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Choral
Artistry: A
Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College-Level Choirs, Volume 1 (Kodaly Today Handbook Series) Micheál Houlahan
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Choral Artistry: A Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College-Level Choirs, Volume 1
Choral Sight-Reading: A Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College-Level Choirs, Volume 2
Choral Artistry
A Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College-Level Choirs
Volume 1
Micheál Houlahan & Philip Tacka
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Houlahan, Micheál, author. | Tacka, Philip, author. Title: Choral Artistry : a kodály perspective for middle school to college-level choirs / Micheál Houlahan & Philip Tacka.
Description: New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. | Series: Kodaly today handbook series | Includes index. | Contents: Volume 1. Framing a Choral Curriculum Based on the Kodály Approach—Getting Started: What to Teach During the First Few Weeks of a Choral—Laying the Foundations of Choral Singing Using Folk songs and Folk Song Arrangements—Developing Part-work Skills in the Choral Rehearsal for Beginner—Sound Ways to Develop Audiation, Reading, and Music Theory Skills in the Choral Rehearsal—Music Theory and Sight Reading Sequence for Level 1 Choirs—Music Theory and Sight Reading Sequence for Level 2 Choirs—Music Theory and Sight Reading Sequence for Level 3 Choirs—An Organic Approach to Teaching Sight-reading in the Choral Rehearsal—How We Learn Impacts How We Teach: Creating an Effective Teaching—Putting It All Together: Choral Strategies and Rehearsal Plans—Evaluation and Assessment in the Choral Rehearsal.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034537 (print) | LCCN 2021034538 (ebook) | ISBN 9780197550496 (v. 1; paperback) | ISBN 9780197550489 (v. 1; hardback) | ISBN 9780197550540 (v. 2; paperback) | ISBN 9780197550533 (v. 2; hardback) | ISBN 9780197550519 (v. 1; epub) | ISBN 9780197550526 | ISBN 9780197550564 (v. 2 ; epub) | ISBN 9780197550571
Subjects: LCSH: Choral singing—Instruction and study. | Kodály, Zoltán, 1882–1967.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197550489.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Paperback printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
[ . . . ] eratque tam turpe Musicam nescire quam litteras [from De Musica, by Isidoris Hispalensis]
“Legyen A Zene Mindenkié” [Music should belong to everyone]
Zoltán Kodály
Acknowledgments • ix
Introduction • xi
1 Framing a Choral Curriculum Based on the Kodály Philosophy • 1
2 Getting Started: Launching the Academic Year for Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Choirs • 19
3 Laying the Foundation of Choral Singing Through Folk Songs and Folk Song Arrangements • 64
4 Sequencing Part-Work Skills in the Choral Rehearsal for Beginner (Level 1), Intermediate (Level 2), and Advanced (Level 3) Choirs • 82
5 Sound Ways to Develop Music Theory Skills Through Audiation in the Choral Rehearsal • 117
6 Music Theory and Sight-Reading Sequence for Level 1 Choirs • 138
7 Music Theory and Sight-Reading Sequence for Level 2 Choirs • 182
8 Music Theory and Sight-Reading Sequence for Level 3 Choirs • 218
9 An Organic Approach to Teaching Sight-Reading in the Choral Rehearsal • 284
10 Scaffolding a Teaching Strategy for Choral Music • 311
11 Putting It All Together: Choral Strategies and Rehearsal Plans • 332
12 Evaluation and Assessment in the Choral Rehearsal • 378
Notes • 397 Bibliography • 405 Index • 421
Acknowledgments
We owe a debt of gratitude to the many individuals who inspired, encouraged, and helped us along the way. We were fortunate enough to study at the Franz Liszt Academy/Kodály Pedagogical Institute in Hungary with world-renowned Kodály experts, many of whom were the composer’s pupils and colleagues, who shared their knowledge with us over the course of many years. Among them were Erzsébet Hegyi, Ildikó Herboly-Kocsár, Katalin Komlós, Lilla Gábor, Katalin Forrai, Mihály Ittzés, Klára Kokas, Klára Nemes, Eva Vendrai, Helga Szabó, Laszlo Eősze, Peter Erdei, and Katalin Kiss. Our research is grounded in their many valuable insights and research.
Many of our students in Kodály certification programs have helped us shape the approach to instruction and learning presented herein. Our three decades of working together have contributed to the information we present and serve as a continuing source of inspiration in working with the pedagogical processes we have shaped. Special thanks are due to our students in graduate Kodály choral programs for critically reading portions of the manuscript, field- testing choral plans, and making insightful suggestions regarding this approach to choral pedagogy.
Special acknowledgment must be made to Patty Moreno, director of the Kodály Certification Program, San Marcos, Texas and director of Fine Arts for the Hays Consolidated School District for her support and continued encouragement of this project. Esther Hargittai, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and faculty at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, for her careful reading of the initial manuscript and her helpful suggestions regarding both form and pedagogy. We also thank Melinda Stanton and Jamie Barnett for their comments, which helped us bring this book to completion.
Richard Schellhas deserves special thanks for his patience, understanding, and words of encouragement and advice throughout this manuscript’s writing.
We wish to thank Norm Hirschy, Executive Editor, Sean Decker, Editorial Assistant, Suzanne Ryan, former editor-in- chief for humanities and executive editor of music at Oxford University Press, for their encouragement and critical guidance. We thank Cheryl Merritt, project manager who oversaw editing and production. Thanks to our editor, Jane Zanichkowsky for her impeccable scrutiny and thoughtful editorial assistance with our manuscript.
