drawomgDecorations formed by the use of the geometry insets. That on the right is a copy of the design by Giotto shown below the picture of the Madonna in the Upper Church of St. Francis d'Assisi (Umbria).
children working at desksMaking decorative designs with the aid of geometric insets. (The Washington Montessori School, Washington, D. C.)
Children are peculiarly sensitive in their appreciation of color. This sensibility began to grow in the sensory exercises in the early years. Their hands have been trained to the most delicate movements and the children have been masters of them since the days of the "Children's House." When they begin to draw outlines they copy the most diverse objects—not only flowers but everything which interests them: vases, columns and even landscapes. Their attempts are spontaneous; and they draw both on the blackboard and on paper.
As regards colors, it should be recalled that while still in the "Children's House" the children learned to prepare the different shades, mixing them themselves and making the various blends. This always held their eager interest. Later the care with which they seek to get shades corresponding exactly to natural colorings is something truly remarkable.[8]Over and over again the children try to mix the most diverse colors, diluting or saturating them until they have succeeded in reproducing the desired shade. It is surprising also to see how often their eye succeeds in appreciating the finest differences of color and in reproducing them with striking accuracy.
phtotographs of paintings (pea pods and leaves)Water-color paintings from nature, showing spontaneous expression resulting from work in natural science.
The study of natural science proved to be a great help in drawing. Once I tried to show some children how a flower should be dissected, and for this purpose I provided all the necessary instruments: the botanist's needle, pincers, thin glass plates, etc., just as is done at the university for the experiments in natural science. My only aim was to see whether the preparations which university students make for botanical anatomy were in any way adaptable to the needs of little children. Even at the time when I studied in the botanical laboratory at the university I felt that these exercises in the preparation of material might be put to such use. Students know how difficult it is to prepare a stem, a stamen, an epithelium, for dissection, and how only with difficulty the hand, accustomed for years exclusively to writing, adapts itself to this delicate work. Seeing how skilful our children were with their little hands I decided to give them a complete scientific outfit and to test by experiment whether the child mind and the characteristic manual dexterity shown by children were not more adapted to such labors than the mind and hand of a nineteen-year-old student.
My suspicion proved correct. The children with the keenest interest dissected a section of the violet with remarkable accuracy, and they quickly learned to use all the instruments. But my greatest surprise was to find that they did not despise or throw away the dissected parts, as we older students used to do. With great care they placed them all in attractive order on a piece of white paper, as if they had in mind some secret purpose. Then with great joy they began to draw them; and they were accurate, skilled, tireless, and patient, as they are ineverything else. They began to mix and dilute their colors to obtain the correct shades. They worked up to the last minute of the school session, finishing off their designs in watercolor: the stem and leaves green, the individual petals violet, the stamens—all in a row—yellow, and the dissected pistil light green. The following day a little girl brought me a charmingly vivacious written composition, in which she told of her enthusiasm overthe new work, describing even the less noticeable details of the little violet.
These two expressions—drawing and composition—were the spontaneous manifestations of their happy entrance into the realms of science.
Encouraged by this great success, I took some simple microscopes to school. The children began to observe the pollen and even some of the membrane coverings of the flower. By themselves they made some splendid cross-sections of the stems, which they studied most attentively.
They "drew everything they saw." Drawing seemed to be the natural complement of their observation work.
In this way the children learned to draw and paintwithout a drawing teacher. They produced works which, in geometric designs as well as in studies from life, were considered far above the average drawings of children.
FOOTNOTE:[8]We give to the children first only tubes containing the three fundamental colors, red, yellow, and blue; and with these they produce a large number of shades.
[8]We give to the children first only tubes containing the three fundamental colors, red, yellow, and blue; and with these they produce a large number of shades.
[8]We give to the children first only tubes containing the three fundamental colors, red, yellow, and blue; and with these they produce a large number of shades.
MUSIC
THE SCALE
Since the publication of my first volume on the education of small children, considerable progress has been made in the matter of musical education. Miss Maccheroni, who came to Rome to work with me on experiments looking to the continuation of the methods used with primary classes, was successful in establishing a number of tests which constituted our first steps into this important field of education. We are under great obligations to the Tronci firm of Pistoja, which took charge of the manufacture of materials and gave us the most sympathetic cooperation.
