THE COMPOSER’S
POINT OF VIEW
by
Federico GHEDINI, Director, Conservatoire of Milan, ItalyInvited in my capacity as composer to give an opinion on the profes-
sional musician’s contribution to music education, I wish first to point
out that, of all the questions that have been so successfully discussed
by this international conference organized by Unesco, this is perhaps
the most purely ‘subjective’ one.
I shall describe my experience and my efforts to develop the minds
of young Italian student-composers, to make them familiar, not only
with the music of their own country, but with the vast musical heritage
of the world.
Here I shall speak of the musician considered as composer and teach-
er, or rather of the composer who also spends part of his time in
teaching. As I am addressing an international audience, I must make it
clear that my past and present activities will be described from the
standpoint of an Italian musician who has devoted and is devoting
himself daily to his pupils, who will perhaps become talented com-
posers. I have spent my life at different conservatories, teaching har-
mony, counterpoint, the art of fugue and composition, and carrying
out many interesting experiments.
All studies in the musical field, whether instrumental or theoretical,
are related to a work plan; its duration depends on the nature of the
studies, but it must be scrupulously respected by teacher and pupils
alike.
This compels the teacher to make slight alterations in the syllabus,
according to the type of pupil and his aptitudes. Although I usually
conform to the official plans, I have employed methods corresponding
more closely to our Latin spirit, while awaiting the definitive intro-
duction of a reform which several of my colleagues and I have often
been called upon to discuss with the Ministry of Education. This
reform, which we have recommended, bears mainly on the subjects