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How History Influences Music

Curriculum Guide

This curriculum guide is designed to help you use the MPR Class Notes video How History Influences Music as a teaching tool in your classroom—specifically as a means to help teach the Minnesota Academic Standards highlighted below.

Because much of the teaching done in the music classroom crosses into other curricular areas, it is possible to teach to other academic standards while meeting those of music. Many classical works’ composition is rooted in rich historical and cultural contexts, offering music specialists as well as classroom teachers a reason to further explore interdisciplinary connections.

This particular video and accompanying curriculum covers elements of both music and social studies in its exploration of the life of Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, and pedagogue Zoltán Kodály (1882-‐1967) and the context of his 1933 composition Dances of Galánta. Kodály was highly influenced by his childhood exposure to both classical music and the traditional folk and Romani music of his homeland. His work as an ethnomusicologist, and use of revolutionary technology like the wax cylinder and phonograph, to collect recordings of Eastern

European music preserved these melodies from the otherwise permanent loss that would have occurred as a result of World War I and World War II.

Kodály contributed significantly to the pedagogy resources still heavily used today in music classrooms around the world. He had a great interest in improving music education for young children, and helped set in motion reforms in the Hungarian system in the 1940s. The principles that he used to shape these reforms later became known as the Kodály Method, though Kodály himself did not actually develop a comprehensive method. He adapted teaching methods already in existence such as the Curwen/Glover Hand signs,

moveable-‐do tonic solfa, “stick” notation, and Emile-‐Joseph Chevés rhythm syllables, tailoring them to fit with his principles and own instructional ideas. Using folk music as a tool in music instruction was a key component of his philosophy.

Full length example of Dances of Galánta:

• Video: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-‐OySwLpIfA

• Audio only : Philharmonia Hungarica conducted by Antal Doráti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0PYn1KzJ_4

Social Studies and Music Standards to Highlight in Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galánta:

• Minnesota K-‐12 Academic Standards in Social Studies 2011 Grade 3: Foundations of Social Studies • 2008 Revised Minnesota Academic Standards in the Arts; Perpich Center document adapted from the

Minnesota Department of Education Minnesota Academic Standards in the Arts 2008

Social Studies Standard Curricular Connection Music Standard

3.3.1.1.1 & 3.3.1.1.2 Identify countries, equator, four hemispheres, Prime meridian, oceans, continents, states.

Identify and put Galanta, Slovakia on a map by hemisphere, continent, and country. Identify also the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia.

0.1.3.3.1 Demonstrate understanding of the personal, social, cultural and historical contexts that influence the arts areas.

3.1.1.1.1 Democratic government depends on informed and engaged citizens who exhibit civic skills and values, practice civic discourse, vote and participate in elections, apply inquiry and analysis skills and take action to solve problems and shape public policy.

The names and borders of Eastern European countries shifted considerably throughout Kodály’s lifetime due to the political results of WWI and WWII.


3.4.1.1.1 Reference different time periods using correct terminology, including the terms decade, century and millennium.

The musical periods will be referenced using the stated terminology. Kodály composed in the 20th century.


3.4.1.1.2 Create timelines of important events in three different time scales—decades, centuries and millennia.

A timeline of the late 19th and early 20th century can convey the drastic changes taking place in music and political power.


3.4.1.2.1 Examine historical records, maps and artifacts to answer basic questions about times and events in history, both ancient and more

Artifacts such as music recording systems can highlight the realities of

0.1.3.3.1 Demonstrate understanding of the personal, social, cultural and historical

“Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture, but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst that will last a lifetime.” – Zoltán Kodály

recent. the 1930’s. contexts that influence the arts areas.

3.4.1.3.1 Explain how an invention of the past changed life at that time, including positive, negative and unintended outcomes.

The telephone (1876), the phonograph (1877and radio (1890’s) all become commonly used during Kodály’s lifetime


3.4.2.5.1 Identify examples of individuals or groups who have had an impact on world history; explain how their actions helped shape the world around them.

Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Thomas Edison and Zoltán Kodály each had an impact on the early 20th century in shaping the world around them.


Within this curriculum, you will find visual aids accompanied by the respective standard that you can use with your students. These images can be formatted into any presentation software (Microsoft PowerPoint, Smart, Promethean, etc) that you may use in your classroom.