We had already prepared at the time of that first publication an equipment of bells to be used in training the ear to perceive differences between musical sounds. The methods of using this material were considerably modified and perfected again after the publication of myOwn Handbook(New York, Stokes, 1914), in which for the first time appeared a treatise on musical method. The foundation of the system consists of a series of bells representing the whole tones and semi-tones of one octave. The material follows the general characteristics of that used in the sensorial method, that is, the objects differ from each other in one and only one quality, the one which concerns the stimulation of the sense under education. The bells, for instance, must beapparently identicalindimensions, shape, etc., but they mustproduce different sounds. The basic exercise is to have the child recognize "identities." He must pair off the bells which give the same sound.
The bell system is constructed as follows: We have a very simple support, made of wood (of course any other material might be used) 115 cm. long and 25 cm. wide. On this the bells rest. The board is wide enough to hold two bells placed lengthwise and end to end across it. The board is marked off into black and white spaces, each wide enough to hold one bell. The white spaces represent whole tones, the black spaces semi-tones. Though the apparent purpose of this board is to serve as a support, it is in reality ameasure, since it indicates the regular position of the notes in the simple diatonic scale. The combination of white and black rectangles indicates the interval between the various notes in the scale: in other words, a semi-tone between the third and fourth and between the seventh and eighth, and a whole tone between the others. Bells showing the value of each rectangle are fixed in proper order in the upper portion of the support. These bells are not all of the same size, but vary in dimension regularly from the bottom to the top of the scale. This permits considerable saving in manufacture; for, to get a different sound from bells of the same size, different thicknesses are required, and this entails more labor for construction and consequentlygreater cost. But in addition the child here sees a material variation corresponding to the differences in quality of sound. On the other hand, the other bells on which the child is to perform his critical exercises are ofidentical dimensions.
In the exercise the child strikes with a small mallet one of the bells fixed on the support. Then, from among the others scattered at random on the table, he finds one which gives the same sound and places it on the board in front of the fixed bell corresponding to it. In the most elementary exercises, only the whole tone bells corresponding to the white spaces are used. Later, the semi-tones are brought in. This first exercise in sense perception corresponds to the pairing practised in other sensory exercises (color, touch, etc.) The next step is for the child to distinguish differences, and at the same time, gradations of stimuli (like the exercises with the color charts, hearing, etc.) In this case the child mixes at random the eight bells, all of the same size, which give the whole tones of the scale. He is to finddo, thenre, and so on through the octave one note after the other, placing the bells in order in their proper places. Nomenclature is taught step by step as in the other sensorial exercises. To familiarize the child with the names,do,re,mi,fa,sol,la,si, we use small round disks, the circular form serving to suggest the head of the written note. On each disk the name of the note is written. The disks are to be placed on the bases of the bells that correspond to them. The exercises in naming the notes may be begun with the fixed bells, in order (with children who already know how to read) to associate the sounds with their names in the first exercise of pairing. Later, when the child comes to the exercise of puttingthe bells in gradation, he can place the corresponding disk on each bell as he finds it.
Some individuals, commenting on this material, have solemnly protested their native inability to understand music, insisting that music reveals its secrets only to a chosen few. We may point out in reply that, so far, our principal object is simply to distinguish notes so widely different from each other that the different number of vibrations can easily be measured with instruments. It is a question of a material difference which any normal ear can naturally detect without any miraculous aptitude of a musical character. One might as well claim that it is the privilege only of genius to distinguish one color from another somewhat like it. Particular aptitude for music is determined by conditions of a quite different and a much higher order, such as intuition of the laws of harmony and counterpoint, inspiration for composition, and so on.
In actual practise, we found that when the material was used with some restrictions by forty children between three and six years of age, only six or seven proved capable of filling out the major scale by ear. But when the material was freely placed at their disposal, they all progressed along the same lines and showed about the same rate of improvement, as was the case in our experiments with reading, writing, etc. When individual differences appeared, it was by no means due to thepossibilityof performing these tasks, but rather to the amount ofinteresttaken in the exercises, for which some children showed actual enthusiasm. Eagerness for surmounting difficulties and for high attainment is much more frequently found in children than we, judging by our own experience as adults, easily suspect. In any event, actualperformance is the only guide to the revelation of particular aptitude, of personal calling.
