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Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education
31stWorld Conference on Music Education
Porto Alegre, Brazil
20 25 July 2014
3
Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education
31stWorld Conference on Music Education
Porto Alegre, Brazil
20 25 July 2014
David Forrest
Editor
4
Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education 31st World Conference on Music Education,
Porto Alegre, Brazil, 20-25 July 2014
Edited by David Forrest
ISBN 978-0-9873511-8-0
© 2014 International Society for Music Education (ISME)
Published in Australia in 2014
International Society for Music Education (ISME)
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Australia
Design: Leah Watson
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the National Library of Australia
Dewey Number: 780.7
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of a short passage for the purposes of criticism or review, 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 prior permission from the publisher.
The full papers submitted to the 2014 International Conference were double blind refereed by a panel of
international authorities before inclusion in the Conference Proceedings.
363
Archaic Folklore in Lithuanian Primary School Music Programs
Eirimas Velicka, Vilnius Seskines Primary School
Abstract
The goal of the paper is to reveal the musical language features of children’s songs and
options for application of archaic music in primary school music pedagogy. The research
revealed that about half of the children’s song melodies are archaic: narrow (not exceeding
the fourth or fifth), based on a limited number of scale steps (2–4 different tones); in its
structure – fundamentally different from the major and minor melodies typical of classical
and popular music. These melodies are simple, catchy, and meet 7–9 year old children’s
musical perception and expression capabilities. Such archaic scales are the basis for the
spontaneous vocal improvisations of modern children.
From 1995-1998 a primary school music program was prepared, textbooks and activity
books were written, systematically relying on archaic Lithuanian music features. An original
music teaching system was created on the basis of archaic melodies, which in a consistent and
cohesive music education process combine different musical activities. Based on this system
almost all children, regardless of their musical aptitude, learn to read notes, play the flute,
write musical dictations, and compose elementary melodies to a given rhythm. A properly
selected repertoire helps form a child’s musical vocabulary consistently enriches it.
Keywords: Musical archaism, Lithuanian folklore, children’s songs, primary school.
Introduction: Conception of musical archaism
Musical archaism in this paper is the old folk tunes layer, significantly differing in its musical
language features from diatonic major or minor, inherent to classical and popular music. We
will avoid the derogatory term “primitive music” – a truer term would be Carl Orff’s
Elemental music, as musical archaism is an early phase in the evolution of musical thought,
not a stage in the historical development of music.
Narrow, few-note melodies are a child’s first melodic experience, important for
subsequent formation of scale perception. Although archaic folklore is considered old-
fashioned and irrelevant in modern musical pedagogy, children’s musical improvisations
constantly contain relics of archaic musical language. The author over a short period of time,
around the world, was able to hear several astonishingly similar musical examples. First in
Prague, in April 2009: a little girl was riding a tricycle and singing in Czech “circle, circle,
little circle” (Figure 1a). In January 2013, a melody in that same scale in Auckland, New
Zealand: two children were chasing one another and singing “catch me now” in Maori (Figure
1b). The third similar melody: June 2013, in Vilnius, children were playing with a ball and
singing a three-note melody without words (Figure 1c). The similarity of these three melodies
cannot be explained by mutual influence – they were sung in different parts of the world.
Therefore, we can assume that such a melody is universal, as it corresponds to the musical
experience of young children, their possibilities of expression. It is almost impossible to
explain this similarity by the influence of media: music on the radio and TV (mostly pop
music, less often – classical) is of entirely different musical language properties and is
characterized by major or minor scales, functional harmony.
364
Figure 1. Examples of oligotonal melodies.
The most incredible thing is the similarity of these improvisations to archaic folk
melodies. They have a distinctive musical language, which is clearly different from the later
and more commonplace classical and pop music. Archaic melodies are characterised by: 1)
narrow range, close to the spoken language (not exceeding fourth or third); 2) a limited
number of scale steps; 3) syllabic rhythm (one note per syllable); 4) concise laconic form.
These short melodies are not fragments of bigger melodies or pieces; they are self-contained,
with a distinctive expression and aesthetic value. Most of the archaic melodies are based on
2–4 tone modes. These modes are also called oligotonic to emphasize their typological
difference from polytonic (i.e., with 5–7 different melodic tones). These features are
particularly evident in the various early folklore genres: lullabies, children’s songs, game
melodies, pasturage songs (lamentations, enchantments), laments, sutartin s (Lithuanian
polyphonic songs). It should be noted that these same features are also common to the
spontaneous improvisations of children. It is likely that this similarity is not accidental, it
allows to reason about the parallels of the evolution of modes (phylogenesis) and individual
melodic experience (ontogenesis). These similarities to a large extent even today strengthen
the still-prevalent tradition of oral transmission. The importance of this was emphasized by
Eduard Alekseyev, a Russian ethnomusicologist who researched archaic intonation techniques
and the evolution of archaic modes:
Adults usually sing to children the way they used to sing in their own childhood,
in the manner that they believe children should be sung to for them to
understand. The interaction of these two ways of singing creates a unified
365
intonational array....A closed chain is formed – from grandmothers to
grandchildren, excluding the generation in between. A child’s intonational
images in this chain create a reverse connection, which unites generations and
helps reveal the fundamental melodic behaviour norms. (Alekseyev, 1986, p.
140)
One of the first to pay attention to the archaic 2–3 tone modes in the music of various
cultures was Curt Sachs (Sachs, 1943). Walter Wiora claims that such melodies are
characteristic of children songs in cultures worldwide, and sees them as a relic of mankind’s
embryonic musical thinking (Wiora, 1957). Bruno Nettl argues that “The simplest scales in
the world comprise two tones....Songs using them may be the oldest musical material
surviving to this day” (Nettl, 1957). Lithuanian ethnomusicologists noticed the volume and
variety of archaic modes, characteristic to the old folklore genres ( iurlionyt , 1969;
etkauskait , 1998; Sliužinskas, 2003). Interest in musical archaism and the folklore of exotic
countries had a big influence on musical pedagogy. Oligotonic anhemitonic melodies (excl.
halftones) were used in the musical pedagogic systems of C. Orff (1950) and Zoltan Kodaly
(1965, 1966). They used oligotonic scales as an initial stage, preparing children for pentatonic
scales. However, in modern musical pedagogy, little attention is paid to archaic folklore, and
these types of melodies are undeservedly underestimated. Edwin Gordon claims that “from
birth until developing a sense of tonality and meter, a child is in the stage of music babble.
Music babble is to music what speech babble is to language” (Gordon, 1986, p. 18). But is all
musical archaism that doesn’t fit into the major or minor scale simply musical babble? The
variety of archaic folklore and the musical improvisations of children lead us to believe
otherwise.
Method
Lithuanian children’s folk melodies (N=366) were examined, aiming to define the features of
their musical language: melodic range (ambitus), number of scale steps, arrangement of
supporting tones. The features of archaic musical language are summarised by comparing
them with similar songs of other folklore genres (shepherd and work songs, laments, etc.).
The second part focuses on examining the possibilities of pedagogical application.
Taking into account the features of Lithuanian archaic folklore scales and melodies, a
coherent music-learning methodology is constructed, which allows to connect different
musical activities: singing, solfège, reading notes, playing a musical instrument, music
composition basics.
Features of Lithuanian children’s song melodies
Lithuanian musical folklore is characterised by an abundance of archaic music. The reason for
this may be the late introduction of Christianity (1385) and the traditional peasant lifestyle.
Features of archaic music are characteristic to various Lithuanian musical folklore genres.
They can be clearly seen in the melodies of children’s songs as well.
This study selected a collection of Lithuanian children’s songs (Jokimaitien , 1980)
from the first volume in a multi-volume academic folk music songbook (since 1980, 30
volumes have been published). This volume is dedicated to children’s songs; texts of 1000
songs are published, 366 of them with melodies. The scales of the melodies are researched:
their scope, number of scale steps, supporting tones.
366
An analysis of the children’s songs shows that a large part of the melodies have features
characteristic to archaic music. More than half of the melodies have a narrow ambitus.
Melodies are within the third interval – 44 (12%), fourth – 91 (24.8%), fifth – 72 (19.6%).
This means that more than third (36.8%) of the melodies fall within the scope of the fourth,
which roughly corresponds to the range of spoken language. 56.5% of the melodies fall within
the scope of the fifth.
A large part of Lithuanian children’s melodies are based on archaic modes, which
comprise only two, three or four different tones. The number of melodies, the scale steps of
which shall not exceed four notes, amounted to 144 melodies (39.3% of all songbook
melodies). Of these, 76 (20.7%) melodies are tetratonic (four notes), tritonic – 55 (15%),
bitonic – 10 (2.7%) and monotonic (consisting of only one note) – 3 (0.8%). Children’s song
melodies often have modes from one note (monotonic) to five notes (pentatonic):
Monotinic (monochord) – 3 melodies;
Ditonic (bichord) sol-mi – 10;
Anhemitonic tritonic (trichord): re-mi-sol – 11; mi-sol-la – 10; fa-sol-la – 11;
Diatonic tritonic: mi-fa-sol – 18; re-mi-fa – 5;
Anhemitonic tetratonic: do-re-mi-sol – 3; do-re-fa-sol – 1; re-fa-sol-la – 1;
Diatonic tetratonic: do-re-mi-fa – 20; re-mi-fa-sol – 25; do-mi-fa-sol – 1;
Anhemitonic pentatonic: do-re-mi-sol-la – 1; re-mi-sol-la-si – 1;
Diatonic pentatonic: do-re-mi-fa-sol – 30; re-mi-fa-sol-la – 39.
An analysis of children’s song melodies reveals their unique, archaic musical language. The
oldest melodies “don’t fit” into the frames of common major and minor scales. Archaic
melodies represent a significant part of the Lithuanian children’s folklore repertoire.
The singularity of archaic tunes is created by not only a narrow scope of melodies, but
their characteristic supporting notes. They seldom distance themselves in the fifth, as is
common in classical music. The supporting notes do-sol are of later origin, based on the
change of tonic and dominant harmonic functions; in the oldest Lithuanian folk melodies they
are not as common. Many of the most archaic Lithuanian children’s tunes are based on the
third (filled or empty), sometimes supplemented by seconds from the top and/or bottom (Fig.
1g). The oldest of the two notes create melodies based on the so-called “cuckoo’s song”,
composed of sol-mi (Fig. 1d). When the bichord sol-mi is filled in with the sound fa, the
“lament intonation” is revealed (Fig. 1f). Even in broader-scale children’s melodies the
“cuckoo tones” remain important (for example, out of 39 children’s melodies based on the
minor pentachord – the scale re-mi-fa-sol-la – almost 22 end with the supporting note mi!). It
is interesting to note that anhemitonic pentatonic scales (do-re-mi-sol-la) are uncharacteristic
of Lithuanian children’s melodies. However, there are plenty melodies based on anhemitonic
trichords – la-sol-mi or re-mi-sol (Fig. 1e), and diatonic pentachords (Fig. 1f).
Such melodies are not limited to the children’s song genre. These features are
characteristic to fairy tale song interludes, shepherd, work and calendar songs, laments,
sutartin s.
Archaic melody application in primary school
Archaic melodies have broad application possibilities in music pedagogy. They are widely
used in Lithuanian primary schools, in teaching children solfège and reading notes. Melodies
of a narrow ambitus with few sounds are catchy; they correspond with a 7–9 year-old child’s
367
musical perception and musical structure perception capabilities. As noted above, Lithuanian
folklore music has almost no pentatonic melodies (the basis of Orff and Kodaly’s systems), so
there is a need to create an original method based on Lithuanian folk melody characteristics.
