Music Education in Russia

7/28/2019 Music Education in Russia

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Title:!Music!Education!in!Russia!

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Author(s):!Gennady!Pozhidayev!!

Source:!Pozhidayev,!G.!(1993,!Fall).!Music!education!in!Russia.!The$

Quarterly,!4(3),!pp.!5A7.!(Reprinted!with!permission!in!Visions$of$Research$in$Music$Education,$16(4),!utumn,!2010).!Retrieved$from$

http://wwwCusr.rider.edu/~vrme/!!

It$ is$ with$ pleasure$ that$ we$ inaugurate$ the$ reprint$ of$ the$ entire$ seven$ volumes$ of$ The!

Quarterly! Journal! of! Music! Teaching! and! Learning.! ! The$ journal$ began$ in$ 1990$ as$ The!

Quarterly.! ! In$1992,$with$volume$3,$the$name$changed$to$ The!Quarterly!Journal!of!Music!

Teaching!and!Learning!and$continued$until$1997.$$The$journal$contained$articles$on$issues$

that$were$timely$when$they$appeared$and$are$now$important$for$their$historical$relevance.$$

For$ many$ authors,$ it$ was$ their$ first$ major$ publication.$ $ Visions! of! Research! in! Music!

Education$will$publish$facsimiles$of$each$issue$as$it$originally$appeared.$$Each$article$will$be$

a$separate$pdf$file.$$Jason$D.$Vodicka$has$accepted$my$invitation$to$serve$as$guest$editor$for$

the$ reprint$ project$ and$ will$ compose$ a$ new$ editorial$ to$ introduce$ each$ volume.$ $ had$

Keilman$is$the$production$manager.$$I$express$deepest$thanks$to$Richard$olwell$for$granting$

VRME$permission$to$reCpublish$The!Quarterly$in$online$format.$$He$has$graciously$prepared$

an$introduction$to$the$reprint$series.!


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Music Education in RussiaBy Gennady Pozhidayev

Guest CO-Editor) Moscow) Russia

The radical changes that have takenplace in Russia in recent yearsconcerning social or-der and the economy havenot altered our lives in theareas of culture and educa-tion. In our society, these arevery stable structures that havedeveloped over centuries ofupsurge and decline.Therefore, the fact that the

Soviet Union no longer ex-ists, and that the Common-wealth of Independent Stateshas come into being, by nomeans changes our views ofculture and education or thetraditions of music education.Although the articles in thisissue address the problemsof music education specifi-cally in Russia, these articlesrelate in many respects to allthe republics of the formerUnited Soviet Socialist Re-public (USSR). These stateshave a long tradition of exchanging theoreticalideas and teaching experiences, thus integrat-ing the practices of music education.Music education has many facets, and the

space allotted in this issue of The Quarterlyjournal of Music Teaching and Learning isnot sufficient to cover it in full. Therefore,the articles by Russian music educators are

limited to the topic of public education, leav-ing aside matters of professional music train-

ing such as educating com-posers, music scholars, andperformers. The articlesfocus on music educationin the general educationalschools, which providefree public education forall children in grades 1through 11; grades 1through 9 are compulsory.Moreover, these articles aredevoted mainly to the mu-sic education curriculumfirst adopted for use in thegeneral educational schoolsof Russia some 20 yearsago. The syllabus waswritten by Dmitry Kabalev-sky 0904-1987), a well-known composer, teacher,and world-renowned musiceducator.As a composer, Kabalev-sky needs no introduction.

He wrote operas, concertos for young per-formers, four symphonies, a requiem that hasbeen performed in a number of countries,several wonderful piano pieces, cantatas forchildren's choir, piano music for children,and many other compositions. Western mu-sic teachers may not know of Kabalevsky'sinvolvement in music education, eventhough for many years he was a leading figurein the International Society for Music Educa-tion (ISME), serving as vice president and thenas honorary president of the organization.What remains relatively unknown are

Kabalevsky's original concepts of public mu-sic education, although some of his workwas published in the West. For example,

[T]he fact that theSoviet Union nolonger exists,and that the

Commonwealth ofIndependent S tates

has con'1.eintobeing, by no

means changes ourviews of cultureand education orthe traditions ofmusic education.

Gennady Pozbidayeu, musicologist and jour-nalist, is the Editor-in-Ch iefof Art at School, theleading music education publication in Russia.He is also the author o/fhe Land of Symphony;Tales About Music; Tchaikovsky in Rome;Spartacus: The Ballet by A. Khachaturian; D.Kabalevsky, and numerous artic les.Volume IV, Number 3 5


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Itwould be wrong to say that Kabalevsky's syllabus has been easilyaccepted by all sclrool rnusic teachers. Teachers who do not wishto surrender their old positions have seriously opposed the docu-rnerit, for they consider school rnusic lessons to be, first and fore-most, lessons in singing.Music and Education: A Composer WritesAbout Musical Education, a book of selectedpedagogical works by Kabalevsky, was pub-lished in four languages by UNESCO in 1988.It took Kabalevsky several decades to de-

velop his pedagogical theories. As early asthe 1930s, he began teaching children andyoung people. He talked about music inconcert halls, on the radio, and on TV. Histalks with children were recorded, and thealbum became very popular. He wrotebooks about music and music education.One of them, an outstanding book aboutmusic for young children enti tled About theThree Whales and Many Other Things, hasbeen translated from Russian into many otherlanguages. When music teachers began touse the book as an instructional aid in plan-ning their lessons, Kabalevsky came to theconclusion that he had developed a new ap-proach to music education for school chil-dren, and that the musical and pedagogicalprinciples on which the book was foundedcould become the basis for a completely newsyllabus for music lessons for the generalschools. At age 69, the professor left theMoscow Conservatory, where he taught com-position, and entered the public schools as ateacher in order to test his system in practice.The success surpassed all his expectations.

