Musical Education - The Power to Change the World One Child at a Time

Special Invited Lecture: Korean National University & Yonsei University by Jerry
L. Jaccard EdDSchool of Music Brigham Young University Provo, Utah, USA

Abstract:  We live in a changeable and changing world that often overlooks the natural musical abilities of young people, yet scientists continue to discover how music is fundamental to our nature. Albert Einstein and Zoltán Kodály are examples of how musicians can be scientists and scientists can be musicians. Cognitive psychologist Howard Gardner has discovered that music is an important way of thinking, knowing and doing that strongly influences our abilities and knowledge in other areas of learning.

Composer Zoltán Kodály is sometimes only associated with a method of teaching music instead of being recognized as a successful change agent who altered the artistic and cultural course of his nation. He and his associates made systemic changes in their national music education by improving the quantity, quality, and frequency of music teaching as well as by improving teacher education, teaching techniques and the teacher as a musical professional. This paper details those four dimensions of change and how they could be applied to Korean music education as has been done in other countries.

Bartók and Kodály made certain discoveries while researching Hungarian folksong that allowed them to understand their country's unique musical languages and cultures. This in turn influenced their compositional style, including their development of the axis system of key relationships. During this developmental period of his career, Kodály began to understand how folksong could be used to improve the effectiveness of music teaching. Although the Kodály way of teaching has method, it is not a method―much creative freedom is given for the teacher to explore, discover and develop his-her unique way of teaching music. The important thing is for the teacher to understand how the curriculum is constructed around the relationship between authentic folk music and composed art music.

We can all work together to improve communication between universities, conservatories and public and private schools so that musicians and educators work together to make positive changes for future generations of children and the adults they will become. Purposeful collaboration among composers, conductors, performers, pedagogues and school administrators is needed in every country to help all citizens become active amateur and professional music makers. Such changes occur gradually rather than all at once, but even small efforts bear immediate positive results. Every great country knows that its future depends on the quality of family life and the education of its children and youth. High quality, expert musical instruction and activity in the home and in the schools is a powerful tool for molding the hearts, minds and moral character of the rising generation.

Introduction:

For better or for worse, we musician-teachers live in a market-driven world. Sometimes we feel that our voices are very small, that no one is listening when we try to bring more beauty and peace to the earth. Our overly materialistic world sometimes makes us feel like what we do is not worth much because there is much confusion about what something costs instead of what constitutes true value. Worst of all, market managers consider our children and youth―civilization's most valuable treasure―as targets to be manipulated to buy the "latest" toys, clothes, candy, and "music." These marketers hope that by starting early enough, children will grow up as consumers who must always possess the newest and the most popular products. They want our young ones to grow up thinking that something outside of them has more value than who they actually are on the inside.

But we musicians know something different; we know that every child is a born musician, that one of the most natural human activities is to make music―to sing, to dance, to make and play instruments. If we were to take away all of the electronic devices, the electric appliances, the fashionable clothes, the cars and computers and airplanes, people would still make music, because music is essential to human life. Music is one of the unchangeable characteristics that define us as being human. Albert Einstein, the great physicist who was also a musician said: “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music" (in Viereck 1929, npn). When Zoltán Kodály, a musician who was also a scientist, was elected as the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences he said:

Not only is there a close relation between the various sciences . . . it is also true that science and art cannot do without one another. The more of the artist there is in the scientist the more fitted is he for his calling, and vice versa. Lacking intuition and imagination, the work of a scientist will at best be pedestrian; without a sense of inner order, of constructive logic, the artist will remain on the periphery of art (in Eösze 1962, 47).

This tells us that we must help people understand that being musical is not an either-or state of being, but that one may be a musician and a scientist, or a scientist and a musician, or a businesswoman and a musician, or a musician and a computer engineer―the list could go on and on.

Science itself has come around to validate Einstein and Kodály's claims. Many cognitive scientists are recognizing the special role that music can play in the intellectual development of all children. They are telling us that because music itself is highly relational, its special role in our thought processes is to help us recognize the possible relationships between all of our knowledge. In other words, the musical way of knowing helps us make sense out of and interconnect everything we know and experience. Studies are showing that children who have proper singing-based musicianship classes in their elementary school years develop more flexible and creative thought processes that carry over to all other subjects (Barkóczi and Pleh, 1978 and 1982; Weber, Spychiger and Patry, 1993). The picture is emerging that music is a great spiritual and intellectual factor in the development of past and present civilizations. We can no longer afford to ignore the power of music to nurture and shape the minds and souls of the rising generation in each of our countries.

One of the weaknesses of our politically charged market economy is that it is shallow and shortsighted; it would rather "sell something" than to think deeply about the lasting importance of true values. This has a great deal to do with music teaching. In its eagerness to "sell something," music and education publishers have tried to convince music educators to think in terms of "methods" about how to teach music. I have always enjoyed Frank Smith's explanation of educational methods as "the systematic deprivation of experience" and that "people who do not trust children to learn―or teachers to teach―will always expect a method to do the job" (1992, 441). Ildiko Herboly-Kocsár, one of the great Hungarian pedagogues has said: "This is not a cookbook! You should know the music; you should know the students; that's all you need to know" (1993, 12). So, I am not here to tell you about some kind of mythical "Kodály Method," but to ask you to consider how Zoltán Kodály was thinking about music―how he believed that music is something that every member of society can experience and learn in order to improve the human condition in every nation. And Kodály was not the only great thinker to believe these things.

