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

Music in &cation

THE MARTENOT METHOD

(Fundamental principles of a music education inspired

by new educational methods)

by

Maurice MARTENOT, Professor, Conservatoire National de Musique, Paris, France

The fundamental principles of music education, based on modern edu-
cational methods, are as follows: (a) The process of artistic develop-
ment follows in the main the evolution of the arts throughout the
history of mankind. A system of teaching which takes due account of
this fact is in harmony with the laws of nature and produces the best
results. (b) At every stage in art education, M appeal should be made
to creative imagination. (c) Instruction in theory and the mastering
of techniques always tend to divert art from its true function; the
teacher should therefore strive at all times to place greater stress on
the spirit than on the letter. (d) Anyone teaching an art must always
keep the real aim in view. However brilliant the results achieved may
seem, he will have failed in his true purpose unless he sows the seeds
of a deep love of music which will flourish and develop as long as life
lasts. (e) A good teaching system should constantly make allowance
for the considerable differences, both physiological and psychological,
between children and adults.
For instance, the only exercises demanded of children should be
those which can be performed at the tempo which is natural to them,
the average speed of physiological processes in children being more
rapid than in adults; care should be taken to ensure that any practice-
game or musical performance expresses something that is in harmony
with the child’s natural impulses, and that, especially, at the beginning,
the effort he is asked to furnish should always be short and intense
(intensive effort), as are the child’s spontaneous activities, and as sel-
dom as possible sustained and moderate (extensive effort).
Contrary to the traditional procedure, the child should not be asked
immediately to produce music within the narrow limits of our accepted
conventions. With the young and untutored, in particular, to strive too
early for the exact melodic and rhythmic reproduction of expressive
impulses, at the expense of vitality, or to insist too soon on such repro-
duction, is to destroy the seed of spontaneous expression before it can