MAPS

Use the maps below to establish geographical context for Kodály’s life and work.

• You can use Google Maps to create maps that isolate the areas you want to focus on in your lesson plans. Take a screenshot of the image using the “Print Screen” button on a Windows machine or by pressing the Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 all at the same time on a Mac and paste it into your presentation.

• (Follow this link to learn in more detail taking screenshots on an Apple device http://www.printscreenmac.com/)

3.3.1.1.1 & 3.3.1.1.2 Identify countries, equator, four hemispheres, Prime meridian, oceans, continents, states.

Identify and put Galanta, Slovakia on a map by hemisphere, continent, and country. Identify also the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia.


Galanta, Slovakia is the red marker between Vienna and Budapest, the respective capital cities of Austria and Hungary.

3.1.1.1.1 Democratic government depends on informed and engaged citizens who exhibit civic skills and values, practice civic discourse, vote and participate in elections, apply inquiry and analysis skills and take action to solve problems and shape public policy.

The names and borders of Eastern European countries shifted considerably throughout Kodály’s lifetime due to the political results of WWI and WWII.


3.4.1.1.2 Create timelines of important events in three different time scales—decades, centuries and millennia.

A timeline of the late 19th and early 20th century can convey the drastic changes taking place in music and political power.


TIMELINES

• This timeline places the inventions, world events, and personal accomplishments of Kodály’s lifetime into historical context.

TIMELINE

• 1784 — Invention of the steam locomotive • 1876 — Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone • 1877 — Thomas Edison invents the phonograph • 1879 — Thomas Edison patents the electric light bulb • 1882 — Kodály born on December 16 in Kecskemét, Hungary • 1884-‐1891 — Kodály family lives in Galánta, Hungary (now Galanta, Slovakia), later the inspiration for

Dances of Galánta • 1890’s — Development of the transistor radio • 1890’s — Development of the movie camera • 1905 — Kodály visits remote Hungarian villages making recordings on phonograph wax cylinders with his

friend, composer Béla Bartók • 1914-‐1918—World War I • 1923 —Kodály composes his breakthrough composition Psalmus Hungaricus to celebrate the joining of

the two Hungarian cities Buda and Pest. (The modern capital of Hungary: Budapest) • 1933 — Kodály composes Dances of Galánta • 1939-‐1945 — World War II • 1940’s— Kodály leads a reform of the Hungarian music education system • 1951 —Kodály and Bartók’s comprehensive collection of Hungarian folk songs is published • 1967 — Kodály dies on March 6 at the age of 84 • 1969 — American astronauts land on the Moon

3.4.1.3.1 Explain how an invention of the past changed life at that time, including positive, negative and unintended outcomes.

The telephone (1876), the phonograph (1877), light bulb (1879), and radio (1890’s) all become commonly used during Kodály’s lifetime.


The steam engine was invented in 1784 and was the primary mode for long distance travel during Kodály’s lifetime. His father was a railway official, so Kodály’s family relocated often throughout his childhood. The town of Galánta was on the railway line and they lived there for seven years.

Alexander Graham Bell makes the first coast-‐to-‐coast phone call on January 25, 1915, using the brand-‐new AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph Company) transcontinental service. He called his former assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco, CA from New York City, NY, repeating his famous words from a previous communications experiment 39 years earlier “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” In the previous experiment, Watson had been in the next room, so this time he answered “It will take me five days to get there now!” The telephone took over from the telegraph as the machine that people used to communicate over great distance and quickly. By 1914, the United States had the highest telephone density in the world.

1937 telephone from the Hungarian Telephone Factory in Budapest. The telephone exchange and multiplex switchboard, both components in early telecommunications, were invented in 1877 and 1887 respectively by a Hungarian named Tivadur Puskás. He had previously worked with both Graham Bell and Edison.

Edison cylinder phonograph circa 1899.

Thomas Edison developed the phonograph in 1877 as a result of his work on the telegraph and the telephone. This machine could record and playback sound. The sound vibrations from a person’s voice speaking into the mouthpiece were engraved by a needle onto the foil (later wax) wrapped around the cylinder. Edison first tested his invention with the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb”.

Thomas Alva Edison with his lightbulb in 1911

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