Sarah GloverA Forgotten Pioneer in Music Education

(1786-1867)

Early Life

• Born 1786 in Norwich, England

• Daughter of a clergyman

• Began taking piano lessons aged 6 in line with contemporary education of young ladies

• Became quite an accomplished musician

Introduction to teaching

• 1815: in her late twenties given responsibility for music in her father’s church

• After a period of time the church became known for the excellent choral singing

• She began to train other choir directors and developed a method to teach skill in reading as well as singing

Approach to Music Reading

• A fresh, enlightened approach compared to contemporary approaches

• Glover believed that it was best to teach music reading to children as they

• “…are taught speech; by deducing theory from practice rather than practice from theory.” (52)

• Unusual for the time when education required memorising of facts without any practical experience

Elements of the Method

• Started with pasting letter names on keys for a piano student to help him retain pitches

• For choir soon discarded this in favour of using the tonic Sol-fa system adapted from the Continental system set up by Guido d’Arezzo: te for seventh note as opposed to si

• Solfa syllables were used to establish familiarity with intervals in preparation for staff reading

• Moveable doh and a minor scale starting on lah

Elements (2)

• Sharpened and flattened notes indicated by a change in the solfa syllable e.g. soh-soy-sow

• Part singing encouraged from the beginning – starts with canons

• Rhythmic notation evolved into a system of hyphens to indicate note lengths, one beat rests used + and further rests used numbers

Teaching aids

• Norwich Sol-fa Ladder: a chart containing three octaves of solfa syllables

• Table of Tune: a further chart introducing modulation

• Glass Harmonicon: a dulcimer with glass resonators and a moveable chart of solfa syllables on a roller – allowed teachers with minimal skills to fix a key and demonstrate the pitch of a melody

Sarah with the Norwich Sol-Fa Ladder

Publication of the Method

• 1835 she published Scheme to Render Psalmody Congregational

• Distributed locally and remained relatively unknown until 1841

• Reverend John Curwen given a copy

• He was already well known as a brilliant teacher of English to children

• Invited by the Sunday School Union to devise a method of teaching music reading in Sunday School

Reverend John Curwen

Curwen and Glover

• Curwen immediately saw the value of Glover’s approach

• He set about adapting it making changes to both solfa and rhythmic notation

• He wrote to her in 1841 requesting her approval for his modifications

• She was not impressed!

• Their relationship remained strained for many years

• The Curwen family went on to develop a highly successful system of music literacy both vocal and instrumental.

Pioneer

• Moveable doh system of hearing, reading and writing music at the heart of music education today

• Sound before sign integral to approaches to teaching music and language today

• Glover deserves far more recognition for her vision and musical approach

Article

Bennett, Peggy D. “Sarah Glover: A Forgotten Pioneer in Music Education.” Journal of Research in Music Education 32.1 (1984) 49-64

Further Reading

• Rainbow, Bernarr. The Land Without Music. Kent: Novello & Co. 1967. Print