(pauses, that is, on the line of quiescence, with frequent excursions into the negative field), took no part in these rhythmic exercises. On the contrary, he was always breaking them up by pushing the other children out of line or making a noise. Finally, however, he did learn not to disturb others; in other words, to stay quiet, something which he had never known how to do before. It is a great conquest for a disorderly child to gain the ability to become quite motionless, in a gently placid state of mind. His next step was to learn to move delicately, with respect for other people; and he came to have a certain sensitiveness about his relations with his schoolmates. For example, he used to blush when they smiled at him and even when he took no part in what they were doing, he shared their activities with an affectionate attention. From this point on Riziero (that was the child's name) entered on a higher plane of existence—one of order, labor and politeness.
The fact also that children at times listen to the music, while remaining seated comfortably around the room, watching the other children dance and march, is in itself a pretty thing. The children who are seated become very self-controlled. They watch their schoolmates or exchange a few words cautiously with each other. At times, even, they let themselves go in interesting expressions of movement with their arms. The manifestations of placidity and interest here seen cannot be disjoined from a healthful, spiritual upbuilding—a beautiful orderliness, which is being established within them. Obviously, a wonderful harmony springs up between the teacher, who plays with enthusiastic feeling and with all possible skill of hand and abundance of spirit simply because she feels the musical phenomena around her in the children, and the pupils who, little by little, are transformed under this influence, and show an understanding of the music, which becomes for them something more and more intimate, more and more complete. It is no longer a question of the step, but of the position of the whole body: arms, heads, chests are moved by the music.
Finally, many of the children beat time with their hands, and interpret correctly without ever having been taught distinctions between 3 and 4 time, etc. When a keen interest in "guessing" the time is awakened in them, the children look about for various objects—wands, tambourines, castagnettes, etc., and the class exercise is developed to perfection. The child comes to be "possessed" by the music. He obeys the musical command with his whole body and becomes more and more perfect in this obedience shown by his muscles.
Here is a pretty story which will show to what extent children can feel themselves dependent on the music which "makes them move." Once my father went into a room where a little Parisian girl whom he was very fond of was passionately marching to the rhythm of a tune played on the piano. The child usually ran to meet the old gentleman; but that day the moment she saw him she began to shout to Miss Maccheroni, who was playing, "Arrête, arrête!" She wanted to go and shake hands with my father, something she could not do as long as the music was continuing to command her to move with the rhythm. And in fact, it was not until Miss Maccheroni stopped playing that the little girl was able to run and deliver her greeting.
We have prepared a series of tunes for this work and I think it will be useful to give here three which we finally selected because they have succeeded, whenever they were tried, in arousing in the children the phenomena above described. There are eight movements chosen from repeated over and over again and played with all possible accuracy, will surely, sooner or later, be felt in every rhythm by the children.
The transition from following the time by ones (that is, one beat for every rhythmic element) to the indication of simply the beginning of the measure (that is, one beat on the thesis) appeared for the first time in a "Children's House" directed by Miss Maccheroni. There, one morning when the children were following the music with great pleasure, marching about and beating on tambourines, it was a girl who first caught the strong beat (thesis). A little boy behind her made the conquest a second later; but while the little girl lost what she had gained almost immediately, the little boy developed it to perfection. Shortly after other children made the same progress, apparently as a saving of effort; they began, that is, by beating once on every step. This required a rapid movement and an endless succession of beats. All of a sudden they began to beat on the first note of a measure.
Here, for instance, is a case of 4/4 time:
But the moment comes suddenly when they catch the measure: then they beat it as follows:
Maria Louise, a little under four years of age, was walking to the sound of a 2/4 march, played rather lightly. Suddenly she called to the teacher: "Regarde, regarde, comme je fais!" She was making little skips, gracefully raising her arms on the first beat of the measure. Her invention was extraordinarily happy and graceful.