If Professor Kodály were standing before you right now, what would he say to you? Would he say: “I am come to convince you to teach like the Hungarians?” or “I am come to tell you about Hungarian folksongs?” or “You should drop everything you are doing and become experts in the ‘Kodály Method’?" I don't believe so. Instead, I think he would he say, “Korea has a wonderful language and culture that is rich in folklore, folksong, folk dance and folk life. You have an ancient classical music as well. Therefore you have all you need to develop your own unique and beautiful national musical culture. You will find your true musical language and values within your own traditional music." Then he would most likely ask: “What is the relationship between ancient Korean music and modern Korean composition and how can you bring them closer together?” And, “How can you best use your national musical language to help your people become more Korean, better Koreans, and to create a continuous Korean musical culture from the most ancient to the most modern?” Next, he would ask "What are your plans to transform school music teaching in Korea, to make fine music education available to everyone?" Lastly, I believe Kodály would tell you that by answering these questions with corresponding actions, Korea will have a great musical gift to share with the world, a gift even greater than the one you already offer.

A Basis for a National Musical Culture:

You probably already know that Zoltán Kodály and his college classmate, Béla Bartók, re-discovered the ancient treasure of Hungarian folksong. You may not know that they learned from Debussy, Ravel, and other composers how the characteristically Hungarian folksong rhythms and tonalities could and should be used in composed music. From the rich fund of ancient Hungarian scale systems, they invented the axis system of key relationships which applies to tonal as well as atonal music. So, by using the axis system, Bartók became the more tonally adventurous composer, but always identifiable through his music as Bartók and as a Hungarian. Kodály became more tonally conservative, but also always identifiable through his music as Kodály and as a Hungarian.

Such individuality is one of the great principles underlying Kodály's way of thinking about music teaching: the principle of cultivating individual expression and creativity within a unifying framework. The Kodály phenomenon in music education is not prescriptive; rather, it celebrates the individual teacher's ability to be a good musician and a good pedagogue who can bring out the best in every one of his-her students. Kodály himself practiced this principle as evidenced by this remark from Mátyás Seiber, one of his own composition students:

I don't believe there is another man living today, who teaches the rules of the old counterpoint so thoroughly, and so constructively, as [Kodály] does...In the way he handles his students he is unique...In his own words, he allows them 'to grow from their own roots'. He makes no attempt to interfere in their development, but allows their personality to unfold in accordance with their individual bent (Eösze, 1962, 68).

The year before he died, Kodály the composer had something to say about folksong that is particularly important for Korea, because according to this statement, every country has many unknown composers whose music is waiting to be discovered and brought into the schools and into the musical life of the people:

I honor the anonymous composers having lived hundreds perhaps thousands of years ago, whose work brought us the still living Hungarian folksong, because every song must naturally be sung once for the first time, and whoever did that was a composer―even if not in today’s sense, but fully unconsciously. So, I regard these old songs as my mother, and the masters of the world―who naturally I also studied―as my teachers for improvement and excellence. For me, the main thing has always been to make the sound of my people audible. Therefore I always had to endeavor to research the ancient songs and melodies and attempt to continue to work in the spirit of the old tradition, that is, to carry it forward. And I would already be satisfied if I would not be counted as an unworthy successor to those ancient composers who lived hundreds and thousands of years ago (Kodály, 1966, 91).

But why is folk music so important to musical composition, performance and education? There are many good technical and theoretical answers to this question, but to me, the most important answer is that folksong belongs to the people―it has always belonged to the people―and because the people "own" folk music, they will always recognize their own voice in the work of composers, performers and educators who use folk music as the basis of high art music. Many other great European composers before and after Bartók and Kodály recognized this principle. Bartók's definition of folksong is particularly helpful in understanding why people take ownership of authentic folksong. For him, folk music is "the sum total of all the tunes in use in a human community, the spontaneous expression of its musical instinct over a given area . . . tunes sung by many people over a long period" (Bartók in Manga, 1969, 11). Kodály explained how folk music is a significant body of literature because it:

"should not be thought of as one uniform, homogeneous whole. Profound differences are to be found according to age, social and material condition, religion, cultural level, region and [gender]. Village society is a unity only when viewed from a distance. There are differences resulting from occupations...and from property and religion among people of identical occupation. This is shown in the songs they know" (Kodály in Manga, 1969, 12).

The main point is that the indigenous music of a village, of a province, of a nation is a vast body of literature with particular forms, performance styles, tonalities, scale types and meaningful texts and contexts that belong to that national culture. One of Bartók's and Kodály's greatest discoveries is how authentic folksong is the microcosm from which the macrocosm of composed music evolved. In Western European music large-scale composed forms such as the aria, fugue, sonata, symphony and concerto all developed out of folksong. For example, Kodály collected a folksong known as Fly, Peacock, Fly which turned out to be over one thousand years old. It has a very interesting shifting phrase structure with answers at the fifth. Kodály arranged it as a short two-part choral piece for school children to serve as a bridge between the simple original folksong―the microcosm, and polyphonic texture with answers at the fifth as in a Bach fugue―the macrocosm. He then used the same ancient melody to compose his Peacock Variations, one of the great orchestral works of the twentieth century. This is only one of many examples of how, in Kodály music education, school age children can easily grow into understanding and performing masterworks by starting with the simple folksong prototypes from which high art music is derived. I am sure that you can see how this illuminates a path that Korean musicologists, composers, music teachers, conductors and performers can travel together as a community of music makers.

