Music in educationThe mathematical understanding of time, as such, is less important
than the joyous sense of rhythm and rhythmic action. Use should be
made of movement and of spontaneous rhythmic sounds, various forms
of rhythmical dictation, improvisation of musical forms, rhythmical
accompaniments to singing, rhythmical canons, exercises in the recog-
nition of rhythms while listening to music, rhythmical word patterns,
and the discovery of ostinato rhythms suited to the form of certain
melodies.
Provided that the work is done under the direction of a teacher who
is fully aware of the value of such exercises, all these methods can make
rhythm a source of real enjoyment.
Po~phzy and harmoy. The most important thing is to make the pupils’
hearing more sensitive. In opposition to the old school, whose system
was to teach choral singing part by part so that the children closed
their ears to the sounds made by the other singers, the modern method
is to make each of them not only listen to the different parts simulta-
neously, but also work constructively to produce harmony. Under the
teacher’s guidance, the pupils can try to find polyphonic strands and
harmonies while listening to the voices of the others. Especially at the
beginning, these harmonies will be fairly simple such as those of which
Carl Orff has given us such fine examples, in the form of ostinato,
sounds of the horn, parallel thirds and sixths, root notes, etc.
Such methods will make ‘harmony’ and ‘polyphony’ something more
than abstract terms to the pupils, who will become aware of the multi-
tude of strands of sound, of the functional organization of harmonies
and the beauty of its shading.
By systematic work of this kind, an intelligent teacher will enable his
pupils to sing their choral parts more independently and equip them to
be hardworking and interested members of choral societies.Thepoint of view of form. Singing, instrumental music, the improvisation
of simple forms, and exercises in listening to short works by the great
masters will make the pupils more sensitive to the beauty of form. They
will learn to recognize and appreciate symmetrical structures, themes
and their variations, and the architectonic beauty of the songs they
sing and of simple compositions.
In the same way, they can be made sensitive to timbre and to dyna-
mic and agogical characteristics, etc.