Usually in teaching the divisions of musical time, it has been the custom to play forte the time called theoretically tempo forte: in other words, to strike hard on the first note of every rhythmic measure. In fact, teachers of children or young people can often be heard playing a tune with special emphasis on the first note of every measure and playing the successive notes pianissimo. Naturally the motory action corresponds to this: it will be tense for the strong beats and light for the weak beats. But what value has all this in relation to the feeling of the rhythmic measure? What is called theoretically tempo forte has no relation to the meaning of the words "strong" and "weak" in their ordinary sense. It is a question of emphasis and expression, which derive their nature from the laws of musical time and melodic composition and certainly not from the wrist muscles of the person playing. If this were not so, a person could play the first, second or third note of a measure as forte, whereas, in reality, it is the first that is always "strong."
In practise, children, to whom the six tunes we proposed for the beginning of this study were played—and played always with rigorous musical interpretation and with expressiveness—succeeded in recognizing the first beat of the measure as "strong," and went on thus to divide into measures some thirty pieces of music of varied rhythm. Even the following year, after the summer vacation, they kept asking for new pieces of music just for the "fun" of working out the measure in them. They would stand at the side of the teacher at the piano and either with their hands or with soft playing on the castagnettes or tambourines, accompany their new piece of music. In general they would listen in silence to the first measure and then fall in with their little beats like any well-trained orchestra. They took the trouble no longer to march to the music: they were interested in this new form of study; while the smaller tots, delighted with the new music, were still walking undisturbed along the elliptical line on the floor which was to guide them to such great conquests!
The strong beat (thesis) is the key that opens to the higher laws of music. Sometimes it is played, for reasons of expression, very softly and always possesses the solemnity of the note which dominates the rhythm. It may even be syncopated or lacking entirely, just as when the orator on reaching his climax pronounces in a very low voice the phrase which is to produce the great effect, or even pauses and is silent: this sentence rings powerfully in the ears of those who listen.
The same error which leads to heavy stress, in playing, on the first beat of every measure in order to attract the attention of the children to it, also leads to suggesting secondary movements in addition to the one which marks the thesis. The children, for instance, must make four movements for a 4/4 time: movements in the air for the secondary beats, and a more energetic movement for the thesis. The result is that interest in the succession of movements replace attention to the fact of most importance, which is to feel the value of the first beat. Children who feel the first note because it is played "strong" and who proceed from one strong beat to the following strong beat guided by a succession of movements, are not, it is obvious, following the tune. One little girl who had been prepared by this method found herself, on having mistaken the beat, constantly persisting in her mistake under the guidance of her four movements. It is like presenting a cube or a triangle to children of three years with the teacher enumerating the sides, the angles, the apexes, etc. In reality the children do not get any notion of the triangle or the cube.
Our children come ultimately to represent the secondary beats with the slight movements, as follows:
As a practical application of the information already acquired in the division of time into measures, we next pass to the exercise of playing the scales in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 time and with the triplets. The scale, the classic type of the melody, lends itself beautifully to these interpretations of various measures. Every one must have passed hours at the piano playing simple scales and finding a delicious variety in the exercise. The do scale itself may be played, for instance, thus:
Our little piano may be of use in this exercise; but it is better first to use an exercise more easy for finger movement and for the position of the hand:
Children who have succeeded in identifying and dividing the melody into measures and the measure itself into 2, 3, 4, understand very easily the time values of the notes. It is sufficient to let the child hear each exercise first and he will repeat it with precision. Thus all kinds of dry explanation of musical values disappear.
The following notation
presents no special difficulty if the child has once heard it.
Our next step is to use some exercises for the analysis of the measure, for instance:
The children follow these exercises, marching so as to put one step on every note. Even children of four years when prepared with the preceding exercises succeed in following these with the very greatest interest. They are especially delighted with the long note which keeps them hanging in position with one foot in front of them on the line and the other one behind them also on the line. The position is that of a person who stops before bringing up the foot which is still behind him.
Since the children already know how to read music, there is hung up before them a green chart (similar in dimensions to the musical staffs already familiar to them) on which is written the exercise which is being played at the piano by the teacher and which they execute on the floor-line.
