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

6. Thenational folkmusicofthepupils mustbe taken as the startingpoint
   for instruction in the modern tonal systems, and in the music of com-
   posers of their own and other countries. This is an application of the
   pedagogic principle of proceeding from the known to the unknown.
   In practice, this amounts to saying that, even as a knowledge of the
   mother tongue is essential for the study of foreign languages, so a
   familiarity with national folk music is vital for the purpose of acquiring
   a true musical education. To ignore folk music in the teaching of music
   would be a retrograde step, a return to the old system of teaching which
   was incomprehensible to the vast majority of people. In order success-
   fully to instil a knowledge of music as part of general education, the
   teaching of sol-fa must be based on a kind of ‘musical humanism’, a way
   of thinking so far unfamiliar to the Balkans. Folk music would serve
   the purpose, not of dividing the peoples, but of drawing them closer
   together; and formal music would still have much to learn, both in
   those countries where folk music is still a living factor and in those
   where it has died out.
   [Translated from the French]

MUSIC

IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

IN SWEDEN

by

Yngve HHREN, Music Consultant, Royal Board of Education

As a superior of music education in Nacka, my main occupation con-
sists in directing a community music school of about nine hundred
pupils. This school is open to children of elementary and high school
ages for instrumental or voice training. The lessons take place at the
end of the day, after ordinary school hours. Music schools of this kind
can be found in most Swedish towns, separated from or attached to
elementary schools; they are supported by the cities.