Introduction
There is a consensus in the field of twenty- first- century choral music education that it should reflect global changes in culture and society and pay attention to the repertoire and learning styles from both the “sound” and the “symbol” choral singing traditions. We need to consider creating choral music curricula that will “define an educational agenda which will synthesize indigenous culture and traditional aurality with the literary and scientific resources of modern formal education.”1 The Kodály perspective provides this type of curriculum because it synthesizes and integrates the learning processes of “sound” musicians, who stress learning music aurally, and “symbol” musicians, who emphasize learning music from a score. This organic approach to teachings prioritizes the role of “sound thinking” in the development of performance and musicianship skills of choral singers. As David J. Hargreaves states, “The intuitive experience and enjoyment of music should come first, such that the later acquisition of formal musical skills occurs inductively. . . . A good deal of traditional music education has worked deductively: the formal rules have been taught in the abstract, for example, through verbal description or written notation, rather than in the practical context of making the sounds themselves.”2 Some research suggests that this “subject-logic” approach often leads to a superficial development of choral singing, as well as aural and sight-reading skills.3
An examination of choral pedagogy books reveals that, in general, they contain the same pedagogical material, regardless of when they were written.4 “A survey of conducting textbooks,” writes Frank Abrahams, “confirms that little has changed in the ways that conductors learn their craft.”5 Many of these publications address various topics relating to the choral rehearsal from historical and theoretical perspectives. Common topics include vocal warm-ups, choral blending, rehearsal strategies, audition procedures, working with different choirs, working with male or female voices, working with groups of varying ages, changing voices, issues relevant to church music settings, and administrative organization. Information is also provided about performance practice, the characteristics of the historical style periods, analyzing a score, and useful pointers for developing more expressive conducting motions. Several publications include extensive repertoire lists, some arranged by voice range. It does not appear that research from the fields of choral pedagogy, music theory, music perception, and cognition is reflected in current choral pedagogy textbooks. Demorest and Abrahams’s publications appear to be the exceptions.6 None of the available books discuss using the Kodály perspective in the choral rehearsal to teach musicianship skills and music literature in middle school, high school, and college-level choirs. Houlahan and Tacka discussed using the Kodály approach with elementary choirs in Kodály Today 7 In his doctoral dissertation, Sumner makes a case for relative solmization within the Kodály context and its application in secondary school music education.8 Nemes provides a historical perspective on the importance of choral singing within the framework of the Kodály approach.9 Xiques’s book Solfège and
Sonority: Teaching Music Reading in the Choral Classroom provides guidance on teaching warm-ups and sight-reading skills derived from choral literature according to the Kodály philosophy. The suggested sight-reading sequence emphasizes a traditional Kodály orientation to learning rhythm and diatonic major solfège syllables.10
Focus discussions and surveys conducted with choral directors reveal their concerns regarding the lack of specificity in choral pedagogy books relating to teaching repertoire alongside music theory, part- work, and sight-reading skills. Many choral directors strive to develop a more holistic approach to teaching choral music, moving beyond activities and toward developmental skill building. They are looking for more guidance on how to
• use the Kodály perspective to create a choral music curriculum,
• teach choral repertoire from all style periods, including global folk music and contemporary and commercial music using a more holistic approach to teaching,
• select repertoire for choirs that can support students’ knowledge of music theory, sight-reading, and part- work skills,
• create vertical alignment between elementary, middle school, high school, and college-level choral programs,
• build student’s audiation skills to improve choral singing and sight-reading skills,
• teach music theory using rhythm syllables, counting with numbers, and singing with solfège syllables, letter names, and scale degree numbers without confusing students,
• incorporate sight-reading into the choral rehearsal so that students can learn and perform more repertoire, and
• develop a choral rehearsal plan that, in addition to teaching repertoire, allows for the sequential development of music theory, sight-reading, and improvisation skills.
We address the above topics from a Kodály perspective in this publication. The philosophy and teaching processes align with the content in Kodály Today, From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music, and national standards in music that promote twenty-first-century music learning.11 There are excellent choral pedagogy books that offer in-depth insights into traditional choral pedagogy. We do not address these topics in this book except to help clarify some aspects of the Kodály approach to the choral singing. (In Chapter 2 we include information about recruitment, auditioning, and classroom management). Our book is a detailed guide to helping choral directors at all levels improve the choral singing and the musicianship of their students according to the Kodály philosophy. We delineate teaching procedures and demonstrate their specific application within the choral rehearsal in considerable detail. Choral directors should use these ideas as a point of departure for their creativity and apply these suggestions in a way that is responsive to their students’ needs, backgrounds, and interests. We expect that choral directors will combine these ideas with their local, state, regional, and national benchmarks for teaching.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: Framing a Choral Curriculum Based on the Kodály Philosophy
This chapter provides an overview of the Kodály approach as it applies to the choral rehearsal. It defines musicianship using the concept of “multiple dimensions of musicianship” defined in Kodály Today and the Kodály in the Classroom series. The multiple
dimensions of musicianship, in combination with the Kodály concept, provide the foundation for developing a music curriculum for choirs. We provide several model choral curriculum templates and choral rehearsal plans.
Chapter 2: Launching the Academic Year for Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Choirs
Here we provide ideas, procedures, and techniques for laying the foundations of choral singing during the first few weeks of choral rehearsals for middle school (Level 1), high school (Level 2), and college-level (Level 3) choirs. We focus on the aspects that best promote and maintain the choral music curriculum learning objectives outlined in Chapter 1. This chapter defines two models for teaching folk songs and canons: Performance Through Sound Analysis (PTSA) and Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN). We provide several choral rehearsal templates and choral plans.
Chapter 3: Laying the Foundations of Choral Singing Through Folk Songs and Folk Song Arrangements
This chapter aims to demonstrate how singing folk repertoires can strengthen the various dimensions of choral singers’ musicianship. Students entering a choral program often already know a selection of folk songs. The choral director can use this repertoire to develop vocal production, part- work, music literacy, improvisation, composition, and arranging and listening skills. (In Chapter 11 we demonstrate how to use folk songs to teach choral repertoire by Béla Bartók, Eric Whitacre, and John Tavener.) The chapter ends with an overview of Kodaly’s choral legacy— two- and three-part repertoire composed by Kodály based on folk stylistic elements, classical art music, and Kodály’s unaccompanied choral compositions. This repertoire can be used to develop sight-reading, part-hearing, and part- singing skills and as an introduction to choral repertoire.
Keywords: choral folk songs, folk song arrangements, Kodály Choral Library
Chapter 4: Sequencing Part-Work Skills in the Choral Rehearsal for Beginner (Level 1), Intermediate (Level 2), and Advanced Choirs (Level 3)
This chapter provides ideas for building better listening skills via the progressive development of part-hearing and part- singing. Part- singing is the ability to sing multipart music; part-hearing is the ability to hear other voice parts while singing your part. Both are acquired skills. We devote time to helping students build their part-hearing and partsinging in both homophonic and polyphonic music. We apply the Performance Through Sound Analysis (PTSA) and Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN) models to learning two-part folk song arrangements. The ultimate goal is to provide ideas that build students’ voices and ears simultaneously by concentrating on intonation and inner hearing. The chapter ends with a summary of the most important stylistic characteristics for the major compositional periods.
