering a variety of courses and attended by people from all over the world.

SOME GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE CONCEPT AND RELATED DEFINITIONS

These Principles are an integral part of the Kodály Philosophy and Concept. There is no special significance in the order in which they are listed here. Each can be likened to the spoke of a wheel, starting with music at the hub, and leading out to the ever expanding circumference of the wheel as the understanding of the language of music increases with progress.

1. Begin with the music – the joy of the experience. Music is taught in the way children learn naturally, experiencing the music first. Taking child development into account it is recognized that children do not learn through intellectual abstractions. Musical elements are absorbed unconsciously before being made conscious, after which they are practised, (through singing), read, written then reinforced further by being presented in new contexts: all is done in a carefully pre-determined pedagogical order.

2. Begin in the kindergarten. Although the concept can be adapted to apply to any age, the age from three to seven years are the most important. “. . the first steps are the same for everyone..” Z.K *

3. The first musical instrument is the voice. It is not possible to sing anything which has not first been imagined in the ‛inner ear‛. Singing is the proof that the music has been assimilated and understood. “A child who plays an instrument before he sings may remain unmusical for a lifetime.

That is why we encounter so many skilful pianists who have no idea of the essence of music” Z.K*

4. Relative Solfa is used. The solfa is the sound. It renders the sounds tangible and memorable; it expresses their relative pitch and tonal functions. It is never used as just ‛another verse‛ to a song. It defines melody, modulation, intervals, harmonic progression and chromaticism. It aids transposition.

5. Handsigns are a visual aid used to express the solfa. They provide the link between the sounds and the written notes. They have an effect of producing a reflex action in the vocal cords.

6. Notation is, initially, in rhythmic solfa, or stick notation. This is never completely discarded. Reading from the stave, with most do positions (there are seven) is learnt before fixed pitch is taught. Reading with G and F clefs and, later, the C clefs follow.

7. Music should be of good quality, – initially the musical mother tongue. It should be given time to take root before another musical ‛language‛ is introduced.

“Folksong is the school of good taste; those who develop a taste for what is good at an early age will become resistant later to what is bad”. ZK* The reverse is also true.

8. Pentatonic music is used in the early stages. The distinctive shape of the pentatone, d r m s l in which any of the sounds can be the final, makes it easier to acquire tonal orientation. Also, tunes without semitones are easier to sing in tune. The roots of much our common musical heritage spring from pentatony. From this starting point greater insight can be gained into modal music* and thus a better understanding of the historical development of music.

*this is why Relative Solfa is so named and used in this context rather than Tonic Solfa.

9. Intonation. Voice tunes with voice. Two different sounds sung simultaneously and tuned, acoustically, with each other enhance the perception of both their relative pitch and tonal functions. The sounds are re-created through the ‘inner hearing‛ and are not supposedly supported or prompted by a piano which has tempered tuning and a timbre with which it is not easy for young children to identify. Good intonation is vital in maintaining tonality. One of the main aims of the Concept, Musical literacy* – cannot develop without secure intonation and ‘inner hearing‛.

*The ability to ‘hear‛ what you see (read) and see (write) what you hear.

10. The rhythm of the music of a nation, (its folksongs) is borne of its speech rhythms. Rhythm is inseparably bound up with the other principles of the Concept. From the outset the elements of the music are taught within phrases, or motifs, never in single sounds or notes. The aim is for developing a sense of rhythmic continuity and to acquire a sense of phrasing. Mistakes in reading should not be allowed to interrupt performance; they can be corrected afterwards and will often, on repetition, self correct.

11. Two-part work in all its possibilities of combinations and permutations has high priority. Such things as ‘question and answer‛, performance in two parts simultaneously or antiphonally by two people or groups – this includes activities such as tapping the beat or an ostinato with another part, canon, independent parts; the possibilities of various combinations are endless. Ideally a minimum of three people is required – two to perform and the teacher to act as ‘referee‛. The practice of silent singing (in the mind) develops inner hearing. Two-part music making trains not only concentration, memory and awareness, it also trains the ability to listen polyphonically and the powers of co-ordination. This paves the way for the development of harmonic hearing leading to the study of form. „

Gillian Earl, 1998. Revised 2004

“If, through the reading of music, a child has reached a stage where he is able to sing a small masterpiece in two parts with another child, he has acquired a hundred times as much music as if he had thrashed the piano from sunrise to sunset. Many people are looking for the door to the treasury of music in the wrong places. They obstinately keep hammering on the locked gates and pass right by the open doors that are accessible to everybody.” *Zoltán Kodály 1882-1967.

