Classroom-based instruction

4.1.1 Gestural tasks

The history of gestural tasks can be traced back to 2723~2563 B.C. when Egyptian choir and orchestra leaders indicated the contour of the melody and a few rhythmical details using hand signs. This practice was called

cheironomy. The purpose of these signs was to help musicians, who performed long works from memory, to remember difficult intervals. Alongside the cheironomes, other musicians helped from time to time to keep the heat and to indicate measures. ISS

Whereas the use of hand signs served the purpose of "live" music notation to aid the memory during Antiquity and Early Christian Times, later developments such as the Guidonian hand, John Curwen's Tonic solfa hand signs, Peter Koch's Nil-method, and Eurhythmics of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze evolved as an instruction aid to the development of musical understanding.

The rationale behind these methods is that tonal (and modal) relationships can be easily understood if they are supported by hand signs. Visual and physical motions support the development of inner hearing.1S6 Jaques-Dalcroze aimed to develop the musical thinking of the student to the point where he could perform his own feelings and thoughts without merely copying those of others. The purpose of his teaching was to help students not to say "I know", but rather "I have experienced" .IS7

A whole 1989 issue of Musik und Bildung (7/8) concentrated on the often neglected theme of music and movement. Christoph Richter stated that anthropological considerations on the corporeity of the human being will illuminate the relationship between bodily movement and music, and will reveal the importance of movement for experiencing and understanding music. It should therefore be one of the methods of Music Education (and thus of Aural Training) to acquire in order to study music through movement.1SS

"The fundamental requirement is to transpose a level of comprehension gained by ali aural and temporal process to a physical account of .that comprehension in a spatial and temporal process. To demonstrate a level of structural awareness by physical gestures requires the ability to. mentally reconstruct structural

ISS Hans Hickmann, "Handzeichen" in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 5 pp. 1443-1451.

IS6 Michelli Houlahan and Philip Tacka, "Sound Thinking: A Suggested Sequence for Teaching Musical Elements Based on the Philosophy of Zoltan Kodlliy for a College Music Theory Course" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 4/1 (Spring 1990) pp. 91 and 93.

IS7 Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, Eurhythmics, Art and Education. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms

International, 1979 pp. 50-51, 58. Original French publication in 1912.

15S Christoph Richter, "Einige Gedanken ZUID VerhaItnis von Musik und Bewegung" in Musik und Bildung, 7/8

elements and transpose them into the most elementary form of intelligent communication, that of physical motion. "159

Three basic physical gestural tasks can be distinguished: tasks which merely involve pitch representation, tasks which merely involve rhythm and meter representation, and tasks involving a combination of pitch, rhythm, meter, articulation, texture and harmony.

(a) Indication of pitch

The indication of pitch by means of hand signs often takes place within sight singing classes. While students are singing from sight, accompanying hand signs for the sung tones are performed. Two different forms of pitch indication can be determined, namely relative (moveable doh) and absolute pitch (fixed doh) based hand signs. The relative pitch hand signs always occur in relation to different solmization practices which are discussed in section

4.1.5 (c), whereas the absolute pitch hand signs often occur in connection with the musical stave.

In the relative pitch domain the Guidonian hand, developed in the Middle Ages and associated with the hexachord system, is one of the milestones in the development of pitch-related hand signs. Although the Guidonian hand is attributed to Guido of Arezzo (995-1050?), its development supposedly took place after Guido's death. It is doubtful if the Guidonian hand was ever used in musical practice. There is also reason to believe that the use of hands for showing calendar computations, tetrachords and the position of semi tones was known before the Guidonian hand. 160

Although its use was not common practice, Rosemary Killam reported about one thousand years later on the incorporation of the Guidonian hand in her modal counterpoint classes based on sixteenth-century sacred music. She maintained that solmization and the Guidonian hand, amongst other things, assisted students in performance practices and provided insight into the solution of some of the problems of ficta.161

In this period of one thousand years, solmization practices and the accompanying hand signs underwent many changes. As it is not the aim of this chapter to describe fully allthe different historical manifestations and nuances of Aural Training, only highlights will be lifted out. After Guido, solmization and hand signs developed into the hepta- and octochord. Some of these changes were improvements of Guido's system, whereas others made use of totally different syllables. Ramis de Pareja (1440-1491), for example, made use of the principle of the Guidonian hand in connection with the syllables psal-li-tur per vo-ces is-cas,which were arranged in different positions on the hand. Although Georg Lange, Dietrich Stoverock, Andrew Hughes, Edith Gerson-Kiwi, Hans Hickmann as well as Martin Ruhnke referred to many different developments of solmization systems in Europe between ca. 1200 and 1800, they did not mention whether these methods included hand signs or not.

