Music and Culture: A Hungarian Educational Experience
Submitted By: Kathy Kuddes
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When I began my Kodály training on the compound of Festival Hill in Round Top, Texas (20 years ago this summer) I had no idea that this man, and his philosophy of living would change the course of my life for ever. These three summers of training, in the approach that changed how I thought about music teaching at every level, revolutionized how I organized my classroom activities, reinvigorated the value I placed on my own musicianship and brought me life-long friendships built on mutual passion for music and teaching. After many years of application in the classroom and a Master’s degree in Music Education, I was offered the opportunity to share the Kodály ideals with others as an instructor in the University of North Texas Kodály Institute (www.music.unt.edu/musiced/programs.html). This long-time partnership, lead to an invitation last Spring from UNT Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Warren Henry, to join a team of instructors for an experimental course designed to place music methodologies into a broader historical and cultural context. I jumped at the chance and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career!
“Kodály in
Context,” as the course was labeled, was offered to upperclassmen in the UNT
Music Education program. Students could elect to apply the course as a
substitute for one required methods course or in lieu of one music history
credit (I don’t know how he negotiated that deal!). The instructional team
was made up of four experts; Dr. Henry, who served as instructor of record
and tour organizer, Dr. Donna Emmanuel, who taught cross-cultural
understanding and is conducting research with the students regarding their
experiences, myself, the Kodály “expert” and colleague Julie Scott, our
Orff-Schulwerk expert. Nine outstanding students (3 vocal, 4 instrumental
and 2 double concentration) registered for the course.
As I prepared for the first lesson, I pondered what skills these pre-service teachers would bring with them. Would they be adequate singers? Were their solfegge skills sufficient that we could begin immediately working with intermediate materials or would we have to remediate basic aural skills? Would they work hard enough to make significant progress in our once-per-week lessons? While I felt confident about my ability to discuss the foundational concepts of the Kodály philosophy, and to introduce my students to the beautiful folk music of Hungary that inspired the man and the composer, I was less confident about my ability to develop their musicianship in a way that would prepare them for the experiences I knew were in their near future. The students met our every expectation and more, as they turned out to be delightful young people, fine singers and capable musicians.
Class time prior to the trip was spent in a variety of activities designed to attempt to prepare students for their eight days in Hungary. Each weekly session began with aural skills exercises and sight-singing activities to introduce and reinforce the use of the tools of the Kodály approach (rhythmic duration syllables, moveable do solfegge, Curwen hand-signs and Cheve syllables for absolute pitch). We were fortunate to have a presentation on Hungarian history (all 2,500 years of it) from a Hungarian cellist, an alumnus of the Liszt Academy, now studying at North Texas. The impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the move from a Communist Government to the current Republic of Hungary was extremely personal for her. We had lecture/demonstrations on the life and music of the three major Hungarian composers, Ferenc (Franz) Liszt, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, by faculty experts and Grammy nominated pianist, Petronel Malan. Students and instructors also spent time reflecting on their cultural beliefs, norms and expectations both about their lives here in the U.S. and what they anticipated in Hungary.
During the October 20 – 28, 2007 study abroad trip, the group spent a full day touring the major historical sites in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. This tour was led by the mother of our cellist and a Hungarian history speaker. She introduced the students to the 7 major tribes of Hungary which were brought together by Arpad in 896 to form the first Hungarian nation. Each statute of a Hungarian King or other historical figure represented at Hero’s Square came to life through her stories. We saw the original crown jewels worn by King Stephen when he was crowned the first Christian King of Hungary in 997. These are now kept under careful guard in the Parliament, building on the banks of the Danube. As we walked from the Parliament she pointed out the location of the beginning of the 1956 uprising against the communist regime that was fiercely put down by the Russians. We all saw the bullet holes that remain in the walls 60 years later. She was gracious to share her personal family history of a father sent to prison for 4 years simply because he was a respected Judge in the pre-communist government, and her own struggle to gain education and opportunity as a young woman in that era.
The group prayed in the beautiful Basilica of St. Stephen and took time in quiet meditation at the Mathias Church. We walked across the fantastic Chain Bridge to the Buda side of the city on a span that was completely destroyed by the Nazis as they left Hungary to the Russians at the end of World War II. On the top of the Buda hillside we toured the Royal Palace (now an art museum), the ruins of a Medieval church and saw the beautiful Duna (Danube) from a new vantage point. During our time in the city we ate spicy Paprikas and hearty breads, struggled with the many zeros that appear in the price of everything in Forints, rode the buses and Metro and tried not to look like a herd of American tourists.
We
had the amazing good fortune to be in Budapest on October 23rd,
which is the anniversary of the beginning of the 1956 uprising. It is an
important national holiday that was marked with parades, memorial services
and concerts, and even a political protest. We took this all in from a safe
distance, but it was truly a meaningful experience for us all.
On the musical front we spent three days visiting schools in Budapest and Kesckemét (Kodály’s birthplace). We witnessed the most musical teaching I have ever seen and heard crystal clear singing at every turn. We watched 4th graders notate a complete melody just by singing and listening, we saw 6th graders identify chord inversions, and we heard glorious singing of haunting Hungarian folk songs and laments. We all participated in aural skills classes at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music (www.kodaly-inst.hu) in Kesckemét with master instructors, and I am pleased to say that although our preparation was rather short, we all managed to perform well in this setting.
We were treated to several outstanding performances; some in classrooms around the country, others in concert halls. We heard the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Soloist and Hungarian Radio Chorus perform three relatively unknown Brahms works: "Rinaldo Cantata" for Tenor solo, male chorus and orchestra; "Alto Rhapsody" for Alto solo, male chorus and orchestra; and "Schicksalslied" for Mixed Chorus and orchestra, in the one hundred year old concert hall of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music (www.zeneakademia.hu/hp/english/index.html). We listened to the final preparations of the Laudate and Cantate choirs of the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School (www.kzmk.sulinet.hu –website in Hungarian) in Budapest and finally we attended a breathtaking performance of the Richard Strauss “Death and Transfiguration,” a flashy performance of the "Goldmark Violin Concert" in A minor by József Lendvay and the Elgar “Enigma Variations” by the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Béla Bartók Theatre of the new Palace of the Arts.
Conversations with the students throughout the trip and since then have been thoughtful and observant. Each had one or more powerful cultural experiences as they moved around the country. They also saw outstanding musical teaching at every level. When asked, one student reflected that it was the attention to every detail that set these lessons apart from so many they had seen or experienced here at home. As a seasoned educator, I returned home renewed and recommitted to attending to the details with my students and colleagues.
Next year’s class and study abroad experience is already planned for the Orff Institute at the Mozartium in Salzburg, Austria and the fall of 2009 will be a return to Hungary. I am already counting the days!
For those of you who have not yet made the pilgrimage to Kodály’s homeland, I strongly encourage you to find an opportunity to do so. The spirit of his work remains strong and his image appears in many unexpected locations. His apartment on Kodály Circle is now a museum and the home of the International Kodály Society. English is widely spoken, although meager attempts at Hungarian earn you a smile and break the ice. The Hungarian people are pleased to share their country, their culture, their cuisine and their music with those from beyond their borders. For me, it was like coming home to a place I had never been to, but had always known. I hope that each reader will have the same opportunity, and soon.