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MENC: The National Association for Music Education
Mutual Enrichment of Children of Various CountriesAuthor(s): Dimitri KabalevskiReviewed work(s):Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 53, No. 6 (Feb., 1967), pp. 45-47Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.on behalf of MENC: The National Association for Music Education
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3390913.Accessed: 14/09/2012 16:07
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2/4
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by
Dimitri
Kabalevski
*
Music teachers and
educators of
many
different countries
were
united at
the Seventh Conference
of
the ISME
by
a
good,
important,
and noble
theme. The
communi-
cation
between cultures of various
peoples
was
always
one
of the most
important conditions of the prog-
ress of culture
of
the entire world.
Prominent
musicians of
the
past
always displayed
a keen interest
in
life
and music not
only
of
their
own
nation,
but also of other
peoples.
This
interest
enriched the musi-
cians,
not
at
all
weakening
their
national
originality.
Beethoven remained
a
great
Ger-
man
in
his
Russian
quartets
dedi-
cated to
Count
lazumovsky,
as
well as
in
his
Irish,
Welsh,
and Scot-
tish
songs.
Dvorak never ceased
to
I)e a Czech classic composer even
in
his
symphony
From the
New
World, which
appeared
as a result
of the
author's interest
in
the music
of
the
American
peoples.
Ravel is
always
French,
whether
in the
SpanishRhapsody,
or in Greek
or
Jewish
songs.
The
author,
Composer
and
Professor of
Music
at the
Moscow
State
Conservatory,
is
Vice-President
of
the
ISME.
This
ar-
ticle was
presented
as an
acldress
at the
Seventh
Biennial
Conference of
the
ISME in
Interlochen,
Michigan,
Autgust
18-26, 1966.
Russian
music
supplies
numerous
examples
of this
kind,
namely
in
Glinka's
Kamarinskaya
based
upon
the Russian folk melodies.
Mention
should
be
made of his
two
over-
tures on the
Spanish
themes:
The
Night
in
Madrid
and
Aragonese
Hota. Listing the most inspired
episodes
of Glinka's
strikingly
Rus-
sian
operas,
one can
hardly
miss his
Act
Polonaise from
the
opera
Ivan
Susanin,
and Persian
Choir
and Oriental Dances from the
opera
Russian and Ludmilla. Inter-
est,
respect,
and love of
spiritual
culture of
foreign
countries of both
the East and
West
is one
of the
most beautiful traditions
of
Russian
music laid
by
Glinka.
In
contemporary
Soviet
music,
Glinka's tradition has received
much
stronger support by
the main
feature
of our
country
itself-by
multinationality,
which unites
quite
different
original
cultures
of both
the
West and
the
East
within
our
common
Socialist culture. We
Soviet
composers,
as Russian com-
posers
of the nineteenth
century,
remain
passionate
advocates
of
na-
tional
originality, being
at
the
same
time
the
enemies of
any
national
limitations.
Among
the best works
by
Sergey
Prokofiev,
one
can men-
tion his compositions based upon
the
themes of Russian
folk
songs,
and on the
subjects by
Shakespeare,
on the
tales
by
Gozzi
and
Perro
as
well as on the Ukrainian
folk
songs.
Similarly,
among
the
vocal
music
of Dimitri
Shostakovich,
the same
line
of the
creative
arrangements
of
Russian, American, English, Jew-
ish,
and
Spanish
folk
songs
and
folk
poetry may
be
seen.
In
the
ballets
by
Aram
Khachaturian,
the
lyrical
scene
of
today's
Armenian
village
is
changed
into the heroic
atmosphere
of the
slave rebellion in
ancient
Rome.
Among George
Sviridov's
best
compositions, songs
to the
lyrics
by
Sergey
Esenin are
placed
beside the
songs
to
the
lyrics by
Robert Burns.
African, Indian, Iranian,
and In-
donesian
themes and tunes attract
Soviet
composers
as well as
poetry,
music,
and culture of the
peoples
of
Europe
and
America.
Today,
in-
terest
and mutual relations between
the
cultures
of
various
nations
gain
an
especially important meaning.
Striving
for
such a
relation reflects
the
desire of the
peoples
of
the
world to
live
in
durable
peace,
in
the
atmosphere
of
confidence,
mu-
tual
understanding,
sincere
friend-
ship,
and-this
is
especially
impor-
tant-of mutual
respect,
to
which
every nation has every right
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8/10/2019 Article by Kabalevsky
3/4
whether it is
big
or
small,
whether
it
is a
developed
or
a
developing
nation.
The
aesthetic
training
of children
and
youth
is of extreme
importance
in the process of the development
of
these noble
trends. Sometimes
this mission
may
show itself
quite
unexpectedly.
Thus,
one of
the let-
ters
that
I
received
from
American
children was
written in 1955
by
Caroline
Simendet,
a
fourteen-year-
old
girl
from Minnesota.
She asked
how to
perform
my
piano
sonatina.