When one of the larger children spreads on the table the eight bells of similar size to make up the scale by ear, the little ones pick up a single bell, sometimes reaching out for it with the greatest eagerness. They beat it with the mallet for a long time, they feel of it, examining it carefully, making it ring more and more slowly. The older children take special interest in the pairing, often repeating the same exercise many times; but an unusual charm is found in the successive sounds of the eight bells when placed in order; in other words, in hearing the scale. Nennella, one of the children of the "Children's House" of Via Giusti, played the scale over two hundred times in succession, one hundred for the ascending scale and one hundred back again. The whole class is sometimes interested in listening, the children following with absolute silence the classic beauty of this succession of sounds. Another child, Mario, used to go to the very end of the table—as far away as possible, and resting his elbows on the table with his head in his hands, he would remain without stirring in the silence of the darkened room, showing his extraordinary interest in the exercise in every detail of demeanor and facial expression.
At a certain, moment, interest in reproducing the note vocally appears. The children accompany the scale with their voices. They strive for the exact reproduction of the sound which the bell gives. Their voices become soft and musical in this exercise, showing nothing of that shrillness, so characteristic of children's voices in the usual popular songs. In the classes of Via Trionfale it happened that some children asked permission to accompany vocally the scale that a child was playing softly onthe bells. The interest taken in this exercise was of a higher order than that shown by children in the singing of songs. It was easy to see that songs with their capricious intervals between widely separated notes and calling for pronunciation of words, musical expression, differences in time, etc., are unadapted to the most elementary exercises in singing.
It was possible to test the absolute memory of the child for the different notes without any set exercise. After a long series of experiments in pairing, the children begin to make scales, using only one series of bells, and they repeat this exercise many times and in different ways. Sometimes, for instance, a child always looks for the lowest note,do, then for the next above it,re, etc. Again, a child will take any bell at random, looking next for the note immediately above or immediately below, and so on. It also happens that on picking up some bell or other, the child will exclaim on hearing its sound, this ismi, this isdo, and so on. One child had made a splendid demonstration of the use of the bells before her Majesty, the Queen Mother. This was in the month of May. Although he had had no further access to the materials in his "Children's House" of Via Giusti, in the November following he was asked to use some musical pipes,[9]which he had hardly seen before, and which happened to be in great disorder since they had just arrived from the factory. There were sixteen pipes mixed at random, comprising a double diatonic scale. He took one of the pipes, struck it and said, "This issi," and immediately hung it on the appropriate hook of the support. On ringing the next one, he said, this ismi, and again put the pipein the right place. So he went on and arranged the sixteen pipes in accurate order on the two parallel frames. He had had a good deal of exercise during the preceding year and had preserved an absolutely accurate memory of the notes.
As is the case with colors, geometrical shapes, etc., the children begin at this point to explore the environment. One will come to the teacher at the piano and say, striking a key, "This isstee," meaning that the note corresponds to the first syllable of the first word in some song he knows (Stella, Stellina). It happens that the key struck by the child is ado, the very note corresponding to the syllablestein the song. We had many touching examples of this musical exploration of the environment.
FOOTNOTE:[9]The pipes are an equipment parallel to the bells. They are to be recommended for schools, which can afford a more sumptuous outlay.
[9]The pipes are an equipment parallel to the bells. They are to be recommended for schools, which can afford a more sumptuous outlay.
[9]The pipes are an equipment parallel to the bells. They are to be recommended for schools, which can afford a more sumptuous outlay.
THE READING AND WRITING OF MUSIC
Material: In "The Children's House" the musical staff is introduced by means of a board painted green with the lines in bas relief. On each line and in each space representing the octave to which the sounds of the bells respectively correspond, is a small circular indenture, or socket, into which the disk for each note may be inserted. Inside each indenture is written a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The disks used in this exercise have a number written on the lower face and the name of a note on the upper: for instance, 1,do;2,re;3,mi;4,fa;5,sol;6,la;7,si:
do—re—mi—fa—sol—la—si—do.
