S1:E9 Part I,II and III about the Triple Threat (Dalcroze, Kodály and Orff)

The Triple Threat.

Dalcroze, Kodály and Orff.

These three approaches were begun in the 20th century and have impacted music education in tremendous ways.  For episode 9, I split it into three parts with each podcast focusing on one approach.

Part I - Dalcroze 

Emile Jacques was born on July 6, 1865 to Swiss parents who were living in Vienna.  He studied at the Paris Conservatory in 1884.  In 1886, he became the assistant conductor and chorus master at the Theater des Nouveaux in Algiers, North Africa.  During this position, it is thought that he added a new last name to avoid confusion with being thought to be a composer with the same last name of Emile Jacques in Borgeaux, France.  Emily took the name of Valcroze from a friends, but changed the 'V' to a 'D' and became Dalcroze.  In 1887, Jacques-Dalcroze moved to Vienna and became a student of Anton Bruckner at the Vienna Conservatory for a short period.  It appears that there was tension between the student and the teacher - Bruckner asked him to learn certain things that Dalcroze didn't want to learn.

According to Virginia Mead, author of the book Dalcroze Eurythmics in Today's Music Classroom, Dalcroze was described as being caring, warm-hearted, and having a keen sense of humor while maintaining deeply held convictions.  At times he became overly stern and harsh, but always apologized afterward in a calm and quiet tone.  His piano improvisations were the aspect remembered by students with admiration and awe.  

In 1892, at the age of 27, he became the Professor of Harmony, Solfege and Composition at the Geneva Conservatory in Vienna.  He observed that students, particularly his solfege students, were studying theory through writing and reading and not with sound.  They were taught how to perform pieces, but didn't understand how to truly hear and listen to what was being played.  Their expressiveness was absent.  This was when Dalcroze began to create ear training exercises for students and trying out ideas with children's classes.

From 1903-1905, Dalcroze demonstrated his ideas with success throughout Europe.  He was encouraged to write down his ideas and published his Methode Jaques-Dalcroze in 1906.  Some of his exercises include:

1) Following Exercises: where students step to the tempo of the music or the exact rhythm of a piece as the teacher plays on the piano or with a recorded piece

2) Quick Response Exercises:  beginning with a certain movement to part of a piece and reacting to the change heard in the music (ex// walking to the beat moving forward and changing direction to walk a different path every time the teacher plays a specific pattern or whenever the teacher calls out a specific word like "ding!")

3) Interrupted Canon Exercises: echoing

4) Canon Exercises:  teacher plays a melody on the piano and students step the rhythm of that melody, two beats behind - the student then creates a canon along with the piano.

Many times these exercises are explored as games.  Dalcroze believed that joy is the most powerful stimulus for learning.  In fact, this was a belief held by Orff and Kodaly as well.  Students learn through play.  And while they are playing, they are joyful and active and learning.

There are three main elements within the Dalcroze approach:
1) Rhythmics (movement)
2) Solfege/Ear Training
3) Improvisation

Part II - Kodály 

Zoltan Kodaly was born on December 16, 1882 in Kecskemet, Hungary.  Kodaly studied piano, violin, and sang in the cathedral choir when he was younger.  He took classes at the University of Sciences in 1900 in Budapest, but switched to study music at the Academy of Music two years later.  his thesis in 1906 was on the "Strophic Construction in Hungarian Folk Song."  Kodaly traveled to villages to collect folk songs that were authentic to the Hungarian people.  He met Bela Bartok and together they transcribed and collected folk song material.  He returned to Budapest in 1907 where he was a teacher of theory at the Academy of Music.  In 1935, along with Jeno Adam, he began a long-term project to change music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools.  He published several books about his approach.  Hungarian schools used his ideas in their classrooms and the music program in schools in 1940 became known as the Kodaly method.  In 1958 his approach was presented at an International Society for Music Educators (ISME) Conference in Vienna.  The ISME Conference in Budapest allowed for educators to see the approach first hand and it took off.

In addition to working with children and teachers, Kodaly composed numerous pieces for orchestra, two operas, and chamber, instrumental, and choral works.  Two of his most famous works are the Hary Janos Suite and Variations on a Folk Song (known as the Peacock Variations).  He also wrote materials that were used with students and put together materials of songs he collected.  An example is Bicinia Hungarica, which includes songs and resources Kodaly put together for use with students to help with 2-part singing.  They can also be used as introductions to his larger works.