Of
course,
I
replied
to that
letter
and the reaction
was
quite
sur-
prising:
The New York Times car-
ried an item which stated
that
music
helped
an American
girl
to
learn that the iron curtain be-
tween the USA
and
the USSR
is
not as
impenetrable
as she
was
repeatedly
told
by
the
adults.
Music educators
of various
coun-
tries do not
spare
efforts
to achieve
such
a
form
of music education
of
children and
youth,
to
make
a
better
contribution
in the
rap-
prochement
of
the
peoples,
and
consolidate
friendships
and
mutual
understanding.
Here,
I should
like
to
turn to
the two
problems
which,
in
my opinion,
are of
great
interest.
What
particular
materials should
be
used to educate
children's
taste
and
music culture?
This is
the
first
problem
which
arises
before
every
music
educator.
Most teachers
all
over the world consider
that
music
education
should
be
based
on a
combination of
three elements:
folk
music,
classical
music,
and con-
temporary
music.
However,
in
prac-
tice,
solving
this
problem
is not
as
simple
as
it
sounds,
and
this
very
often
causes
many
heated discus-
sions. Most often, the discussions
deal
with the
third
element,
con-
temporary
music.
Here,
two
extreme
opinions
tend
to collide.
Today,
there are still
some teachers who
try
to avoid con-
temporary music in their teaching.
They
are afraid
of
this new music
which
is
capable
of
undermining
the basis
of
classical musical
logics
taught
to
young
musicians,
of
spoiling
not
only
the
musical
taste of
students,
but even their
hands and voices.
I am
frankly
sorry
for the students who take
courses
from
such teachers.
I
am
sorry
for
the
teachers
themselves,
too,
because
they lag
behind their
own
students
who,
as a
rule,
have
healthy,
though perhaps
immature
feelings, and strive for contem-
porary
music in which
they
dis-
tinctly
recall the
surrounding
world
and even themselves.
On
the
other
hand,
discussions
are held
by
some
composers
who
stick to
the
extreme,
the
so-called
vanguard positions
-
the
compo-
sers charmed
by
the
dogmas
of
dodecaphonic,
aleatoric,
puantilis-
tic,
and
other
artificially
born
sys-
tems
and theories
which are
called
to
substitute
for
the tonal
base
of
music,
as if
the
latter were
ex-
hausted and dead. While
complain-
ing
about the
wide
public
which
does
not
consider
their music an
art and does not listen
to
it,
these
composers
want to accuse
the
whole
existing system
of
musical educa-
tion
which
is-they say-the
reason
for
all
of
their
problems.
During
one
of the
International
Music
Congresses,
at
the
exhibition
of
new
music
scores,
some
of which
looked
like
coded
drawings
made
by
mistake on
the music
paper
splashed with inkspots, I was hor-
rifled
listening
to a
musician
furi-
ously
trying
to
prove
the
negative
influence of classics on the live
per-
ception
of
contemporary
music.
Classics,
he
said,
educate
children
in a conservative way, so that they
are unable to understand the new
art. Withdraw classics
and folk
music from the school
curricula?
From
the
very
first
steps
of teach-
ing,
replace
it at least
by
modern
dodecaphonic
music? Is this the
only way
to restore
the
broken
bond
between
modern
music
and listen-
ers?
How
happy
are both the art
and the
children
because the great
majority
of music
teachers under-
stand all the
tragi-comic
absurdity
of such
speculations.
One item is of particular interest;
musicians
taking
such a stand
(I
mean
not
only
composers,
but also
performers,
critics,
and
maybe
some
educators)
use the
word contem-
porary
in
a
very peculiar, personal
manner. For
them,
contemporary
music
is
the
only
music not
appre-
ciated
by
the
large
audience. There-
fore,
neither
Prokofiev
nor
Shosta-
kovich,
neither
Bartok
nor
Kodaly,
neither
Britten
nor
Orff,
neither
Hindemith
nor
Barber,
nor
many
other
good composers
of
our
time-
none of them has the
right
to be
considered as a
contemporary
mu-
sician.
By
the
way,
none of these
great
composers
has ever
called
himself a
vanguardist,
though
un-
doubtedly,
all
of
them
belong
among
the
most
progressive
com-
posers
of
our
age.
And
only
those
who
terrifically
want to be
reputed
as
the
most
progressive,
and even
the
super-progressive
without
suffi-
cient
reasons-they
start
noising,
claiming
themselves to be van-
guardists, denying to the others the
MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL
6
8/10/2019 Article by Kabalevsky
4/4
right
to
be considered
as
contempo-
rary.
Even
Arnold
Schoenberg,
the
founder of
the atonal
school,
thought
the education of
young
musicians
must be based on the
classical
art;
apropos, by
the end
of his
life, he felt it
a
necessity
to
turn back to tonal
music.