The Four Dimensions of Change in School Music

While Bartók and Kodály were working on analyzing and classifying tens of thousands of folk melodies, Kodály began to recognize their educational value. As a composer, he also began to realize that unless comprehensive musical education was made available for every member of society from the youngest to the oldest, and unless a large percentage of the population was engaged in amateur music making, there would soon be no audiences for the next generation of composers and their masterworks (Kodály, 1966, 49). He also realized, as noted above, that musicality is an essential aspect of being human. These realizations compelled Kodály to devote the rest of his life to reforming music education in his own country and to advocating for the same reforms in other countries.

So what did Kodály really do if he did not create a “method”? In a word, his entire aim and effort was to optimize the conditions for the musical education of an entire society, in other words, to change the system. He rose to this challenge with the support of an international network of first-rank composers, conductors, linguists, musicologists, theorists and pedagogues who also aimed to change the system. Let us recognize, too, that Hungary is not some cultural outpost―it has long been a fertile seedbed of educational innovations. Centuries before Zoltán Kodály was born, Hungarian educators had already produced Orbis Pictus, the world’s first illustrated children’s textbook―one of the most widely translated and published books ever printed; had developed the first preschool system on the European continent; and had laid the foundation for Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. All of these and more influences Kodály’s own education and professional development.

Kodály was a brilliant change agent on the national and international levels. Consider his manifesto for systemic and systematic change:

If the child is not filled at least once by the life-giving stream of music during the most susceptible period―between his sixth and sixteenth years―it will hardly be of any use to him later on. Often a single experience will open the young soul to music for a whole lifetime. This experience cannot be left to chance, it is the duty of the school to provide it . . . I do not mean that the school can offer this in its present framework, but I consider it self-evident that the framework will undergo substantial transformation . . . (Bónis, 1964, 120)

This manifesto clearly states six universal truths: 1) music expresses the life in Life; 2) young people are susceptible to the influence of music; 3) there is an optimal window for musical education; 4) truly musical education is the providing of musical experiences; 5) schools have a duty to provide substantial and meaningful musical experiences; and 6) the basic structure and content of schooling must change to properly accommodate music.

A Basis for Improving Music Education

All educators know what a difficult thing it is to actually change the system. American teachers even have a saying about it: “It is easier to move a graveyard than it is to change the curriculum.” So then we have to wonder how Zoltán Kodály was able to bring about such huge changes in his country and how we, too, can become such effective change agents. We can answer this when we understand the four kinds of changes Kodály and his successors have been addressing: 1) the quantity, or number of students served and the variety of means employed to serve them; 2) the quality of instructional materials and musical experiences for school music; 3) the scheduling of musical instruction to become an equal subject within the total school curriculum; and 4) the teaching, meaning teacher-education, teachers and teaching. Making these changes takes time and patience, but progress can be made quickly once the effort begins. Can every Hungarian citizen sing in tune, read music, and participate as an amateur music maker yet? No. Is the struggle to change the system still ongoing? Yes. Have the aims of Kodály’s famous Hundred Year Plan been fulfilled? Not yet. Nevertheless, great progress is made in the simple act of pursuing a lofty goal―the journey is worth as much as the destination. The sooner we get started, the closer we get to the desired results.

1. Change the Quantity

Increasing the quantity, or number of students served, is expressed in Kodály’s banner statement of “Music for Everyone.” Kodály instinctively knew that music is a universal human capacity rather than a talent-dependent gift:

Outstanding talents will always be rare, and the future of a musical culture cannot be based on them. People of good average abilities must also be adequately educated, for in the near future we must lead millions to music, and to this end we shall need hundreds if not thousands of good musicians and teachers (in Bónis, 1964, 33).

To accomplish this, he envisioned how home, school and society could work together to provide sufficient musical development for all children in order to equip them for lifelong musical participation. Kodály championed the development of all kinds of musicians, whether children or adults, amateurs or professionals, performers or listeners, producers or collectors, composers or conductors.

In order to reach as many students as possible, Kodály also realized that the Hungarian school system would have to become more flexible in its structure and more interconnected at all levels. Kodály and his many associates developed a multi-tiered music education system that functioned well for several decades:

Tier 1: Preschool-Kindergarten music curriculum prepares for and flows into

Tier 2a: Normal Primary School [grades 1–8] twice-weekly music curriculum

OR

Tier 2b: Singing Primary School [grades 1–8] everyday music curriculum

Tier 3: Tiers 1, 2a and 2b are served by community after-school music schools for private instrumental study and ensembles, accelerated sol-fa instruction and college-bound preparatory music study.

Tier 4: Regional Music Conservatories [specialized “Music High Schools”]

Tier 5: College-University Music Conservatories

Tier 6: Franz Liszt National Academy of Music [top-echelon professional musicians, composers, musicologists, pedagogues, conductors, etc]

This multi-level system allows for great sensitivity to individual student abilities, needs and interests. A gifted 5- or 6-year old may already study an instrument at a high artistic level but an adolescent rank beginner may also be accommodated. There are many children’s choirs, youth choirs, small and large instrumental ensembles, and professional broadcast ensembles. All of these opportunities are cooperative extensions of the public school music education system.