This device enables the child to place the notes on their respective lines without making any mistakes and to examine their relative positions. The indentures are so arranged as to show an empty space wherever a semi-tone appears:
do,re,mi,fa,sol,la,si,do.
In the semi-tone spaces black counters are to be placed. At a later stage of this exercise the staff is represented by a wooden board similar to the one described above, but without the indentures. The child has at his disposal a great many disks with the notes written out in full on one face. He can arrange thirty or forty of these disks at random on the board, keeping them, however, in their places according to the names of the notes; but each time the surface showing the name of the note should be placed downward on the board, so that on the line only disks without names are visible. When a child has finished this exercise, he is to turn the disks over without disarranging them and so determine from their names whether he has placed them properly. All the disks on a given line or in a given space should have the same names.Should any doubt arise as to the proper place of a note, the other board with the numbered indentures can be used as a check.
drawing of scales with notes placed by children
When a child has reached this stage of development, he can practice reading the musical script, ringing the bells according to the notes he is interpreting. The musical staffs are prepared on oblong cards about seventeen centimeters broad. The notes are about two centimeters in diameter. The cards are variously colored—blue, violet, yellow, red.
The next step is for the children to write notes themselves. For this purpose we have prepared little sheets which can be bound together into a book or album.
We offer also a few songs employing two or three notes so simple in character that the child can make them out by ear on his bells. When, after some practise, he is certain he can copy the song, he writes the notes on his staff and so becomes the editor of his own music.
Arrangement of the notes in the form of a rhombus:All the exercises thus far have been in reference to the higherclef. However, no representation of this key has as yet been given the child. His first task is to learn the relative position of the notes on the two staffs. To supply this want, following the system of the Musical Conservatory of Milan, we have adopted the double staff.
blank double staff
A sheet on which the child writes his own music.
drawing of scalesThe notes written by the child.
The broken line (p. 328) indicates the position ofdo, the point of departure for the scale. In fact, as the notes pass from line to space and space to line, they form the natural series:
do,re,mi,fa,sol,la,si,do.
The same situation develops as they go down the scale:
do,si,la,sol,fa,mi,re,do.
When the position ofdohas been determined, the other notes above and below it are easily found. From thedoon the left the child can find his way to thedoon the next octave higher and come down again. Likewise from the same point on the right (do) he can go down to thedoof the lower octave and then go up the scale again. When these notes are represented on the combined staffs with the counters, the resulting design is a rhombus.
Separating the two staffs, the arrangement of the notes in the higher and lower key (the C scale and bass) becomes apparent and the different significance of the two series can be emphasized by placing to the left of the staff the two clef signs, which have been prepared as special portions of our material.
drawing notes with clefs and names on notes
In this way the children have learned the scale indo majorin the two keys. The arrangement of the black and white spaces puts them in a position to recognize these notes even on the piano. Our material, in fact, includes a diminutive keyboard where the keys are small enough to fit the size of a child's hand. It can be used as an exercise for the finger muscles. As each key is touched it raises a hammer marked with the name of the note struck, which the child can see through a glass. Thus while the child is practising his finger movements, he fixes his acquaintance with the arrangement of the notes on the keyboard. This small piano makes no noise. However, a sort of organ-pipe mechanism can be fitted on above the hammers in such a way that each stroke, as the hammer rises, connects with a reed which gives a corresponding sound.
All the exercises thus far have been based upon sensory experience as the point of departure. The child's ear has recognized the fundamental sounds and initiated him into real musical education. All the rest, such as the music writing, etc.,is not music.
THE MAJOR SCALES
We have developed additional material for the teaching of the scales. Here we show a chart somewhat suggesting the arrangement of the bell material used in the first exercises. That is, the relative intervals between the various notes of the scale are clearly indicated. Thescaleis, in fact, a series of eight sounds, the intervals between each being as indicated by the black marks in the design: whole tone, whole tone, semi-tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semi-tone.