Sam Lee Nominated for Folk Awards

The BKA are thrilled to report that one of our Kodály Spring Course 2016 Performers has been nominated for two awards at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2016.Sam Lee

Sam Lee is no stranger to award nominations. His debut album Ground of its Own was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year in 2012.

…a beautiful voice: a rich, sweet, rousing baritone with a soft grain and a tough edge that does justice to the sorrow and graft in these ballads. Crucially he makes the songs his own, delivering Scots, Welsh and Irish lyrics with straight-up English diction and subtly original inflections… The Guardian

The 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards see him nominated in two categories. Best Folk Singer and Best Traditional Track for Lovely Molly. He will also be performing at the awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall.

Congratulations Sam! We can’t wait to meet you and your songs on Tuesday 29th March.

If you would like to come and see Sam you can book a residential or day place at the Spring Course here.

Kodály In The Klassroom – 15th and 16th October 2016

Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire

A practical weekend workshop on the application of the Kodály principles to classroom music teaching (Early Childhood and Primary – easily adapted for instrumental use)

Tutor: Len Tyler

Location: Unit 8, West Gate, Gibb Street, Long Eaton, NG10 1EE (Near Nottingham)

Who is this workshop for?
Anyone interested in classroom music teaching (preschool and primary). There is no need to be a music reader. This workshop is also suitable for instrumental teachers who want learn the Kodaly principles. Very useful for “whole class” teaching.

What will the day feature?
• Use of the basic Kodaly principles.
• Lots of songs, routines, and handouts.
• Examples of easy to produce resources.
• Loads of practical ideas (all tried and tested)

Comments from previous delegates
• Everything was marvelous and extremely useful
• All very exciting as my first experience of music teacher training. Loved the practical exercises
• Having done pre-school music for the last 10 years, and being a professional musician there were surprisingly quite a few things that I hadn’t thought about
• So many great ideas. It was all useful to me
• Len was excellent in how he explained the course. Good to listen to and very precise. I enjoyed it immensely.
• I found Len very inspiring and helpful.

Cost
£100 (including £25 per day per person discount under the “bring a friend” scheme – otherwise £150)
Single day attendance by arrangement (£80/£55)

Kodaly in the Klassroom Long Eaton October 2016 Application Form

For more details
Phone: 01276 504666
Email: enquiries@lentylermusicschool.co.uk
Website: www.lentylermusicschool.co.uk

BKA Supported Courses are set up independently by highly skilled and experienced BKA members under the auspices of the BKA. The course fee includes a BKA registration fee which the student can redeem as a voucher for the same amount if attending another regular BKA-run course within one calendar year (i.e. within the next twelve months). Alternatively, the amount of the fee can be redeemed against one or more year’s membership of the BKA starting from the 1 July 2016.

Kodály In The Klassroom – 14th and 15th May 2016

Luton, Bedfordshire

A practical weekend workshop on the application of the Kodály principles to classroom music teaching (Early Childhood and KS1 – easily adapted for KS2)

Tutor: Len Tyler

Location: Tennyson Road Primary School, Tennyson Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 3RS

Who is this workshop for?
Anyone interested in classroom music teaching (preschool and primary). There is no need to be a music reader. This workshop is also suitable for instrumental teachers who want learn the Kodaly principles. Very useful for “whole class” teaching.

What will the course feature?
• Use of the basic Kodaly principles.
• Lots of songs, routines, and handouts.
• Examples of easy to produce resources.
• Loads of practical ideas (all tried and tested)

Comments from previous delegates
• Everything was marvelous and extremely useful
• All very exciting as my first experience of music teacher training. Loved the practical exercises
• Having done pre-school music for the last 10 years, and being a professional musician there were surprisingly quite a few things that I hadn’t thought about
• So many great ideas. It was all useful to me
• Len was excellent in how he explained the course. Good to listen to and very precise. I enjoyed it immensely.
• I found Len very inspiring and helpful.

