Viewing music education from a historical perspective

By reviewing the origin of music education in ancient China and after the Opium War, this paper looks at the development of things from a historical perspective, and thinks about the historical responsibility and mission of carrying forward and inheriting the classic culture of Chinese studies and learning western music in music classes in primary and secondary schools.

First, the origin of music education in China

The origin of China music can be traced back to ancient times. The earliest origin of music is recorded in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals. For example, it is recorded in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: "Since Zhu Xiang's ..., it has become a yin qi, so that it will be born in groups." And "Yesterday, the Yellow Emperor ordered Ling Lun to make laws ... At the foot of Kunlun Mountain, listen to the voice of the phoenix and bid farewell to the twelve laws." This is the earliest origin of music. According to the historical development line, the development of music has a history of thousands of years with the development of society, and we can regard its development for thousands of years as a kind of inheritance.

If there is inheritance, then the emergence of music education is inevitable.

Long before the establishment of the first feudal dynasty in China, music education had played an extremely important role. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Duke Zhou formulated a set of relatively complete laws and regulations, that is, the system of rites and music. Music played an extremely important role in the rule at that time, which can be clearly found from this system. It is recorded and stipulated in "Li Zhou Guan Chun" that all children of nobles, that is, princes and sons of the country, must accept the study of "music, music and dance". At that time, this kind of music education was limited to aristocratic children. However, we can still understand that music education has taken shape since this period.

Later, a great thinker appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. He founded the Confucian school, which occupies an important position in the ideological trend of a hundred schools of thought contending. He is a famous thinker, educator and musician-Confucius. His great contribution lies in the establishment of "private school", which liberated "poetry", "book", "ceremony" and "music" from the hands of the government, became a textbook widely circulated in the society, and laid the foundation for ancient education in China. It is also from this beginning that music education advances in the historical trend with the development of music.

Among them, one of the core ideas put forward by Confucianism is that music has the function of education. In the later western music culture, Plato and other philosophers also put forward similar views. Looking around, there are always some similarities between the West and China on the topic of music education. "The Analects of Confucius Taber" says that "poetry, ceremony and music are the foundation." Confucius also put forward the view that "changing customs and changing customs is not good at music", which shows that music has the function of edifying people, so we should pay attention to music education.

China has a profound culture and a long history. If we want to divide the development of music education in China into a time node, I prefer to divide it into two parts with 1840 as the boundary. Some are before 1840, and some are after 1840.

In the front of the article, the origin of music and education is mentioned. If we want to elaborate on the development of music education in the next few thousand years, I'm afraid it's endless. Of course, the core of this article is not the development of music education in China for thousands of years. It is a reflection on the music education that we are generally learning and accepting at present. As we all know, most of the music theory and piano performance we accept now come from the western music education system.

The reason will start with the history of 1840. Facts tell us that only by understanding the development of history can we better grasp the future.

1840, the day since the Opium War, is usually defined by academic circles as the beginning of modern times, and the development of music education has since begun a major turning point. A large number of people are sent to western countries to learn their technology, knowledge and system. In order to save the country from dire straits, we learn everything from the west and try to strengthen ourselves. At this time, music has two systems. One is music handed down from ancient times, which we call traditional music. The other kind is music imported from the west, which we call western music. Since this period, the rapid development of western music has occupied a large part, so that today we can generally see pianos, violins and so on. Learn the western staff, learn the western Bel Canto, and even in classroom teaching, mainly focus on western music works.

This is a good thing, but it doesn't seem that good. There is nothing wrong with learning western culture, but if we blindly learn western music, perhaps our excellent traditional music culture will fall into crisis or even perish. This result seems to be not very good. As music educators who will be engaged in music education in the future, it is our urgent task to carry forward and inherit the national music culture, and it is also the responsibility and mission of music educators.

Second, the development of western music in China

The school music and song movement is an important event in the music history of China, and it is also an extremely important turning point. School music is a new singing culture that comes into being with the establishment of a new school. Generally speaking, it refers to music classes offered by schools (then called singing or music classes) or songs created for school singing. School music and song movement is an important symbol of the early development of China's new music culture. A large number of music, western musical instruments, the singing of music songs, the systematic introduction of western music knowledge, and the introduction of staff and notation have created the first batch of music educators in modern music history, who have made great contributions to the development of music education in China. This is the beginning of the introduction of western music into China.

? Later, during the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary War, the music of that era had distinct characteristics, and music education also developed under this background. The National Conservatory of Music founded by Xiao has developed one after another, which has trained many talents for the development of music education in China. At the same time, musicians who returned from studying abroad also devoted themselves to the cause of music education, and the development of music education can be described as prosperity.

