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

The training of the teacher

THE TRAINING OF MUSIC TEACHERS

IN GERMANY

by

Dietrich STOVEROCK, Deputy-Director, Music Academy, Berlin

In primary schools music is taught not by a specialist but by the pri-

mary teacher himself, who is in charge of all other subjects. In secon-

dary and intermediate schools, it is taught by specialized teachers.

MUSIC TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

These teachers are all, except in a few cases, trained in one or other of
the sections of the Higher School of Music. To enter this school, can-
didates must have passed the secondary school-leaving examination,
as well as an examination to test their artistic and teaching qualities.
The course lasts four or five years; the student takes, simultaneously,
a university course in some secondary subject, such as German,
history, English or French, but this can be broken off after two
years.
The student’s training comprises a number of musical activities, viz. :
singing and articulation; instrumental music (specialization in piano,
or organ, or a stringed or wind instrument; if a stringed or wind
instrument is chosen as the main subject in the examination, the piano
is also compulsory) ; aural training through harmony and counterpoint;
the reading of scores; the conducting of choirs or orchestras.
The student must initiate himself into the art of music, the history
of music, teaching in general and music teaching in particular, and
practical work with groups of young pupils.
He must choose whatever subject he thinks it best to specialize in,
from among the following: singing or instrumental music (if he has a
real gift for it), articulation and diction, improvisation, composition,
rhythm, and the science of music (general history of music, aesthetics
and acoustics).
On the philosophical and psychological plane, the study of music
teaching requires that the student has a basis of general culture; it