Keywords: part- work skills, style characteristics
Chapter 5: Sound Ways to Develop Music Theory Skills Through Audiation in the Choral Rehearsal
This chapter is an overview of the pedagogical tools that foster the development of audiation, notation, reading, and music theory skills in the choral rehearsal taught from a Kodály perspective.12 Choral directors often adopt specific teaching tools based on their own educational experiences. They may not, therefore, recognize the benefits of adopting pedagogical tools because they do not fully understand how to incorporate them into the choral rehearsal. Audiation and music literacy skills are essential dimensions of what it means to be a musician. The way we teach these skills can significantly enhance an ensemble’s sound and ability to learn how to sight-read.
Keywords: rhythmic tools, takadimi rhythm syllables, solfège syllables, hand signs, performance to notation, sound to symbol
Chapter 6: Music Theory and Sight-Reading Sequence for Level 1 Choirs
This chapter aims to delineate a pedagogy that develops students’ ability to think in sound. This ability directly impacts students’ part-hearing and part- singing skills as well as their ability to sight-read music confidently. We offer a process to teach music theory using the Houlahan and Tacka Sound to Symbol model for beginning choirs. Students first actively explore music’s sounds before being introduced to music symbols and music theory knowledge in this practical approach. This specific pedagogy enables students to enhance their audiation or inner hearing and listening skills and part- work skills and then apply these skills to sight-reading. Students learn how to listen to and internalize music, describe music with rhythm or solfège syllables without reference to notation, notate music, and finally, apply their knowledge of music to sight- singing, performing on a keyboard, composing, and improvising music. We have provided two levels for use in the middle school: Level 1A for use with sixth-grade or first- year participants, and Level 1B for seventh and eighth grade. The seventeen units in Level 1A begin with introducing phrase and form and continue through the notes of the major diatonic scale. The twentyfive units in Level 1B begin with a review of Level IA concepts but include the more intensive practice of intervals and reading in different key signatures. Level 1B also includes an introduction to diatonic minor tonalities and beginning harmony.
Keywords: sight-reading, music theory sequence, middle school choirs, takadimi rhythm syllables, solfège syllables, performance to notation, sound to symbol
Chapter 7: Music Theory and Sight-Reading for Level 2 Choirs
This chapter aims to continue developing the students’ ability to think in sound and learn more advanced rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic elements. The Level 2A theory sequence is intended for high school and college-level non-auditioned choirs, and Level 2B for auditioned high school and auditioned collegiate groups.
Keywords: sight-reading, music theory sequence, high school choirs, takadimi rhythm syllables, solfège syllables, performance to notation, sound to symbol
Chapter 8: Music Theory and Sight-Reading Sequence for Level 3 Choirs
This chapter adds to students’ ability to think in sound and learn more advanced rhythmic and melodic elements and harmonic chord progressions presented within the context of stylistic periods. The music theory sequence is intended for varsity-level high school ensembles and auditioned collegiate groups. The chapter contains teaching strategies for advanced rhythmic and melodic concepts and elements and a section on teaching twentieth- and twenty- first- century repertoire. The final section addresses harmonic skills by means of singing and harmonic repertoire analysis, particularly canons and chord progressions. The goal is to help choral students become more aware of harmonic elements to improve their intonation and develop more advanced part- work skills.
Keywords: sight-reading, music theory sequence, high school choirs, college-level choirs, takadimi rhythm syllables, solfège syllables, performance to notation, sound to symbol
Chapter 9: An Organic Approach to Teaching Sight-Reading in the Choral Rehearsal
The goals of this chapter are to identify the skills necessary to support effective sightreading and to provide an overview of ways to develop these skills during the choral rehearsal. Finding ways to develop the ability to sight-read should be one of the choral director’s primary goals. We are convinced that teaching sight-reading should be an organic process. It is also multi-dimensional; it needs to be approached sequentially and thoughtfully.
Chapter 10: Scaffolding a Teaching Strategy for Choral Music
This chapter provides guidelines for analyzing, learning and memorizing, conducting, and teaching a score. We provide specific preparation and presentation, and practice activities for teaching a score to a choir. Included is a discussion of incorporating more strategies using the Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN) model. The chapter concludes with an expanded choral rehearsal plan that integrates the preparation, presentation, and practice activities for learning a new score.
Keywords: conductor’s guide, choral rehearsal plan
Chapter 11: Putting It All Together: Choral Strategies and Rehearsal Plans
Here we present strategies for teaching specific repertoire ranging from a medieval canon to the music of Béla Bartók, John Tavener, and Eric Whitacre. Each strategy includes preparation activities, taught during the vocal warm-up and the performance and music theory sections of the rehearsal; presentation activities using the Performance Through
Sound Analysis (PTSA) and Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN) models of learning, taught during the section of rehearsal devoted to learning choral repertoire; and practice activities, taught during the part of the rehearsal for practicing octavo repertoire. The chapter concludes with a guide to long- and short- term planning.
Keywords: choral strategies, rehearsal plans
Chapter 12: Evaluation and Assessment in the Choral Rehearsal
This chapter provides rubrics for evaluating choral directors in terms of planning and teaching. We also offer rubrics for assessing student achievement in the choral rehearsal, including sight-reading.
Keywords: sight-reading assessment, sight-reading rubrics, choral director assessment
Outstanding Features
Research-Based and Field-Tested
We are fortunate to work with choral directors who have field- tested the materials and teaching sequences in this book. We have combined these ideas with current research findings in music perception and cognition to develop a model for music instruction and learning that will promote students’ musical understandings and metacognition skills. We have worked to present a clear picture of how one develops a choral music curriculum based on the philosophy of Kodály, as well as the teaching and learning processes required to execute this curriculum.
Practical Choral Curriculum and Choral Rehearsal Plan
This guide provides choral directors with practical approach to both a choral curriculum and choral rehearsal plans that translates into a comprehensive choral curriculum framework. Understanding the connections between performance, repertoire, music theory, sight-reading, improvisation, and musicological knowledge about choral repertoire provides the structural foundations for creating a music curriculum and choral rehearsal plans for beginning as well as advanced choral singers.
Teaching the Skill of In- tune Singing with Solfège Syllables
We include exercises that develop singing, audiation, and part-hearing skills presented in sequential order. We demonstrate how to teach the basic melodic and rhythmic building blocks of music using a “sound to symbol” orientation to the music that develops more confident readers and sight- singers.
