El concepto de “ludicidad” en el método Kodály: origen, significado y proyección

El factor lúdico es una de las premisas básicas de los métodos educativos que cambiaron la enseñanza musical desde principios del siglo XX. La práctica totalidad de las aportaciones metodológicas que han tenido éxito en los últimos tiempos han enfatizado, de uno u otro modo, este elemento. El artículo aborda los antecedentes de esta tendencia al juego en el método de Zoltán Kodály, para argumentar que, en su día, la ludicidad tuvo un sentido de ruptura con los modelos anteriores pero que, en el presente, este elemento precisa una nueva mirada. Los planteamientos lúdicos hunden sus raíces en modelos generalistas que, a su vez, tuvieron como referentes las ideas, entre otros, de Rousseau, Pestalozzi o Froebel. En la pedagogía musical se puede trazar una progresiva adopción de algunas de las nociones de estos pioneros, con Chevais, Jaques-Dalcroze o Montessori amparando esta nueva filosofía educativa. Analizar algunas de las reflexiones en torno a lo lúdico en Kodály servirá para poner de manifiesto el valor que tuvo en su día y la necesidad de acomodación a la escuela del presente. Consecuentemente, se discute la posibilidad de adaptación lúdica de las estrategias pedagógicas delineadas por el pedagogo húngaro en los actuales contextos educativos. En este sentido, se plantean formas de ajustar los criterios propios de la gamificación a la tradicional ludicidad, explorando posibilidades que pasan, principalmente, por la capacitación de los docentes.

Was ist "echte" ungarische Volksmusik?

Schon Béla Bartók und Zoltán Kodály haben versucht, das ungarische Volk musikalisch zu "erziehen", indem sie dem Volk nur besonders ausgewählte Lieder darboten. Doch dieser Versuch blieb, wie auch spätere, erfolglos, da das Volk die Volkslieder nur zur Entspannung und Unterhaltung gebraucht. Dies findet es insbesondere in der Zigeunermusik, die auch echte ungarische Volksmusik ist. Ungarische Volksmusik kennt man seit langer Zeit überall auf der Welt durch die Zigeunermusik, die ihre Ursprünge in Ungarn im 15. Jahrhundert hat. bms online (Mano Eßwein)

A Comparison of the Educational Methods of Zoltán Kodály and his Student, Klára Kokas

After the presentation of Klára Kokas’ pedagogical methods and her own invented musical activities with children, I shall try to compare these methods with Zoltán Kodály’s music educational practices and innovations to emphasize the continuity and discontinuity of Hungarian music educational practice. Kokas centered her pedagogical concept on children’s creativity, human relations, acceptance of and complete attention paid to others. This world view and ideology was constructed around a child-centered sensitivity, music being her primary pedagogical resource. The goal of this paper is to explore the main elements and characteristics of Klára Kokas’s pedagogy, which were revolutionary and new in the fields of personality development, music and complex art education. I will draw out those elements, which show similarity between his work and Kokas’s, then I will point out those components in which Kokas offered excess for personality development. The main elements of this concept is music, dance improvisation, motions, imaginative stories, visual arts, painting and drawing, but it’s most important component is that very specific and intimate relation, which connected her to the children. My purpose is to highlight the contours of the Kokas’ pedagogy. In my comparative research I mention the reform pedagogical elements of the Zoltán Kodály’s concept, and I seek the common and different elements of their music educational ideas and innovations. The importance of her beliefs and moral convictions in the art of education will be outlined then.

From Pure Source Only – Collection of Hungarian Folk Songs Project

The collection contains a selection of folk songs from the Hungarian population living in Romania. Of the four volumes planned, three have been published so far. The entire collection is expected to span 18 regions and 3 micro-regions, as well as a strip of hundreds of kilometers from Transylvania and other areas outside Transylvania. These include some more developed areas which abandoned their traditions in the first half of the last century, and some more traditional regions. The first three volumes comprise folk songs from 174 localities, collected by 126 collectors, including Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, László Lajtha, János Jagamas and Zoltán Kallós. The collections took place between 1899 and 2017. The melodies have been selected from the archives of Transylvanian and Hungarian institutions, as well as from audio materials accompanying various publications. In this selection I have tried to add as many songs as possible which belong to the old strata of folk songs. I have tried to include as many pentatonic melodies as possible because these strata predominantly feature this scale. Also, in the last century the everyday folk-song repertoire shifted toward a fixed-rhythm performance mode. An ancient form, with its speech-like mode of performance, is now in the process of being lost. Therefore, the number in the published volumes is smaller than that of the folk songs performed in a tight rhythm.

With or without the B-A-C-H Motive? Bartók’s Hesitation in Writing his First String Quartet

Considering the appearance of the musical cryptogram “B-A-C-H” (B-flat– A–C–B -natural) in well-known works up to the time of his First String Quartet (1908/1909), Béla Bartók knew Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H, presumably also Schumann’s Sechs Fugen über den Namen Bach, and Reger’s Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ. Such compositions quoted the celebrated motive, typically as a starting point, with the relevant (aforementioned) pitches because the musical cryptogram in this way allowed immediate recognition of the reference to the name of the Leipzig composer. However, Bartók’s planned “B-A-C-H” quotation in the development section of the sonata-form second movement of his First Quartet was not a typical homage to Johann Sebastian Bach but rather a vision: a distorted reference to the symbolic “B-A-C-H” motive. Undoubtedly Bartók liked this episode. There is reason to believe that his friend Zoltán Kodály advised him to leave out the inorganic and distorted “B-A-C-H” allusion.

The Harmonization of Folk Songs in Kodály’s Workshop

When Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began systematically collecting folk songs, they almost exclusively encountered monophony, which subsequently featured as their compositional inspiration. As a musical phenomenon, monophony differed sharply from the harmonically based, often overharmonized, polyphonic universe of Western music. However, they also encountered coordinated folk polyphony, in the context of instrumental folk harmonizations. Taking into account the instrumental folk music both Kodály and Bartók collected, this study compares the two main types of folk harmonizations with folk song harmonizations in the works of Kodály, whose related theoretical statements are also considered. This study offers an in-depth analysis of six fragments from Kodály’s major folk-song arrangements to highlight the features of Kodály’s folk song harmonizations.

Technology Integration with the Kodály Approach

Amy M. Burns integrates technology into the approach developed by Zoltán Kodály. With the current educational paradigm shifting to include more distance learning, these lessons demonstrate how to create online manipulatives that can be used in a classroom setting as well as an online platform. With the addition of a supplemental website that includes downloadable manipulatives, elementary music educators can successfully teach the approach in a variety of settings and scenarios with novice to advanced technological skills. In addition, the lessons can also be used for assessments, cross-curricular connections, higher order thinking skills, and sharing music making outside of the music classroom.

The Kodály Approach to Teaching Music

Glennis Patterson shares an overview to the approach created by composer, author, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist, and philosopher Zoltán Kodály. She gives a thorough overview of his approach and the three-step sequence of prepare, present, and practice. Amy M. Burns offers ways to create visuals to assist with the presentation sequence. In addition, she demonstrates how to utilize technology to implement the practice sequence through lessons and manipulatives found in the book and on the supplemental website. The lessons can also be used for assessment purposes, lesson extensions, higher order thinking skills, and sharing their music-making with others outside the classroom. The lessons can be used by educators who have limited technology or those with 1:1 classrooms, and those with novice to advanced technological skills.