Language in Music Creativity with Kodály

Hsiao-Shien Chen

Abstract

Creativity is one of the important domains in music teaching and learning, even though, it is also recognized as the most difficult discipline to teach for many music educators. After improvisation, composition and arrangement were included in National Standards in the United States in 1994, music educators in Taiwan also reevaluate the status of music creativity and let it take place in music teaching and learning, although “what to teach” and “how to teach” are still the problems for the teachers.

Among various elements in music creativity, language plays an important role by its unique characteristic. Chinese is known as “one word, one syllable” and belongs to the family of tonal languages therefore the intonation of Mandarin or Taiwanese usually implies intervals and melodies. Intervals like major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th are often seen in the language. On the other hand, inappropriate words in a melody can cause misunderstanding. From musicians’ point of view, the application of Mandarin could be a road leading to music creativity, and Kodaly method makes a logical procedure to help music learners foster their comprehensive musicianship.

From cultural context to music literacy, from part to whole, music educators start with Mandarin words and intervals, and step further to phrases in musical form, eventually achieve a complete song in music writing. Mandarin and music play a perfect match in music creativity. This paper presents step-by-step Kodaly teaching procedure in music creativity while characteristics of Mandarin are emphasized.

Introduction

Issues about creativity are brought up in diverse industries in recent years. For business, creativity equals to profits; for film industry, creativity means box office receipts; for cultural industry, creativity brings benefits. In contrast to western countries, creativity has never been considered as strength in Asia. The reason may be our distinctive national features, such as passive and obedient. Nevertheless, Asian countries are doing all we can to catch up, and great achievements can be seen in business as well as art and humanities.

Creativity is one of the important domains in music teaching and learning, even though, it is also recognized as the most difficult discipline to teach for many music educators. While improvisation, composition and arrangement were included in National Standards in the United States in 1994, music educators in Taiwan also reevaluate the status of music creativity and let it take place in music teaching and learning. Ministry of Education decreed Music Curriculum Standards for Elementary School in 1993 and launched in 1995. Ear training, reading, singing, instrument playing, creativity, and appreciation stood out as major disciplines in music teaching. Although creativity took its place in the Music Curriculum Standards back to 1995, music educators still have questions in mind about “what to teach” and “how to teach” until now (Ju, 2005).

Application of materials form daily life in teaching is suggested to music educators. Kodaly educators bring in the ideas of drawing language elements for music creativity, especially the traditional materials in one’s mother tongue are highlighted. Language contains cultural pith and marrow, and it leads learners to achieve mastery through a comprehensive study across disciplines. Basic rules are set for use of language in music teaching. To apply language in music creativity appropriately, music teachers must understand the characteristics of the language and the Kodaly concept.

Characteristics of Mandarin

Languages used in Taiwan include Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and various aboriginal languages due to different ethnic residents share the land. In the view of linguistics, Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Hakka all belong to Chinese language system, so they share some common characteristics. Since Mandarin is the official and the most widely used one in Taiwan in nowadays, the researchers would take it as an example to lead the following discussions.

The structure of Chinese language starts from Zi (a word, a written Chinese character), followed by Ci (a term, words), Yu (vocable), Ju (a sentence, a line of verse) (Peng, 2005). In the Chinese phonetic system, a Zi may include an initial, a final, a syllable division sign, a tone, and a lexical tone, whether part or all of above components. Mandarin connotes musicality in terms of rhythm and melody. Rhythm of speech is often seen in different languages, so does Chinese. On the other hand, from melodic point of view, Chinese is known as “one word, one syllable,” and belongs to the family of tonal languages. Andrew Lodge (2006) pointed out that Chinese language is grammatically quite simple, but the emphasis is placed on intonation and pitch, which makes it very different from many European languages. Lodge believed that human brain has a remarkable capacity to recognize tone and pitch, therefore if we can combine music with the relevant phrases, the tones will be acknowledged by the brain subconsciously

As tonal language, the pitch at which the syllables in a word are pronounced can make a difference in its meaning. The example in Table 1 shows how the tone of a word can make different meanings in Mandarin.