159 Emily Ruth Brink, A Cognitive Approach to the Teaching of Aural Skills viewed as Applied Music Theory. Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 1980. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1980 p. 76.

160 Andrew Hughes and Edith Gerson-Kiwi, "Solmization" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 17 pp. 459 and 463.

161 Rosemary Killam, "Solmization with the Guidonian Hand: AHistorical Introduction to Modal Counterpoint" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 2/2 (Fall 1988) p. 266.

The next important phase of relative solmization can be seen in the Tonic doh method with its hand signs developed by Sarah Glover (1785-1867) and John Curwen (1816-1880). Through the years different solmization systems with their accompanying hand signs were developed or derived from Curwen's method. In 1897 Agnes- Hundoegger adapted their system for his Tonika-Domethod, in which each syllable had a different character (e.g. doh is firm and stable, soh is brighter and more lively),162 Other examples are: TO-major of Hermann Jaedicke (1928), Zoltan Koddly's revised Curwen hand signs (1944), 163losef Wentz's adaptations of Curwen's tonic doh (1950)164 and the

la-Ie hand signs of Richard Miinnich (1959).165

Parallel to. the development of solmization in the eighteenth century, relative number systems were developed (see section 4.1.5 (c)). Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Thomascik (1790-1875), for example, combined the hand with the five lines and spaces of the stave. Modulations were treated in the same way as in other relative systems: the first line always indicating the new tonic. Students had to touch the fmgers involved. Friedrich Frobel (1782-1852) developed his "finger piano". The left hand represented the piano keys while the right hand "played" songs on it in which the pitches were represented by numbers.166

Absolute pitch indication by means of the fingers of the hand was introduced by, amongst others, Nina d' Aubigny von Engelbrunner in 1803. She associated the five fingers of the hand with the stave. Students were to point at their fmgers when singing on note names, indicating the lines and spaces involved. Other persons who used variations of the "stave-hand" were: Johann August Giinther Heinroth (1780-1846), Guillaume Louis Bocquillon (1782-1842) and Joseph Mainzer (1807-1851). Theodor Krause (1833-1910) introduced the "walking" note. With a paper note on a stick, students had to indicate on a stave which tones they were singing,167 Finally, Peter Koch introduced the

Nu-

indications of semitones and whole tones in 1972,168

Beverly Ann Martin investigated the effectiveness of echoing melodic patterns using tonal syllables without visual aids, in comparison to echoing melodic patterns that employ hand signs, or both hand signs and tonal syllable names written on paper. Her target group was first-grade students in the United States of America. No method was found to be significantly better than the others. Martin, however, explained that the chosen tasks were far too difficult for

162 Agnes Hundoegger, Leitfaden der Tonika-Do-Lehre. Berlin: Tonika-Do, 1925 p. 12. 163

Lois Choksy, The Kodaly Context: Creating an Environment for Musical Learning. Englewooq Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981 pp. 9-10.

No specific reference was made to the use of hand signs by KodaIy in his writings. They first appeared in a book written by Jeno Adam at KodaIy's request.

164 Dietrich Stoverock, Gehiirbildung - Geschichte und Methode. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1978 pp. 22, 32-25.

165 Richard Miinnich, Jale - Ein Beitrag zur Tonsilbenfrage und zur Schulmusikpropadeutik. Wolfenbiittel: Moseler, 1959 pp. 17-23.

166 Hans Fischer (Ed.), Handbuch der Musikerziehung. Berlin: Rembrandt, 1954 pp. 51-52.

167 Dietrich Stoverock, Gehiirbildung - Geschichte und Methode. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1978 pp. 28- 31.

first-grade students. It is therefore not possible to provide any statistical evidence in favour of/or against the use of hand signs.169

(b) Indication of rhythm and meter/beat

The indication of rhythm and meter by means of physical movement can take place by acting upon what was heard without the presence of notation, or can happen as the reaction to reading music notation. Music symbols are translated into physical gestures in the same way that symbols are translated into pitches and rhythms in other reading tasks. Although the second form of rhythm and meter indication also belongs to the rhythm reading category, it will be discussed in the gestural tasks category.

