Music in educationSCHOOL MUSIC EDUCATION
IN GERMANY
bY
Egon KRAUS, Chairman, Association of German School Music EducatorsWhen we speak of the reform of school music, in Germany today,
we have in mind the organic development that began about 1900 and,
at the end of two successive periods of 25 years, produced tangible
results (School Music Decrees of 1925 and 1950). The beginning of
this development was marked by the Art Education Movement
(Kunsterziehungsbewegung) and, in conjunction with modern peda-
gogical trends, the activities of the German Musical Youth Movement
(Deutsche Jugendmusikbewegung).
The annihilating criticism which the Englishman, John Hullah,
levelled at German school music and the musical ignorance of the
German people (1880) provoked the publication of a provocative me-
moir by the future director of the Berlin High School of Music, Her-
mann Kretzschmar, whose Mtcsikalische Zeigragen (1 903) vividly des-
cribes the straits in which music teaching and the encouragement of
music found themselves at the turn of the century.
The maxim (attributed to Kretzschmar) that ‘the fate of German
music is decided in the schools’ is just as valid today as it
ever was.
Like all other forms of music education, the music lesson aims at
developing the child’s creative powers. This will be possible only if it
ceases to be regarded, as in the past, as the technical subsidiary subject
of singing but is made part of a general education, thus belonging to
the very essence of school training and school life. Theimportance
of the materials and methods to be used in music education has been
discussed during several conferences on the teaching of music held
since 1927. Today, all serious discussions on this subject are based on
the following principle: ‘School music education must awaken and
foster the instinctive pleasure which children take in expressing them-
selves through music. The aim of singing and music is not only to
develop the child’s musical knowledge and skill, but also to appeal to