Composition Pedagogy. Individual composition pedagogy

Individual composition pedagogy.The term “composition pedagogy” is not included in any Czech music dictionary, similar to The New Grove Dictionary (Tyrrell, 2001) or the Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Finscher, 2008) dictionary. But several of the articles about composer’s schools are given by the Dictionary of Czech Music Culture (Fukac et al., 1997), including Dvorak’s, Suk’s, Novak’s, Janacek’s, Haba’s, and other schools. The term “school” is clarified in several meanings there, none of which emphasizes the methodology of teaching composition. It often means a “class” led by the teacher-composer, or suggests common aesthetic priorities between teacher and students. But it does not focus on the teaching itself and methodological and didactical approaches.

This is because individual composition lessons were guided and are still guided at art and music schools, conservatoires, and music universities by the framework curriculum, not by detailed methodology and didactical teaching texts. Due to the traditionally small number of composition students and individual lessons, there were no reasons to systematically develop composition pedagogy for individual artistic education. The methodology of individual teaching composition has been passed down from teacher to student since the late 19th century at music institutions in the countries of today’s Czech Republic.

Before a separate composition program was established at the Prague Conservatoire in 1889, the training in composition was provided at the Organ School in Prague and also privately (Branberger, 1911; Freemanova, 2011). Although the composition was not one of the main focuses of the Organ School, unlike organ and later choirmaster, its teachers, pupils, and alumni played a key role in the formation of composition schools in Bohemia and Moravia. Dvorak, Foerster and Janacek were among the most important students of the Organ School, who later influenced generations of composers. Since its foundation in 1811, the Prague Conservatoire has been focused on teaching instrumentalists and later singers. In 1889, a separate organ, composition, and piano “school” was established at the Prague Conservatoire by merging with the Organ School in Prague. Knittl noted in 1896:

Is the school closed to pupils of less talent for the composition? Not. Every student of an instrumental school has the right to attend it, and perhaps he could not keep up with the gifted, after all—if he has enough diligence and will, he can learn much about what is useful for his future life. (p. 207)

The basis of the teaching composition at art and music universities is the modified oral method of the master school, where an experienced composer- teacher guides his student from simpler compositional tasks and structures to more complex, from solo compositions to orchestral ones. Some composers-teachers in one person have published didactic texts about harmony, musical forms, etc. (Knittl, Janacek, Haba, and others), but not about teaching composition. Collective courses like harmony required this methodological and didactic approach. But individual composition courses designed on students’ abilities do not need didactic texts as much as collective courses. In the composition lessons, the composer-teacher was, and still is, able to pass on to the students’ needs and the current state of the composition on which the student is working. Neither the textbook nor the detailed methodology is necessary in such situation. It couldn’t be detailed or flexible enough. It couldn’t solve every problem.

Methodological and didactic procedures in teaching composition at the Prague Conservatoire by Dvorak, Suk, Novak, Foerster, or Haba are therefore only marginally mentioned in their correspondence and in memoirs of their students. None of them wrote a treatise about teaching composition. A similar situation was also in the second half of the 20th century and prevails to these days both in conservatories, universities, and elementary art schools. Some Czech composers-teachers have published their texts on poetics and methods since the 1960s (Kapr, 1967; Kohoutek, 1970; Pinos, 1971; Istvan, 1973; Medek, 1998), but they are not authors of didactic textbooks for individual composition pedagogy. They pass on their pedagogical experience orally during composition lessons. However, the practically oriented individual composition lessons were and still are very effective. This is due to three factors: highly experienced mentors with flexible response to student needs, highly motivated students and large number of one-to-one teaching hours.

Only a few Czech texts on individual composition pedagogy have been published during last decades. Janecek, (1969) described two methods of teaching and studying composition: compositional and analytical. He recalled that the teacher should combine the two methods according to the needs of the students and learning objectives. The first one is challenging and Janecek recommends applying it only if the aim of the study is composition (p. 105). The second he prefers in the case of theoretically oriented study programs (p. 107).

Kohoutek (1989) deals only with the general problems of teaching composition as one of the components of Marxist education. He briefly mentions entry and outcome profiles of the graduate student and notes the key role of the composition course for college level education. But he described neither the structure nor methodology of this course. The temporary context of the 1980s is completed by Kohoutek’s defense of experimental work: “I do not consider the opinion that the university music school does not belong to an experiment: understandably not per se, but in the sense of creative research; it is not correct” (p. 36).

Kvech’s (2013) Fundamentals of Classical Music Composition: Notes for Future Composers is linked with standards and methodology of teaching composition, in his case at the Prague Conservatoire. This book is not a composition textbook for secondary education or a guide on how to compose, rather a sequence of partial problems. It connects the treatise on forms, harmony, orchestration, and others in a holistic treatise on composition, which contains everything necessary the composer needs to know. The phrase “classical composition” relates to the Kvech’s own aesthetic, who was an advocate of the artwork, masterpiece, and craftsmanship and a composer, who was skeptical of much that brought Western music after 1945.

In recent years, two publications are inspiring for individual composition pedagogy at basic art and music school level. Hanousek & Scerba (2013) point out some general principles. They recommend to start teaching composition with structure and to move the music theory training (harmony, counterpoint) to the second level of education (i.e., over 14 years). Performing skills are an important prerequisite for studying composition:

The teacher should not follow the template when teaching the composition; the lessons should be set entirely individually according to the pupil’s profile. At first, the teacher should not significantly influence the novice composer with his preferred practices. They must find out what genre or style the pupil prefers and set the next steps accordingly. (Hanousek & Scerba, 2013, p. 3)

The output skills of the composition graduates are ranged from “motivic development (rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and combined)” until “a sonata cycle, [a pupil] composes compositions in Baroque forms (invention, passacaglia, fugue), composes a composition for a small chamber orchestra, composes composition for a symphony orchestra” (Hanousek & Scerba, 2013, p. 4). And two most common mistakes are noted there: “The teacher does not give the pupil enough space to improvise . . . [and] when teaching the composition, the teacher forces his own musical tastes” (p. 4).

Mimra et al. (2020) presented best practice impulses for individual composing pedagogy at basic art and music schools. His publication includes didactic descriptions of 17 teaching hours focused on diverse topics: improvisation, compositional structural work with tones, folk songs, and lyrics, to orchestration for chamber orchestra and compositions for large orchestra.