In thedo majorscale the intervals are indicated as follows: a whole tone betweendoandre;reandmi;faandsol;solandla;laandsi;and a semi-tone betweenmiandfaandsianddo. If, however, instead of beginning withdo, the scale starts from some other note, the mutual intervals characterizing the scale remain unchanged. It is as though the whole scale with its characteristic construction as regards tone differences were moved along. Accordingly, as our plate shows, under the figure of the two octaves there is another figure. This latter is a movable piece of cardboard which shows the construction of the octave in black and white. This movable card is fastened to the large chart by a ribbon. Supposing now we slide this movable piece, as indicated in the figure, to the level ofmi. The intervals between the tones of themiscale are the same as in all the otherscales. In other words, they remain as indicated on the small movable card. It is necessary, accordingly, to strike on the grand scale the notes corresponding to the white spaces of the movable slip: viz.,
mi,fadiesis,soldiesis,la,si,dodiesis,rediesis.
This process may be repeated by sliding the movable card to all the notes in succession. In this way all the scales are gradually constructed. This becomes an interesting theoretical exercise, since the child discovers that he is able to buildall possible scalesby himself.
photographThe monocord. In the first instrument the notes are indicated by frets. On the monocord in the foreground the child places the frets as he discovers the notes by drawing the bow across the string.
photographMaterial for indicating the intervals of the major scale and its transposition from one key to another.
We have, however, for this purpose a real musical material, as appears from our design. Here on a wooden form like that used for the bells, but two octaves instead of one octave long, we have arranged prisms of equal dimensions but painted black and white according to the tones they represent. Each prism shows a rectangular plate exposed to view. The plates are identical in appearance on all the prisms. They are, however, really of different lengths according to the different prisms. When these plates are struck, they give the notes of two octaves, the prisms acting as sounding boards. The sounds are soft and mellow and unusually clear, so that we do not exaggerate in describing this mechanism as really a musical instrument (resembling the Xylophone). In our design each piece is arranged in its proper position in thedo majorscale.
Since the intervals between the tones are the same for all the scales without distinction, if the group of prisms is moved as a whole from right to left, sliding along the wooden form, some of the prisms will fall. The resulting effect is the same as that produced when the small card was moved over the larger chart (see above). Nomatter how far the group of prisms is moved, the scale can be obtained by striking all the prisms corresponding to the white spaces on the wooden form.
photographThe upper cut shows the music bars arranged for the scale of C major. The lower cut shows the transposition of the scale, preserving, however, the same intervals.
For instance, let us take away the two first prisms,doanddo diesison the left, and push the whole group of prisms from right to left untilrereaches the point formerly occupied bydo. If, now, we strike the plates which correspond to the notes of the major scale, we obtain the major scale inre. On examining the notes which make up this scale, we find:re,mi,fa diesis,sol,la,si,do diesis,re.
This brief description will indicate how interesting this instrument is. It contains in very simple form and expresses in a clear and delightful way the fundamental principles of harmony. Its use can be made apparent to teachers by the three following tables.
As the children derive in this way all the possible scales, they should transfer them to their copy books, making use of all the symbols of musical notation. The copying of the scales should be developed progressively: first the scale with onediesis, next the scale with two, then the one with threedieses, etc. Fine opportunities for observation are here offered. A child may see for instance that a scale with twodieseshas the samediesiswhich appeared in the preceding scale; a scale with threedieseshas the twodiesesof the preceding scales, and so on. Thediesesrecur at intervals of five notes.
Since in using the first material, by changing the third and sixth bell, the child was taught to recognize the harmonic minor scale, to construct it and listen to it, it is now an obviously simple matter for him to make up all the minor scales.
We have thus developed exercises which prepare forthe recognition of the major and minor tones as well as for the recognition of the different tones. It also becomes an easy matter to play a simplemotifin different keys. It is sufficient to move the series of plates, as has been indicated, and play them over according to the indications of the white and black spaces of the wooden form.
[Transcriber's Note: You can play this music (MIDI file) by clickingon the captions.]
With all the plates in position.
drawing music
With two plates removed.Scale of D.
drawing scales
With four plates removed.Scale of E.
drawing music scale
With five plates removed.Scale of F.
drawing music scale
With seven plates removed.Scale of G.
drawing music scale
With nine plates removed.Scale of A.
drawing music scale
With eleven plates removed.Scale of B.
drawing music scale
Scale of C♭.
With one plate removed.Scale of D♭.
drawing music scale
Scale of C♯.