2. Change the Quality

As for improving the quality, one of Kodály’s strategies for changing the system was to increase the musicality and musicianship of those who teach music. Kodály himself was a teacher; he taught folksong and composition at the Liszt Academy, even returning after retirement to teach solfège mainly because he wanted the experience (Szönyi, 2007, npn). His teaching was driven by his desire to prepare composers and teachers who could approach the highest peaks of music: "We have to assimilate all that is best in the musical heritage of Western Europe. I am doing my best to help my students to master the polyphonic style . . . Indeed, in this, I go further than anyone has ever done in this country, or even than is customary abroad” (Kodály in Eösze, 1962, 67). In so doing, he purposely invited young, promising music education majors into these classes:

[M]y teaching has not just been concerned with composers, because many of my students have gone through composition classes even though they did not at all want to or know how to compose. They just wanted to become good musicians so as to be able to work later as pedagogues and conductors. Good pedagogues were a rare commodity and without their efforts we might never have been able to attain today’s level of music education. So I also had to train up a like number of pedagogues. They teach everywhere today (Kodály, 1966, p. 47).

In this way, Kodály supplied Hungary with a new generation of highly qualified music teachers who joined him in changing the system.

Kodály also addressed issues of quality by unselfishly devoting a large part of his compositional output to school music. This amounted to 14 major stylistic collections running into hundreds of individual pieces of music, 17 treble-voice choral works, and 53 advanced choral works. The developmental and stylistic range of this body of composition is breathtaking―from the simplest two-note melodies up to complex polyphony, from simple Medieval organum up through Impressionism, and then right straight through to the new Axis system of composition he and Bartók created out of folksong, with its tonal-atonal ambiguities. For decades, Kodály literally gave away his choral compositions for schools through Magyar Korus, a music education publishing house and magazine edited by some of his former students. His example stimulated hundreds of musicologists, composers and teachers to produce arguably the finest musical curricula in the world. As Ildiko Herboly-Kocsár has observed, "[t]he reason children read music so fluently in Hungary is because they have such good tools in their hands. These tools always present only the best music” (1993, npn).

3. Change the Schedule

One of the most difficult of the “substantial changes” Kodály addressed was to increase the frequency and regularity of music lessons in the school curriculum. This is also one of our greatest current challenges anywhere in the world. The required changes are multi-dimensional: the number of exposures per week for every classroom in every grade, the number of minutes per exposure, and the number of musical participation opportunities outside of the school day but still attached to it. And this is where the resistance from school administrators comes in: They become concerned about making changes to the already over-programmed school schedule, the objections of the classroom teachers and the cost of educating and hiring qualified music specialists. Kodály was strongly against financial objections:

That the economic crisis is the cause of everything? . . . Penury may hamper development but wealth does not always promote it either . . . However, the most valuable things cannot be bought with money. The greatest trouble is not the emptiness of the purse but the emptiness of the soul. And of this we have got more than our share (In Bónis, 1964, 126).

It may not be wise to quote those exact words to a school administrator, but the real message here is about the attitudinal root cause that needs changing: educational decisions are all too often made by those who have never been properly immersed in “the life-giving stream of music.” Somehow we must break that cycle; to do so is perhaps the greatest challenge of our time and the most important reason for us here today to persevere. As tomorrow’s decision-makers, today’s children should not have to be convinced of the intrinsic value of a substantial musical education―they should have already experienced it!

Professor Kodály knew that changes in music scheduling bring about the restoration of music to its rightful place in the general curriculum as the rigorous subject matter it has been since ancient times. Systematically well-taught and well-learned singing-based musical instruction is the principal subject, easily connected to instrumental study on an elective basis according to individual motivation and financial opportunity (Kodály in Eösze, 1962, 195). As a singing instrumentalist himself, Kodály understood how there must first be music inside a person in order for it to be expressed through an instrument. That is why we call them instruments; they are an additional tool for expressing and extending what already exists. And yes, it is unfortunately true that one can learn instrumental technique without first having music inside―it happens all the time. All of us know how to use a saw, but that does not make us carpenters! The very nature of music itself requires profound changes in the scheduling of school music.

4. Change the Teacher and the Teaching

Three centuries before Kodály, Jan Amos Comenius had established the first truly child-centered school and a teacher-training college in Sárospatak, Hungary. That is where the first illustrated children’s textbook originated (Brambora in Földes and Mészáros, 1973, 16) and its modern musical descendents are widely used in Hungarian music education. Jean Piaget traced his own line of thinking about children’s cognitive development straight back to Comenius (1998, 204). Less than a century before Kodály’s birth, Prince Nicholas Esterházy and Countess Teresa Brunswick spread Pestalozzi’s ideas throughout Hungary and its schools (Besson and Waridel, 1995, 12–13). Using her own fortune, Brunswick established almost a hundred Angel Gardens, or preschools, in impoverished areas throughout Hungary and later in Austria and Germany. They included sheltered workshops for adults, teacher-education and staff development for adolescents, and the first use of Hungarian-language children’s songs instead of German school songs (Szönyi in Besson, 1985, 40). Continuing along in this same path as his predecessors, Kodály made sweeping improvements in Hungarian music teaching, the same kinds of improvements many of us are now trying to initiate in our own countries:

1. Recognize that every child is a born musician and that genuine musical activity is an essential way of being, knowing, thinking and doing.

