International Conference on the Role and Place of Music in the Education of Youth and Adults; Music in education; 1955

Mwic education in the curriculum

TEACHING OF SOL-FA IN COUNTRY SENIOR SCHOOLS

In the senior schools (four years’ supplementary schooling) of the Fede-
ral People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, the teaching of sol-fa is compul-
sory for the first two years only, since the number of teachers in the
subject is insufficient.
The curriculum of these schools, which have been opened by the
State in all large villages, is the same as for the first two years of the
4th; but it is constantly under discussion and is being progressively
adapted to the villages’ needs.
One suggestion under consideration is that for the establishment of
musical centres in the senior schools; these would be, as it were, pri-
mary music schools for the villages, where pupils would receive in-
struction, on the basis of their knowledge of sol-fa, in the playing of
national instruments, and in choral singing; they would also study
elementary musical theory.1

PRINCIPLES OF SOL-FA TEACHING METHODS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

In the light of the success obtained in the teaching of sol-fa by the staff
of the primary schools, the following principles may be laid down:

1. The starting point for all teaching must be the pupil himself, i.e. his
   own musical knowledge, which forms the best basis for his further
   musical education and the part that music will play in his general
   culture?


2. Teaching must be progressive, proceeding from easy subjects to
   more difficult ones and from the known to the unknown.


3. The abstract and unconscious tonal values which shape the melodies
   and rhythms of folk music must be used as a basis for imparting a
   conscious, practical knowledge of tonal and metric patterns.


4. The pupil’s natural creative talent must be developed on the basis
   of tones and accents with which he has become consciously familiar,
   recourse being had to improvisation.


5. When commencing the teaching of sol-fa, it is important to use only
   those scales on which folk music is based, and to avoid the modern
   scales (major and, in particular, minor, harmonic and melodic scales),
   which are unknown in the folk music of most peoples.s


6. See article by Miss Ibberson on ‘Rural Music Schools in England’, p. 151.


7. See article by Yngve Haren on ‘Music in the Elementary School in Sweden’, p. 106.


8. See article by Mr. Yonetken on ‘Music Education and Folk Music’, p. 187.