Roger Graybill defined rhythm as a flow of energy through time, often associated with physical movement. He dis- tinguished between attack point rhythm and gestural rhythm. Attack-point rhythm is a succession of durations either abstracted from, or implying the presence of, discrete elements. Although gestural rhythm includes attack point rhythm, not only the measurement of discrete musical elements is involved, but also the continuous dynamic flow through these elements. 170

Rhythms can thus, on the one hand, be translated into attack point physical movements without paying attention to the rhythmical (musical) context and structure. Examples of this approach can be seen in the Hundoegger hand signs for note values ,171 and in the Thomascik bodily representations of different beat divisions (e.g., eighth notes should be tapped with the right hand, quarter notes with the left hand, half notes should be marched with the feet, and whole notes should be indicated with the head.)I72

Gestural rhythm on the other hand, implies the translation of rhythms into physical movements on a more holistic level, paying attention to the musical context. Graybill provided a theoretical foundation of gestural rhythm, taking into consideration the eurhythmic pedagogy of Jaques-Dalcroze and the rhythm theories of Benjamin as well as Ler- dahl and Jackendoff. As this theoretical foundation is important for all forms of rhythmic training, including rhythm reading as discussed in section 4.1.5 (b), it is worthwhile to take a closer look at it.

In Graybill's theory two essential theoretical concepts are discussed, namely grouping principles and the difference between phenomenal and metrical accent.

Graybill defined a gesture as "any meaningful musical unit conceived as having continuity and dynamic shape." He pointed out that a gesture has much in common with the notion of a group. In the same way as elements or events are

169 Beverly Ann Martin, The Effect of Hand Signs, Vet;bal Tonal Syllables, and Letter Representations of Tonal Syllables on the Verbal and Symbolic Acquisition of Tonal Skills by First-Grade Students. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oklahoma 1987. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1987. 170 Roger Graybill, "Towards a Pedagogy of Gestural Rhythm" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 4/1

(Spring 1990) pp. 1-2.

171 Agnes Hundoegger, Leitfaden der Tonika-Do-Lehre. Berlin: Tonika-Do, 1925 p. 31. 172 Hans Fischer (Ed.), Handbuch der Musikerziehung. Berlin: Rembrandt, 1954 p. 51.

"chunked" into groups, the boundaries of any particular gesture of two or more notes will also mark the boundaries of a group. He continued that a gesture is, however, more than just a musical segment also but has by deftnition a dynamic shape. This basically is an intensity outline emanating from any musical element (or combination of elements) that is able to produce varying degrees of intensity, such as dynamics, timbre, articulation, pitch contour or durational pattern. Quoting Lerdahl and Jackendoff, Graybill demonstrated, for example, that a relatively long note in an immediate context will tend to be the last of a group. He also illustrated how pitch contour (direction of the line and interval size) can influence dynamic shape (intensity).

Referring to the fact that the dynamic shape of any gesture leads to, and/or comes from a primary point of accent, Graybill described a phenomenal accent as any audible musical event that emphasises a moment in musical flow. It is a point of focus that helps to shape the continuity. The metrical accent in which the beat plays the important role is, on the contrary, not always an audible event and it can be overruled by the phenomenal accent. The listener is able to construct a metrical hierarchy if just enough information is provided, even though phenomenal accents may occasionally fail to reinforce it. The following example demonstrates how the contour fails to reinforce the fourth beat:

Fig. 2.4 Graybill: Example of how contour fails to reinforce the fourth beat

Finally Graybill discussed several levels of gestures which he called gestural hierarchy. He pointed out that any passage of music will contain gestural shapes at several levels, and that a convincing performance of such a passage depends on balancing the various levels to the extent of giving each unit its proper meaning within the overall hierarchy. An example of such a hierarchy appears in the following phrase:

Fig. 2.5 Graybill: Example of gestural hierarchy

According to Graybill, it is possible to start with purely durational exercises where other parameters are absent, be- cause rhythmic patterns which contain durational differences and/or rests will imply groupings, as well as a deftned gestural.contour. He, however, saw this only as an introductory level after which pitch, dynamic level, phrasing and articulation should be included.

