AS AN ALTERNATIVE DISCIPLINE IN THE EDUCATION CURRICULUM
I. The proposed study
program involves playing mode of studies with children (such studies are
possible starting from the age of four). If the author states something and
wants to be understood, he/she should agree on terminology with an
interlocutor. When speaking of musical thinking it is difficult to agree on
terminology since there is no generally accepted definition of the “musical
thinking” concept. Thinking as such implies the ability to discern between
similar and dissimilar, the ability of ideal structuring of an object in the
process of its cognition, and the ability of such analysis of incoming
information during which at each moment of time there is synthesis of an ideal
notion about the object of perception. The result of such synthesis is an
adequate image of the object, its “Gestalt”.
Musical thinking features all characteristics
of thinking as such with a single exception: musical thinking (in the meaning
offered here) lacks conscious component, i.e. discerning of similar and
dissimilar, analysis of sounding information and synthesis of an ideal notion
about the sounding phenomenon take place unconsciously. The offered course of
study is concerned with forming such intuitive, “predicting”, but at the same
time sensory thinking. The concept of “sensory thinking” sounds like an
oxymoron. Russian “Unabridged Encyclopedic Dictionary” defines thinking as a
possibility “of obtaining knowledge of such objects, properties and relations
of the real world that cannot be directly perceived on the sensory level of
cognition”.
Nevertheless a
listener’s musical thought and meaning of what one is listening to appears to
be something that cannot be translated into a conceptual language; in
particular it is a more or less adequate reconstruction of a sensory object that
has already been created by a composer. Such reconstruction is not limited to
the so-called “sensory level of cognition”. It requires mastery of such rules
that help one to structure sensory information into an organic whole. In other
words, such reconstruction requires one to master musical language, whatever is
meant by it. Thus, for instance, well-developed ear for music of
representatives of different musical cultures, i.e. their increased ability for
the “sensory level of cognition” does not exclude their inability to understand
something that does not belong to their musical culture.
Teaching what we
mean by “musical language” will become development of musical thinking for us.
The ability to predict the incoming musical information and to “co-intone” and
“co-compose” will be a sign of the degree of maturity of musical thinking for
us. Any child is capable of comprehending musical language and developing
musical thinking.
II. The
“Development of musical thinking” education discipline is a complex one
covering the range of knowledge and skills which in Russia is traditionally
covered by such education disciplines as “Solfeggio”, “Theory of music” and
“Musical literature”. Here, at the international conference, we should first of
all determine the “solfeggio” concept. When using this word we by default imply
the so-called “Russian solfeggio” which is a subject aimed at developing ear
for music (and partly musical thinking).
This subject, as
everybody knows, includes the following working modes: intonation exercises,
singing from music, musical dictation and acoustic analysis. In fact only two
working modes are realized – intoning exercises (including singing from music)
and acoustic analysis (including dictation). Because of our customary
understanding of the “solfeggio” term there invariably arise misunderstandings
when communicating with our western colleagues. The thing is that, for example,
in Western Europe, in Latin America and in the US the “solfeggio” concept means
something quite different from what we are used to (for instance, exclusively
“singing from music”), or the word “solfeggio” itself is not used at all (like
in Germany).
It is assumed that
there are two main kinds of ear for music – “recording” and “predicting”.
“Recording ear” determines a sound phenomenon and gives one a chance to give it
a conventional name, but there is no chance to assume the most probable
following element in a musical composition. “Predicting ear” is probabilistic
acoustic thinking; such ear allows one to make most probable assumptions; it is
a kind of ear based on expectations.
Traditional
“Russian solfeggio” develops “predicting ear”, not as an aim, but as a result
of a certain side effect. The aim of the “solfeggio” subject is usually
“recording ear”, i.e. recognition of certain musical phenomena without
orientation towards participating in the intonation process, to
“co-composition”. In the subject that I suggest development of “recording ear”
takes place as well, but as a subsidiary action that supplies “predicting ear”
with necessary material.