Table 1

Different Tones in a Word

Segments

Tone Letter

Tone Pattern

Gloss

[ma]

Š

high level

mother

[ma]

Ø

high rising

hemp

[ma]

ˇ︳

low falling rising

horse

[ma]

†

high falling

scold

Note. Cipollone, N., Keiser, S. H., & Vasishth, S. (Eds.). (2004). Language Files: Materials for an instruction to language and linguistics (9th ed). Taipei: Shulin.

Some ethnomusicologists indicate that rhythm is the foundation of Chinese language, but melody is the only dominant element. In the react to the traits of Chinese folk music and folk songs, people are more sensitive to melodic change other than rhythmic ones. Chinese is usually spoken in an interval range of fifth, and the intonation of Mandarin usually implies intervals and melodies. In syntax of phonology, the final (tail vowel) of Mandarin can be consonant, medium, vowel, or ending, and different finals may change its tone. Speak of tone, tonal system evolved through history, and five-tone system used currently is developed from four-tone system in early Yuan dynasty (ca. 1324) (Yang, 1988). Furthermore, the different tones in Mandarin actually cause the intervals of Ci (a term, words). Ci in intervals like major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th are most often seen in Mandarin.

A good lyric must match of tones and melody. On the other hand, inappropriate words in a melody can cause misunderstanding. As mentioned above, the application of Mandarin could be a road leading to music creativity, and Kodaly concept help music educators to make a logical procedure to teach students fostering their comprehensive musicianship.

Music Creativity in Kodaly

Based on Kodaly concept, music literacy is the end where music educators bring students up to, and music creativity is means of practice for evaluation. From part to whole, step-by-step structure makes Kodaly method effective. In the methodology, element teaching can be divided into three stages as known as 3P, preparation, presentation, and practice. Ideas are taken in music creativity teaching. Basic music abilities must be grounded as good foundations, and then students can construct their musicianship on the foundation. Therefore, creativity should base on numbers of repertoires, moreover, good singing, dictation, reading, and writing abilities.

In the preparation stage, teachers will prepare students five to six folk songs with target intervals. When students can match certain interval to words they know, they can start to play intervals on instruments. Simple improvisation begins with answering singing questions provided by teachers. Students first imitate teachers’ pattern, and then create their own pattern. Meanwhile, they are able to sing Zi (one word, one syllable) in many notes. Teachers can bring in traditional materials when students are well prepared in singing improvisation. Students first can use three solfa to create melody for the last phrase of a traditional rhyme. Second, they can apply pentatonic scales to compose a longer phrase in different rhyme. Eventually, they can write both rhythm and melody all by themselves within a traditional rhyme scheme. The teaching procedure is presented in Table 2.

Table 2

Kodaly Teaching Procedure in Melodic Creativity with Traditional Materials

Stage

Step

Material

Preparation

Teachers prepare five to six songs with intervals of major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th.

Students listen and sing the song in two keys and are able to pick up the matched staff.

Teachers play recorders. Students get familiar with the intervals and are able to match the intervals they hear and on staff.

Siau Ji Ho Shuei

Yia Tou Yia

Da Mu Ge

Din Zi Din Go

De Di Yi

Intervals with Words

Teachers prepare vocabulary and matched intervals. Students find out whether they are matched or not. Students can distinguish speaking voice and singing voice as well as ascending and descending intervals.

Students can play intervals matched the words teachers provide on instruments.

Matched intervals and vocabulary

Melodic Creativity

Students can imitate and answer teachers’ singing pattern.

Students can create their own pattern to answer teachers’ singing question. From “one word, one note” to “one word, many notes.”

Students create melody for the last phrase of a traditional rhyme with mi-sol-la.

Students use pentatonic scale to compose longer phrase for a traditional rhyme.