Cost
£100 (including £25 per day per person discount under the “bring a friend” scheme – otherwise £150)
Single day attendance by arrangement (£80/£55)

Kodaly in the Klassroom Luton May 2016 Application Form

For more details
Phone: 01276 504666
Email: enquiries@lentylermusicschool.co.uk
Website: www.lentylermusicschool.co.uk

BKA Supported Courses are set up independently by highly skilled and experienced BKA members under the auspices of the BKA. The course fee includes a BKA registration fee which the student can redeem as a voucher for the same amount if attending another regular BKA-run course within one calendar year (i.e. within the next twelve months). Alternatively, the amount of the fee can be redeemed against one or more year’s membership of the BKA starting from the 1 July 2016.

Northern Kodály Choir

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Improve your musicianship and practise singing beautiful music in solfa under the leadership of Nicky Woods.
The choir meet on the first Sunday of each month from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. in the Richard Steinitz Building, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH

Dates for 2019/2020

2019:
October 6th
November 3rd
December 1st

2020:
January 5th
February 2nd
March 1st
April 5th
May 3rd

Fees: £10 per session (free to all University Students)

For more information and to book your place please contact Ben benviola86@gmail.com

Nicky Woods

 

Nicky graduated from Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music and trained as a teacher at the University of Reading. She worked as a teacher and cellist in Manchester before joining the music department of The Queen’s School, Chester, then taught in Rome for a short time, at St. George’s English School and, as Director of Music, at The Junior English School.

Nicky returned to England to work as a cello teacher and free-lance player in North Yorkshire and, inspired by an introduction to the philosophy and approach of Zoltán Kodály, decided to train as a Kodály teacher, attending courses in the UK and Hungary and gaining a Certificate of Kodály Music Education.

She currently runs singing-based workshops, courses and musicianship sessions for all ages and is a tutor, Trustee and Summer School Administrator for The British Kodály Academy. She enjoys directing a community choir in Ripon and the Northern Kodály Choir, which meets on the first Sunday afternoon of each month – and still finds time to teach and play the cello!

Angela Fogg

Angela FoggAngela is a pianist and teacher of piano and Kodály. She has run the Sing-a-Song Kodály classes at E.T.N.A. in London since 1989 and has subsequently taught many of the children the piano. She also teaches Kodály to the Junior School at Sacred Heart, Teddington and for the Colourstrings Music School based at Roehampton University. Angela directs the choir at Sacred Heart School, Colourstrings and St Stephen’s School in Twickenham. She is also on the Education Committee for the British Kodaly Academy and has taught for the BKA at the last three Easter courses.

Angela has taught piano privately since a teenager and until recently at St. David’s School Ashford and performs regularly at local events and with the Prima Donna Party Quartet. An article by her on Kodály for young children was published in the Spring edition of Piano Journal 2008. She is also a regular contributor to the Piano Journal as assistant editor and reviewer of new piano music publications. (B.A.Hons LRSM DipABRSM CKME FRSA)

Sam Lee

Sam LeeSam will be providing the evening entertainment on Tuesday 29th March at the Kodály Spring Course 2016 with his concert – Folk Songs of the Traveller Community.

Mercury Prize nominated Folk singer, song collector, promoter (of BBC award winning Nest Collective) radio host, TV personality, teacher and animateur, Sam this June released his debut album “Ground Of Its Own’ comprised of songs learned 1st hand from the Gypsy Traveler community. The recording is a new musical manifesto, reflecting Sam’s unique artistic journey. Winner of the 2011 Arts Foundation Award, he is fast becoming accepted as a new pioneer, defining the sound, sight and texture of folksong today. Likewise his band ‘Sam Lee & Friends’ perform unconventional and contemporary interpretations challenging all preconceptions of what ‘traditional folk’ should sound like.

Sam Lee Nominated for Folk Awards
Breaking News – We are thrilled to congratulate Sam on his two nominations at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Read more about Sam’s nominations for Best Folk Singer and Best Traditional Track here.