Masic in education
three and four staves (as in Gregorian music) and finally the ordinary
notation.- For psychological and practical reasons we are averse to basing
vocal musical training on absolute pitch.
Moreover the same interval does not function in the same way in
all modes. A particular interval, which the children know and can
easily grasp in the major mode, becomes harder in the minor or the
mixolydian. The intervals must therefore be viewed in their modal
context.
Mrs. Justine Ward, the inventor of the method, therefore devised
special ‘guidance’ exercises for each mode, exhibiting the note-
sound in their natural ‘inclinations’. - Training of the ear is not done by ‘imitation’. The exercises are so
devised that pupils can themselves find the intervals. We leave them
the pleasure of discovery, of overcoming the difficulties.
I feel that too much, in contemporary teaching theory, is made
of ‘enjoyment’. If some authors are to be believed, all lessons should
be an agreeable pastime, an unending diversion. In some schools
I have seen cupboards which were often more like toy shops. There
is a tendency to forget that real enjoyment is the result of concen-
tration, which is only achieved by fairly hard work. - With regard to the repertory, this must obviously be of a high
standard. In the Ward method, it consists of children’s songs and
traditional songs, folk melodies borrowed from the different
countries, and canons by the great masters. A preponderant place
is given to Gregorian chant, first and foremost because we consider
it the ideal expression of prayer, and also because it is the basis of
all music. It has a richness which nowadays seems to be seldom
achieved, a flexible rhythm free from the tyranny of stave and bar,
and a more extensive modal vocabulary than that of contemporary
music, confined as the latter is to major and minor.
Every form of modern music can be identified in the Gregorian
chant. The Gregorian cantilena is the highest form of art, because
it achieves the maximum of expression with a minimum of resources.
[Translated from fbe French]