Students can write both rhythm and melody within a traditional rhyme scheme

Siau Ma Che

Uwo Uwo Lai

Siau Lu Ju

Teaching Strategies

Preparation

In the preparation stage, music teachers must help students to accumulate five to six folk songs with intervals in major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th, which are mi, sol, and la (Forrai, 1998). Teachers should draw students’ attentions and demonstrate good singing model. When students listen to the songs several times, they can join the singing with teachers. From singing in a group to singing alone, students become musically independent and familiar with the target intervals in the songs. Two folk songs, “Siau Ji Ho Shuei (chicken drinks water)” and “Yia Tou Yia (Little girl),” are presented as examples (see Figure 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Siau Ji Ho Shuei (Chicken drinks water).

Figure 2. Yia Tou Yia (Little Girl).

When students establish the songs in their ears, music teachers can lead them step further. Referring to “Siau Ji Ho Shuei,” mi-la creates interval perfect 4th. Teachers can use flash cards that indicate high and low notes on staff to guide students’ listening skills. Teachers sing the song in two keys, and students are expected to pick up the flash card with matched staff. Later on, students sing the song from the staff, they will discover that “Siau Ji” is “low-high” and “Ho Shuei” is “high-low.” Teachers can play either ascending or descending perfect 4th and ask learners to pick the matched flash card.

“Yia Tou Yia” is a traditional singing game with major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th. Students repeat the game several times and memorize the intervals subconsciously. Teachers can bring in instruments such as tone bells to review the intervals sang in the songs. When teachers play “E-A” in tone bells, students have to identify the interval is either “Siau Ji” (m-l) or “Yia Tou” (l-s).

Story telling and role playing are other strategies to train students’ ears. Before tell the story, teachers must plan ahead to list matched intervals and vocabularies (see Table 3 and 4). “Shopping for grandma” is an often told story for matching intervals and different vocabularies. When the story environment is set up, teachers start to hum an interval, and students must identify if that interval matches the fruit or grocery grandma asks them to buy. The match of intervals and vocabularies activity will be carried on to the next stage.

Table 3

Match of Intervals and Vocabularies (A)

- -

- ˊ

- ˇ

Melon

Gourd

Plum

Tomato

Pencil

Jujube

ˊ-

ˊ ˊ

ˊˇ

Pumpkin

Onion

Grape

Star fruit

Apple

Mango

Table 4

Match of Intervals and Vocabularies (B)

ˇ-

ˇ ˊ

ˇˇ

Orange

Cookie

Pear

Strawberry

Dog

Puppy

ˋ-

ˋ ˊ

ˋˇ

Litchi

Papaya

Pineapple

Almond

Bean Curd

Jujube

Intervals in Words

When students are able to match intervals and vocabularies perfectly in the previous stage, teachers can guide them to broaden their vocabularies from grocery to everything relative to daily life in intervals of major 2nd, minor 3rd, and perfect 4th. From listening to an interval that teachers hum or play in tone bells, students can tell as many vocabularies as what they think the interval matches.

Teachers and students can exchange places, when students are familiar with those three intervals. Teachers can say a fruit name or show a pictorial flash card, and students have to play an interval on the tone bells to “say” its correct name. In the beginning, students possibly play “wrong notes” on the tone bells, but chances to try are important for music learning. When the numbers of mistakes go down, students become more confident, meanwhile, learning interests increase as well.

In addition to acquire mastery of intervals, students can also learn to distinguish speaking and singing voices as well as ascending and descending in the stage.

Melodic Creativity

From intervals to melody, teachers can start with question and answer pattern in the beginning of a class. Teachers can work with a puppet (in the example, a rooster it is) to demonstrate a good model, so students know how to imitate the answer pattern (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Question and Answer Model.

In terms of a good model, teachers’ answering pattern indicates the way to match intervals and vocabularies. The tones of “Gon Ji” (rooster) are combination of “one-one,” which repeating the same pitch would make more sense. If teachers made the answer pattern as mi-la-mi-la, it would mislead students to copy the same melodic pattern but not follow the language tone. For teachers with strong music training background, they would easily sing different texts in a fixed melody just like strophic form in art music. If students were trained to sing in strophic form, it would lower their sensibility to melody and decrease their potential in melodic creativity.