In the ftrst stage of rhythmic training, students should start with conducting simple meter because metrical structure can be shown in a gestural way. Graybill referred to the Jaques-Dalcroze classiftcation of beats as crusis (release of energy), metacrusis (gentle carryover of energy or a dying away) and anacrusis (preparation of energy for release). Conducting patterns can illustrate these different beat qualities effectively:

"The arm shows the anacrusis with an upward thrust. Since this motion traces a trajectory against gravity, it represents a building-up of potential energy that awaits release. Such release is provided by the subsequent dropping of the arm for the crusis, which should feel like an inevitable consequence of the

anacrusic preparation. Since the falling of the arm is assisted by gravity, we associate the bottom of that fall - i.e. the ictus - with a feeling of weight. The following metacrusis beat(s) feel relatively neutral in comparison to the anacrusis and crusis, though the outward thrust of beat three in four-four (or beat two in three-four) feels like a preparation for the lift of the forthcoming anacrusis. In this respect, the metacrusis

is not merely a dying away as suggested by Dalcroze, but also a gathering of energy."173

He recommended the walking of meter for students who have problems with conducting. When students are able to accomplish this, they should learn to conduct different kinds of musical character (e.g. staccato, marcato, intense legato, a more floating legato) in response to music played for them, because it enables them to examine the expressive possibilities of physical gesture.

During the next stage of rhythmical training work in gestural grouping can start. Graybill wrote a pilot text containing thirteen units for a freshman theory course at the University of Texas, Austin. Each of the thirteen units focused on a particular duration unit or a rhythmic topic. Each unit was subdivided into three parts: short formulaic patterns, longer durational exercises in which the formulaic patterns were placed within a larger context and, finally, actual melodies to investigate the effect of pitch structure, dynamic markings and articulation on gestural shape. In order to help students to understand and experience gestural grouping, physical gestures can be introduced at this point. Graybill distinguished three basic categories of physical gestures in which movement takes place within the rhythm reading realm. In the first category each note of the pattern is given its own individual subgesture , while including these subgestures within a larger gestural progression. This can be done through clapping, or walking a rhythm with alternating feet. He recommended that the student step forward on a downbeat (unless a rest appears on that point) and step the other notes of the measure in place directly under the torso. Rests should not be stepped but may be indicated with a snap of the fmgers.

The second category showed the gestural shape of the group as a whole without performing the individual notes with subgestures. Patterns in triple meter can, for example, be illustrated with a large circular motion of the arm, with a new circle beginning at the start of every new measure. If no string grouping (e.g. as in a succession of equal note values) appears; this non-grouping is shown by the arm moving through the circle with a constant speed. If grouping arises through durational differences, the arm should change speed within each circular motion. Examples of non- grouping and grouping are as follows:

173 Roger Graybill, "Towards a Pedagogy of Gestural Rhythm" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 4/1

Fig. 2.6 Graybill: Example of non-grouping and grouping gestures

a.

t~

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b.

~~ch

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faWllg WltIl momutIIJII

attil •••• 4

c.

~~ fJld fJld fJ)cJ,

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Pendulum movements can be used for portraying dotted rhythms. For any value longer than a beat the technique of clapping the attack and then slowly pulling the hands apart as if pulling against a resistance should be used to show the full duration.

In the third category of physical gesture a specific level of the metrical hierarchy, for instance the beat or some sub- division of the beat, was shown. Against this repeated motion, the actual rhythm is spoken or portrayed by another part of the body. The student might, for example, sway from side to side with bent knees to show the dotted quarter

pulse, while intoning a durational pattern in compound meter.l74

(c) Indication of combined music parameters

The combination of music parameters expressed through body movements can best be illustrated by Jaques- Dalcroze's method which contains three interrelated subjects: Aural Training, Improvisation and Eurhythmics. At first students simply have to walk to improvised music, following the different tempi and shadings. These basic movements gradually develop to include all elements of music: note-values, measures, rhythmic patterns, phrases, polyrhythms , group work and conducting, improvisation. Students have to invent rhythms to perform them physically, melodically, to change, to develop, to write and read them. Learning and creating processes constantly interact. The interpretation of compositions through spontaneously improvised movement, portraying different

In document Didactical perspectives of aural training (Page 74-118)