Progressive musicians here regard Kabalev-sky's system as a revolution in music educa-tion. Once Kabalevsky said, "There arepeople who composed music better thanmine. But the music syllabus is my life-work!" These words are very important,given his contributions to music education inthe general schools.In this issue of The Quarterly Journal of

Music Teaching and Learning, we offer toreaders Kabalevsky's fundamental article,"The Main Principles and Methods of a MusicSyllabus for General Educational Schools,"abridged and translated. It is the introduc-6

tion to the music syllabus for grades 1through 7, elaborated by Kabalevsky. In ad-dition to the syllabus proper, Kabalevsky alsowrote detailed schemes of every lesson andexplanatory notes to all the yearly programsand individual topics. It would take an en-tire book to publish these along with the les-sons conducted by Kabalevsky that weretaken down in shorthand-and they areworth publishing.Then we offer our colleagues the article

"Intonation in Music" by Tatyana Vendrova.The article focuses on frequently asked ques-tions about intonation. The Russian wordintonazia has little relationship to the Englishword "intonation," which is commonly usedto refer to accuracy of pitch or ensemble tun-ing. lntonazia is similar in meaning to theEnglish word "phrasing," though the Russianword seems far broader.Vendrova points out that Kabalevsky's syl-

labus responds to Asafiev's theory: " ... thewriter, researcher, or critic should help listen-ers realize the process of their perception ofmusic and in this way come to an under-standing of music as a great cultural force."The author also discusses how the new sylla-bus emphasizes to students the importanceof hearing the main body of a compositionand feeling and comprehending the processof a music form comprised of different into-nations and musical elements. Vendrova'sarticle was firs t published in Music at School,a journal founded by Kabalevsky in 1983 andnow renamed Art at School.We also want to show the readers howKabalevsky's system has been adopted by ourscholars, and how they have developed hisideas. This can be seen in the artic le "Develop-ing Children's Artistic Thinking with Images inMusic Lessons" by 1. Goryunova and 1. Shkolyar.The theory and practice in preschool music

education has also been influenced by thenew approach to music teaching. Evidence

The Quarterly Journal o f Mus ic Teach ing and Learning


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of this can be found in the article "Music inKindergarten" by E. Tsarkova and E. Serbina.ew trends can be observed in music

teacher education, too. It is clear that teach-ers who work according to the new prin-ciples of artistic pedagogy should think abouttheir profession in a new way. They shouldconsider the music lesson to be a lesson inart and view their relationship with pupils asjoint participation in creative activity with theaim of understanding the world and one'splace in it. Aspects of music teacher educa-tion are discussed in 1.Pigareva's article,"Training of Music Teachers in Russia."It would be wrong to say that Kabalevsky's

syllabus has been easily accepted by allschool music teachers. Teachers who do notwish to surrender their old positions haveseriously opposed the document, for theyconsider school music lessons to be, first andforemost, lessons in singing. They wish tocontinue the ways of the past, when studentsoften learned songs to be performed at spe-cific functions.Yet it is not simple conservatism thatformed the main obstacle to introducing the

new syllabus; rather, it was the lack of ad-ministrative support of music education.About half our schools do not offer musiclessons, for lack of qualified teachers. In ad-dition, the professional competence of theworking teachers is often very low, for fewof them have graduated from an institution ofhigher education. These teachers also find

their work hindered by a lack of musical in-struments, recordings, and other equipment.Another obstacle is the traditional indiffer-ence to the subject of fine arts education onthe part of school administrators, who stillconsider the arts second-rate subjects. Formany years, the curriculum allocated toolittle time for music: one period of 45 min-utes weekly in grades 1 to 7. (Now, schoolscan allocate more time to the subject andteach it in the upper grades as an elective).All these obstacles can ruin the best syllabusand the most sincere intentions.It appears that Kabalevsky's system will be

adopted by more schools in the future. Hisideas may also become more popular andfind followers in other countries where effi-cient teachers have adequate facilities and,most importantly, a clear understanding thatstudents cannot be educated to distinguishthe really beautiful in art and life from thebanalities and imitations without fostering inthose students a love for music-a love forclassical and folk music as well as the bestworks of contemporary composers.Of course, we don't consider Kabalevsky'ssystem to be a panacea for every problem inteaching music to school children. We hope,however, that together with the well-knownsystems of Orff and Kodaly, Kabalevsky'sphilosophy and syllabus can contribute tothe world-wide experience of children learn-ing about music as an art. ~

Callfor ManuscriptsThe Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning is now seeking manu-

scripts for review and possible publication in the following issue:

Kaleidoscope III, a special issue featuring selected manuscriptson a variety of topics of interest to the music education profession

Advice to Contributors: TQ reviews manuscripts prepared in any scholarly style,such as Chicago or APA. The optimum length of papers is 15 to 20 typed, double-spacedpages. The author's name should not appear on any of the pages, but name, mailingaddress, and phone numbers should appear on the cover sheet. Four copies of thepaper, along with a Mac disk if possible, should be sent to Doree N. Pitkin, ManagingEditor, The Quarterly, 123 Frasier Hall, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO80639. Questions? Call (303) 351-2254 during the morning hours or FAX (303) 351-1923any time.

Volume IV, Number 3 7

Music Education in Russia

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