With three plates removed.Scale of E♭.
drawing music scale
With six plates removed.Scale of G♭.
drawing music scale
Scale of F♯.
With eight plates removed.Scale of A♭.
drawing music scale
With ten plates removed.Scale of B♭.
drawing music scale
Here is a specimen of key transposition:
At this point children usually develop great keenness for producing sounds and scales on all kinds of instruments (stringed instruments, wind instruments, etc.)
Scale of C.
drawing c scale
[Transcriber's Note: The midis for this section are the same as the previous pages. Therefore they were not repeated for this section.]
drawing scales
One of the instruments which brings the child to producing and recognizing notes is themonochord. It is a simple, resonant box with one string. The firstexercise is in tuning. The string is made to correspond with one of the resonant prisms (do). This is made possible by a key with which the string can be loosened or tightened. The child may now be taught to handle the violin bow or mandolin plectrum, or he may be instructed in the finger thrumming used for the harp or banjo. On one of our monochords, the notes are indicated by fixed transversal frets, the name of each note being printed in the proper space. These notes are, however, not written on the other monochord, where the child must learn to discover by ear the proper distances atwhich the notes are produced. In this case the child has at his disposal movable frets with which he can indicate the points he has discovered as producing a given note. These frets should be left in position by the child to serve as a check on his work. The children have shown considerable interest also in little pitchpipes, which give very pleasing tones.
. . . . . . .
Thus in composing the scales and in listening to them the child performs real exercises in musical education. A given melody in the major scale is repeated in various keys. In listening to it carefully, in repeating it, in observing the notes which make it up, the child has anexercise similar to the audition of the note, but an exercise of a far more advanced character.
C Pitch.
music
D Pitch.
music
E Pitch.
music
F Pitch.
music
This exercise is to be the starting point forunderstandingmelody. To make the hearing of music an intelligent act and not like the mechanical process which appears when children read, in loud monotone, books which they cannot understand and of the meaning of which they have no idea, preparatory exercises are required. We get this preparation through various exercises in the audition of various scales for the recognition of key, and in exercises on the interpretation of rhythm.
EXERCISES IN RHYTHM
One of our most successful exercises has proved to be that originally conceived as a help in teaching children to walk, viz., "walking the line." It will be remembered that among the exercises in motor education used at the outset of our method, appeared that of walking with one foot in front of the other on a line drawn on the floor, much as do tight-rope-walking acrobats. The purpose of this exercise was to stabilize equilibrium, to teach erect carriage and to make movement freer and more certain.
Miss Maccheroni began her exercises in rhythm by accompanying this walking of the children with piano music. In fact, the sound of the piano came to be the call signal for the children to take up this exercise. The teacher starts to play and immediately the children come of their own accord, and almost without exception, to take up their positions on the line. At the very beginning the music seems to be purely a signal, at best a pleasant accompaniment to the motor exercise. There is no apparent adaptation of the child's movements to the musical rhythm. However, as the same measure is repeated for a considerable period, the rudiments of this adaptation begin to appear. One of the children begins to keep step with the rhythm of the music. Individual differences in adaptation persist for some time; but if the same musical rhythm is kept up, almost all the childrenfinally become sensible to it. In fact, these little people begin to develop general attitudes of body, in relation to the music, which are of the greatest interest. First of all, the children change their gait according to the music: the light walk, the war-like march, the run, develop on the impulse of the rhythmic movement. It is not that the teacher "teaches" the child to change his walk according to the music: the phenomenon arises of its own accord. The child begins to interpret the rhythm by moving in harmony with it. But to obtain this result the teacher must play perfectly, carefully noting all the details of musical punctuation. The creation of musical feeling in the children depends upon the teacher's own feeling and the rigorous accuracy of her own execution.
