Kaisheem Fowler

Ms. Skoog
Period 2 Freshman Vocals
Sept. 26th. 2013

Kodaly Method & John Curwen Hand Signs

Zoltan Kodaly and John Curwen were both involved in music education. Kodaly and

Curwen made major contributions toward music education for many reasons. The main reason

why they made these changes was to make learning music easier for people of all ages to

efficiently use their voice. They also did not like the way the education system in their home

country was teaching children, youth and adults. Both of these composers did impacted music

education and change the ways teachers taught, and wanted to help the next generation of young

artist.

John was an english minister, a husband and father of four and was involved in music. He

was born on November 14th 1816 in Heckmondwike. He had married Mary Thompson in May

1845 and together, they had four children, Margaret, John Spence, Spedding and Thomas

Herbert. Curwen was greatly educated and was a proficient educator. He studied at Wymondley

College and the University of London. He was often celebrated as a young man for being an

outstanding teacher. Johns mother died at the age of six, and along with his five year old

younger brother, they were motherless children. This along with several inspirations caused him

to academically succeed in school, along with setting high standards for himself in school. John

Curwen was the founder of the Tonic Sol-Fa system of music education. One of his publications

that supported the Tonic Sol-Fa was the creation of his hand sings. There was seven hand signs,

each representing a note on an octave on the piano. The seven hand signs have meanings; for

example, doh would be represented with a fist. Hand symbols are as shown below.
Other publications of John Curwen includes A Tonic Sol-Fa Primer, Grammar of Vocal Music,

The Teachers Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method, Musical Theory and Musical Statistics. Many

people influenced John Curwen in his life to succeed as a musician and as a person in general.

One of those people was his father Spedding Curwen. He wanted to be a lot like his father, who

was a minister. This was one of the internal factors that driven him to academic excellence when

he was a boy. John Curwen died on May 16 1880 at Heaton.

Zoltan Kodaly was involved with music education in Hungary and was an hungarian

composer. Zoltan Kodaly was born on December 16th 1882. He was born in Kecskemet, where

he learned how to play the violin as a child. There, he met a lifelong friend, who was also a

composer named Bela Bartok. Zoltan Kodaly studied at two schools, Eotvos Lorand University

and Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. He was also a visionary teacher along with being

a composer. Zoltan Kodaly was known for being the creator of the Kodaly Method. The Kodaly

Method uses a child development approach and incorporates rhythm syllables, rhythm &

movement, rhythm sequence & notation, movable do-solfege, melodic sequence & pentatony

along with hand signs. Each principle of the Kodaly Method was made and used throughout the

world, but felt most suited in Hungary. Many of the principles used in the Kodaly Method was

Zoltans inspiration from other composers methods. The Rhythm and Movement principle was

inspired from a swiss music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. The Hand Signs principle was

inspired from John Curwen. Zoltan Kodaly had died on March 6th 1967 in Budapest, Hungary
with his second and last wife, Sarolta Peczely.

During my studies of these two people, I have found many impressing facts about them

and their methods. One of the things that I have found interesting about Curwens methods was

that he had created a method that had a more physical approach than a mental approach. I found

this interesting because it made it capable for people with disabilities to learn and understand

music more efficiently. Another thing that i found interesting was that Kodaly used methods of

other composers to make his own method more easier to understand for people of all ages. The

reason why I find this interesting is because now children of young ages could have an efficient

upbringing in music education.

Kodaly and Curwen both had made huge contributions to music that had changed the way

children youth and adults learn and understand musical concepts. They saw that the way that

people was learning music was not an efficient way of learning, or was complicated and too hard

to understand. I found it amazing that Zoltan Kodaly and John Curwen sought to make a change

for children that they only taught. Many adults in the 21st century believes that If that is not my

child, I DO NOT have to seek interest in their future! Kodaly and Curwen thought differently,

for they did not just thought of the children in the present generation, but they took the future

generations into consideration and used that as a reason for change.