In 1995–1998 a primary school program was prepared, textbooks and workbooks were
written based on Lithuanian archaic folklore (renewed in 2007-2012). A consistently and
systematically developed method and repertoire helps children learn solfège and rhythm, read
and write down notes, play flute and create elementary musical compositions. The solfège
repertoire consists mainly of traditional children’s, shepherd, calendar songs, musical game
melodies, sutartin s and small easy instrumental music pieces performed using traditional
instruments. Materials for solfège are systematically taught, taking into account the learning
logic and consistency. The aim is to purposefully develop and enhance children’s musical
vocabulary, gradually moving from the simplest melodies towards more complex ones.
Lithuanian music textbooks comply with the following principles:
initial solfège and music note learning stage, supported by melodies based on two or three
notes; a new note is introduced by connecting it to the notes already familiar to the child,
but never exceeding the three-note range! Based on the scales and melodic patterns
characteristic to archaic Lithuanian music, such consistency is observed: 1) sol-mi; 2) re-
mi-sol; 3) la-sol-mi; 4) fa-sol-la. Halftones are avoided in the primary school learning
stage, therefore anhemitonic patterns are learned earlier than diatonic ones.
On the basis of archaic folk melodies, a coherent music teaching process combines
different musical activities: singing, rhythm, solfège, note reading, playing the flute,
creating music. Particularly effective is the connection of reading notes and playing an
instrument. Since 1990, primary school children in Lithuania have been using a six-hole
longitudinal flute in C. In playing the flute, children apply their note-reading skills, while
the flute itself motivates note-reading. With the flute, children read notes independently,
without the teacher’s assistance. The flute is within the children’s vocal range (sounds an
octave higher), therefore ir helps to correct intonation inaccuracies that can occur.
Melodic patterns are separated from rhythmic ones. This allows melodic hearing tests
(Fig. 1a-f) and dictations (written in note heads without stems) to be performed in the first
few grades. Children can recognize bitonic patterns (sol-mi) and independently write them
down with 88–84% accuracy; tritonic (re-mi-sol and others) – recognise in notes with 79–
47% and independently write them down with 47–39% accuracy. Tetratonic scales (fa-mi-
re-do and others) are recognised with 69–60% and written down with 47–38% accuracy.
With the increase in the number of notes in the scales, the relative gap between the ability
to identify patterns in notes and write them down increases (Veli ka, 2005, p. 25).
Oligotonal scales are suitable for music composing in primary school. Children are asked
to create a two- or three-note melody for a rhythmic riddle or proverb. The riddle’s
rhythm is written down in note values without heads (Fig. 2g). Composition activity
blanks are provided in workbooks included with textbooks.
368
Figure 2. Examples of tasks in workbooks.
Concluding remarks
The research revealed that archaic scales are characteristic of a large part of Lithuanian
children’s folk songs. They are characterized by a narrow ambitus and limited number of
scale steps. They have a distinctive aesthetic value and, in terms of musical language, are akin
to other genres of songs: pasturage songs, laments, etc.
Archaic melodies are useful for music teaching in primary school. The structure of these
melodies corresponds to Orff’s “elemental music” conception. On the basis of the features of
Lithuanian folk song melodies, a music teaching method was created that connected different
musical activities into a coherent system. An appropriately selected repertoire helps form a
child’s musical vocabulary, consistently enriches it. This creates preconditions for later
moving on to more complicated modal systems, including major-minor.
The valuable aspect of archaic folklore is also important. In singing archaic songs,
children are familiarised with their culture’s roots. In the words of ethnomusicologist Alan P.
Merriam, one of the most important functions of music is “the function of contribution to the
continuity and stability of culture” (Merriam, 1964, p. 225). Methodology based on archaic
folklore is not insular; it helps to recognise the musical archaism of other cultures, encourages
going beyond classical and pop music. Oligotonal scales are characteristic of not only
Lithuania’s neighbouring countries (Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Belarus, Russia), but also the
music of some Asian, Oceanic and African nations. Nzewi and Nzewi, note that: “The
number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between
successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound
quality” (Nzewi et al., 2007, p. 34). In turn, musical archaism can be a bridge to the
compositions of modernists and minimalists, especially considering the archaisms inherent to
the neo-folkloric works of B. Bartok and I. Stravinsky.
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