It will be useful to give here a few details on the execution of these first rhythmic exercises. The children begin, as we have said, by learning to walk on the line. They develop a passion for walking on that line, yielding to a fascination which grown-up people cannot conceive. They seem to put their whole souls into it. This is the moment for the teacher to sit down at the piano and without saying anything to play the first melody in our series. The children smile, they look at the piano and continue to walk, becoming more and more concentrated on what they are doing. The melody acts as a persuading voice; the children begin to consider the time of the music and little by little their tiny feet begin to strike the line in step with it. Some of our three-year-olders begin to keep step as early as the first or second trial. After a very few attempts a whole class of forty children will be walking in time. We must warn against the error of playing with special emphasis on the measure;in other words, of striking more loudly than is required the note (thesis) which marks the inception of the rhythmic period. The teacher should be careful simply to bring out all the expression that the melody requires. She may be sure that the rhythmic cadence will become apparent from the tune itself. The playing of one note more loudly than the others, thus to emphasize the rhythmic accent (thesis), is to deprive the selection of all its value as melody and therefore of its power to cause the motory action corresponding to rhythm. It is necessary to play accurately and with feeling, giving an interpretation as real as possible. We get thus a "musical time" which, as every one knows, is not the "mechanical time" of the metronome. If it is certainly absurd to play aNocturneof Chopin on the metronome, it is hardly less absurd and certainly quite as disagreeable to play a piece of dance music on that instrument. Even those people who have a great aptitude for feeling "time" and who play with special attention to exactness of measure, know that they cannot follow the metronome without positive discomfort. Children feel the rhythm of a piece of music if it is played withmusical feeling;and not only do they follow the time with their footsteps, but, as the rhythmic periods vary, they adapt the whole attitude of their bodies to the melodic period, which is developed around the beats constituting the rhythm as around points of support. There is a vast difference between this exercise and that of having children march to the clapping of hands or to the time ofone,two,three, etc., counted in a tone of command.
A child of ten years was dancing to the music of a Chopin waltz played with most generous concessions to the different colorations indicated in the text. She putinto her movements a certain fullness of swing, to bring out the effect which a markedrallentandogives the notes. Of course this method of dancing demands on the part of the children a perfect and intimate identification of spirit with the music; but this is something which children, even when they are small, possess in a very special way, and which they develop in their long and uninterrupted walks on the line to the sounds of a tune often repeated. It is curious to see them assume a demeanor entirely in harmony with the expression of the music they are following. A little boy of three, during the playing of our first melody, held the palms of his hands turned parallel with the floor and as he walked he bent his knees slightly with each step. On passing from our first to our second tunes, he changed not only the rapidity of his footsteps, but the attitude of his whole body. Considered as something external this may be of slight importance, but considered as evidence of a mental state, the change in demeanor bears witness to a distinct artistic experience. The composer of the tune could well be proud of such a sincere response to his work, if the test of musical beauty be regarded as successful communication of feeling.
Our second tune is a rapidandantesomewhatstaccato. The first was slow and blending (legato). The children feel thelegato, answering it with very reserved movements. Thestaccatolifts them from the floor. Thecrescendomakes them hurry and stamp their feet. Thefortesometimes brings them to clap their hands, whilecalandorestores them to the silent march, which turns, during thepiano, to perfect silence. The completion of the musical period brings them to a halt and they stand there expectant until it is taken up again; or if it be the end of the whole tune, they suddenly stop.
Beppino, a little boy of three, used to keep time with the extended forefinger of his right hand. The music was a song in two parts repeated alternately, the one inlegatoand the other instaccato;with thelegatohe used a uniform regular movement; he followed thestaccatowith sudden spasmodic beats.
To-day forty children may be seen walking as softly as possible during a tune playedpianissimo. These same children on the day when they first heard thepianokept calling to the teacher "play louder; we can't hear" and yet at that time the teacher was playing notpianissimo, butmezzo forte!
At first the children interested in the first tune are deaf to any other. The children in the St. Barnaba School in Milan got in step with the first tune. They did not notice that the teacher had changed to the second and kept their step so well that when the first tune was resumed, the teacher found them in perfect time, while on the faces of the children appeared a smile of recognition, as it were, of an old friend.
