講演・口頭発表等

国際会議
2019年8月9日

Issues of Movable-Do and Fixed-Do Systems at Grade Schools in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan: Inevitable Commonalities as Far Eastern Countries

International Kodaly Symposium
  • Masafumi Ogawa
  • ,
  • Hong-Ky Cho
  • ,
  • Jessie H
  • ,
  • S. Chen

開催年月日
2019年8月9日 - 2019年8月9日
記述言語
英語
会議種別
口頭発表(一般)
主催者
International Kodaly Society
開催地
Kuching, Malaysia

Solmization is one of the fundamental processes in teaching songs. It is an essential method in understanding melodies, pitch intervals in order to sing correctly. The syllables “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti(Si)” are commonly used throughout the world. There are two systems in using these syllables; movable-Do and fixed-Do. There have been significant debates about the two systems usability, practicality, and feasibility since the 19th century. Although movable-Do has historically been the authentic method of music learning since the age of Guido d’Alezzo, the fixed-Do approach became predominant in the 19th century when the piano became the major musical instrument among beginning musicians.
Before the systemization of school education, Western music and the Western notation system were not included in the traditional culture in most Asian countries. After mid-nineteenth century, these were suddenly introduced along through the modernization and Westernization processes associated with colonization, Christian missionaries, and implementation of modern education systems from Europe and the United States. Therefore, it has been challenging for Asian countries to accommodate and assimilate Western music and culture with their own music and culture.
Today, although the school-based music education of Taiwan, Korea, and Japan flourishes and reaches high performance standards, there seem to have common problem in terms of solmization issue in the music classrooms. It is the fact that fixed-Do system is predominantly used in music classes of grade schools in these three countries. Although the movable-Do system is considered legitimate in the music classes in these three countries, but in reality, the majority of music teachers in these three countries teach music according to the fixed-Do system.
In Japan’s case, great majority of music teachers have begun studying music with piano. Particularly in elementary schools, most of the music teachers are female who have majored in piano at college. They are taught nothing but in fixed-Do system by their college professors. Japanese piano professors both in professional music colleges and education institutions teach only fixed-Do and encourage students to bear “absolute pitch.” As a result, fixed-Do system became the default in music classes without any knowledge of movable-Do system. Recently, the music psychologist Ken’ichi Miyazaki presented data that showed that 83% of music college students in Japan bear absolute pitch, whereas 50% in China, and 17% in Poland (Miyazaki, 2018). Furthermore, Japanese music major students scored worst in relative pitch calculation tests among these three countries. (Ibid.) This situation seems to have been a cause of problems and difficulties in teaching singing in Japanese music classes. Many music teachers do not have pitch-matching skills as well as harmonizing in pure tonal system. They sometimes force students to gain absolute pitch regardless of their musical pitch cognition skills. Therefore, the aims of this panel discussion is three-fold.

(1) Acknowledging the realities of the solmization issues and difficulties in teaching singing in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan
(2) Discussing the structure of causes in each country and finding the common underlying problems.
(3) Discussing the way to the solutions in order for changing from the fixed-Do domination to the movable-Do as main stream.

In this session, Prof. Masafumi Ogawa will introduce the situation and problems in Japan regarding teaching singing in elementary and junior high schools as well as music teacher education. Professor Dr. Jessie Hsiao-Shien Chen will discuss about the situation of solmization in Taiwan. Dr. Hong-Ky Cho will talk about the situations in Korea and about his opinions from observation from Korean music education policy and choir training. After each panels’ presentation, we will discuss together the similarities and differences regarding movable-do and fixed-do issues of music education in Asian countries. At the end, we also will include participants' discussion from these aspects.

About the discussants
** Dr. Jessie Hsiao-Shien Chen, full professor of Music Department of National University
of Taichung in Taiwan, also one of the formers and first president of Taiwan Kodaly Society.
**Dr.Hong-Ky Cho, gained his doctoral training in Hungary, currently teaching in
Soul Art University, also in charge of Korean Kodaly Society and respected as a
famous choir director in Korea.
** Dr. Masafumi Ogawa, full professor of music education at Yokohama National University, Japan. He holds D.M.E. degree from Indiana University. He specialized in comparative music education, philosophy of music education, and choral conducting.

References
Absolute Pitch and Relative Pitch in Music Students in the East and the West: Implications for Aural-Skills Education. Music Perception, Volume 36, Issue 2, pp. 135-155 (2018)