Composing in the Classroom and Concepts of Music Education. Concepts of Composition

Composition pedagogy has traditionally been associated with artistic music education in the Czech Republic (Boleska, 1905; Fukac, 1997; Knittl, 1896). In recent years, however, it has become a strong topic of general music pedagogy and music education (Drkula, 2006; Synek, 2005, and 2011; Vsetickova, 2010, and 2015; Medek et al. 2014; Zouhar & Medek, 2010). Since the 1970s, three generations of pupils and students in former Czechoslovakia have been able to compose and improvise in music education in primary and secondary schools. They could become familiar with elementary composing and experience the creation of music. In 1969, the two volumes of Carl Orff’s Schulwerk, in a Czech adaptation by composers Hurnik & Eben (1969), were published with concrete compositional stimuli. During the 1960s, composing was also one of the new topics of music pedagogy (Melkus, 1969; Synek, 2011). And in the 1970s, the Czech Schulwerk (Ceska Orffova skola), became a part of the curriculum for general music education in primary at secondary education. Future music education teachers were methodically prepared for its use at universities. But the concept of music education in former Czechoslovakia continued to emphasize mostly vocal, instrumental, dance, and listening activities. Teachers have therefore rarely exceeded the performative framework of music education (Knopova, 2011; Vsetickova, 2014).

There were several reasons for this. Doubts about the aesthetic value of children’s compositions and their effectiveness for the development of musical skills date back to the 1930s. Helfert (1930) wrote:

Therefore, I am always skeptical about efforts to include in music education also exhortations to children’s melodic creativity. However, it is certain that such active synergy of children can increase children’s interest in music. But the question is whether this leads children to the unhealthy view that music can be created as easily and mechanically as they have invented “their” melodies, and whether the time thus spent could not be used for more beneficial and fruitful synergy. (p. 27)

A similar opinion can be found later in the Pos’s foreword for the first volume of the Czech Schulwerk (Hurnik & Eben, 1969). In contrary to Orff (1969) he was skeptical about aesthetic values of children works: “The compositions created by children are valuable in that they provoke musical creativity in the child (children are always impressed by “their” song), but on the other hand, it should be critically said that a folk song almost always has more aesthetic value than the most musical piece of novice composers.” (Hurnik & Eben, 1969, p. 7). This belief prevailed in music pedagogy in Czechoslovakia until the end of the 1980s (Vanova, 1989) and continued at the beginning of the new millennium. The Framework Education Program for Primary Education (Ministry of Education Youth and Sports, 2005, 2017, 2021) and the Framework Educational Program for Secondary General Education (Grammar School) (Ministry of Education Youth and Sports, 2007), the Czech national curriculum, were also influenced by this skepticism.

Another argument that spoke against the composing activities in primary general music education were challenging prerequisites such as talent, musical instruments skills, and knowledge of music theory. Some music educators and composers believe it is not possible to compose, without knowledge of notation, music grammar, syntax, and performing skills. The Western concept of the term “composition” moved away from traditional principles during the 20th century, when composers emphasized new processes, principles, methods and poetics. But key fundamentals of the teaching composition are still harmony, counterpoint and forms for many music teachers and composers. The emphasis on talent and many years of individual study of composition techniques and music theory was therefore a generally perceived prerequisite for composing. These demands and image of exceptionality prevented incorporation of composition pedagogy into general music education. Although the objectives, methods, and means of elementary composition in the context of general music education are different from composition programs within artistic education.

Concepts of Composition. The focus on the artwork, its aesthetic values, and the theory of composition, corresponds to earlier meanings of the term “composition” in Czech general and music dictionaries during the 20th century. They are similar to other dictionaries across the globe. Boleska (1905) defined the term “composition” in the general Otto’s Dictionary (Ottdv slovmk naucny) as combining of sounds: “A composition in music is an activity based on elements of sound new combinations” (p. 265). He placed emphasis on the exceptional talent of the composer and on his knowledge of music grammar, stating, “The ability to compose music is based on innate talent, which is much more special than the gift for music in a broader sense, but like this, it must be put on the rails of regular practice in an orderly way” (p. 265).

Boleska was a graduate of the Prague Organ School and at one time a private composition student of Antonin Dvorak. In his conception, the grammatical part of the composition theory (harmony, counterpoint) is connected with the aesthetical. Boleska accentuated knowledge of all disciplines: “The true creative freedom is opened up by scholars, skilled in harmony, in the study of counterpoint and the style of imitation, i.e., imitation, cannon, and fugue” (p. 265).

This definition grows from that time, when Dvorak lectured composition at the Prague Conservatoire and led the institution until 1904 (Branberger, 1911).

More than ninety years later, Fukac (1997) defined composition more openly in the Dictionary of Czech Music Culture (Slovmk ceske hudebm kultury). Notation is no longer necessary condition there, but a closed, complex artwork still is. The composition is a musical structure (“most often notated”) which is achieved by “compositionally technical, usually theoretically justified” procedures (p. 833). Fukac’s definition is complemented by composition theory: “a didactic discipline, whose sub-disciplines are considered to be diverse theories (about melody, harmony, counterpoint, etc.)” (p. 833). The emphasis on musical grammar and syntax is obvious. This meaning of the term “composition” determined both composition pedagogy and teaching composition programs at conservatoires and music universities, and general music education.

In 2001 the Different Hearing Program was founded in Olomouc, Czech Republic (Synek, 2008; Zouhar, 2004). The program is focused on music creativity and elementary composing within general music education. The term composition was defined as very open cluster of possibilities: “Every sound is understood as musical. Every object as a musical instrument. Spontaneous interaction between sounds as improvisation. Their graphic or verbal fixation as a musical composition” (Zouhar, 2004, p. 11). Such a broad meaning resonates with Cage’s earlier definition of composition (1973, p. 62). It opened a new space for elementary composing in general music education. Not the artwork but the artistic process, not the aesthetic value of the composition, but the experience with creating and experimenting with sounds are moved forward and changed the traditional meaning of the term “composition” in the educational context.