Examples:
Here is another:
We even give a simple time like this one (composed by Professor Jean Gibert of the Montessori Primary School of Barcelona):
Of course, sooner or later children fix their attention on the varying form of the notes and discover that this difference in form bears a relation to differences in time-value of the notes:
This is the time to give in very brief explanation the lesson on the value of the notes. Thereafter the child may write from memory a simple melody which the teacher has first played on the piano. Almost always the child writes this down with accuracy, showing that he has control over the musical values appearing in the melody in question. The child uses for this purpose a large green chart containing various musical staffs on which movable notes may be fixed at pleasure. These notes are equipped with a pin which may be pushed into the wood. The simple exercises given for the analysis of the measures, transferred into various keys, can after some practise in playing them on the system of plates be put into their copy books by the children. These exercises for measure-analysis are so simple that the children themselves have sometimes learned to play them on the piano. It then has happened that the class went of its own accord into the piano room; one child began to play and the others followed the music on the floor-line. The children as they walk ultimately come to sing the scales and the easy tunes (of which they have recognized the notes) pronouncing the names of the notes; but in so pronouncing them they soften, their voices to the point of attaining an expression which may be called even artistic. When the teacher plays, the music gains the added charm of harmony, since the teacher can give not only the simple scale, but the relative chords, and this gives the scale a vigorous and very sweet fullness.
These exercises in measure analysis have also been particularly useful in their application to gymnastic exercises. The children follow them with gymnastic movements, using especially the movements of Dalcroze, which are admirably adapted to the measures of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, etc., and which have a real beauty. We discovered that these exercises proved to be complexly difficult for the children who had not practised sufficiently in the interpretation of the different note values. On the other hand, they were very easy for those who had come to have a clear feeling for these different values. This was proof to us that sensorial preparation must precede these exercises, and furthermore, that the only difficulty Dalcroze movements encounter in children arises from insufficient sensory preparation in the children themselves.
In the same way we illustrate the different details of of musical writing: the dotted note,
Here is an example of a legato effect:
This example which derives all its expressive value from the ties, also brings out the value of the note:
We need, accordingly, a collection of musical selections in which the value of the notes is obvious and clear to such an extent that the children come to recognize the different values. This recognition must be obtained by ear through listening to the music, not by eye looking at the symbols while the teacher explains.
The 1/4 note always has a different musical content from the 1/16 note. A musical piece made up of the 16th or 32d notes has a character of its own (joy or agitation); and a piece made up of half or whole notes has likewise its peculiar character (religious, sad, impressive).
The same may be said of every musical symbol, the value of which is brought out by the note being played with that value and in reference to that symbol. It has been held that in playing for children and in copying music for the use of children the expression-symbols should be suppressed. We should observe that these signs of expression bear to the music the relation that punctuation bears to the written sentence; their suppression takes away all value from the notes. For example, the legato and symbols which indicate that difference ( and ) have therefore the greatest value.
The children succeed quite easily in using and reading the accessory symbols of music. They already know their meaning through having heard them. We have not found it necessary to use such signs as sense objects, such as bars (to be placed on the wooden staff to divide measure from measure), time fractions, parentheses and so on. Although we had these manufactured, we ultimately abandoned them because we found that they were simply in the way.
On the other hand, we found considerable utility in our large colored cards with a single staff already described. On these are written various measures which the children read with a special pleasure and execute on their bells.
With all this a way has been opened to a really musical education. Once Miss Maccheroni, while executing her customary rhythmic tunes, reproduced a melodious religious movement, "O Sanctissima," which the children heard for the first time. The children all left the line and gathered around the piano to listen. Two or three little girls kneeled on the floor and others remained motionless executing plastic poses with their arms. This revealed to us their sensitiveness to melody; they felt moved not to march but to pray and assume various poses.
We have not yet been able to push our experiments far enough precisely to define the musical material adapted to children of various ages. We have, however, made a very great number of successful attempts to bring children to enjoy melody and sentimental expression in music. The practicableness and utility of musical auditions, or, if you wish, of concerts for children, graduated in difficulty, executed on various instruments, but on one instrument at a time, are beyond all question; this applies above all to songs reproduced by the human voice, when a well-trained voice is available.