2. Educate teachers as lifelong learners and skillful teachers who deeply understand child development, music learning processes and music literature.

3. Continually improve and refine teaching techniques and teaching materials.

4. Provide a centralized curriculum that encourages teachers to develop their own methodologies.

5. Allow methodology to be the domain of principle-driven teachers who teach using their own musicianship, intuition and creativity with sensitivity to the insightfulness and spontaneity of their students.

7. Provide regular peer-observation and sharing opportunities for teachers.

8. Build school music systems from the bottom up rather than from the top down.

If I may talk personally for a few minutes, I would like to share with you what we are doing in my city of Provo, Utah. Fifteen years ago, there were no music specialists in the thirteen elementary schools of our town. There were instrumental and choir teachers in the junior high and high schools, but only a small, often select number of students could take their classes. We began a summer Kodály certification program at the university for musicians who wanted to learn how to teach better. After much work at the university to develop a new kind of music teacher, and much volunteer work to show the principals what young children can achieve in music, we now have a full-time music specialist in all thirteen elementary schools. We have several children's choirs and bands in the schools, and every year we have children's choir, orchestra, and band festivals where our music specialists take turns as the festival conductors. In this way, our teachers continue to grow and gain large ensemble conducting experience. Over the past ten years, dozens of our children have auditioned and been accepted into the National Children's Choir. We have begun an after-school music school for the school district, in which young students can have one private violin or cello lesson, one group lesson, and one musicianship lesson every week. We will shortly include wind instruments in the same teaching scheme. The junior high and high school music teachers are noticing the improved quality and quantity of incoming students who sing, hear, read and play better. One of our former elementary students has just received the highest university scholarship award at her high school and plans to enter the university to study elementary music teaching. Another student is close behind her. So now we are replacing ourselves with the younger generation and have the assurance that our hard work and sacrifice was worth the effort and that what we have begun will continue for many more years. Some of our music specialists are now teaching at a neighboring university, which further extends our reach into other cities and school districts. All of this happened because of just one music teacher who, like Kodály, had a vision to change the system and who shared that vision with others. By working together here in Korea, you can accomplish anything you can envision.

Here in Seoul, you have a gifted music teacher with a great sense of vision. Several years ago, Cho Hong-ky brought his music school choir to sing in an international choir festival at our university. The level of their musicianship, the beauty of their singing, and their shining spirit was the highlight of the festival. In his choir, Mr. Cho brings children, youth, and adults together in a community of music makers. I believe he has correctly understood the true nature of Kodály's vision. I hope you will all work together with him to change the system. Think of the great ability each of you has individually and how much more powerful it will be when combined with everyone else's to work toward a common goal. Because of you, I am excited for the future of music education in Korea―change is in the air!

Conclusion

Our world is changing rapidly and change always gives us opportunities for new beginnings. In America, in The Philippines, in Mexico, in Korea, and in many other countries, we have colleagues who intend to change their educational systems to make lifelong musical education available to every child. Someday, those children will be the next generation of parents, teachers, administrators, business people, scientists and national leaders. Based on their childhood musical experiences, they will determine whether or not there will be music teachers, music lessons and school music in the future. And as we have experienced in our town, some will become new music teachers who will have lived the vision and be able to take it further.

Sometimes we feel that we alone cannot make a difference. But great changes often happen gradually and quietly. Each of us has the capacity to change the future of the world one child at a time, one school at a time, one village at a time. And those we teach then become able to help us continue to make positive changes; in effect, we multiply our influence through our students. But we must get started soon because there are too many people in our world who want to do bad things to other people and especially to do great harm to our innocent children. However, I also believe that there are far more good people than bad. The worst thing for the future of our planet is for good people like us to do nothing. How hard will it be to make music a great force for good to strengthen, uplift, inspire and protect our precious little ones? Now is a good time to begin; no one else will do it for us.

우리는 변화하는 세상에서 산다. 그 세상은 종종 어린이들의 음악적 재능을 못 보고 지나칠 때가 많지만, 과학자들은 음악이 인간의 본질에 있어 얼마나 중요한지를 계속해서 발견한다. 알버트 아인슈타인과 졸탄 코다이가 바로 음악가가 과학자가 되고 과학자가 음악가가 되는 예다. 인지 심리학자 하워드 가드너는 음악이 생각하고 알고 행하는데 있어서 중요하다는 것을 발견했다. 음악은 음악을 제외한 다른 분야의 지혜와 능력에도 큰 영향을 미친다.

작곡가 졸탄 코다이는 헝가리의 예술적이고 문화적인 변화의 선구자였음에도 불구하고 사람들은 때때로 그를 교육법과만 연상시킨다. 그와 그의 동료들은 양, 질, 음악교육의 빈도와 음악교육자들의 교육에 변화를 줌으로써 헝가리의 음악교육제도를 개선했다. 이 논문은 위에 제기된 네 개의 변화에 대해서 자세히 얘기하고 그것들이 어떻게 한국 음악교육에 적용될 수 있는지도 살핀다.