Students are prepared to improvise melody to answer teachers’ question pattern, and from “one word, one note” to “one word, more than one note” (see Figure 4 and 5). Move on to this step, improvisation can be held in warm up exercises. Teachers sing a melody as question, and students can improvise a melody.

Figure 4. One word, one note.

Figure 5. One word, more than one note.

When students are able to improvise in the question-answer form, teachers can go step further to bring in traditional materials for creativity. Meanwhile, students are able to sing mi-sol-la accurately from tone ladder, staff, stick notation, and staff with rhythm. When a traditional rhyme is taught, teachers can lead students to draw melody line in the air while chanting. Students are asked to use mi-sol-la to compose the very last phrase. Traditional rhyme “Siau Ma Che” is presented in Figure 6 as an example, and the last phrase, siau sheng jiau, is written by a student. From student’s work, we can see the melodic contour of the last phrase reflects the tone of Mandarin.

Figure 6. Siau Ma Che.

Extending from mi-sol-la in very last phrase of traditional rhyme, pentatonic scale is given to students for longer phrase composition. In order to avoid the limit of rhythm, students are asked to write down only notes on staff. The following figure shows the traditional rhyme, Uwo Uwo Lai, and the second phrase is one student’s composition.

Figure 7. Uwo Uwo Lai.

Creativity in traditional rhyme extends from one phrase to the whole piece. Different rhyme has various cultural tastes. Students can learn not only music but also cultural essences. Class is asked to compose both rhythm and melody to fit a traditional rhyme. Based on the tones of rhyme, students’ compositions may have similar contour, but creativity is unlimited. “Siau Lu Ju” is a good example of traditional rhyme with creativity. Figure 8 to 11 are students’ compositions based on “Siau Lu Ju.” We can probably tell that Figure 8 and 9 are typical works by music majors. Those two works are not bad, but they do not go well with the words. The work on Figure 10 is pentatonic, and leaps between phrases make the sentences more clear, although the melody for last two words sound a little big awkward. Composition in Figure 11 is the only 4-meter piece among four works. “Siau Lu Ju” presents itself a 3-meter speech rhythm, but the fourth students probably do not sense it. His/her music has more western music sound but not oriental style.

Figure 8. Siau Lu Ju (a).

Figure 9. Siau Lu Ju (b).

Figure 10. Siau Lu Ju (c).

Figure 11. Siau Lu Ju (d).

Conclusion

To create a musical environment for our children, foster their musical abilities and creativity, the very first thing we need to do is good preparation for our future teachers. If music teacher training cannot prepare future teachers good skills and knowledge, we can hardly expect our children can receive good music education. Music educators in Taiwan may or may not have Kodaly training. Most of music teachers take one teaching method course in college, and that very one teaching method can be Dalcroze, Orff, Kodaly, or so-called “traditional teaching method.” Which music teaching method would be taught in the course totally depend on “who” teaches the course. As Kodaly educators, we call upon our Ministry of Education to offer appropriate courses for future music teachers, and practical workshops for in-service teachers.

A good Kodaly teacher can bring out thousands of musical children. The children who can use their mother tongue to express the content of music and essence of their own cultures. The children who not only use their mother tongue but also music language to connect the world.

Reference

Cipollone, N., Keiser, S. H., & Vasishth, S. (Eds.). (2004). Language Files: Materials for an instruction to language and linguistics (9th ed). Taipei: Shulin.

Forrai, K. (1998). Music in preschool (2nd Ed). Translated and adapted by J. Sinor. Queensland: Clayfield School of Music.

Ju, F. R. (2005). A Study on the implementing status of music composition curriculum in the elementary schools, unpublished master thesis, Taipei, Taiwan.

Ministry of Education (1993). Music Curriculum Standards for Elementary School. Taipei: Author.

Peng, Y. C. (2005). 語言與音樂漫談──漢語的聲情之美。Hsin-Chu: Hwa-Hsin Elementary School.

N. A. (2006). Chinese language basics simplified. Professional Engineering, May, p. 45.

Yang, Y. L. (1988). Language and Music. Taipei, Taiwan: Dan-Ching.