If a real artist should take up the task of analyzing for children the language of music, bringing them to enjoy it phrase by phrase and under different timbres (voice, strings, etc.), his new and scientific application of the art would be produced in the future from these groups of little ones, so intelligent in music, who follow the most expressive tunes with so much passion and in a silence more absolute than any celebrated artist can dream of attaining in a meeting of adults! No one among these little hearers is cold, far away in thought. But on the faces of the children appears the interior working of a spirit, tasting a nectar essential to its very live.
How many times a plastic pose, a kneeling posture, an ecstatic face, will move the heart of the artist to a sense of joy greater than that which any applause of a throng of people often indifferent or inattentive, can possibly give him! Usually only those wounded at heart by the difficulty of being understood by others, or discouraged by the coldness or rudeness of other people, or oppressed by disillusion, or filled with a sense of painful loneliness or need of expansion in some other way, feel in music the voice which opens the doors of the heart and causes a health-giving flood of tears or raises the spirit to a lofty sense of peace. Only they can understand how necessary a companion for humanity music is. We know, of course, to-day that music is an indispensable stimulant for soldiers rushing forth to die. How much more truly would it then become a stimulant for all who are to live!
This conviction is already in the hearts of many people. In fact, attempts have already been made to reach the populace by concerts in the public squares and by making concert halls accessible to people of every class; but after all, do such attempts amount to more than putting the cheap editions of the classics into circulation among illiterates? Education is the prime requisite; without such education we have a people of deaf mutes forever barred from any music. The ear of the uneducated man cannot perceive the sublime sounds which music would bring within his reach. That is why though the music of Bellini and Wagner is being played in public squares, the saloons are just as full as before.
If, however, from these pupils of ours a whole people could grow up, it would be sufficient to go through the streets with a good piece of music and everybody would come out to hear. All those places where the rough and abandoned wrecks of humanity seek enjoyment, like homeless dogs looking for food in our ash-cans, would be emptied as if by magic. We would have an actual realization of the Allegory of Orpheus; for hearts which are to-day of stone would then be stirred and brought to life by a sublime melody.
Singing
Singing began with the scale. The singing of a scale, first in accompaniment with the bells and later with the piano is a first and great delight to the children. They sing it in various ways, now in a low voice, now very loud, now all together in unison, now one by one. They sing divided into two groups, sharing the notes alternately between them. Among the songs which we offer to the children, the greatest favorite proved to be the syllabic Gregorian Chant. It is something like a very perfect form of speech. It has a conversational intonation, the softness of a sentence well pronounced, the full roundness of the musical phrase. The examples given here have almost the movement of the scale.
Many other verses of the Gregorian Chant have, like these, proved to be the delight of the Montessori Elementary School of Barcelona. There the children are especially keen about this very simple music which they like to play on the piano, on their plates (Xylophones) or on their monochords.
Puer natus in Bethlehem, alleluia.
Alleluia Alleluia
In Cordis jubilo
Christum natum adoremus,
Cum novo Cantico.
Musical Phrases for the Initial Rhythmic Exercises
We give here in complete form the musical phrases used by us for the first rhythmic exercises. They are adequate for giving the sensation of rhythm and for suggesting the motory actions associated with the rhythm. This musical material now forms in our schools part of the material which is experimentally established.
| Works from which Selections are Taken | Motor Reactions Provoked |
| 1. "Ancora un bacio," mazurka, Bastianelli | Slow walk. |
| 2. "Si j'étais roi," Adolphe Adam | Accelerated walk. |
| 3. "Eagle March," Wagner | March step. |
| 4. "Galop," Strauss | Run. |
| 5. "Italian folk-song" | Hop. |
| 6. "Pas des patineurs" | Sedate walk. |
ANCORA UN BACIO
(Mazurka)
SI J'ÉTAIS ROI
EAGLE MARCH
GALOP
ITALIAN FOLK SONG
PAS DES PATINEURS
O SANCTISSIMA
V
The movement entitled "O Sanctissima," played by Miss Maccheroni one day by chance among the rhythmic exercises, is regarded by us as an introduction to musical audition. It will be recalled that the children had been accustomed to alter their style of marching on the floor-line according to changes in the music. It had never, however, occurred to them to leave the line. When this piece was played they all crowded around the piano, motionless, thoughtful, absorbed; while two or three little ones fell to their knees and assumed various poses. This experience suggested to us the idea of "musical auditions," if you wish "concerts for children."
