Re: A New Approach To Sight Singing Pdf Download
Jason Ramgel
The result is a kind of pedagogical hodge-podge. Sometimes even within the same music department different sightsinging classes will be taught from diametrically opposed perspectives. Most of the major textbooks for sightsinging (e.g., Berkowitz and Ottman) are just anthologies of music with little or no instructional commentary, even though the practice material may be useful in its own right. It is disappointing that texts do not more often promote well conceived and cogently argued points of view, including the application of analytical insight to inner hearing. The obvious reason is that authors (or publishers) do not wish to alienate a portion of the market by exposing convictions too strongly proclaimed or positions too focused on a single pedagogical stance.
An unusually powerful version of scale-degree functionality is called the "Jersild Approach" after Jorgen Jersild (Yer shild), an important contemporary Danish musician born in 1913. During the 1930s Jersild was a student of Roussel in Paris and the composer of many brilliant and elegant vocal and instrumental works in a neo-classical idiom. In addition, as the New Grove Dictionary puts it, "he has exerted a significant pedagogic influence through his solfege studies in melody and rhythm, which have won acceptance at foreign academies" [vol. 9, p. 608.] Although his method is in widespread use at some of the world's most prestigious conservatories in continental Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia (e.g., at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and the Australian National University in Canberra), his very specific ideas about sightsinging, unfortunately, have never been introduced into the mainstream of pedagogical practice in this country.
The use of scale-degree function in teaching aural skills, of course, is nothing new. One early published appearance is in George Wedge, Ear Training and Sight Singing (Schirmer Books, 1921), a book that many would now dismiss as too exercisy and old-fashioned, in spite of a very insightful and nicely graduated presentation of active- and rest-tone distinctions. Most remember Wedge as the author of the most boring harmony books ever written, but his sightsinging materials were more progressive. More recently, Modus Vetus, an excellent tonal sightsinging manual by Lars Edlund (himself a student of Jersild!), was at one time made available in the United States. Some will recognize Edlund as the author of the widely used text for 20th-century sightsinging, Modus Novus. One of Jersild's own books (in a translation) briefly surfaced in this country (Ear Training: Basic Instruction in Melody and Rhythmic Reading, Schirmer, 1966), but for some reason never registered on the American imagination. My guess is that it was not visually appealing or seemed to suggest some kind of stuffy conservatory training from a past era, and it simply got lost in the shuffle of dozens of other books without its distinctive pedagogical slant ever being appreciated or even recognized.
What makes the Jersild approach special is not the idea of scale-degree function per se, but rather the unusually far-reaching and systematic way the materials are presented and developed; it is a pedagogical masterpiece of organization, detail, and precision. The remarkably efficient and ingeniously constructed practice exercises set his approach apart from others that on the surface seem similar.
In principle, this [system] is an attempt to approach the problems of music reading by learning to recognize at a glance entire musical patterns rather than laboriously going from detail to detail. Somewhat opposed to this view are the several music reading systems which begin with a more or less abstract study of intervals. These rarely provide efficient results. There are two reasons for this. First, the character of the interval changes according to its place in the tonal context. Second, the interval constitutes a subordinated detail in any musical sequence. While reading music, such "atomistic" detail will rarely be perceived. In an attempt to reach a concept superior to that of the interval, the principle of tonality results. This is the principle by which individual tones are coordinated into the general context of musical patterns and phrases [1966, p. 5].
Along with these tetrachordal "motifs," Jersild suggests a set of ten resolution and tendency-tone patterns (see example) to reinforce tonal bearings by representing basic location points or "moves" within a key.
The three chromatic patterns each imply a secondary dominant (in turn, V/V - V; V/vi - vi [or in minor, V/III - III]; and V7/IV - IV) or they could open the door for a more full-blown modulation to the dominant, the relative key, or the subdominant. Other prominent melodic patterns in tonal music could be identified, both diatonic and chromatic, but Jersild believes by concentrating on this primary set that students can effectively become acclimated to the essential nooks and crannies of tonality as well as the crossbeams, support points, and girders that make the hidden corners easier to find. The entire relational network is represented in full interactive glory in the Tonal Grid example. Some of the skips are large, some small, some strong, some tame, but they all participate synergistically to engender the larger array and sum of pitch affinities we all recognize as the tonal system.
I know of no other single set of practice materials for sightsinging that provides such a vigorous, multifaceted, concentrated, and extended workout for hearing melodic function and for acquiring tonal bearings as Jersild's "Diagram of Functional Progressions" (see example).
Since each pattern is an entry to a specific locale, notice that the activity within each measure is more fundamental than the movement across a bar line, which might consist of almost any possible small or large interval, including some dramatic compound sizes when registral shifts are used. Or perhaps I should say that the significance of movement across a bar line is measured in terms of sensation, tonal feel, and memory of the basic units rather than by the intervallic distance with which they are approached.
When the basic diatonic major and minor patterns have been more or less mastered in all keys, the chromatic alterations can be added. Not only do they offer experience at hearing secondary inflections, but by using the bracketed measures as gateways to modulation, another whole realm of practice opportunity emerges. While practicing in C major, for example, once measure 5 is reached the student can then switch to the beginning of the G-major line above and continue to sing in the dominant key. Likewise measure 9 of the C-major tune could steer the performer into F major below or measure 11 could open the door for travel into the relative minor directly across in the alternate column. An unlimited tonal journey through related keys could be constructed by traveling up and down either column or zig-zagging back and forth between them or any combination of the two by selecting the relevant gateway measure for transference to another line. This sheet, then, offers richer and more varied practice possibilities than meets the eye at first glance.
Each individual pattern in this system embodies a distinctive flavor. Tonality is simply the sum of all those special flavors with its own overall composite feel as well. Of course, the meanings or roles of pitches can change according to circumstances. For example, the tendency of scale degree 4 in the company of 7 is to pull down to 3 (operating as part of a dominant function), whereas the tendency of 4 in the company of 6 is to pull up to 5 (as part of a predominant unit). Many dozens of additional examples could be cited that go far beyond what Jersild identifies. But by lavishing attention on his basic set of key definers, a backdrop is established against which all the variations, exceptions, and denials of tendency can be recognized, measured, understood, heard, felt, and performed.
One attractive feature is that the approach is independent of any particular labeling system (syllables, numbers, letter names, moveable-la, etc.), although I imagine that numbers or do-based major/minor solfege would best maximize the scale-degree sensitivities that are being ingrained. The Jersild approach can be combined with any of the conventional books of practice melodies. Once mastered, additional challenges might involve performance at speeded up tempos. Even after the sheet has been thoroughly learned it provides an excellent daily warm-up for the eye and ear before continuing on with practice material from other sources. The possibility of using this approach and even these specific exercises for dictation or recognition activities (with or without notation) has no doubt occurred to you also.
Here is an exciting easy-to-use sight-singing method for middle school/jr. high choirs that starts from square one, assuming no previous training. It is presented in a logical, sequenced order, with harmonically combinable exercises to develop rhythmic and melodic independence. The collection offers a variety of a cappella and accompanied songs for 3-Part Mixed voices in two sequenced volumes. Volumes I and II are available in Teacher's Edition and Singer's Edition, and contain complete vocal and piano parts. The Teacher's Edition additionally includes complete instruction for use of the method! For Gr. 6-9.
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