If the teacher is sufficiently cautious, she can discover without disturbing the children the moment when they have caught a new tune; and even if only a few succeed in following both of the first two melodies, the teacher can satisfy these few by alternating the tunes. This does not disturb the others who come, little by little, to notice the change in the music and to fall in with the new movement. In a public kindergarten at Perugia an attempt of this nature was made without warning by a lady, who, being a visitor, felt free to take this liberty. The children were invited into the large hall and left to themselves while the lady was playing on the piano our third melody, a march. The older children caught themovement at once. After they had been marching for some time agalopwas played. Some hesitation appeared in a few pupils while others apparently were not aware of the change in the music. Suddenly two or three began to run, as though swept away by the rhythmic wave, as though borne along by the music. They hardly seemed to touch that floor to which, but a few moments previously, the march seemed to have glued them at every step! A portion of the children in this class had taken seats in the sloping auditorium around the room. They were the youngest children; and when the victorious charge broke out to the tune of thegalop, they began to clap their hands enthusiastically. Some of the teachers felt alarmed, but certainly the spectacle was an inspiring one.
It follows that if we are totellthe children to "hop," "run," or "march," there is no use in our giving them music. We must take our choice: eithermusicorcommands. Even in our reading lessons with the slips, we do not tell the child the word that he must read. We must do without commands, without false accentuation of notes, without enforced positions. Music, if it be in reality an expressive language, suggests everything to children if they are left to themselves. Rhythmic interpretation of the musical thought is expressed by the attitude and movement of body and spirit.
Nannina, a girl four years old, would gracefully spread her skirt, and relax her arms along her body. She would bend her knees slightly, throw her head back and turning her pretty little face to one side, smile at those behind her as though extending her amiability in all directions.
Beppino, four and a half years old, stood with his feettogether motionless at the center of the ellipse drawn on the floor, on which the children were walking. He beat the time of the first tune with an outstretched arm, bowing from the waist in perfectly correct form at every measure. The time consumed in this bow of Beppino exactly filled the interval between onethesisand the next and was in perfect accord with the movement of the tune.
Nannina, the same pretty girl we mentioned above, always grew stiff when a military march was played; she would frown and walk heavily.
On the other hand, the intervention of the teacher to give some apposite lesson, tending to perfect certain movements, is something which gives the children extraordinary delight. Five of our little girls embraced each other rapturously and smothered the teacher with kisses when they had learned a few new movements of a rhythmic dance.
Otello, Vincenzino and Teresa had been taught to get a better effect from their tambourines, their steps and gestures. Each of them thanked the teacher for the profitable lesson in a special way. Vincenzino gave her a beaming smile whenever he marched past her; Teresa would furtively touch her with her hand; Otello was even more demonstrative—as he went by her he would leave the line, run to her and embrace her for a second or two.
If the spontaneity of every child has been respected; if, in other words, every child has been able to grow in his or her own way, listening to the tunes, following them with the footsteps and with free movements—interpreting them; if each child has been able to penetrate, without being disturbed by any one, into the heart of the beautiful fact which the understanding of music constitutes;then it is easy for the teacher who has forty children (between three and five and a half years of age) only one assistant, and preferably perhaps a whole apartment instead of a closed room, to sit down at the piano and teach eight children a long and intricate dance,—the lanciers in five parts. And then just like the orchestra leader who has prepared his pupils, the teacher with a minimum of effort gets the very effect in dancing, etc., which teachers generally are so anxious to obtain. Then we can get marches, counter marches, simultaneous movements, alternate movements, interweaving lines,—anything in fact, that we wish, and with perfect accuracy besides; since every movement in the children corresponds exactly with the development of the tune.
For instance, the children are marching two by two, holding each other's hand, during the playing of a short tune. At the end of this melody they slowly kneel, but in such a way that on the sound of the last note they are touching the floor very gently with their knees. There is something sweet about the accuracy and the perfect simultaneousness attained by the children, under the guidance of the tune. The effect of these exercises on them is to bring repose to their whole body and a sense of peace to their little souls.
On one occasion in a school just opened in Milan, 1908, the children re-acted to the piano by jumping about in confusion, waving their arms, moving their shoulders and legs. This was really an attempt to represent by a sort of chaos the complexity of the rhythmic movements they were hearing. They were actually making, without any assistance from others, a spontaneous attempt at musical interpretation. They soon grew tired of this, saying that "the thing was ugly." They had, however, divined thepossibilities of an orderly motory action; and when they had become quiet again, they began to listen to the music with great interest waiting for the revelation of its deep secret. Then suddenly they began to walk again, this time regularly and according to the real measure.
One of the children, whose graph was somewhat as follows: