THE TRAINING OF THE LISTENER
IN MUSIC APPRECIATION
by
Marcel ANDRIES
Professor of Musical Pedagogy, Lemmens Institute, Malimes, BelgiumThe ideas which will now be put before you are those which have
inspired my lectures on musical pedagogy, given at the Lemmens
Institute, Malines. These lectures are attended by future music teachers
in secondary schools, private schools and &As, by students from the
Royal Academies of Music (conservatoires) at Ghent and Antwerp, and
by practising teachers of music.
These same principles underlie the new music curriculum of the
Belgian National Confederation of Catholic Secondary Education, in
the drafting of which I took an active share.
The Musikalische Jugendbewegung occupied a prominent place in the
great movement which, at the beginning of the present century, aimed
at bringing fresh life into music education. That association did much
to inspire the work of Jode, Dalcroze and Orff, to mention only
the principal composers concerned. Since then, musical pedagogy has
laid special emphasis on the stimulation of musical activity among the
pupils themselves, and on developing their musical capacities to the
fullest possible extent.
These pedagogical trends are gradually beginning to influence our
schools, and it must even be admitted that our teachers welcomed them
so enthusiastically that in some cases they accepted the technical
methods without having a sufficient grasp of their pedagogical impli-
cations.
It may therefore be helpful to say a few words here about the under-
lying significance of all these new methods. You will then readily per-
ceive that all the best publications on the modern teaching of music
are based on the same ideas. Their authors have all been inspired by
the same fundamental principles. Where controversy has arisen, it
touches only on points of detail, and is not always constructive.