We should not be confused
by
the fact that a great number of con-
temporary composers
work
in
the
dodecaphonic
manner-Hindemith,
who
is
not
at
all a conservative
mu-
sician,
said that
dodecaphony
is a
nightmare pursuing
composing
fanatics
who
do not
want to
be out
of fashion. One of the
top
leaders
of
vanguardism,
he West
German
musicologist
Theodor
Adorno,
has
admitted
recently
that both of
the
two
systems, dodecaphony
and
aleatorics,
are
equally
alien to
the
live ear.
Well,
this
time
I
do not
argue with him.
We must discover the most com-
plicated
contradictions of
modern
music,
and
find our main
positions
in
the
ideological
and
artistic dis-
cussions
which form
the
atmosphere
of
the
development
of
today's
art.
We
must
help
the
great
army
of
mu-
sic educators to
act so
in their
turn.
It is
very important
for
us musi-
cians,
who form
the
ideologic
and
aesthetic
attitudes
of
young people,
to look into
all
of
this. If
you
lose
the
way
alone,
it is half
the
trouble,
though
rather
bad,
of course.
But if
you
lose
the
way yourself
and lead
your pupils
with
you
in a
wrong
direction
or
even to
a
deadlock-
this
trouble
is far more serious.
And
now
I should
like
to
say
a
few
words
about
the second
prob-
lem which is no
less
important
for
the musical
education,
namely,
the
circumstances
disturbing
all
of
us:
the
repertory
of
music education
is
not rich and
versatile
enough, espe-
cially
for
this
most
real
and
noble
purpose.
I would
like
to
mention
another
letter received from a
seven-year-
old
girl
from
England
two or three
years
ago.
The
girl
wrote
and said
that after
she
had learned
my
piano
variations on a
Russian
folk
tune,
she was able to understand better
who
the Russians are. I do not know
what this nice
girl
felt,
while
prac-
ticing
rather
complicated passages
of
my
variations,
but while
reading
her
letter,
though
it was
naive,
I
felt real
satisfaction.
(Frankly,
all
the letters
I
receive from children
always
arouse these
feelings
in
me,
though my
answers to these
letters seem
to take almost as
much
time as I
spend
while
writing
music . .
.)
Five
years
ago,
as
if
foreseeing
our meeting, in my foreword to the
collected
pieces
by
Eli
Siegmeister,
edited
in
Moscow,
I
wrote:
The
pieces by
Eli
Siegmeister
will
help
those who
will
play
or
listen
to
them to feel
through
the music the
nature of
the
American
people,
be-
cause
they
are imbued
with the
spirit
of American
folk
music.
And
now
I can tell
you
that our children
love these
pieces
and
play
them
with
pleasure,
not
only
because
they
are fine and
useful
in
a
peda-
gogical
sense,
but
also
probably
because
they
broaden
the
outlook,
enrich their
conception
of
the
world,
and arouse their
interest
and
affection for the
country
where
they
have
not
yet
been. This is
the
very
connection
of the educational
and
cognitive
roles of
art.
Our
children
are
introduced
to the art of other
countries
with the same
interest. A
very
good
illustration
of what
I
have said was
the
enthusiasm
of the
pupils
of our music schools
during
preparation
for the week of Hun-
garian
music held in
Moscow,
and
the
week of
Soviet music held in
Budapest recently.
And
still
I can
but
repeat:
there
is too little music
with
good
thoughts,
kind
feelings,
and
great
truths
of
life to
contrib-
ute to mutual relations
and
mutual
enrichment of children of various
countries.
I think
the
ISME,
as
an
interna-
tional
organization
should include
in
the
sphere
of its
activity
and
of
its influence as
many composers
as
possible. Apparently,
we
would be
able
to take some effective
practical
measures
in
this
way.
First of
all,
we
may
start
by publishing
a
spe-
cial varied
series of
selected
music
for
children and
youth
under the
title
Composers
of the World to
Children of the World.
Not
less
important are similar books of folk
songs
of various countries. I
am
convinced
that UNESCO would
support
such
an
idea if we
decided
to launch
it. It
may
be worth think-
ing
about
different
competitions
and
special
awards
systems.
All this
would
undoubtedly
favor our com-
mon
cause,
strengthen
the
interna-
tional
authority
of the
ISME,
and
especially
lead to further consolida-
tion of
friendly
relations
between
peoples
and sincere
mutual
respect
for
useful
exchanges
between
various
national
cultures.
Our dear
unforgettable
President,
the
outstanding
musician and
great
educator
of
our
time,
Joseph
E.
Maddy,
recalled
to
me
quite
re-
cently
the words I used some
years
ago
at the
meeting
with American
musicians
in
Washington:
If
the
governments
would follow the ex-
ample
of
musicians,
there
would
be
no cause for war.
A
1967
MENC
DivisionConventions
Eastern
Southwestern
Southern
NorthCentral
Northwest
Western
February
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26-29
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13-16
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9-April
March 9-22
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Massachusetts
Colorado
prings,
Colorado
Atlanta,
Georgia
Detroit,
Michigan
Missoula,
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Nevada
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