Kodaly believed that only the best was good enough for children.  He believed that students should be taught music in their native tongue, that music should be authentic, and from their personal culture. The repertoire chosen was of utmost importance with a focus on folk songs, movement, and cultural music games/dances.  Singing was at the core of musical experience and the most direct means of education.

The development of the Kodaly approach took shape as Hungarian educators used techniques that were associated with Kodaly, but not necessarily started by him.  Some of these techniques and tools include the Curwen hand signs, solfege, rhythmic syllables, and a shorthand way for notating rhythms.

Part III - Orff 

Carl Orff was born in 1895 in Munich, Germany.  At age 16, some of his works were published.  He studied at the Munich Academy of Music until 1914 when he served in the German Army during WWI.  After the war he held different positions in opera houses and then returned to Munich to study music. In 1920 he began to work on the concept of elemental music.  In 1924 the Guntherschule was created, along with Dorothee Gunther, for students who wanted to study music and dance.  It was here that Orff tested out his ideas about musical education.  He is best remember for his Schulwerk (School Work). Pieces were composed and published for the Guntherschule for students (ages 12-22) and the Schulwerk was the title for his books based on radio broadcasts in Bavaria in 1949.  The pieces were collected into the Music fur Kinder (Music for Children books.

His former student, Gunild Keetman, was a huge contributor to the Orff approach.  Many of the pieces that are published in the Music for Children volumes, pretty much all (if not all) of the recorder pieces and much of the work done in teaching the Orff approach at the very onset of it.  Gunild Keetman was in charge of teaching the children in the early stages starting in 1928 and particularly in the direction the students who performed on the radio broadcasts in 1949. She was a student of Dorothee Günther and Carl Orff when she was in her young 20’s.  In 1936, she composed the music and was in charge of directing the Güntherschule performance for the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Munich, Germany.

Gunild Keetman

Keetman was also the teacher who assumed the responsibility of figuring out how to play the recorder.  When the instrument arrived, she told Orff to give her some time to figure out the fingering patterns and notes.  Not long after, she began teaching the recorder to students and in fact, any recorder piece in the Music for Children volumes can be attributed to Keetman.

The Music for Children volumes - there are 5 of them - were published so that we could see how pieces were composed and gain ideas for how to do this work with our students.  They were not meant to be used verbatim and taught as written - though many educators do this with some of the pieces, myself included. Some of the songs are just so incredible the way that they are and I love simply using them and finding ways to teach them.  However, we have more creativity and possibilities with them rather than teaching them as is. We are free to modify the pieces - simplifying them, to write original texts to the rhythms and melodies to use with our students and to change/manipulate the instrumentation to fit our individual classrooms.  Something I love about these volumes is how they are set up. All of the volumes demonstrate the use of ostinati, bordun, and appropriate texts for use with students.

Volume I - all pentatonic pieces.  While all of these pieces are in C pentatonic, remember that you can alter them to another pentatonic scale such as G or F easily!  Doesn’t work perfectly for each one, but if exploring different pentatonic scales, you don’t have to stay in C. A great addition or new section to some of the pieces would be to create or transfer melodies to recorder and play in G pentatonic.

Volume II - has two parts.  First one is drone bass which includes pieces in hexatonic scale (six note scale) and in Ionian mode.  The second part is exploring triads. Several songs using a tonic and supertonic triads (Major I chord and minor 2 chord).  Then a few songs using Tonic and submediant triads (Major I chord and minor six chord).

Volume III - dominant and subdominant triads - exploring I, IV and V chords.  One of the most popular pieces is Street Song on page 48. My students love this one, I love this one and it’s a piece you’ve likely heard on a Lenscrafter commercial a few years ago.

Volume IV - has two parts.  Part One is drone bass which includes pieces in aeolian, dorian and phrygian modes.  Lots of little gems, as Jacque Schrader called them in level 2. The second part is tonic and leading tone triads, tonic, subtonic and other triads.  I love major I - minor vii chord songs - a great way to get students improvising! And sounds so cool.

Volume V - dominant and subdominant triads.  I haven’t spent as much time with this volume and being that I’m having a hard time explaining more about it, just tells me I need to get it open and work with it!