Thus, although the
“Development of musical thinking” subject resembles “Russian solfeggio”, there
is a fundamental difference in priorities and, as a result, a different
structure of pedagogical process: a lot of those things that are considered
fundamental in “Russian solfeggio” are derivative in “Development of musical
thinking” and vice versa. My teaching method is based both on the ideas of
semiotics and information theory, and on the known effective methods of the development
of musical ear. Perception is regarded as a homeostatic system reacting on the
disturbances, which come from a musical text. The original form of a relative
solmisation with a “fixed tonic” is used as an aid for learning the musical
fragments and as ear training, as well as a special system of the one-to-one correspondences between the
relative degrees of tonality and spectral colours. The rules that I have
discovered are presumably of objective nature.
III. The main
principle of mastering rhythm in the proposed system is examining rhythmic
phenomena (commonly known as “durations and rests”) not by themselves, but always as
elements of integral rhythmic motive. Acoustic distinguishing of tone durations is
quite complicated as it is. It just seems that relativity and divisibility of
durations helps one to distinguish them. If a whole note lasts, say, four
seconds it does not mean that we will reproduce a half note for two seconds,
and not for 2.1 or 1.9. Moreover, in real performance such deviations are not
only usual but often necessary. Correct definition of divisible durations
happens not because they are divisible, but because they fill relative time
from an accent to an accent (part of the bar, beat) in a hierarchal way like
this: strong position, weak position, weakest position, similar to calculation
systems used in primitive cultures – “one”, “two”, “many”. The farther apart
are the accents, the more difficult it is to guess the next accent, the next
“strong position”. Especially long notes and rests have to be calculated
without relying on intuition. As a result the main difficulty in developing rhythmic perception
is acoustic determination of species of meter in the absence of accompaniment. A
bar-line
marks the “strongest position”. However these “strongest positions” are at such
distance from each other that they cannot be determined by an untrained (and
often by trained) ear. In a musical phrase (or a motive) there is always a
certain culminating point, an accent that is formed in different ways. If such
an accent inside a coherent musical text is repeated regularly, then it most likely coincides with a bar-line. Thus the sense of regular
meter is formed in the process of a musical text perception, and is not
assigned from the outside. Formation of a bar-line takes place in the following
four cases: 1) the accent of the phrase and the bar-line always coincide with
one another; 2) there is a bar-line, but no accent (the bar-line is perceived
from force of inertia, mechanically); 3) there is an accent, but no bar-line
(so-called intra-bar-line syncope); 4) the accent and the bar-line never
coincide with one another (the bar-line is ascertained through the change of
harmony).
Besides, in order
to distinguish sound positions inside a part of the bar a special system of
rhythmic solmisation is suggested. Its outward features have already become
part of Russian “music pedagogical folklore” because they were not published in
proper time. Its essence is that special syllables mark not durations, but rather
sound positions – strong, weak and weakest. Thus using one and the same
syllable different durations may be marked. Such approach goes back to the
system of French 19th century teachers, to the system of Galin-Paris-Chevé. The systems accepted in pedagogical
practice are, as a rule, not position-based, but rather time-measured. The main
thing is that thanks to a special method of identifying culminating accents
children learn to identify caesuras, i.e. to perceive a musical text as a
segmented one, distinctly.
IV. The entire course of study includes the “Musical culture” subject
(see round table materials), as well as a special method of writing dictations,
singing at sight, rhythmical upbringing and methods of acoustic mastery of
chords (up to 32 non-recurrent interval structures in
root close position; in all inversions and positions more than 700 chords), practical mastery of all natural and
altered modes, elements of elementary composition, a course of “harmony melodisation” (unlike generally accepted
melody harmonisation which will take place as well), a special approach to
systems of relationship between the keys, a special approach to developing
polyphonic perception, etc. Thus the entire course of study includes everything
necessary for those who will want to later obtain professional music education
at a conservatoire (University). Individual elements of the course may be used
at a University itself. In a reduced form the course may be used at music
lessons in general school. The aim of such school general education course of
study is not assortment of knowledge about music and not even systematic notion
of musical culture, since such notion without emotional support is of no use
and will be forgotten later on. The aim is to educate such a listener who on
the one hand will be able to get more pleasure from our musical treasures and
on the other hand will him/herself want to enrich and systemize his/her
knowledge.