Sequential Development of Part-Work Skills
Part-hearing is the ability to hear and audiate another voice part or parts while singing your own part. Part- singing is the ability to sing multi-part music. There are few, if any, resources that specifically teach part-hearing and part- singing in the rehearsal, connected
to the repertoire; choral conductors often view these as innate talents. Our text provides a systematic approach to the development of both skills. (See Chapter 4.)
Teaching Music Theory Via Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation to Enhance Audiation: Sound and Symbol
We believe that music theory must be taught via the analysis and performance of repertoire. We use the Houlahan and Tacka Sound to Symbol model for teaching music theory concepts in the context of the choral rehearsal. Integrated into this model are suggestions for teaching musical elements through performance that develop audiation skills, knowledge of rhythm, knowledge of solfège syllables, and associated music theory concepts.
Culturally Appropriate Models for Teaching Choral Repertoire
We use two approaches to teaching choral music: Performance Through Sound Analysis Pedagogy (PTSA) and Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN). We use the PTSA model to teach “sound repertoires” such as global folk music and commercial music. We use the PTSAN model to teach “symbol repertoires” such as folk music belonging to the students’ culture, classical music, and recently composed works. Throughout the book we discuss these two approaches in detail and how they are used for teaching literature and developing improvisation skills.
Teaching Repertoire from Medieval Music to Twenty-FirstCentury Choral Literature
This Oxford Guide provides choral directors with a template for teaching repertoire from the medieval era to the present. Each chapter in the book delineates the many skills that students need to develop and provides the pedagogical techniques to help them do so. Chapter 11 offers several practical templates for teaching various music styles, building on the skills and techniques presented in Chapters 1–10.
Practical Choral Rehearsal Plans
This publication includes two central choral plans: Choral Rehearsal Plan 1 for the first few weeks of choral rehearsals and Choral Rehearsal Plan 2 for teaching choral repertoire. Choral Rehearsal Plan 1 provides ensemble directors with a template for teaching basic or advancing music theory concepts, developing students’ voices, and developing tuneful singing at the start of the term. Choral Rehearsal Plan 2 offers a plan for teaching vocal warm-ups, music theory through performance, repertoire, improvisation, composition, arranging, and sight-reading.
An Accompanying Sight-Reading Book
Sight-Reading in the Choral Rehearsal: A Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College includes basic and advanced music theory concepts for developing fluent sight-reading
skills for standard choral repertoire. This publication provides the music and follows the process outlined in Chapters 6-8 of Volume one for teaching music theory concepts
Organic Pedagogy
This guide provides choral directors with a curriculum and rehearsal models that place performance, audiation, part- work, music theory, and sight- singing skills at the heart of the choral experience. Our “sound thinking” approach to teaching results in greater efficiency in creating independent choral singers and performing a more varied repertoire.
Vertical Alignment
The pedagogy used in this book offers a compelling example of how to achieve vertical alignment between the elementary, middle school, high school, and college choral programs. The approach we delineate develops routines and procedures common to choral rehearsals regardless of level and teaching philosophy.
Writing Style
The writing style is accessible; it is clear and descriptive. We provide many examples and activities that translate theoretical learning and an instruction model into a practical handbook for teaching choral music.
Who Should Read This book?
Choral Artistry is designed primarily for middle school, high school, and college choral directors, as well as undergraduate and graduate music education and conducting students. This book should also be of interest to college professors who conduct choirs and teach undergraduate or graduate choral pedagogy courses. Other interested readers include elementary music choral directors who teach honors choirs.
Using Choral Artistry
The following are some of the ways to use this publication
Applying the Kodály Concept in the Choral Rehearsal
Read this book to understand how the Kodály approach can impact the development of a choral program. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Kodaly concept and a framework for a choral curriculum. Chapters 10 and 11 apply the Kodály perspective to teaching approaches for choral repertoire and a rehearsal plan to implement the choral strategy.
Integrating of Folk Songs in the Choral Rehearsal
Chapter 3 addresses the use of folk songs as a foundation for teaching music theory concepts and elements. In Chapters 10 and 11 we demonstrate how to use simple folk songs to prepare choral repertoire ranging from the medieval era to contemporary music.
Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate how folk songs can be used for teaching part- work skills and basic “sound” music theory skills during the first few weeks of choral rehearsals.
Teaching Music Theory and Sight-Reading
Chapter 5 presents an overview of music tools used to develop sight-reading skills. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 discuss teaching music theory and sight-reading skills by mean of performance for beginning, intermediate, and advanced choirs. Chapter 9 presents an organic approach to teaching sight-reading.
Teaching Part- work Skills
Chapter 4 offers techniques and a teaching progression for developing part- work, parthearing, and part- singing strategies. We also include a discussion of how an understanding of stylistic elements impacts the development of part- work skills.
Selecting and Teaching Choral Repertoire Using Performance Through Sound Analysis (PTSA) and Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation (PTSAN)
Students who learn repertoire using PTSA and PTSAN models are more engaged in the learning process and enjoy performing this repertoire. The sight-reading and music theory approaches given in Chapters 6–8 are grounded in using the PTSAN approach and can be used to select and learn repertoire. For these approaches, review Chapters 2, 4, and 10. Chapters 10 and 11 provide more detail on adapting and using these approaches to teach more advanced repertoire.
Author Background
Micheál Houlahan is a professor of music theory and aural skills and chair of the Tell School of Music, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and is a visiting professor of music at the China Conservatory of Music, Beijing. He was awarded an Irish Arts Council Scholarship for graduate studies in Hungary and a Fulbright Scholarship for doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America. His research has been supported by an international research exchange grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He holds a PhD in music theory with a minor in Kodály studies from the Catholic University of America, a Kodály Diploma from the Kodály Pedagogical Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary and from the Kodály Center of America, and fellowships in piano performance from Trinity College and London College of Music, London. He has lectured extensively on music theory, music perception and cognition and Kodály studies in China, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Estonia, The Netherlands, and England. He currently serves as a visiting evaluator and team leader as well as a member of the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music.
Philip Tacka received his doctorate from the Catholic University of America and completed postdoctoral work at the Kodály Pedagogical Institute of the Liszt Academy in Hungary. He is a professor of music in The Tell School of Music at Millersville University
of Pennsylvania. His research interests center on music education with a particular emphasis on music perception and cognition. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in collaboration with Micheál Houlahan. He has served on editorial boards and has been a grant evaluator on the American Fellowship Panel for the American Association of University Women. Prior to his current position he was an associate professor of music in the Department of Art, Music and Theatre at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He worked with the Georgetown University Medical School’s Institute for Cognitive and Computational Science in music perception neuropsychology. He regularly presents papers and workshops nationally and internationally on music education, perception and cognition, and Kodály studies. He has lectured in Italy, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Estonia, The Netherlands, and England.
Micheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka’s collaboration has yielded numerous books, book chapters, and articles. Their most recent publications include the “Zoltán Kodály” entry in Oxford Bibliographies Online (2012) and the chapter “From Sound to Symbol: A New Pitch for Developing Aural Awareness” in Sound Musicianship: Understanding the Crafts of Music (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013). Books and articles include Kodály Today: A Cognitive Approach to Music Education and From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music (2011), both published by Oxford University Press. In 2015 Oxford University Press published their Kodály in the Classroom series, which includes handbooks for grades 1–5 and Kodály in the Kindergarten Classroom: Developing the Creative Brain in the TwentyFirst Century. Additional publications include Sound Thinking: Music for Sight- Singing and Ear Training (2 vols.) and Sound Thinking: Developing Musical Literacy (2 vols.), both published by Boosey & Hawkes. Zoltan Kodály: A Guide to Research (Garland) is their comprehensive reference work. Articles appear in the Kodály Envoy, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, the Indiana Theory Review, and the International Kodály Society Bulletin Philip Tacka and Micheál Houlahan are authors of the Kodály article, bibliography, and catalog of compositions in Millennium Edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Both Dr. Houlahan and Dr. Tacka received the Organization of American Kodály Educators Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
We are incredibly grateful to Laura Petravage, who helped prepare the manuscript and organized chapters 6 and 7 based on our work in Kodály Today.
Laura M. Petravage is a choral conductor and K–12 educator in Pennsylvania. She currently teaches middle school general music and chorus for Carlisle Area Schools. She has taught on the faculties of Millersville University (PA), Messiah University (PA), George Mason University (VA), and American University (Washington, DC).
Laura Petravage completed her doctorate in choral conducting at George Mason University and has degrees from the Eastman School of Music (MM, choral conducting), American University (BA, music and French), and Millersville University (BSE, music education) and a Kodály Certification from Texas State University. She is currently a member of the OAKE National Choir Committee and founder and artistic director of the chamber choir Ensemble du Pain Musical.
Framing a Choral Curriculum Based on the Kodály Philosophy
1
Despite its nineteenth century roots, the life’s work of Zoltán Kodály—his compositions, his writings, and his teachings—awaits worldwide understanding. It stands before us as one of the last exceptional examples of self-expressions of modern freedom.1
This chapter provides
• an overview of the Kodály philosophy,
• discussion of perceived challenges in using this philosophy in the choral rehearsal program,
• a definition of what it means to be a musician based on the Houlahan/Tacka multiple dimensions of musicianship,
• a sample choral curriculum template that reflects the Kodály philosophy and the Houlahan/Tacka multiple dimensions of musicianship, and
• questions to consider when designing a choral curriculum.
The Kodály Perspective in the Choral Rehearsal
Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) is an internationally recognized composer and music educator. He was the founder of the Hungarian choral movement and he composed more than 160 a cappella choral compositions.2 The Kodály concept(also known as the Kodály philosophy or Kodály perspective) is based on his philosophical writings and incorporates principles of music teaching developed by his colleagues and students. His contributions to choral music and music education provided the impetus for developing new pedagogy for educating students as musicians. The choral director’s own musicianship is one of the most important markers of the Kodály perspective’s success in the choral rehearsal. As noted by David Elliott, “To teach
music effectively, we must know our subject—music. We must embody and exemplify musicianship.”3
What does this mean? How are we to communicate our musicianship to students in meaningful ways? There are very few definitions of musicianship, and some of the most common ones equate it with performance. This chapter offers a definition of musicianship and a guide to developing a comprehensive choral curriculum. The goal is to improve students’ musicianship and enable them to become independent learners.
It has been our experience that most music educators believe that using a Kodály perspective in a choral rehearsal equates with the application of pedagogical methodological tools such as solfège syllables and hand signs for reading repertoire. (In Chapter 5 we present an overview of pedagogical tools such as rhythm and solfège syllables, counting with numbers, and singing with absolute letter names.) These tools can and do help a director enhance students’ musicianship and audiation skills. The use of tools and teaching techniques not related to specific repertoire (e.g., singing scales with solfège syllables and hand signs, learning how to read repertoire by writing solfège syllables into a score, and memorizing solfège syllables by rote learning) is not, however, associated with the Kodály concept. Teaching technically begins with a symbol analysis of repertoire, something that does not actually communicate the conductor’s musicianship to students. “It is not a technique that is the essence of the art, but the soul, Teaching artistically begins with a sound analysis of repertoire and is more effective in communicating the conductor’s musicianship to their students. ”Kodály wrote. “As soon as the soul can communicate freely, without obstacles, a complete musical effect is created.”4
While the processes described above can result in learning a particular piece of music, we do not believe that they offer the most effective way to develop choral singers’ musicianship skills and make them independent musicians. The Kodály approach is not simply about applying methodological tools; it is about opening the world of music to students. The choral director’s musicianship, knowledge of repertoire, and approach to teaching the repertoire create the context for music learning and choral singing.
Hallmarks of the Kodály Concept
Notable hallmarks of the Kodály approach to music education can be found in the prefaces and epilogs to various publications in the Kodály Choral library.5 This group of publications is a collection of composed pedagogical materials for musicianship training for both beginning and advanced students. It was published by Editio Musica Budapest and Boosey & Hawkes. The English edition was titled Choral Method Series. Another valuable resource is lilla Gábor’s article “Kodály Principles in the Perspective of the 21st Century” available online.6 Kodály also wrote several articles about music education and choral education; several of these articles appear in The Selected Writings of Zoltán Kodály, published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1974.7 These writings provide choral educators with a philosophical guide to choral teaching.
The following are some of the essential philosophical underpinnings of the Kodály philosophy:
1. The approach to teaching repertoire while developing music theory, reading, and writing skills can be artfully accomplished through relative solmization. Kodály advocates that we should “teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for
a lifetime. Music must not be approached from its intellectual, rational side, nor should it be conveyed to the child as a system of algebraic symbols or as the secret writing of a language with which he has no connection. The way should be paved for direct intuition.”8 simply put, the Kodály concept emphasizes student intuition, discovery, and a constructionist approach to teaching.9 Teaching music theory and music literacy through music repertoire with the assistance of relative solmization can seamlessly fit into a choral rehearsal. We deconstruct repertoire for students so that they can reconstruct it for themselves. The process of learning repertoire and skills begins with the sounds of music. Asking students questions as they listen is an essential component of the choral rehearsal. We believe that a choral director needs to prepare students’ ears and eyes with aural and visual preparation activities before teaching each piece of choral music. In other words, the more listening experiences you can provide before showing students the score, the more connected the singers will become with the repertoire. Building on students’ aural understanding of the repertoire, a choral director can begin to make connections with the visual aspects of the score. We consider the following to be of significant importance: “Although disciplined practice is part of the task, a young aspiring musician’s spirit can be deadened in the face of a curriculum of tasks to be done, and discriminations to be learned in a standardized way, however, ‘age-appropriate’ its methods strive to be.”10 The goal is to make music and let students discover music knowledge for themselves by means of the director’s careful guidance.
2. Music literacy instruction should follow a structured sequence using a sound- tosymbol orientation in order to help develop audiation skills. Another vital component of the Kodály approach is the choral director’s ability to link learning repertoire with developing skills. o f course, there is the usual dilemma regarding preparing choirs for performance versus developing students’ musicianship. We believe that they are not mutually exclusive activities.
3. Music teachers should possess and model excellent musicianship. Consider the pedagogical model used by exceptional studio instructors. students learn the craft of music from individuals who themselves are excellent musicians. In Kodály’s words: “There is a need for better musicians, and only those will become good musicians who work at it every day. The better a musician, the easier it is for him to draw others into the happy, magic circle of music. Thus will he serve the great cause of helping music to belong to everyone.”11 Kodály thus advises choral directors to continue developing their own skills. Excellent musicianship and leadership skills are not solely for to professional performing ensembles.
4. singing is the essence of the Kodály approach. Tuneful singing is the foundation for developing music skills. Though it may seem obvious, the voice is the primary instructional tool in the choral rehearsal. The choral director should use his or her voice rather than the piano as the primary means of communication. Use your own voice to demonstrate phrasing and dynamics, especially for a cappella singing. For a cappella singing, especially with beginning choirs, avoid using the piano because it can negatively impact intonation skills. That said, there are times when the choral director needs to use the piano. For example, if you want the choir to hear how one line of music sounds with another line, then you can sing one part and play the other part or parts on the piano. The singing voice is essential in developing audiation and teaching musicianship in choral rehearsals. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 explain how to teach musicianship skills appropriate for different choirs; the common denominator is singing. Audiation is an essential skill for all
musicians. Kodály states: “Brilliant pianists are unable to write down or to sing a simple one-part tune faultlessly after hearing it fifteen or twenty times. How do they expect to imagine an intricate piece of several parts if their internal ear is undeveloped? They only play with their fingers and not with their heads and hearts.”12
robert schumann’s Musikalische Haus- und Lebens-Regeln (Music rules at Home and in life),13 often quoted by Kodály, contains the same advice about the importance of singing regularly in a choir, especially with regard to the inner voice. The ability to audiate not only the melody but the harmonization, and the importance of understanding music by merely seeing it on a page, are skills that needs continual practice.
singing is an essential skill; it helps develop engaged listening and part- singing. During the choral rehearsal you should include as many movement activities as possible. l ásló Vikár, an ethnomusicologist who was a student of Kodály, noted that “instinctive music is always accompanied by movement.”14 When teaching students how to sing, it is important that they also learn folk song games and dances because these movements will add to the enjoyment of singing. students need a structured approach to (1) acquire the ability to sing in parts and (2) engage listening skills that will enable them to hear additional voice parts as they perform their own. We will refer to these two skills collectively as part- work skills and will address them in Chapter 4.
5. selecting quality (choral) repertoire is foundational for developing musicianship. Kodály believed that the performance of inferior music inhibits the growth of musical understanding. The manner of presenting this material has a lasting effect on the development of a student’s musical taste. “Conversely,” he wrote, “only art of intrinsic value is suitable for children! Everything else is harmful. After all, food is more carefully chosen for an infant than for an adult. Musical nourishment, which is ‘rich in vitamins,’ is essential for children.”15 This quotation applies to both children and adults.
The selection of musical materials and repertoire is essential not merely to develop an appreciation for quality music but to enhance audiation, part- work, music theory knowledge, and sight-reading skills. Kodály was clear about the significance of singing folk songs and for younger students playing and singing traditional folk song games and folk dances. He was convinced that these masterpieces are the keys to introducing other masterpieces. When approached correctly, they can lay the foundation for singing all styles of music, even very complex twentieth- century music. Kodály was also unwavering in his belief in the importance of singing the music of Bach and Palestrina. Chapter 3 expand on this topic.
6. Developing the various forms of musicianship in a choral rehearsal is vital. In order to help build students’ self-knowledge, self-awareness, and emotions, we need to help them become stewards of their musical and cultural heritage, performers, critical thinkers, creative human beings, and informed audience members. Chapter 9 addresses these multiple dimensions of musicianship. our approach to teaching impacts the way our students perform repertoire. Their performance is affected by their ability to audiate the scale. They become informed audience members by gaining an historical perspective on repertoire from different style periods. Developing musicianship skills in the context of a choral rehearsal impacts the performance level of every choir. This transfer of learning is central to enhancing the performance skills of a choir and creating independent choral singers who can then work in a partnership with their choral conductor. These choral singers sing in choir and will have a voice.16
7. Choral music education should be initially founded on a cappella singing and without overuse of the piano. If choral students are to become independent singers, they need to learn to sing from the choral director, not from a piano. A cappella singing strengthens singing abilities as well as audiation. As noted by Kodály, this is especially important when singing polyphonic music, which requires accurate intonation and singing with acoustically precise intervals. This can only be accomplished when students can hear the other voice parts as they are singing their own. In other words, learning to sing in parts without learning to hear parts will not produce a secure performance. Teaching students the voice part of an a cappella piece of music from a piano, a tempered instrument, can best be labeled as a technical teaching approach; the product will sound out of tune and will likely not be artistic. According to Kodály, “those who always sing in unison never learn to sing in the correct pitch. Correct unison singing can, paradoxically, be learned only by singing in two parts: the voices adjust and balance each other.”17
The ultimate goal of Kodály’s philosophy of music was the education of both amateurs and professionals. “The aim: Hungarian music culture. The means: making the reading and writing of music general through the schools. At the same time, the awakening of a Hungarian music approach in the training of artists and audiences. The raising of Hungarian public taste in music and continual progress towards what is better and more Hungarian. To make the masterpieces of world literature public property, to convey them to every kind and rank. The total of all of these will yield the Hungarian music culture, which is glimmering before us in the distant future.”18
Perceived Challenges in Using the Kodály Philosophy in the Choral Rehearsal
The Kodály philosophy or concept of music education has not been adopted widely in middle school, high school, and college-level choral programs or musicianship classes. The following are some of the perceived challenges in using the Kodály approach in a choral rehearsal that we have heard from our own graduate students and from choral conductors in the field. We follow each perceived challenge with a possible reason for the existence of this challenge.
