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Dmitriy Kabalevsky and the Three Whales. Recent Developments in Music Education in the Soviet General Education School

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

James Muckle
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Extract

Since January 1984 a thoroughgoing reform in Soviet education has been under discussion, and decisive steps have already been taken. The ‘Guidelines for Reform of General and Vocational Schools’, approved by the Supreme Soviet on 12 April 1984, indicated a firm intention to improve curricula, teaching methods and materials in all subjects. The arts figure prominently in the new proposals, and it is the purpose of this article to examine what is happening in music education, which has been a leader in the field.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 53 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 ‘A giant step to higher standards’: report of a speech by Sir Keith Joseph, January 1984, in Sheffield, . Education, vol. 163, no. 2 (13 01 1984), p. 29.Google Scholar

2 ‘Guidelines for reform of general and vocational schools.’ In USSR: New Frontiers of Social Progress (Moscow, 1984), pp. 53–60.Google Scholar All quotations are from the official translation, which is not always particularly felicitous.

3 ‘Guidelines’, p. 61.

4 ‘Guidelines’, pp. 62–3.

5 See, for example, Gerasimova, S. A., Sistema esteticheskogo vospita-niya shkol'nikov [The System of Aesthetic Educationfor School Pupils]. (Moscow, 1983).Google Scholar

6 ‘Reforma shkoly i muzykal'noe vospitanie’ [The school reform and musical education], unsigned editorial, presumably by Kabalevsky, , Muzyka v shkole [Music in School], 1984, no. 4, pp. 3–6.Google Scholar

7 For a short and informative account of socialist realism mainly as it applies to literature, but with distinct relevance to music too, see James, C. Vaughan, Soviet Socialist Realism: Origins and Theory (London, 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For more detail of the application of the theory to musical composition, a number of general histories of Soviet music may be helpful, for example Schwarz, Boris, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia (Bloomington, Indiana, 1983), esp. pp. 110–40.Google Scholar No English language source, however, deals with the issue at length, and I am grateful to Mrs Grishanovich for some helpful enlightenment. See also Farbshteyn, A., Teoriya realizma i problemy muzy-kal'noy estetiki [Theory of Realism and Problems of Musical Aesthetics]. (Leningrad, 1973).Google Scholar

8 A most authoritative recent discussion of Soviet curriculum philosophy is Kraevsky, V. V. and Lerner, I. Ya. (Eds.), Teoreticheskie osnovy soderzhaniya obshchego srednego obrazovaniya [Theoretical bases of the Content of General Secondary Education]. (Moscow, 1983), esp. pp. 13–28.Google Scholar

9 Gerasimova, p. 262.

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12 Programma po muzyke…4–7 klassy. (Moscow, 1985), p. 22.Google Scholar

13 Gerasimova, pp. 219–21.

14 Volkov, B., ‘Protivostoyanie tsenoy v million’, Uchitel' skaya gazeta, Teachers' Newspaper]. 20 02 1986, p. 3.Google Scholar

15 Kabalevsky, D., ‘O Tvorcheskoy svobode uchitelya (otvety na tri voprosa)’ [On the creative freedom of the teacher (Answers to Three Questions)], Muzyka v shkole, 1984, no. 4, pp. 7–9.Google Scholar

16 ‘V Ministerstve prosveshcheniya RSFSR’ [In the RSFSR Ministry of Education], Muzyka v shkole, 1985, no. 4 pp. 71–3.Google Scholar

17 Petukhova, N., ‘Radost' tvorcheskogo truda’ [The joy of creative labour], Muzyka v shkole, 1985, no. 3, pp. 32–5.Google Scholar

18 Swanwick, K., A Basis for Music Education (Windsor, 1979), pp. 40–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 It is interesting to note that Music From 5 to 16: Curriculum Matters 4, an HMI Series (London, 1985)Google Scholar scarcely mentions the name of one classical composer, yet it has apparently been attacked for stress on the cultural heritage.

20 Yuzbash'yan, Yu., ‘Tvorcheskaya realizatsiya printsipov novoy programmy po muzyke v shkolakh Armyanskoy SSR’ [Creative realization of the principles of the new music syllabus in the schools of the Armenian SSR] Muzyka v shkole, 1985, no. 1, pp. 16–18.Google Scholar

21 Muckle, J., ‘Classroom interactions in some Soviet and English schools’, Comparative Education, vol. 20, no. 2 (1984), pp. 237–51, especially p. 250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Kabalevsky, , ‘O Tvorcheskom nachale’ [On the creative basis]. In Vospitanie uma i serdtsa (see note 11), pp. 47–51.Google Scholar

23 Paynter, J. and Aston, P., Sound and Silence (Cambridge, 1970).Google Scholar

24 Archazhnikova, L. G., Professiya–uchitel' muzyki [The Profession of Music Teacher], (Moscow, 1984).Google Scholar

25 Private communication.