DAS SCHULWERK A FOUNDATION FOR THE COGNITIVE, MUSICAL, AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN LORI-ANNE DOLLOFF. Monograph Number 1

DAS SCHULWERK A FOUNDATION FOR THE COGNITIVE, MUSICAL, AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN LORI-ANNE DOLLOFF Monograph Number 1 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN MUSIC EDUCATION Edited by Lee R. Bartel

DAS SCHULWERK A FOUNDATION FOR THE COGNITIVE, MUSICAL, AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN LORI-ANNE DOLLOFF Monograph Number 1 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN MUSIC EDUCATION Edited by Lee R. Bartel Canadian Music Education Research Centre UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 1993

Published by Canadian Music Education Research Centre as part of the monograph series, RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN MUSIC EDUCATION Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Dolloff, Lori-Anne, 1958 Das Schulwerk: a foundation for the cognitive, musical, and artistic development of children (Research perspectives in music education) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-895570-02-6 1. orff, Carl, 1895-1982. Orff-Schulwerk. 2. Music Instruction and study - Juvenile. 3. Constructivism (Education). I. Canadian Music Education Research Centre. II. Title. III. Series. MTl. D65 1993 780'.7 C93-094304-X ISBN 1-895570-02-6 Copyright It> 1993 by the Canadian Music Education Research Centre All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in Canada

PREFACE ~EARCH PERSPECTIVES IN MUSIC EDUCATION is a new series of monographs published by Canadian Music Education Research Centre (CMERC). It features a wide range of topics related to the practice of music education and is unified by the emphasis on research in each work. The research methodology included in the series may span all traditional quantitative social science methodologies as well as theoretical, philosophical, historical, or descriptive methods. The focus on the practice of music education makes each monograph valuable to practitioners as well as scholars. The first monograph in this series is, Das Schulwerk: A foundation for the cognitive, musical, and artistic development ofchildren by Lori-Anne Dolloff. This monograph traces the historical influences on Orf ' s ideas, discusses the nature of music in Orf ' s approach, realistically points out weaknesses in this popular method, and analyzes the potential of the Orff method to address the cognitive development of children in light of theories by such prominent thinkers as Gjerdingen, Piaget, Gardner, and Serafine. This monograph provides a thoroughly reasoned foundation for an intensive application of music education in childhood. Lori-Anne Dolloff has done a masterful job of strengthening the theoretical rationale for Orff methodology. Monograph two by Alan Stellings, Musical referentialism: A discussion of its aspects, provides an outstanding example of philosophical research--the analysis of existing thought and the synthesis into a clearer statement than previously in existence. iii

In addition to the monograph series, RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN MUSIC EDUCATION, the Canadian Music Education Research Centre publishes technical research reports and books. The first publication of this type is the Guide to Provincial Music Curriculwn Docwnents Since 1980. This Guide represents several of the major objectives of the Centre: (1) to conduct research studies related to music education in Canada; (2) to create and disseminate research tools and findings to researchers and users of research; and (3) to establish an outstanding Canadian collection of research documents and reports, survey research databases, and music education documents to facilitate the conduct of music education research. The Guide accomplishes all three of these objectives. Itis a great pleasure to introduce this new publication venture. It is especially so because it offers a valuable service to the music education profession in Canada. Lee R. Bartel, Series Editor Director of CMERC iv

CONTEI'JTS PREFACE... iii CONTENTS... v INTRODUCTION............................................ 1 THE ORFF APPROACH TO MUSIC EDUCATION... 3 Characteristics of the Approach... 3 Historical Influences...................................... 6 Herder and the Ages of Language... 6 Goethe and the Role of Experience... 8 Pestalozzi and Education von Kinder aus... 10 The nature of music in Orffs approach... 14 Weaknesses in practice... 17 Summary... 18 Conclusions... 18 ORFF AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE... 21 Schema theory.......................................... 22 Orff and Play... 25 Gardner's Theory of Artistic Development... 27 Music as Intelligence...................................... 31 Serafine and Music as Cognition... 33 Orff and the Development of Cognitive Processes... 37 Successive Temporal Processes:... 39 Phrasing... 39 Patterning... 40 Motivic Chaining... 41 Idiomatic Construction............................ 41 v

Simultaneous Temporal Processes... 42 Textural abstraction... 42 Motivic Synthesis............................... 43 Timbre synthesis... 43 Non-temporal Processes... 44 Closure... 44 Transformation... 44 Abstrdction................................... 46 Hierarchic structuring... 47 Summary... 49 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS... 51 EN'DNOTES... 53 REFERENCES... 57 vi

INTRODUCTION T he approach to music education developed by Carl Orff enjoys widespread use by contemporary music educators. The approach is recognized as a valued method of music education by many writers addressing contemporary music education in North America. Michael Mark (1986) includes a description of Orff methodology in COnJemporary Music Education, an exploration of current themes and practices in music education. l Lois Harrison (1983), in her book Getting Started in Elementary Music Education, considers the Orff approach a major method in elementary music education. Other authors have shown how the Orff approach, which was originally conceived in the context of German culture, may be adapted to a North American educational context. 2 In fact, published versions of Orff-Schulwerk have also appeared in over twenty languages, suggesting world-wide application of the principles of Carl Orff (Frazee, 1987, p. 5). A review of the literature indicates that the emphasis in research on the Orff approach has been on the history of the approach, teaching techniques and implementation. There is little research, especially in English, on the theoretical foundation of the Orff approach. Orffs work is encapsulized in the five volumes of Das Schulwerk--a collection of sequenced materials for voice, "Orff' instruments and recorders. Orff has stated that the materials reflect the historical evolution of music (1962, p. 3). There is no explicit discussion of the musical development of the child. What theory has determined the sequencing of these 1

materials? Is Dos Schulwerk merely a collection of historical models? Or is there a developmental theory implicit in the prescribed activities and sequence of materials employed in the Orff approach? The purpose of this paper is: (1) to determine the extent to which a developmental theory is implicit or explicit in the Orff approach; and (2), to explore any congruencies between Orff's concept of musical development and current theories of the development of music cognition. The first part of this paper explores the background of the Orff approach to determine the existence and nature of Orff's concept of musical development. The second part, "Orff and Cognitive Science," makes comparisons between the theory discovered in Part One and current research in cognitive science. 2

THE ORFF APPROACH TO MUSIC EDUCATIOI\J T he literature published by Orff and his colleagues reveals evidence of considerably more developmental theory behind the selection and sequencing of repertoire than is commonly acknowledged. In his writings concerning the approach, Orff (1962, 1963, 1976) concentrated on the choice of repertoire and the nature of music as an elemental human endeavour. His assistant, Gunild Keetman, wrote a manual on the teaching methods used in the Orff approach (Keetman, 1970). Other German pedagogues sought a place for Orff's work within the context of educational theory. Eberhard Preussner, director of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, posited a connection between the educational theories of Pestalozzi and those of Orff. Werner Thomas, who worked closely with Orff in Germany and Austria, found evidence of links between Orff and the work of Herder and Goethe. Preussner and Thomas presented a foundation for the Orff approach which is rooted in the artistic spirit of the German poets, represented by Goethe, Schiller and Herder, and in a German pedagogical reform which extended from the nineteenth into the early twentieth century. They saw the Orff approach as the embodiment of the ideals expressed in this reform (Preussner, 1962, p. 13). Characteristics of the Approach Orff was a proponent of the idea that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny": that the evolutionary stages in the development of the human species are mirrored in the developmental stages of the individual. This is known as the theory of recapitulation or biogenesis. It has been 3

popularly applied to the physiological development of the foetus in vitro (Kimball, 1974, p. 706), as well as to intellectual development. The original theory is attributed to Stanley Hall (Hawn, 1986, p.18). development: Orff states a slightly modified version in the context of musical The child's world of pl~y reflects (or can be likened to) the early archaic stages in the development of mankind. Poetic maniff;stations of prehistoric ages are magic formulas and oracles, rules and customs, proverbs and riddles, sagas and songs, legends and fairy tales. (Orff, 1962, p. 3) This adaptation of Hall's theory appears to have developed under the influence of Karl Jung. Stated in this way, the theory holds that through playing the child is "liberated" from earlier stages and moves on to higher stages of musical development (Hawn, 1986, p. 18). It should not be interpreted that earlier stages are somehow more primitive or later stages of greater value. Rather, the idea is that through play the child avoids "re-inventing the wheel." The individual assimilates developments of the past in an encapsulated form and builds new concepts on this foundation. 3 Of course, Orff does not restrict repertoire in Das Schulwerk to prehistoric forms. Rather, he broadens the scope of the material to include examples of the forms found in Western Pre-Classical music. Forms include call and response, canon, ostinato, chaconne, processional, rondo, quodlibet, fauxbourdon, recitative, and various dances. Melodic and harmonic examples include plainsong-like recitatives, organum, paraphony, and compositions which make use of functional harmony. A variety of tonalities from pentatonic to modal and diatonic are presented. Rhythmic complexity progresses from monosyllabic-word-rhythms to poly metric and polyrhythmic compositions. Andreas Liess, a biographer of Carl Orff, says Das Schulwerk "leads from the primary basis of innate musicality to the world of historical musical forms" (Liess, 1966, p. 161). Werner Thomas, a long-time colleague of Orff, describes Das Schulwerk as "no pedagogical construction but an historical crystallization" (Thomas, 1960, p.3l). 4

In a lecture at the University of Toronto, Orff (1962) described six characteristics of Das Schulwerk which distinguish it from other pedagogical approaches. 1. The Schulwerk avoids false simplification, for a child's world is neither primitive nor transitory. 2. The Schulwerk has no ambition to be "modern," for progressing from pentatonic to diatonic modes, it closely corresponds to the development of the child. It is wrong to disregard the growth of music in history and to base instruction on the theory of intervals. The Schulwerk protests against the systematic rationalization ofour elementary music education. 3. The Schulwerk avoids introducing, prematurely, concepts and notions into a child's play-world which are derived from the contemporary level of our mechanical civilization...the world of technology and causality that surrounds us reaches only as far as rationally measureable relationships are concerned; spiritually, artistically it is sterile...the Schulwerk develops the imagination and directs it towards the archetypes in nature and creation; the child is in contact with positive forces that are ordering, relaxing and healing. 4. The pieces it contains are simple, elementary if you will, yet always meaningful, each one baving a "Gestalt" of its own. But they do not add up to a progressive system in the usual sense of the term. It is the treatment of musical elements that set the Schulwerk apart from other systems, which usually start with unison and two-part pieces, proceeding step by step to more difficult pieces in many parts and complicated structures. It is true that the Schulwerk also progresses stepwise--from borduns to parallel chords and chords in dominant relationship;...the rate of progress, however, depends on a child's receptivity; this takes both music and language into consideration. 5. The Schulwerk does not tamper with traditional texts nor does it invent new ones (except in the case of improvisation)... Our texts are taken from folklore, or else from recognised poets, both lyrical and epic. 6. Schulwerk pieces are not "compositions" in the subjective sense; they do not depend on inspiration (as the term was understood in the 19th century), they do not illustrate a text. They are musical models, typical rather than individual in character. 5

Historical Influences Carl Orff's theories developed within the pedagogical legacy of Herder, Goethe and Pestalozzi. These people represent a school of European educational reform which began in the late eighteenth century. Although the theories put forth by these men are not always complementary, each in some way influenced the development of Das Schulwerk. In fact, many of the ideas discussed are echoed in the work of Dewey and Bruner, fathers of current North American pedagogical practice. Herder and the Ages of Language. Werner Thomas (1960) has suggested that Orff was influenced by the writings of Herder. Johann Gottfried Herder was an eighteenth-century author and essayist who wrote extensively on the origins and development of language. Herder posits four stages in the development of language: (I) Childhood (Kindheit), (2) Youth (Jugend), (3) Manhood (das mfumlicher Alter), and (4) Old age (der Greis) (Herder, 1766). In keeping with the theory of recapitulation, Herder maintains that these stages may be applied to the development of language in the individual, or to the development of the language of a culture. In Von den Lebensaltem einer Sprache, Herder characterizes the first stage as one in which the child (or species) does not speak; rather, language consists of sounds and pantomime (Herder, 176611968, p. 18-19). As language develops it becomes more poetic. The second stage, the youth of language, is described as the age of imagination. The sounds of the words and their rhythms are used for beauty, and for symbolic purposes. Herder describes the third stage of language, manhood, as the stage of beautiful prose (p. 19). The old age of language, the fourth stage of development, becomes increasingly preoccupied with correctness. This stage lacks the delight of earlier stages. Herder believes that the highest stage of development is the third. The fourth stage he considers a decline. From the third stage, he maintains, one can venture back into the wonder of poetry or forward into absolute correctness while having the capability of philosophizing and theorizing with the ease of well-developed prose (p. 19). Is there a parallel between Herder's stages of language development and musical development? 6

Thomas (1960), looking for parallels between Herder and Orfrs developmental scheme, maintains that single-word speech exercises accompanied by rhythmic gestures found in Volume One of Das Schulwerk are indicative of Herder's first stage. This may be true of language development, but it does not take into consideration the child's first attempts at making music. Michael Holahan (1986), a researcher in the development of musical syntax in infants, speaks of an early stage of musical development which may be considered equivalent to Herder's flrst stage. Music babble, as Holahan describes it, consists of sounds accompanied by movement. Speech is distinguished from babble when the sounds made by the child become associated with meaning--le. they become symbols, (words). So too, music babble advances from sensual play with sounds to melodies with form and songs with lyrics. Music has become a symbol for the child. The child is now ready to begin choosing which sounds he makes based on their expressive qualities. Das Schulwerk is full of examples of using words for their sheer sensuous beauty, a transition to the second stage in Herder's scheme. In Volume One (pentatonic) there are many speech exercises in which the words are clearly chosen for their sonance. At all levels of development children are encouraged to feel the sensuous qualities ofwords, to explore rhythmic and dynamic properties, and to play with combinations of words. Proverbs and other folk-ioric poetry are also clearly in the youthful stage. Children are also encouraged to create their own poems. The final stage of development of a language in Herder's scheme is one in which rules of grammar have become normative. The imagination is no longer evoked, variation is discouraged, the purely technical and "correct" is prized. Gardner (1982) posits a similar pattern of development. As the child becomes pre-occupied with cultural rules and practices, the spontaneity and individual creativity of his artistry decreases, giving way to rule-derived, culturally "correct" forms (pp. 85, ff.). Thomas (1960) maintains that Orff avoids this stage through a constant renewing of speech and music. The improvisatory character of the approach allows for the exploration of perpetually-new possibilities (p. 34). Herder describes the third stage, the manhood stage of a language, as one which contains the best of both worlds. A 7

program for music education which is analogous to this would be one in which creativity is encouraged and fostered, yet the analytical is not forgotten. The child would possess both procedural knowledge and propositional knowledge--she/he would know-how as well as know-that (Bamberger, 1979; Gardner, 1983). This reflects the emphasis in the Orff approach on the process of music. The Orff approach seeks to maintain the poetic, magical stage in all stages of music-making. Orff (1962) describes the approach as the "awakening of the imagination" (p. 3). Through play with sounds and high-lighting the poetry of the text, Orff seeks to sensitize children to the expressive qualities of words and music. 4 Goethe and the Role of Experience. According to Thomas (1962), another important figure in the development of Orff's philosophy was the nineteenth-century German poet Johann von Goethe. To Goethe, experience was education. An individual learned about a subject through experience with that subject. In his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Goethe portrays the experience of life as education--as an apprenticeship. aspiring actor, from childhood through manhood. The novel follows Wilhelm, an Every situation in which Wilhelm finds himself is an education for him. Wilhelm not only learns his craft but draws spiritual knowledge from his experiences (Goethe, 1795/1966). The value of experience in shaping our perceptions and knowledge structures is now a field of research. Schema theory is beginning to explain what Goethe seemed to know intuitively. 5 Goethe held music to be the fundamental force behind all education: Bei uns ist der Gesang die erste Stufe der Bildung, alles andemach schliebt sich daran und wird dadurch vermittelt...deshalb haben wir denn unter allem Denkbaren die Musik zum Element unserer Erziehung gewahlt, denn von ihr laufen gleichgebahnte Wege nach allen Seiten. 6 (Goethe from Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, in Heise et al., 1973, p. 12) Although this description of the value of music in education comes from a novel, it is safe to assume that the portrait of a school described in this poetic way reflects the educational philosophy of Goethe himself. 8

Goethe was fighting against the trend toward a technical education. He constantly stresses the imaginative, the artistic and the poetic. We can hear this echo in the writings of Orff when he begs for the growth of imagination and the use of creativity. Goethe held folk-poetry and folk-song in high esteem. In a review of Des Knaben Wunderhom, a nineteenth-century collection of German folksongs and poetry, Goethe (1806/1962) claims that this collection of what he believes to be the highest form of poetry should be in every house (p. 24). Are there echoes of Goethe in the work of Orff? Carl Orff, like Goethe, saw music as a force which had influence in domains in addition to the artistic domain. Orff considered music education to be a fundamental component of education and a humanizing force: Elementary music, word and movement, play, everything that awakens and develops the powers of the spirit, this is the "humus" of the spirit, the humus without which we face the danger of a spiritual erosion... Just as humus in nature makes growth possible, so elementary music gives to the child powers that cannot otherwise come to fruition. It must therefore be stressed that elementary music in the primary school should not be installed as a subsidiary subject, but as something fundamental to all other subjects. It is not exclusively a question of musical education; this can follow, but it does not have to. It is, rather, a question of developing the whole personality. (Orff, 1963, p.9) Orff, following Goethe's theme of experience as education, stresses the experiential side of the approach: It [elementary music] is music that one makes oneself, in which one takes part, not as a listener but as a participant. (Orff, 1963, p. 6) Goethe appealed for the acceptance of folk-song and poetry as examples of great art. Similarly, Orff (1962) claims that true folksongs and folktexts are archetypes of Art. Their inclusion in education is imperative (p. 6). This is born out in the selection of texts Orff made for Dos Schulwerk. The five volumes of Dos Schulwerk include nursery rhymes, riddles, fairy tales, and texts from the Wunderhorn and from the works of Goethe, Herder, Schiller, and the 9

Gospels. There is some inclusion of folk-songs in languages other than German. In keeping with Orff's view of learning music as you would learn a language (i.e. beginning with the mother tongue), folksongs of other languages do not appear until the fmal volumes. Orff never conceived of his Schulwerk being used in so many different countries and languages. He designed it to be a collection for his home-state of Bavaria. The material in the five volumes was chosen with the German heritage in mind. For this reason, Das Schulwerk cannot merely be translated to other cultural contexts. It must be adapted to local culture. Thus the materials with texts found in the editions by Doreen Hall and Margaret Murray reflect the English heritage, as other national authors reflect their own heritage. 7 The instrumental pieces are included unaltered. Pestalozzi and Education von Kinder QUS. Eberhard Preussner (1962) claims that another important educational influence on the development of Orff's educational philosophy was the work of Pestalozzi. Although many of Pestalozzi's revolutionary ideas about education did not mature to his satisfaction during his own lifetime, his ideas did foreshadow important ideas held by educational systems in this century. One of his beliefs was that every child should be educated. To this end he set up poor schools to teach the children of farmers. For Pestalozzi, as for Goethe, education was a humanizing force. The aim was to produce independent thinkers. Education, then is the art of bringing to life and fortifying the good which is inherent in every human being; it consists in guiding the child towards the best realization of himself and of the things ofthe world. It does not impose anything alien upon him but draws out what lies in him, either latent or obstructed; it takes as its starting point the child himself. It cultivates his own powers and encourages his independence. Thus the educator acts, as Socrates has said, more as a midwife than as a begetter of men. He merely prepares the way which the pupil must travel himself. (Silber, 1965, p. 137) These ideas underpin what is known as the von Kinder aus school of pedagogy. John Dewey echoed the same ideas in Experience & Education (1938). 10

Most of Pestalozzi' s ideas met with opposition during his own lifetime. Goethe criticized his development of individuals as counter-productive to the good of society (Thomas, 1962, p. 81). Pestalozzi, for his own part, thought that Goethe was too elitist, that Goethe's aristocratic position placed him in opposition to his own democratic ideals. One of Pestalozzi's key ideas was the development of what he termed Anschauung. Anschauung is a complex concept encompassing what we now conceptualize as perception, intuition, and sense-impression. Silber (1965), in a study of Pestalozzi and his work, describes Anschauung as a "fundamental power of the human mind underlying all mental activity and making possible all knowledge" (p.138). Pestalozzi maintains that this is the foundation for all intellectual growth and that the development of perception should be the first goal of education (Silber, 1965, p. 139). as: There are five forms of Anschauung in Pestalozzi' s scheme. These may be summarized 1. Chaotic, unorganized impressions of the world received by the sense organs. 2. Impressions organized and reinforced by parents and teachers. [Thus far perceptual capacity has been passive and dependant upon the environment. The next three forms are actively constructed:] 3. A self-motivated, active striving to maintain and develop insight, knowledge, skill and perception. [pestalozzi credits this with making perception conscious. This seems to be equivalent to the development ofconceptual knowledge mentioned by others, cf. Piaget.] 4. As a result of activity, knowledge becomes more specific. This has the effect of increasing the accuracy, completeness and harmony of perception with the resultant achievement: clarity or distinctness of ideas. 5. Finally, the intellect is able to construct ideas and conceptualize about things never seen due to their resemblance to things already experienced. [cf. schemata] 8 11

This description of cognition and cognitive development as ranging from unorganized, purely sensory awareness to actively-organized, conscious intellectual activity resembles other influential theories of cognitive development which we shall examine later. development is dependant upon earlier stages. Silber (1965) summarizes: Each stage of...knowledge is reliable only if all previous stages are contained in its final result, or in other words, distinct concepts are true only if they are grounded on sense impres~ions. (p. 140) Nowhere is there a statement of purpose which more fully articulates the aim and belief of Dos Schulwerk than Silber's definition of education quoted at the beginning of this section in the monograph. Orff believed in the integrity of every child. He wanted every child to be exposed to the humanizing, self-realizing power of music (1962, p. 3) in order to realize his latent musical potential. Orff's idea. of independent thinking must be explained. Each child develops individual potential within the context of the group. The role of the teacher is to prepare the environment in which the musical skills and intellect develop for the individual and for the group. Each child is led to the development of his own abilities but learns to use them in the context of the ensemble as well as individually. The Orff approach fits very well into the developmental concept of Anshauung, as proposed by Pestalozzi. Orff begins first with the sensory: the sound of words; the kinesthetic sense of rhythm. The use of movement presents music to the individual through his visual and tactile senses. Gradually these sensual experiences of music develop to include conceptual knowledge of forms and names. However, Qeff always emphasizes that the sense of music (the pure experience of music) should come first. In the most advanced form of musical Anschauung we are able to mentally represent music from a score and imagine sounds we have not actually heard. 12

Pestalozzi favoured a methodological progression of material and concepts that moves from simple, through moderate difficulty to advanced difficulty (Preussner, 1962, p. 7). One of the catch-phrases of the Orff approach is "from simple to complex. If Musical experience begins with simple forms, two-note call melodies and rhythm patterns of eighth- and quarter notes. Grarlually, more complicated rhythms and melodies are introduced. Body percussion begins with clapping. Later, a second sound--patschen--is added, then stamping and snapping, and so on. Accompaniments begin with the simple bordun on one type of instrument. The bordun is then broken, the rhythm becomes more complex. The texture increases, timbres are added. Unison singing becomes part-singing. From elemental forms--ab, ABA--the child progresses to canon, rondo, theme and variations. Even within the complexity there exists the elemental grains of simplicity. Larger, more complex forms are built up from simple motives and groupings. Melodic and rhythmic cells are used as ostinati which are layered to produce the Gestalt: the fully formed musical work. Although Pestalozzi was not a musician, he placed a high value on music as part of his Menschenerziehung (education for life). Die Wichtigkeit des Gesangs als eines Teils der Menschenbildung, sein Eingreifen ins Ganze derselben, und das diesfiillige Bediirfnis des Yolks und der Volksschulen sind so unbedingt anerkannt, dab es vollig iiberfliissig ware, hieriiber noch ein Wort zu sagen. (pestalozzi, in Heise et al, 1973, p. 12)9 Nageli was the music instructor at one of Pestalozzi's early school experiments. He developed his teaching from Pestalozzi's ideals. Unfortunately his interpretation of Pestalozzi's method gave rise to a very mechanical product (Preussner, 1962, p. 9). However, several of Nageli's teachings are not without value. According to Nageli, rhythm is the first step in all music education: "Die einzig wahre Elementarlehre stellen wir auf, wenn wir den Rhythmus zum Ersten machen. "10,Everything else evolves from rhythm. Am Anfang war die Trommel. For Orff, rhythm is the life-force of all music and music-making. 13

Die Trommellockt zum Tanz. Tanz ist aufs engste mit Musik verbunden. Rhythmus zu lehren ist schwer. Rhythmus kann man nur losen, entbinden. Rhythmus ist kein Abstraktum, Rhythmus ist das Leben selbst.... er ist die einigende Kraft von Sprache, Musik und Bewegung. l1 (Orff, 1976, p. 17) Undoubtedly there were many more influences on Orfrs development of educational philosophy than these. His own tastes in music, his own music education, and, not least of all, his own experiences as a composer were surely not without influence. Most important, however, was Orfrs view of the nature of music. 1be nature of music in Orffs approach Itis necessary when developing a pedagogical approach to know the nature of the subject in question in order to the know the goal of the educational process. What is the nature of music in the Orff approach? There is no one source in which Orff specifically states his philosophy of the nature of music. His view must therefore be synthesized from the way in which he treats music, in his compositions and in the material and method used in Dos Schulwerk. Music is seen as an expressive form in the Orff philosophy Jos Wuytack, a leading Orff proponent, used the words of the LIGI, the Chinese book of ethical wisdom, to express the Orff view of music as an expressive force: Song derives from word, it is made up of sustained words. If man has cause to rejoice, he expresses it in speech. If speech does not suffice, he "talks" in sustained words. (Wuytack, 1977, p. 59) 14

This talk-like quality of music is the subject of a recent essay by the philosopher Frances Sparshott. Sparshott (1988) holds that there are two distinct kinds of music: phone and tone. The first refers the Greek conception of the voice. "Voice" [phone] in nature is psychic sound, issuing from near the vital center, the heart; it has pitch, tune...and phrasing... Voice includes all animal cries as well as musical performances; articulate speech is a futher differentiation of it (p. 47). This defmition is very similar to the impassioned utterances described in the LIGI. Sparshott uses the Greek word tone to refer to the instrumentally conceived music that derived from the formalization of scales (p. 47). The anthropological view of music is "something you do"--a practice. definition of music suggested by anthropologist Alan Merriam. This is the Music is a uniquely human phenomenon which exists only in terms of social interaction; that is, it is made by people for other people, and it is learned behavior. It does not and cannot exist by, of, and for itself; there must always be human beings doing something to pnxluce it. In short, music cannot be defined as a phenomenon of sound alone, for it involves the behavior of individuals and groups of individuals. (Merriam, 1964, p. 27) The definition of music as a practice is also proposed by Sparshott (1988). Music is something that you do. It is not just a product, it is also a behaviour, a process leading to a product. In an aesthetic model, performing--the doing of music--is a means to an end: it is the means of pnxlucing an expressive form which is valuable in and of itself. In Sparshott's model, the making of music has intrinsic value--it is an end as well as a means. We can enjoy and learn from the process even as we enjoy and learn from the product. This doing of music for the sake of the doing is an important cultural phenomenon in many societies. This is often the motivation for organizing community bands and choirs, groups of people coming together after a work-day to make music. Although there is usually a performance involved at some point, that one-time experience of the "finished" music would not be enough to keep these people coming back week after week. The practice of music in a group week by week must also be of value to the 15

participants. Sparshott (1988) maintains that to perform is to enter another world. This is the reason he gives for the popularity of amateur choral societies: To sing in a choir, even for those who have to learn by rote a piece they do not understand, immerses one.., in a form of social reason that is autonomous and strange at the same time as it is the law of one's own action. That is why so many people sing in choirs without getting paid for it. (p. 79) The practice of music in a group reflects the concept of music in the Orff approach. This premise is born out by the fact that there is virtually no solo repertoire in the Orff literature. Music is meant to be a community effort. The model for Orff ensembles came from Orf ' sown knowledge of ethnomusicology. He took the basic concept of the Orff ensemble from the Javanese Gamelan. The model of music as a community effort is surely evident here, as in African traditions. The Orffapproach is music education for EVERY child. Within Orff activities and the Orff ensemble there is a layered texture which allows for individual participation at whatever level the child is capable. Each child is actively and totally involved in music-making. Each child is part of the community of music-makers. Everyone learns every part. Every part has integrity in the ensemble. Each child is responsible for performing his part to the best of his/her abilities--for his/her own satisfaction as well as for the good of the group. Orff is music for the WHOLE child. The children do not experience or learn music simply by playing or singing, but kinaesthetically: by involving the whole body. The passage quoted from LIGl, above, continues: If sustained words do not suffice, he adds exclamations and sighs. If exclamation and sighs do not suffice, it comes imperceptibly to a point where the hands swing and the feet dance. (Wuytack, 1977, p. 59) Rhythms are clapped, snapped, patsched, and stamped. The rise and fall of the melody is felt physically through hand-signs and movement. The WHOLE child is also called upon to exercise 16

artistic choices--to relate to music intellectually and conceptually. The child makes the decisions of a composer in improvisation and orchestration: "Which sounds do I want to use here?"; and the performer: "How can I play this expressively?" Just as doctors learn to be doctors by doing what doctors do, children learn to be musicians by doing what musicians do. 12 Weaknesses in practice One of the key objections to the Orff approach is its presumed preoccupation with pentatony and rondo-form--le. that development is limited to a very specific and narrow range style. In fact, only Volume One of the five volumes is dedicated to pentatonic tonality. Orff himself was opposed to the idea of artificially restricting children to pentatonic tonalities for a protracted period. Time and again the question is asked whether a child must only play pentatonic, avoiding any other kind of music. This is nonsense of course, since it is both impossible and undesirable to shut a child off from all other musical influences. It is the main purpose of pentatonic training to help a child to find and to form a musical expression of his own. (Orff, 1962, p. 1) The varieties of tonality are indeed more extensive than that found in the repertoire of most of the current textbook series. The misuse and neglect of the full range of repertoire available is perhaps due to the fact that most teacher-training courses in Schulwerk only scratch the surface of the first volume. The immediate success attained when improvising in the pentatonic mode make it a comfortable tool. Many teachers simply lack the training and experience to take children past this point. So too with rondo form. This is a tidy, self-contained form assuring almost certain success. The teacher is often incapable of improvising in any of the other forms. Hence everything becomes a rondo. This lack of training combined with a misunderstanding of Orff's original design has resulted in programs in which the mere inclusion of xylophones and glockenspiels is cause enough to use the label 01jf. These programs are really little more than glorified rhythm bands. There is no appreciation of tonality or form. There is no real creativity taking place. Often the texts and musics used are inferior and are selected for their "cuteness" 17

and appeal. Of course there is certain value in "entertainment" music but the appeal of these compositions often wears thin. Orff deplored what he called Kindergarten Unpoetry--songs contrived to appeal to small children. He believed, instead, that we should use the texts of folklore and of great poets of history verbatim (see also above). Summary The Orff approach to music education draws on the ideas of several nineteenth-century reformists. From lohann Gottfried Herder comes the idea of a developmental cycle and a poetic age of language. Orff captures the magic of this poetic age in his music. Goethe stresses the role of experience-of participatory learning in education. Goethe also maintained that music was a fundamental component of all education--a thought happily echoed by Orff. Pestalozzi was an early proponent of the von Kinder aus school of education. Orff bases his progression on beginning with the child and drawing potential out of him. Pestalozzi posited a framework for the development of perception. This development begins with pure sensory stimulation and ends with cognitive creation of new concepts. Orff also progresses from the kinaesthetic (the sensory) to the analytic (the conceptual). Nageli, working closely with Pestalozzi, placed rhythm at the beginning of all musical learning. Carl Orff, too, maintained that rhythm was the Ur-element from which all other musical elements and forms developed. Music is viewed as a practice in the Orff approach to music education. It is not only the sounds created, but the practice of creating and working with those sounds that make music and music education. The full potential of the Orff approach is often hindered by a lack of comprehensive training for teachers. Conclusions The purpose of the first part of this paper has been to determine if the Orff approach is based on a developmental theory and, if so, to explore the nature of that theory. 18

Carl Orff held that every child is innately musical (Orff, 1963). Orff's endorsement of the theory of recapitulation indicates that he believed that there is one developmental path which all individuals follow. This pattern of development mirrors the evolution of music in history. This belief accounts for Orff's choice of repertoire and their sequencing in Dos Schulwerk. Orff also believed that a child's musical development is tied to the development of his language. 13 The evolutionary stages of language as detailed by Herder may be extended to suggest stages in musical development. These stages are: (I) Babble, or play with sounds; (2) A poetic/symbolic stage during which the imagination uses sounds and words for beauty and symbolic purposes. This stage is characterized by intense creativity; (3) A logical stage, one in which the individual develops powers of reason and analytic thought; and (4) A rule-driven stage, pre-occupied with correctness. The Orff approach moves from the earliest stages of play with sounds and music (stage 1), encouraging the development of musical imagination (stage 2), and finally, developing the ability to think and create music analytically (stage 3). The approach seeks. to avoid the sterility and rigidity of Herder's fmal stage through constant stress on the imagination. The Orffapproach borrows from Goethe the idea of education as an apprenticeship, i.e. that the process of development is the result of concrete experiences with a medium. The nature of this development is similar to Pestalozzi's account of the development of Anschauung or perception. Orff believes that musical development begins with the kinaesthetic or sensory experience of music. Through play with music and positive environment organized by parents and teachers the initially sensuous. perceptions of music become intellectual conceptions of music. The child, through performance, improvisation, and composition begins to make conscious musical choices based on his developing musical understanding. The progression moves from simple to complex. However, it is not a question of successive stages supplanting earlier ones. Rather, like the layers of an onion, progressive musical skills and concepts are added to the body of procedural knowledge which the child possesses. 19

The emphasis in the Qrff approach is, therefore, not on a body of skills or facts; rather, it is on the experience with music--the actual practice of music. This belief is supported by anthropological and philosophical definitions of music. This philosophy of the nature of music also governs the selection of repertoire and teaching strategies used in the approach. The strategies used suggest that musical development is achieved through active participation in music-making, not abstract pen and paper learning. 20

ORFF AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE T he developmental theory behind the arff approach to music education evolved from the European educational philosophies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. If the approach is to be considered for use in contemporary music education, it must have points of congruency with current educational theories. The purpose of this second chapter is: (1) to examine several of the current theories as they pertain to music education; and (2) to explore possible congruencies with the theory behind the arff approach. The field of cognitive science is burdgeoning. The study of the development of mind has rich implications for the field of education in general, and music education in particular. Schema theory and play theory both hold keys to the organization of our pedagogy and curriculum. Recent research (Gardner, 1983; Serafine, 1988) proposes cognitive processes and domains which are unique to music. Much research and experimentation is now probing the cognitive development of children. Brief mention will be made of Piaget's theory of playas it relates to Das Schulwerk. An extensive discussion of Piaget and music will not be presented as this has already been explored by many authors. 14 After examining the current trend to view music not as a magical, mystical entity, but, rather as a product and/or process of cognition, congruencies with the arff approach will be sought. 21

Schema theory One of the current buzzwords in cognitive science is schema (pi. schemata). Although variations in the interpretation of the meaning of this word exist, schemata are commonly understood to be intellectual structures resulting from interaction with the environment. Robert Gjerdingen (1988) develops Leonard Meyer's theory of expectation in his work, A Classic Tum of Phrase: Music and the Psychology of Convention. Gjerdingen examines the value of schematic theory for a theory of perception of music. Two definitions of his collection from various authors are important for our purposes. He cites F. Bartlett, one of the earliest authors to use the word schema: "Schema" refers to an active organization of past reactions, or of past experiences, which must always be supposed to be operating in any well-adapted organic response. That is, whenever there is any order or regularity of behavior, a particular response is possible only because it is related to other similar responses which have been serially organized, yet which operate, not simply as individual members coming one after, but as a unitary mass. (in Gjerdingen, 1988, p. 4) The other applicable definition comes from Jean Mandler who defines schemata as mental structures which are "formed on the basis of past experience with objects, scenes, or events and consisting of a set of (usually unconscious) expectations about what things look like and/or the order in which they occur" (in Gjerdingen, 1988, p. 4). Both of these definitions contain the key concept that schemata are built from experience with things, be they objects or events. It follows then that the more experiences with a particular thing, the clearer and truer will be the schemata which are created. Schemata are not specific knowledge files. Rather, they are generalized knowledge. They are flexible and may, therefore, be adapted to different situations. David Rumelhart lists six features of schemata: 1. Schemata have variables. 2. Schemata can embed, one within another. 3. Schemata represent knowledge at all levels of abstraction 4. Schemata represent knowledge rather than definitions. 22

5. Schemata are active processes. 6. Schemata are recognition devices whose processing is aimed at the evaluation of their goodness of fit to the data being processed. (in Gjerdingen, 1988, p.5) Schemata are not meant to be exact moulds into which all other experience is jammed. Instead, they provide a frame of reference for understanding. This concept of schemata as frameworks for organizing our world is compatible with Pestalozzi's fifth stage in the development of Anshauung: Dinge, die ich nie anschaulich sehe, konstruiere ich mir auf auf Grund der von mir angenommenen Ahnlichkeit mit Dingen, die ich wahrgenommen habe. (Preussner, 1962, p. 8)15 In other words, experience builds schemata which guide our conceptual constructions. The more information that is stored in these schemata, (i.e. the more experiences from which we develop these schemata), the more accurate and more sophisticated will be our constructions. As we encounter new experiences our schema are modified and refined. 16 This has a great deal of importance in a constructivist theory of music perception, such as that proposed by Serafine (1988). Philip Lewin (1986), in a paper discussing the construction of cognitive structures, elaborates on the refinements of schemata in the process of learning a dance step. In terms of dance, that which is already known, both cognitively and kinaesthetically, functions as cognitive schema [sic] for movements through which the novel is initially understood. Learning movement, then, consists of incorporating the novel phrase into an existing system of representations, and modifying those representations in tum to "accomodate" the novel within them. And these 'representations' are not only procedural in the sense of knowing how or when knowledge is to be applied, but exist much more fundamentally as kinaesthetic. How one apperceives movement will depend both on how one understands movement and what ways of transforming and connecting movement are already embodied as skill. (p. 13) This underscores the presence of schemata related to skill. The necessity to acknowledge skill development as a component of the educational process will be discussed below. 23

What is the significance of schema theory for elementary music education? The crux of the matter is this. In order to perceive and to be able process musical input, we need to have a set offiles or schemata to help us classify what we hear. These schemata are the result of experience. The earlier we begin to set up schemata the more we can process. The content of those early experiences is also of the utmost importance as they will colour all future experiences of music. The second half of Lewin's statement quoted above indicates that perception is also affected by kinaesthetic or performance schemata. Sparshott (1988) supports this when he claims that a violinist hears violin music with his hands: "part of his hearing is the way his fingers corroborate the playing" (p. 85); and, "for a violinist, an inseparable component in the experience of hearing is what is felt in the fingers" (p. 97). The Orff approach builds several different kinds of schemata in children. First there is the actual experience of musical sounds and their organization into historical forms. Das Schulwerlcprovides models of historically correct forms (Thomas, 1960, p. 31), Secondly, there is the ensemble experience, schemata for performance considerations. Students are not merely hearing the music, they are experiencing it more directly through creating it. The use of instrumental pieces allows for a greater variety of timbres and forms than the sole use of vocal and choral music. Most importantly, however, are the affective schemata formed by the child towards music. The Orff experience is designed to be a positive experience of music for the child. He learns that his own music (composing initially in the form of improvising) is valuable; that his own musical expression is worthwhile. Carl ()r:ws great gift is to children. In essence that gift is a way of looking at music that deeply involves them in its creation, and thereby entails respect for their capabilities. (Frazee, 1987, p. 5) On a broader scope the child learns to risk exposing his ideas, musical or artistic. All of these experiences set up patterns of expectation--schemata. 24