Children, little by little to be sure, but no less admirably, enter into the spirit of music. After the numerous rhythmic exercises, as soon, that is, as they have mastered the problem of measure, almost any sonata is within their reach. They can handle not isolated movements merely, but whole pieces of music. The same is true of the auditions. At first, of course, it is better to select simple phrases; but gradually the children come to enjoy "the best music," joyfully recognizing the feeling which it expresses and which inspired it. Our pupils used to exclaim, for instance: "This piece is for weeping," "This is for prayer," "Now we must laugh," "Now we must shout," etc.
We cannot, however, insist too strongly on the need for the greatest possible care in the execution of the selections used. A child audience is a very special one. It demands something more than is expected by the average "intelligent audience." It is one in which musical intelligence must be developed. Our object must be the creation not merely of higher and higher grades of understanding but also of higher and higher grades of feeling. In this sense, we can never do too much for the children. It is a task not beneath the dignity of the greatest composers, the most accomplished technicians. Indeed, any one of such might well esteem it a privilege some day to hear it said of his work that it aroused the first love for music in the hearts of one of these little ones. For thus music would have been made a companion, a consoler, a guardian angel of man! It is of course not the lot of all of us to attain the exalted position of greatness whether as artists or technicians. We must content ourselves with assuming an obligation: with giving all the soul and all the skill we possess. We must conceive of ourselves as transmitters of the largess of music to our children. We must deeply feel our calling as bestowers of a divine gift.
The following titles were all used successfully by us in our experiments. They are supplements to the "O Sanctissima" and a "Pater Noster."
Trovatore: "Tacea la notte placida."
Lucrezia Borgia: "Nella fatal di Rimini e memorabil guerra."
Lucia di Lamermoor: "Regnava nel silenzio."
Trovatore: "Racconto di Azucena."
Sonnambula: "A fosco cielo, a notte bruna."
Rigoletto: "Tutte le frese al tempio."
Fra Diavolo: "Quell'uom dal fiero aspetto."
B. Description.
Beethoven: "Moonlight."
Bohème: "Nevica; qualcuno passa e parla" (Act II, prelude).
Aida, prelude as far as "Cieli azzurri."
Aida, "Marcia trionfale" (containing the motive of the scene to which it belongs).
C. Sentiment and Passion:
Gaiety:
Traviata: "Libiam nei lieti celici."
Sonnambula: "In Elvezia non v'ha rosa fresca e bella al par d'Alina."
Traviata: "Sempre libera deggi' io folleggiar."
Faust: Peasant song, "La vaga pupilla."
Contentment:
Aida: "Rivedrò le foreste imbalsamate."
Passion:
Traviata: "Amami Alfredo."
Lucrezia Borgia: "Era desso il figliuol mio."
Anguish:
Lucrezia Borgia: "Mio figlio, ridate a me il mio figlio."
" " "Infelice, il veleno bevesti."
Threat:
Cavalleria Rusticana: "Bada, Santuzza, schiavo non son."
Allurement:
Barbiere di Siviglia: "La calunnia è un venticello."
Iris: "La Piovra."
Comic:
Barbiere di Siviglia: "Pace e gioia sia con voi."
Fra Diavolo: "Grazie al ciel per una serva."
Invitation:
Faust: "Permetteresti a me."
Bohème: song of Rudolph, "Che gelida manina."
Anger:
Sonnambula: "Ah perchè non posso odiarti."
Sorrow of sacrifice:
Bohème: "Vecchia zimarra senti."
Meditation:
Mendelsohn: Romances.
Mozart.
Chopin.
D. Folk Songs and Dances.
PART VII
I
One of the novelties included in our experiments was the teaching of metrics, hitherto reserved for high schools. The love shown by children for poetry, their exquisite sensitiveness to rhythm, led me to suspect that the native roots of poetry might be present in little children. I suggested to Miss Maria Fancello, a teacher of literature in the high schools and my colleague, to attempt such an experiment. She began with children of different ages, and, together, we succeeded in discovering a highly interesting department of education, the object of which might be to give the mass of the people, prepared for life in the primary schools, the basic elements of literary appreciation, thus opening a new source of pleasure calculated also to increase general enlightenment. A populace capable of enjoying poetry, of judging the beauty of verse, and hence of coming in contact with the spirits of our greatest poets, would be something quite different to the masses we new know. To find the like we have to imagine the people of ancient story, who talked in poetry and moved their bodies to the rhythm, thus laying the foundations of refined civilization.