In the course of decades of development, we have learned a lot of western music teaching systems, especially since the 1980s, both piano techniques and music teaching methods have achieved great success. With the introduction of various music teaching methods, such as Orff teaching method in Germany, the increase of the number of music learners, the improvement of people's living standards and the attention of the Ministry of Education, music education has become a hot topic.

Once upon a time, a talented pianist named China Mozart Lang Lang appeared and set off a piano craze. Today, many children in China are still learning piano. Of course, there are still many students studying China's traditional instrumental music, although the proportion is far less than that of students studying western music.

About this situation, I have a profound experience in my recent internship. My internship school is an ordinary full-time municipal demonstration middle school in the urban area. In two months of class and rehearsal, I found that students generally have two problems:

1, the understanding of music is not comprehensive enough.

Some students have mastered some music, but what they know is still western musicians and western works.

At the same time, during my internship, I went to a remote mountainous area for a week to teach. The reality is that this school has all kinds of music teaching AIDS, multimedia, piano, electric piano, electronic organ and other equipment, but the embarrassing situation is that there is no music teacher. And I am a music teacher sent by the internship unit to help, in order to cope with a review of this local school by the Ministry of Education.

During the week of teaching, I introduced music knowledge to students as much as possible. When I carefully reviewed the teaching achievements of that week, I found that I still had more knowledge of western music to explain to them myself. For example, introduce them to staff, introduce them to notation, and introduce them to some common sense. The content of traditional music mentioned slightly is probably the source of some musical instruments, but it is not very effective. Because I am preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination, my basic music literacy should be good, but in the face of this group of primary and secondary schools, I have a sense of frustration that "heroes are useless." No matter facing the high school students in the city or the middle school students who are teaching, the theoretical knowledge I learned in college can not be applied to the actual classroom teaching. A large part of the teaching content basically revolves around music appreciation. Regarding this course, first of all, teachers are required to have high basic theoretical quality. In addition, in daily music teaching, I am also responsible for rehearsing chorus, organizing competitions and rehearsing instrumental ensemble. The examination of teachers' comprehensive ability is very strict. At that time, I couldn't help thinking, fortunately, I studied piano in primary school, fortunately, I majored in vocal music, fortunately, I took the postgraduate entrance examination and mastered a lot of knowledge about the history of Chinese and Western music. Fortunately, I have watched enough concerts since I was a child.

But in China, especially in such a remote area, there are probably not many students with my conditions and environment. So, I wonder, is it a thorough promotion of our western music? So what is the position of our traditional music in education? It seems that these are not quite right, and they are not the essence and core of music education. Why do we have a music class? Why should there be music education?

What is the initial intention of our music education?

Third, thinking about the current music education.

What is music education? I have seen such a simple but meaningful sentence, which reads: "Education through music" and "Mastering music through education".

Education through music shows that music really plays an extremely important role in education. Among the "six arts" advocated by Confucius, music ranks second, showing its importance. Music has educational function, which has been mentioned before. Music is a fine tradition in China. From the development history of thousands of years, although there are some limitations, it still has a great positive impact, and really good music is of educational significance.

"Every sound comes from the heart and is born from the heart." This sentence originated from Xunzi's Yue Ji. What is music? Music should be the truest reflection of our hearts. Similarly, the German musician Orff once suggested that "music begins with itself". Although the living environment is different, the views on music are always the same. It is from this perspective that we can realize that the so-called music education is not a rigid system and model.

Mastering music through education, I think only by using it correctly can we better convey what music wants to express to more people. Especially as a music teacher, I am both a teacher and a scholar. We can't praise western music blindly, nor can we totally deny it. We can't hold prejudice against Chinese and western music, which is especially important in music education.

I think no matter what kind of music it is, it is a treasure of human art and culture. As long as there is music, there is hope. The inheritors of hope rely on our "teachers" who are studying, trying to carry forward traditional culture and actively learning western music culture. After all, the introduction of western music in China lasted for more than a hundred years, far less than the music system developed in the west for more than a decade.

In the report on the work of the 19th National Congress held not long ago, it was also pointed out that our literary and art workers should create works close to the people. Music is not sacred, it may be sacred, but the existence of music must be closely related to people. Therefore, in music teaching, we should pay more attention to the design of classroom music telling forms, starting from the music itself and from people's hearts, looking for * * * songs, inheriting music and inheriting Chinese studies.

This is a historical mission and a responsibility.