버르토크와 코다이는 헝가리 민요들을 연구하면서 헝가리만의 독특한 음악적 언어와 문화를 발견할 수 있었다. 이는 그들의 작곡 스타일에도 영향을 미쳤고, axis system of key relationships도 이중 하나다. 이 개발적인 단계에서 코다이는 민요가 어떻게 음악교육의 유효성에 도움을 줄 수 있는지를 깨달았다. 물론 코다이의 가르치는 방식에도 ‘방법’이라는 게 있지만 그것은 방법이 아니다. 선생님들에게는 보다 많은 창의적인 자유가 주어지고 자신만의 교육방법을 찾고 개발할 수 있게끔 한다. 진짜 중요한 것은 교과과정이 진정한 민요와 composed art music의 관계를 토대로 만들어졌다는 것을 선생님들이 이해하는 것이다.

우리는 대학, 음악학교, 사립과 공립학교간의 의사소통 개선을 위해 함께 일해야 한다. 음악가들과 음악교육자들이 다음 세대를 위해 바람직한 변화를 불러와야 한다. 전세계에는 작곡가, 지휘자, 연주자, 학교행정관들간에 목적이 있는 협동이 이루어져야 한다. 바로 모든 이들이 아마추어 혹은 전문적인 음악인이 될 수 있기 위한 목적 말이다. 이러한 변화는 단번에 일어나지 않고 서서히 일어난다. 하지만 작은 노력조차도 즉각적으로 긍정적인 결과물을 야기한다. 전세계가 우리의 미래는 가정사와 우리 자녀들의 교육에 달려있음을 잘 안다. 가정과 학교에서 누릴 수 있는 높은 질의 음악지도와 활동은 분명 떠오르는 세대들에게 좋은 틀을 제공할 수 있을 것이다.

요즘의 시장사회는 지극히 물질적이다. 이는 미래를 짊어질 어린이들에게 ‘신상’들을 추구하게끔 만든다 – 내면보다는 세속적인 외모를 말이다. 따라서 우리가 지불하는 대가와 우리가 얻을 수 있는 진정한 가치들이 애매모호해지고, 그 때문에 우리 음악교사들이 하는 일이 가치 없어 보일 때도 종종 생긴다.

하지만 우리 음악가들은 모든 이들이 음악을 타고 난다는 사실을 안다. 세상이 현대문명을 앗아간다 해도 사람들은 음악을 만들 것이다 – 음악은 인간에게 있어 필수불가결 하기 때문이다. 과학자였던 알버트 아인슈타인과 졸탄 코다이도 이에 동의하며 음악의 중요성에 대해 말했다.

음악의 중요성은 과학적으로도 증명이 됐다. 음악은 그의 상관적인 성격으로 우리들이 갖고 있는 다른 분야의 지식들을 서로 이어주는 역할을 한다. 실제로도 올바른 음악 교육을 받은 어린이들이 후에 더욱 융통성 있고 창의적인 생각을 한다고 한다.

시장사회의 단점 중 하나는 무언가의 ‘진정한 가치를 추구’하기 보다는 그 무언가를 ‘팔려고 하는 생각’이다. 가르치는 ‘방법’이라는 발상 또한 이 ‘팔려고 하는 생각’에서 비롯된 것이다. 지금 나는 “코다이 교수법”이라는 ‘방법’을 선전하려는 것이 아니라, 졸탄 코다이는 음악을 어떻게 생각하고 받아들였는지를 전하려고 한다. ‘음악은 모든 사람의 것이며 모든 국가의 인간사의 발전을 위해 가르쳐져야 한다’는 사상은 코다이 뿐만 아니라 많은 사상가들이 공통적으로 가졌던 것이다.

지금 코다이 교수님이 이 곳에 계셨더라도 그는 “헝가리에서 하듯이 가르치고 배워라,” “헝가리 민요를 가르쳐주마,” 혹은 “모든 것을 버리고 오직 ‘코다이 교수법’에만 매달려라” 라고 가르치지 않으실 것이다. 그는 분명 “한국은 아름다운 언어와 풍요로운 민풍을 갖고 있고 고전음악도 갖고 있으니 독특하고 아름다운 음악문화를 만들기엔 흠잡을 곳 하나 없구나! 음악의 언어와 가치는 전통음악 안에 있느니라” 고 말씀하실 것이다. 더불어 한국의 고전음악과 현대음악의 관계를 묻고 어떻게 하면 이들을 더욱 더 가깝게 이끌 수 있는지, 그리고 민요를 어떻게 사용하면 당신네 나라 사람들을 더욱 더 한국인처럼 만들 수 있는지, 더 낳은 한국인으로 만들 수 있는지, 어떻게 하면 한국인의 음악을 이어 나갈 수 있을지를 물으실 것이다. 다음으로 그가 물을 것은 “한국의 학교 음악교육을 어떻게 바꿀 것인지, 어떤 수로 모든 이에게 음악교육을 제공 할 것인지” 이다. 마지막으로, 코다이 교수님은 한국의 가능성을 염두하고 위 질문들에 답해 줄 것이다.

코다이는 음악교사들의 ‘개성’을 굉장히 중요시 여기며 존중해주었다. 그는 음악교사들을 양성할 때 그들의 행동과 발전에 방해를 놓지 않았다. 학생들 하나하나의 개성을 최대한으로 살려내는데 힘썼다.

코다이는 민요의 작곡가들에게 경의를 표해가면서 민요의 중요성을 강조했다. 민요 작곡법, 공연, 그리고 음악교육에 있어 중요한 이유는 사람들이 민요를 ‘소유’하기 때문이다. 그렇기 때문에 사람들은 민요를 바탕으로 하는 고급 음악들 속에서 자신들의 목소리를 찾을 수 있다. 민요를 창조주라 한다면 그를 바탕으로 작곡된 음악(composed music) 이라는 대우주가 창조된다고 할 수 있다.

민요를 정리하며 분석하는 도중 많은 사람들이 간단한 작곡법에라도 노출되지 않는 이상 미래의 작곡가들에게는 희망이 없음을 발견한 코다이는 모국인 헝가리와 타국의 음악교육 개편을 위해 힘쓰기로 마음먹는다.

‘교육’에 있어서 상당히 중요한 역할을 해왔던 헝가리에서 코다이의 목표는 음악교육제도를 바꾸는 것이었다. 코다이의 선언문에는 여섯 가지 보편적인 진리가 기재되어있다:

1) 인생에서 음악은 인생 그 자체를 표현한다;

2) 어린아이들은 음악의 영향을 받아들이기 쉽다;

3) 음악교육을 위한 최적의 창문이 있다;

4) 진정한 음악교육은 음악을 경험시켜주는 것이다;

5) 기본적이고 의미 있는 음악을 제공하는 것은 학교의 의무이다; 그리고

6) 음악을 제대로 전파하려면 학교교육의 구조와 내용이 바뀌어야 한다.

교육제도를 바꾼다는 것은 극히 어려운 일임에도 불구하고 코다이와 그의 후계자들은 네 가지 변화를 추구함으로 이를 이끌어 냈다:

1) 양의 변화, 즉 학생과 교사들의 수;

2) 질의 변화, 즉 교과자료와 음악체험의 질;

3) 시간표 안배 – 다른 여타 과목들과 똑 같은 비중;

4) 수업, 즉 가르치는 선생님들과 그들의 교육.

이러한 변화들은 시간과 인내심을 필요로 한다. 하지만 노력이 시작되는 그 순간부터 빠른 진보를 볼 수 있을 것이다. 일찍 시작할수록 우리의 이상적인 결과를 일찍 바라볼 수 있을 것이다.

코다이는 보다 많은 학생 수를 위해서는 가정, 학교, 그리고 사회가 함께 일해야 한다는 점을 알았다. 또한 헝가리의 학교제도들도 보다 융통적이어야 했고, 그에 따라 코다이와 그의 동료들은 수십 세기동안 성공적이었던 다단계(multi-tiered)의 음악교육제도를 개발해냈다.

1단계: 유치원 교과과정이 2단계를 위한 준비를 시킴.

2a단계: 일반초등학교[1~8학년] – 주2회 음악교육

혹은

2b단계: 음악초등학교[1~8학년] – 매일 음악교육

3단계: 악기, 앙상블, 계명창법, 그리고 대학입시

4단계: 지방음악학교

5단계: 대학 음악학교

6단계: Franz Liszt National Academy of Music

이 다단계 교육제도는 학생들의 능력, 요구 그리고 흥미에 굉장히 신경을 써준다. 천부성을 타고는 5~6세 어린이들은 벌써 상당한 수준의 연주를 할 수 있는 동시에 새로 시작하는 어린이들 역시 수용할 수 있다. 수많은 어린이 합창단, 앙상블 등은 바로 공교육의 연장선이다.

음악교육의 질을 높이는데 쓰인 방법은 가르치는 자들의 수준을 높이는 방법이었다.

코다이는 음악의 정점에 다다를 수 있는 작곡자들과 음악교육자들의 양성을 위해 가르치기에 힘썼다. 실제로 코다이는 수많은 제자들을 두었고, 실제로 그들은 세계 각지에서 활동 하였다. 더 나아가 코다이는 스스로 자신의 작품들의 대부분을 서슴없이 교육의 발전을 위해 사용하였고, 그 결과 헝가리의 어린이들은 오늘날 음악을 능숙하게 읽어낼 수 있게 되었다.

가장 큰 난관은 바로 학교의 시간표 안배를 바꾸는 점이었고, 현재도 세계 어느 곳에서도 다 그렇다. 이미 빠듯한 수업일정에 근본적인 변화를 준다는 것은 학교에게 있어 쉽게 납득이 가지 않을 것이다. 수업비용과 강의료 또한 문제가 될 수 있다.

문제가 쉽게 해결되지 않는 이유 중 하나는 행정담담자들이 “생명이 흐르는 음악”을 경험치 못했을 가능성이 크기 때문이다. 때문에 미래의 담당자 미래를 짊어질 아이들은 어려서부터 경험을 해 놓을 수 있게끔 우리가 조치를 취해야 한다.

음악을 알지 못하면서도 악기를 다룰 수는 있다. 허나 악기의 용도 – 음악을 표현하기 위함 – 를 완벽히 사용하려면 악기를 다루는 사람이 음악을 이해해야 하며, 그러기 위해서는 학교에서의 음악교육이 실로 중요치 않을 수 없다.

자신의 선배들을 따라, 코다이 역시 헝가리의 음악교육법에 지대한 공헌을 했다.

모든 어린이는 음악적 재능을 타고났고, 순수한 음악활동은 존재, 앎, 생각함, 그리고 행함의 필수적인 요소임을 알아냈다.

음악교사들을 어린이의 성장과 음악의 학습과정, 그리고 음악문학을 이해하는 평생지기 학습자와 숙련된 교사들로 교육시켰다.