It is not our intention to describe in detail all we did in these experiments. It will be sufficient to summarize the results, which may suggest useful material end methods to others.
As soon as the children are somewhat advanced in reading, poetry, which they loved so much in "Children's House," may be included in the materials offered in partial satisfaction of their insatiable desire to read. It is best to begin with poems composed of stanzas of different lengths, the stanzas being printed at easily noticeable intervals from each other. The lines may be counted, in teaching the two new words "stanza" and "line." The process involved is a recognition of "objects," suggesting the first exercise in reading, where the children put names on things; though here the situation is much simpler. At the same time we have the exercise of counting the lines. In short, it is a review exercise of the greatest simplicity.
The counting of the lines leads at once to the identification of such groups as the couplet, quatrain, octave, etc. But little time is spent on such a crude detail. The little ones almost immediately become interested in the rhyme. The first step is the recognition of rhyming syllables which are underlined with colored pencils, using a different color for each rhyme. Seven-year-olders take the greatest delight in this work, which is too simple to arouse interest in children of eight or nine. Those of seven do such work about as quickly as those of ten, the speed of the younger children being due apparently to their enthusiasm, the slowness of the older to their lack of interest. We may note in passing that these exercises furnish tests of absolute exactness as to rapidity of work. Children of eight are able to go one step beyond marking the rhymes with colored pencils. They can use the more complicated device of marking lines with the letters of the alphabet: aa, bb, cc, etc. Marking with numbers to the left the lines in their order, and the rhymes with letters to the right, we get a specimen result as follows:
| 1o Rondinella pellegrina | a |
| 2o Che ti posi sul verone | b |
| 3o Ricantando ogni mattina | a |
| 4o Quella flebile canzone | b |
| 5o Che vuoi dirmi in tua favella | c |
| 6o Pellegrina rondinella? | c |
(Translation: "Wandering swallow, as you sit there on my balcony each morning, singing to me your tearful song, what is it you are trying to tell me in your language, wandering swallow?")
This brings out the difference between the alternating rhyme (a, b, a, b) and the couplet (c, c), as well as the morphology of the stanza.
In reading the lines over and over again to work out the rhyme scheme, the children spontaneously begin to catch the tonic accents. Their readiness in this respect is a matter of common observation. In fact, in ordinary schools, the teachers are continually struggling against the "sing-song" developed by children in reading poetry. This "sing-song" is nothing more nor less that stress on the rhythmic movement.
On one occasion, one of our children, a little boy, had been spending some time over a number of decasyllabic lines. While waiting in the corridor for the doors to open at dismissal time, he suddenly began to walk up and down "right-about-facing" at every three steps and saying aloud: "tatatá, tatatá, tatatátta," right-about-face, then "tatatá, tatatá, tatatátta." Each step was accompanied by a gesture in the air with his little clenched fist. This tot was marching to the verse rhythm, just as he would have marched to music. It was a case of perfectly interpretative "gymnastic rhythm." His gestures fell on the three tonic accents of the Italian decasyllable, the right-about marked the end of the "verse"—the "turn" in the line, which he indicated by "turning" himself around to begin over again.
When the children have reached such a stage of sensory development, they have no difficulty in recognizing the tonic accents. For this purpose, we have prepared sheets with poems written in a clear hand. The children mark with a neatly drawn accent the letter on which the rhythmic accent falls. The material should be systematically presented. We found from experience that the children first discover the accents in long lines made up of even-numbered syllables (parisyllabic lines), where the accents recur at regular intervals and are clearly called for both by sense, word accent and rhythm. We were able to establish the following sequence for various Italian lines, which present a graduated series of difficulties to the child in recognizing the accents:
1. Decasyllables: example: