Teaching materials regarding the use of textbooks/workbooks, the nature of music examples, respondents' opinions about published subject-related articles, workshops and study groups, as well as respondents' attitudes towards research in the field of Aural Training were examined.
An average of 76.7% of all respondents included textbooks/workbooks in their instruction programmes. Although a majority of FRG respondents (68.1 %) indicated the use of books, this percentage was considerably lower than in the RSA (100%) and USA (84.9%). A reason for this could be that 58% of the FRG respondents furthermore indicated that they mainly used examples from the music repertoire along with a few self-composed exercises, whereas 47.2% of the USA respondents indicated the use of self-composed exercises along with a few examples from the music repertoire.66 In th~ RSA 71.4% indicated the use of examples from the music repertoire along with a few self- composed exercises. The overall response frequency of 50.4 % implied that the controversy on self-composed or
material from the music literature was still continuing. However, there seemed to be a shift towards the latter as opposed to the 37.2 % of the respondents who indicated that they used mainly self-composed material.
A complete list of all text- and workbooks indicated by the respondents appears in Appendix G. The books by Roland Mackamul were used by the majority of RSA (42.9%) and FRG (65.6%) respondents. In the USA the books by Bruce Benward, (22.2%) Berkowitz et al. (26.7%) and Robert Ottman (22.2) were most frequently used.67 The
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65
66
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Michael R. Rogers, Teaching Approaches in Music Theory - An Overview of Pedagogical Philosophies. Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984 p. 5.
Timothy A. Smith, A "Comparison of Pedagogical Resources in Solmization Systems" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 5/1 (Spring 1991) p. 2.
A similar question was asked at the Institute for Music Theory Pedagogy Studies II, with the results indicating that the materials used for sight singing were (a) in a text (91 %); (b) written by the lecturer (44%) and (c) examples from the literature (52 %).
Roger E. Foltz and Alice M. Lanning, "Report on the Institute for Music Theory Pedagogy Studies II" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 3/2 (Fall 1989) p. 251.
These results agree with the results of Collins and Killam. Pembrook and Riggins found. that Ear Training: A Technique for Listening and Sight Singing Completeby Benward was indicated by the majority of respondents in the USA.
Randall G. Pembrook and H. Lee .Riggins, "'Send Help!': Aural Skills Instruction in U.S. Colleges and Universities" in Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 4/2 (Fall 1990) pp. 231 and 237.
influence of both German and American literature on South African music education was reflected in the use of the Berkowitz and Mackamul texts in the RSA.68 Only Modus Novusby Lars Edlund was indicated by respondents from all three countries. There is a need for more international contact between different Aural Training departments. With regard to respondents' attitudes towards publications, study groups and current research endeavours, the majority indicated that:
(a) More articles should be published on the didactics of Aural Training (RSA 85.7%, FRG 53.6%, USA
67.9%).
(b) More study groups and workshops on the didactics of Aural Training were needed (RSA 71.4 %, FRG 55.1 %,
USA 77.4%).
(c) More research should be done in the field of Aural Training (RSA 85.7%, FRG 62.3%, USA 79.2%).
Some respondents recommended that more research should be done in the field of computer-student interaction. One respondent stated that there were enough articles, though often of low quality. The need for more "realistic" (practice-orientated) research and investigations into the methodology of Music Theory was also expressed. According to one German respondent, a number of methods were based on- the application of incorrect historical facts. Some respondents also indicated that they did not have study groups and/or professional contact in the field of Aural Training.
It was conspicuous that ~4.6% of the FRG respondents did not answer this question. A reason for this could be that the respondents were not well informed as to publications and articles on Aural Training. Little research has also been done in the FRG on this topic, a fact which indirectly is linked to the German system of dividing practical and theoretical music subjects into two different fields of study, namely Musicology and Practical Music studies. Musicology consists mainly of historical, analytical and music psychological studies and is presented at universities. All the so-called practical subjects (Performance, Music Theory, Aural Training, Conducting, Composition, etc.) and
selected theoretical aspects of, for example, Music History, form part of music courses presented at
Musikhochschulen. As a result of this very little, if any, research has been done on practical subjects. Apart from
music psychological research on perception and perfect pitch, and the role that aural perception should play in general school music education, only three German dissertations could be found on Aural Training in the
68
Bruce Benward, Workbook in Advanced Ear Training •. Teachers Dictation Manual. Dubuque, Iowa:
Wm.C. Brown, 1961.
Workbook in Advanced Ear Training. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm.C. Brown, 1961. Sightsinging Complete. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm.C. Brown, 1973.