지속적으로 교수법과 교육재료들을 개선해나갔다.

음악교사들이 자신만의 교육방법을 터득하게끔 커리큘럼을 내놓았다

방법론으로 하여금 자신만의 교육방법을 사용하여 학생을 주도하는 원칙주의적인 교사들의 범위가 되게끔 만들었다.

음악교수들에게 정기적으로 관찰과 나눔의 기회를 제공했다.

학교음악제도를 위에서부터 아래로가 아닌 아래서부터 위로 지었다.

내가 살고 있는 유타(Utah)시의 프로보(Provo)에는 15년 전만 해도 13개의 초등학교에 음악 전문가가 단 한 명도 없었다. 중고등학교에는 악기와 합창 선생님이 있었지만 극소수의 학생들만 수업을 들을 수 있을 뿐이었다. 우리는 우리 대학에서 음악교육을 보다 더 알고 싶어하는 사람들을 위해 ‘코다이 수료 프로그램’을 실시했다. 그 결과 지금은 13개의 초등학교에 모두 전시간 전문음악강사가 있다. 수개의 어린이 합창단과 밴드가 있고, 매해 합창, 밴드 페스티벌이 있는데 위에 말한 전문음악강사들이 돌아가며 지휘를 맡는다. 지난 10년간 12명의 어린이들이 국립 어린이 합창단(National Children's Choir)에 발탁되어갔다. 매 주 개인레슨, 그룹레슨 그리고 음악성레슨을 받을 수 있는 방과후 활동도 개설하였다. 아직은 바이올린과 첼로밖에 제공 못하지만, 조만간 관악기도 포함시킬 생각이다. 중고등학교 교사들은 신입생들의 음악수준이 향상되고 있음을 느낀다. 예전에 우리 초등학생이었던 한 여학생은 그녀의 고등학교에서 가장 높은 액수의 장학금을 타고 대학에서 초등음악교육을 전공할 예정에 있다. 한 학생 또한 이 전철을 밟을 것으로 예상하고 있다. 이제 우리는 서서히 다음세대와 세대교차를 시작했다. 우리의 계획에 대한 보장과 향후로도 지속될 것임을, 우리의 노력이 헛수고가 아니었음을 확인한다. 우리의 전문음악강사들 중에는 이웃도시에서 강의를 하는 사람도 있다. 이렇게 함으로 우리는 우리의 영역을 다음 도시, 다음 주로 넓혀가는 것이다. 이 일이 일어날 수 있었던 이유는 단 한 명의 음악선생이 코다이와 같이 제도를 바꾸겠다는 비전을 품고 남들과 나눴기 때문이다. 이 곳 한국에서도 함께 힘을 합쳐 일함으로 우리의 비전을 이룰 수 있을 것이다.

이 곳 서울은 비전을 품은 타고난 재능의 음악교사가 있다. 몇 년 전 조홍기 교수님은 자신의 합창단을 이끌고 우리 대학교에서 주최하는 국제 합창 페스티벌에 참가했었다. 그 합창단의 음악성, 그 아름다운 합창, 그리고 그들의 빛나는 영혼이 그 페스티벌의 하이라이트였다. 조홍기 교수님은 어린이, 청소년, 그리고 어른들을 음악을 창조하는 하나의 공동체로 만들었다. 나는 그가 코다이의 비전을 제대로 이해했다고 믿는다. 바라기는 여러분 모두가 그와 함께 변화에 앞장섰으면 한다. 당신들의 개인적인 힘이 얼마나 굉장한지 보고 힘을 하나로 합친다면 얼마나 더 강력해질지 상상해보라. 당신들 덕분에 한국 음악교육의 미래가 기대된다 – 변화는 이제 눈앞에 있다!

세상은 빠르게 변하고 있다. 지금도 세상 도처에서는 음악교육의 발전을 위해 힘쓰는 우리들의 동료들이 힘을 쓰고 있다. 언젠가는 그 나라의 어린이들이 다음세대로서 우리의 역할을 이어받아 더욱 더 먼 미래에 음악교육이 존재 할 지의 여부를 결정하게 될 것이다. 그리고 우리가 지금껏 경험한 바와 같이 음악교사들이 나올 것이며 우리가 품고 살던 꿈을 더 먼 곳까지 끌고 나갈 것이다.

우리는 때때로 세상에 변화를 가져오기란 참 힘든 일임을 느낀다. 하지만 변화는 서서히, 그리고 조용히 찾아올 것이다. 우리 개개인에게는 한번에 한 학생씩, 한번에 한 학교씩, 한번에 한 마을씩 변화시킬 수 있는 힘이 있다. 그리고는 우리가 가르친 그들이 또 좋은 영향을 전파하게 될 것이다. 하지만 우리는 서둘러야 한다. 왜냐면 세상에는 저 순수한 아이들을 더럽힐 악의 요소가 너무나도 많기 때문이다. 세상에 악보다는 선이 많다고 믿는다. 최악의 미래는 우리와 같이 선한 자들이 아무런 행동도 취하지 않는 미래다. 음악으로 어린이들을 강하게 만들어주고, 들여 높여주고, 격려해주고, 보호해주는 것이 힘들다면 얼마나 힘들겠는가? 지금이 바로 시작할 때이다. 그 누구도 우리를 대신해서 해주지 않을 테니까.

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