1. Using folk music in a choral setting is too elementary for a middle school choral rehearsal and certainly not suitable for a high school or college-level choir. Choral directors often do not understand the many ways folk music can enhance the choral music curriculum. singing folk songs is an integral component of the Kodály approach. Both Bartók and Kodály considered folk music to be on an equal footing with classical music masterpieces. Folk songs provide an excellent means for developing a love of great music, and this repertoire is helpful for developing tuneful singing.
A goal of the Kodály approach is to begin the teaching of music with folk music belonging to the students’ cultural heritage. This repertoire provides a foundation for studying global folk music, art music, and recently composed music. A student’s own folk music contains the artistic and music theory knowledge for studying global folk music and other types of music. A review of Chapters 6–8 demonstrates that all of the significant stylistic elements found in all music styles appear in folk music. Folk songs can open up the world of classical and contemporary masterpieces for students. We address this in Chapter 8, and in Chapter 11 we provide examples of contemporary choral repertoire taught through the use of folk music.
2. Pentatonic music is not relevant in a middle school, high school, and college-level choral program. For some choral directors, pentatonic music appears to be a significant roadblock to implementing a choral curriculum based on the Kodály approach. Choral directors associate pentatonic music with elementary song repertoire. But, of course, this is an oversimplification. That said, later in this text we will show how the most basic pentatonic folk songs open up the world of choral literature. (In Chapter 11, we use pentatonic music to teach complicated serial music.) For example, singing several pentatonic songs together as partner songs or in canon opens up a world of tone clusters found in contemporary music. singing the different types of pentatonic scales is a key to opening up the world of modal music. singing a series of intervals and modulations composed of the notes la- somi melodic intervals but constantly modulating and reinterpreting these notes in various keys can open up the world of twentieth- century choral music. Bartók uses pentatonic intervals to create typical chord structures found in his music.19
In a Kodály-inspired choral rehearsal, the director uses pentatonic folk music to improve intonation and audiation skills and to teach music literacy and part- singing. The pentatonic system allows students to associate syllables to sounds without thinking about the major scale’s theoretical structures. students become familiar with the primary melodic and harmonic intervals of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and octave.
3. The emphasis on sound- to- symbol models for teaching music concepts and repertoire is only suitable for elementary music programs and not for middle school, high school, or collegelevel musicians.
o ften, theory classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels do not teach musicianship according to the Kodály approach; choral pedagogy classes do not take the time to discuss or demonstrate how incorporating the Kodály approach in the choral rehearsal could enhance a choir’s musicianship. Most choral directors’ understanding of the Kodály approach is associated with the use of moveable do; the more significant aspects of the approach are missing. Most music theory and aural skills courses approach the subject primarily through a symbol- to- sound orientation to instruction. In this process the presentation of music theory begins with a symbol’s name and its mathematical relationships to other symbols (the subject/logic approach). Unfortunately, this process might not be the best approach to developing audiation skills, an essential ability for performing and sight-reading music. This method parallels an approach to language teaching beginning with learning words visually and decoding words before mastering how to comprehend and speak the language.
In most undergraduate programs, one often finds music theory teaching separated from the aural skills class. In many cases, students’ auditory development falls significantly behind their written analytical abilities.
For choral directors, this unfortunately reinforces two misconceptions: (1) that the Kodály approach is not appropriate for teaching advanced musical concepts and (2) that a symbol- to- sound orientation to teaching is the fastest way to teach music theory. symbolto- sound teaching does not support the sequential development of audiation. Collegelevel aural skills classes often fail to develop high-level musicianship because of the lack of emphasis on developing audiation skills. For example, even within the practice of rhythm patterns found in simple meters, there is a broad variety of complicated patterns that need to be sequenced and presented if we are to develop the skills of audiation and fluency in music reading. subject/logic teaching does not facilitate audiation.
Time is not spent in aural classes developing audiation skills and delving into the application of solfège to reading and understanding specific styles of music. For example, pre- service choral directors do not receive sufficient and practical experience in
• singing and understanding the stylistic traits of modal music,
• employing different solfège syllables to reading imitative voices or modal modulations,
• developing expertise in reading modulations with solfège syllables,
• reading chromatic music using moveable do solfège syllables, and
• reading twentieth- century music using moveable do and reading complex tonal music with shifting tonalities and using solfège as a stepping stone to reading atonal music.
High school and college-level choral directors find that students do not have sufficient audiation skills to sight-read music; they often resort to teaching music using a symbol to sound orientation. Many choral directors allow students to label pitches in a score with solfège syllables; some ask them to memorize these syllables by listening to the music performed on the piano by the choral director. This approach will not develop students’ part- singing and audiation abilities. When students are not given the opportunity to audiate solfège syllables, they are simply learning the pitches’ sounds by rote and resort to a kind of muscle memory for learning the repertoire. This method does not reflect the current research findings from music perception and cognition regarding how students learn and internalize information.