Ear Training: A Technique for Listening. Dubuque: Wm.C. Brown, 1978. Elementary Ear Training. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm.C. Brown, 1983.
Sol Berkowitz, Gabriel Fontrier and Leo Kraft: A New Approach to Sight Singing. New York: W.W. Norton, 1976, Revised edition. (Third edition 1986 also available.)
Lars Edlund, Modus Novus .. Studies in Reading Atonal Melodies. London: J. and W. Chester, [Foreword 1963].
Roland Mackamul, Lehrbuch der Gehorbildung, Bander 1 und 2. Kassel. Biirenreiter, 1969.
Robert W. Ottman, Music for Sight Singing. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1956 [1st], 1967 [2nd], 1986 [3rd] editions.
Jahresveneichnis der deutschen Hochschulschriften 1936-1992.69 These dissertations cannot be borrowed through
inter-library services, which means that Aural Training lecturers or other interested parties do not have access to them. This situation differs from that in both the other two countries where an increasing interest amongst researchers to examine aspects of Aural Training could be clearly seen in the list of investigations presented in Appendix A. It is a positive sign that the majority of all respondents (70.5%) recommended more research on Aural Training didactics, but it is also debatable whether these research results will significantly influence teaching practices. As was already explained in Chapter Two, since the beginning of the 1980s, research results and articles have been underlining the importance of structural hearing. Aural Training courses were criticised for dealing only with phrase- length patterns, excluding longer musical entities. Aural work is often started on a detailed level without considering broader aspects of the passage in question. Applications of the Gestalt theory to music emphasised the fact that patterns, forms or configurations are perceived, organising sensory stimulation into meaningful wholes.
"We must avoid a reductionist attitude, imagining that we build up musical experience from rudimentary atoms: that, for example, we first perceive intervals or single tones and that musical lines or textures are assembled in our minds only after analysis of the component parts has taken place. The converse is surely true. Analytic description is a different perceptual and conceptual mode which may have some value, but may also divert us from phrase, from expressive gesture, from the play of musical structure, from the
coherence and sweep of musical passages."70
Since Gary E. Wittlich and Lee Humphries published their Aural Training text based on structural thinking in 1974
no other text which took the above research results into account has been published.71 The Wittlich-Humphries text
was never even indicated in the questionnaire and books concentrating on isolated aspects or short phrases formed the core of instruction material. Instead, books published in the late 1980s and early 1990s still concentrated on
fragmented approaches.72 Holistic approaches do not appear in textbooks, .which consist merely of self-composed
exercises. One respondent highlighted the fact that no books on Aural Analysis exist in the German language.
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70
71
72
The dissertations are: Wolfram Heiking, Die Entwicklung von Klangvorstellungen im Fach Musiktheorie mit
Gehiirbildung. Doctoral dissertation, Pedagogical College Potsdam 1959.
Adolf Volny, Untersuchungen zur Ermittlung einer hOheren Effektivitiit im GehOrbildungsunterricht
durch Anwendung und Erprobung methodisch aufbereiteter Arbeitsmaterialien und tontechnischer Ab-
hOrvorrichtungen. Doctoral dissertation A, Von Humbolt University Berlin, 1975.
Adolf Volny, Analytische Untersuchungen melodischer Merkmale und Strukturen in ihren elementaren
BewegungsverHiufen: ein theoretischer Beitrag zorn rationalen Erfassen und bewu8ten Identifizieren tonal-
melodischen AbHiufe im Gehorbildungsunterricht. Doctoral dissertation B, Von Humbolt University Berlin,
1978.
Keith Swanwick, Music, Mind, and Education. London: Routledge, 1988 p. 24.
Gary E. Wittlich and Lee Humphries, Ear Training - An Approach through Music Literature. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
Samuel Adler, Sight Singing. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979.
Wolfgang Breuer, Gehorbildung - FUr Unterricht und Selbstunterricht. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1990.
Michael L. Friedmann, Ear Training for Twentieth Century Music. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
In the previous section on the methodological approaches of Aural Training, it was clear that drill and practice reigned over structural approaches such as Aural Analysis of whole compositions, improvisation and composition. Only 5.4% of the respondents included an overall structural approach in their Aural Training. It can therefore be concluded that valuable research by, for example, Emily Ruth Brink and others has had a minor influence, if any, on the teaching of Aural Training.
Reasons for this phenomenon could be that (a) due to either ignorance or busy schedules, lecturers did not spend much time keeping up with the latest research results, and (b) much time was organizationally needed to change syllabi in order to incorporate new ideas.