1. The Kodály Concept

 

 

a. History and content

 

As the title of this paper is ‘Perspectives on Kodály cello teaching’, and my research question contains the term 'Kodály concept’, it is important to get clear what is meant by ‘Kodály’ and ‘Kodály concept’. There are more terms in circulation: Kodály Method, Kodály Principles, Kodály Philosophy, to name the most common ones (8).

We should distinguish between these terms and also keep in mind that from the ideas of Kodály, formulated and developed from the 1920’s, until today, a long time has passed.

 

The Kodály Method refers to the method for music education in the Hungarian school system, based on the ideas of Zoltán Kodály (9). All music education in Hungarian nursery schools, primary schools and the first years of secondary schools was based on his principles, worked out by his followers.

From 1935 Kodály worked together with Jenö Ádám (10) on the development of the method. In 1945 the government decided to implement the method in the public schools. From then on there was a great expansion of the method and it was spread throughout many schools in Hungary.

In the early 1970s Szönyi (11) describes this as the status quo, but nowadays also in Hungary politics have changed and different choices are made. The last decades have seen a radical decrease in the number of school music lessons. This could be seen as a failure to permanently convince governments of the importance of regular music lessons (12).

 

The ideas which inspired the development of the method are quite philosophical in nature. Kodály states: “music should belong to everyone” (13), meaning that it is a human right to have access to music. He considered it to be the only way to elevate the soul. It was the 'spiritual food' of the people and the only means to transmit humanistic values.

This was even the actual motivation for Kodály to focus on education: to raise the people to be able to distinguish between 'good and bad' music, and from there to being a moral person (14).

“Hungarian audiences are to be raised up from their unexacting demands in music and this can only be commenced by work in schools.” (15)

 

“Only the best is good enough” is another popular Kodály quote (16). What he meant is that only high quality music should be part of music education: the great masters are the real teachers of the child, masterworks should be in the centre of education. In his article ‘Children’s Choirs’ Kodály writes that the children should be led to masterpieces, by means of masterpieces.

Materials should consist of folksongs in the so called musical mother tongue (17), good quality composed music for children and the great masterworks. In the literature I could not find exact criteria for ‘good music’ or ‘masterwork’, and how to make a selection, although Dobszay gives some guidelines (18)

Music education should start from the earliest ages: “musical culture must be introduced as early as the nursery school, instead of the usual belated attempt in secondary schools, and must by no means start off with playing an instrument, but by singing”, Kodály stated at a press conference in 1941 (19).

 

From Kodály’s own writings and the writings of Dobszay and Choksy (20) I can derive the following main points concerning Kodály’s philosophy:


1. Music is an indispendable means of human education; it is essential to any complete education and should be a core subject in schools.

2. Comprehensive music education should be primarily vocal. Active participation is made possible by using the voice, an instrument accessible to everyone. Singing evokes the fundamental experience of music, and singing is closely related to musical hearing: auditive abilities can best be developed by singing (21).

3. Folksongs are the essential material for music education, leading gradually to art music. For teaching children, Kodály formulates the sources as 1. authentic children's games, nursery songs and chants, 2. authentic folk music, and 3. high-quality composed music.

4.The sequencing of the material (and with that the skills and concepts to be learned) should be well-thought through and should be child-developmental rather than subject logic (22). The nowadays prevailing principle in Kodaly teaching "prepare-present-practice" is in line with this (23).

5. Music education should start as early as possible.

6. It is important to teach musical reading and writing (alongside inner hearing, never as a technical routine); musical literacy is as universally possible as linguistic literacy.

7. Relative solmisation is the most effective tool: Kodály included it in his method, based on the system of Curwen (24), by the use of which he linked the skill of inner hearing to the skill of literacy. In relative solmisation, the music reading elements and the auditive elements form a unity (25).

  

The above list might suggest an order of importance, but every point is equally valuable.

 

Teaching according to the Kodály concept today means teaching according to an accumulation of pedagogical and didactical methods and techniques as they were initially developed by the direct followers of Kodály, starting with Ádám. This expansion lasts until today, where I notice a lot of other elements associated with Kodály teaching. I will therefore make the distinction between the method, being the initial school music method, and the concept, being today’s conception of the accumulation of ideas and tools. As such, seeing the latter thus as much broader.

In this concept the main principles listed above are still valid. Early additions consisted of the use of hand signs (26) and rhythm syllables (27). Another addition is the incorporation of elements of Eurhythmics, musical training through rhythmic movement, as it was developed my Emile Jacques-Dalcroze (28).

 

Another, relatively more recent principle associated with Kodály is the principle of PPP. The three P’s stand for Prepare, Present and Practice. Sequencing and PPP are in line with each other, logically, and go hand in hand. The idea is that a new skill or musical concept first has to be thoroughly prepared, before making the concept conscious and present its name, and/or symbol. Repetition is vital for the newly learned concept: practice the concept by applying it to other musical contexts. This way of sequencing will enhance musical skill acquisition and will lead to a deeper musical understanding.

The three P’s will constantly overlap, preparing one concept while practicing another.

The emphasis is on the preparation phase: this is the phase of active involvement, the actual music-making, of experiencing the music. This is also the reason why the repertoire keeps such a close relationship with the sequencing of learning objectives: the PPP principle leads, as it were, to an infinite chain of musical development (29).

 

I want to include here some remarks about how the Kodály concept was profiled during the Master course, because this has influenced my teaching most directly.

The lessons in the Master, and especially the international masterclasses (30), have pointed out to me the importance to teach music in its entirety. For example, to look beyond melody, and take the total layering of music into account. It comes down to the fact, that in music teaching, attention must be paid to all the different parameters in music: melody and tonality, beat, rhythm and metre, form and phrasing, polyphony and harmony, dynamics, texture, timbre, musical character and style.

In all those areas a teacher has to foster skill acquisition. The means by which this is achieved, as I saw particularly in the model lessons, is first and for all an extensive use of singing on relative solmisation. Also the use of physical movement is a central tool. In the elementary education there is also use of rhythm syllables.

These lessons were quite often a prime example of the PPP principle, and showed me how to possibly sequence repertoire, interlocking skills and concepts on the way.

 

As I have perceived the Kodály concept over the last three years of active participation in courses and masterclasses, in combination with reading the ‘authorities’ on Kodály, I found it to be this mixture of well chosen tools and techniques, embedded in pedagogical principles and, also historically, rooted in a social and cultural philosophy. This imparts the concept of a complex layering, while at the same time it is a unity.