What would the sound- to- symbol process look like for developing musicianship skills for expert musicians? How is this to be accomplished? The following is an overview of a music theory courses taught according to the Kodály approach. In the music theory sequence of classes at the Tell s chool of Music, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, classes begin with gaining an understanding of the fundamental stylistic forms, meters, rhythm patterns, melodic patterns, and tonalities of folk music. This is accomplished in large part by an emphasis aural skills training in Music Theory 1. Also included is a study of harmonic functions and primary chord progressions. This knowledge lays the groundwork for understanding all other types of music. Music Theory 2 students study modal folksongs, leading to the study of medieval and renaissance music. In Music Theory 3 students learn and sing folk songs and global folk music that include challenging rhythms (especially in compound meters), sequences, decorative notes, seventh chords, secondary dominants, and folk songs with fifth changes involving real and tonal answers. r eal answers occur when phrases of music transpose a fifth above. In tonal answers, the tonic note in the original melody is answered by the dominant note; the dominant is answered by the tonic or vice versa. This leads to studying Baroque music, which includes exploration of seventh chords and the Neapolitan chord. s tudents continue their work with diatonic folk songs that include triadic melodies with clear harmonic functions, chromatic notes, modulations, and sixteen strophic bar forms. This leads to the study of Classical music, including the analysis of altered tonic and secondary dominant chords and augmented sixth chords. In Music Theory 4, students study global folk songs with lowered thirds and sixths. This leads to a study of s chubert’s and Brahms’s harmonization of folk songs and a study of romantic music. Global music that contains different mixed meters, asymmetric meters, pentatonic music, modal melodies, and hybrid scales leads to a study of post- tonal and atonal
twentieth- century repertoire where reading with solfège prepares the way for reading with letter names. In all music theory classes, students must be able to improvise in the style of the repertoire they are studying. The Performance Through s ound Analysis (PT s A) and Performance Through s ound Analysis (PT s AN) approaches to teaching becomes the benchmark for developing essential musicianship skills of professional musicians.
4. Correcting intonation from a keyboard is more helpful than using the voice and solfège syllables. Using a sound- to- symbol orientation to teaching, singing with moveable do solfège syllables and hand signs is a means for developing intonation and audiation skills. For example, so-mi and la-do are important intervals that can be difficult to sing in tune because the voiced intervals are much wider than the tempered minor third. The so-la- so-mi pattern is an opportunity for singers to explore the “small” major second, so-la, compared to the tempered second or larger major second, la- ti. Training choirs to hear these differences prepares students for singing complex intervals such as diminished thirds and the various wider intervals and narrow chromatic intervals. Most choral teachers are not taught these nuances in their musicianship classes. As a result, they lack some important skills that significantly impact the intonation of their students. Correcting intervals from a piano will not help students develop the skills needed to sing these intervals correctly when singing a cappella music. The curriculum sequence detailed in Chapters 6–8 provides ways for choral directors to help their students hear the difference between small and large significant seconds and minor thirds, and this practice ultimately will improve the intonation of their choirs.
5. There is a lack of training in undergraduate and graduate choral pedagogy classes with regard to incorporating the Kod á ly approach into choral rehearsals. Choral directors do not generally learn or study how to incorporate the Kodály approach into choral rehearsals. l ack of training often prevents them from exploring the benefits of this approach. The Kodály approach to teaching does take a lot of time to do well; however, it can provide a pedagogical model that places music literature, part- work, music theory, improvisation, composition, arranging, reading, and sight- reading skills at the heart of the choral experience. This approach changes the traditional process of focusing on learning individual music lines and allows students to hear and sing part- music.
6. I don’t have time to teach music using the Kodály philosophy in the choral rehearsal. Choral directors may appreciate the value of the Kodály approach to teaching choral music, but they sometimes feel that they simply do not have the time to implement this training system in their choral program. In the following chapters, we will provide guidelines for teaching music, teaching music literacy, and learning scores that should create time in the rehearsal for adopting this approach, which so significantly impacts performances and their students’ musicianship.
Framing a Choral Curriculum Based on the Kodály Philosophy and the Multiple Dimensions of Musicianship
Kodály’s beliefs regarding the importance of developing musicianship are reflected in a speech titled “Who Is a Good Musician?” given at the end of the 1953–54 academic year at the liszt Academy, Budapest, Hungary. He summarized the characteristics of a
good musician as someone who had (1) a well- trained ear, (2) a well- trained intelligence, (3) a well- trained heart, and (4) a well- trained hand. He believed that these were the essential components of musicianship. He inspired his colleagues and students to develop goals for music educators and students to foster the development of all these aspects of musicianship. We would like to expand on this definition of musicianship by looking at the shared skills and knowledge of expert musicians who represent music from both the sound-based and the symbol-based traditions of learning and making music. Musicians who work primarily in each organizing system include folk, classical, country, jazz and, commercial experts.20 As Brinner noted, all expert musicians have “a mastery of the array of interrelated skills and knowledge that is required of musicians within a particular tradition or musical community and is acquired and developed in response to and in accordance with the demands of possibilities of general and specific cultural, social and musical conditions.”21 We propose a definition of good musician based on these “interrelated skills and knowledge.”
Using the Kodály philosophy as a frame of reference, we can define who a good musician is in terms of five dimensions shared by all types of musicians, regardless of their ability to read or write music.22 According to the Multiple Dimensions of Musicianship and Knowledge rubric, all musicians are
• Performers who can sing, play instruments (traditional and classical), perform traditional games and use movement to achieve an artistic performance, and conduct. From a Kodály perspective, singing and inner hearing, or audiation, play an essential role in shaping a performance.
• Stewards of their cultural heritage having a knowledge of sound and/or symbol repertoires.
• Critical thinkers able to aurally and visually analyze the sounds and/or the symbols of music using both “sound” music theory and “symbol” music theory.
• Creative human beings able to improvise, compose, and arrange music and having a knowledge of technology that will assist them as musicians
• Informed listeners and audience members with an understanding of stylistic and musicological aspects of music.
An expert musician is someone who displays all of these interrelated skills at a significant level of achievement. All these skills function at a high level of mastery. Choral directors are responsible for developing a choral program that will foster these skills in their students.
Although every choral director will ultimately create his or her own measurable goals and outcomes for the choral program, we provide the following as a helpful beginning. shared by the students and the conductor, goals and outcomes should influence choral instruction’s overarching curricular structure. These outcomes apply to all choral ensembles, whether non-auditioned or the most noted ensemble at the school. The job of the director is to adapt these goals to suit the individual goals of the students and the institution. The following are some essential goals for choral singers.
1. students should learn to perform artistically with their voice, alone and in a choral setting, with excellent intonation.
2. students should perform repertoire from sound-based traditions such as folk music, global folk music, commercial music, and jazz, as well as from symbol-based
