Lyon Opera

When the Pedagogical Concept of Kodály and the Traditional Folk Song enter the Lyon Opera House

by Chantal Bigot-Testaz

President of La Voix de Kodály en France

This article is an adapted version of the paper given at the 18th International Kodály Symposium, in August, 2007, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

On April 12, 1966, during his last trip to France, Zoltán Kodály spoke at the 20th Congress of the International Federation of Young Musicians held at the UNESCO Palace in Paris (see integral French text on www.kodaly.fr, page archives). What he said then constitutes the essential part of our mission today. Some months later, in a letter written in January 1967 to the Parisian editor Leduc, Kodály expressed concern about an overdue publication of L’Education musicale en Hongrie by Jacquotte Ribière-Raverlat. This important book – still a reference today – was published several months later that is to say 40 years ago. Later Jacquotte Ribière-Raverlat wrote the series Un chemin pédagogique à travers les chansons, which was the first adaptation of Kodály's pedagogical concept outside Hungary.

It was in that context that Jacquotte Ribière-Raverlat met Christiane Pineau at a national congress of kindergarten teachers in 1974. A fruitful cooperation established and since then and for more than 30 years, Christiane Pineau has accomplished an outstanding work, mainly in the Poitou-Charentes region. Other initiatives, more or less organized, should also be noted, for example those taken in Grenoble and in the Paris region. There were some isolated experiments, such mine conducted between 1981 and 1984 in the Amiens conservatory of music. The work of numerous music teachers who had emigrated from Hungary also played an important role in enhancing the reputation of Kodály as a music educator in France. I would like to mention two among so many: first, Maria-Cecilia Kiss, who tutored Sarolta Kodály in violin when she was a child in Dombóvár. Then she taught in Amiens and at the Catholic University in Paris. The second is Gabriella Boda-Rechner. Since more than twenty years, she was propagating Kodály's ideas in France but also in Morocco and now in India after some years spent in China. Since the 1960s and until recently, almost all the “pioneers” of the Kodály’s pedagogical concept have been either school teachers, mainly in kindergartens, or professors in charge of their musical training.

In 2001, after the IKS Symposium in Helsinki, a group of teachers decided to create, about Christiane Pineau an association radiating over the whole country : La Voix de Kodály en France that counts now nearly 70 members. We observed recently an unexpected change in its composition. By now, school teachers no longer represent the majority of our members, replaced by professional music teachers. Among the latter, there are many music teachers in specialized schools and this poses new problems. A child who begins to play an instrument is confronted with the difficulty of learning the French music theory (without solmisation). Few children are lucky enough to live in Amiens where Valérie and Jean-Paul Girbal are teaching. These viola professors are both disciples of Géza Szilvay and teach according to Colourstrings. We collaborate with them as often as possible.

This development is both regrettable and interesting. We shall have to win back the “territory” of non-specialized schools. We all know too well that music should be for everybody and that each child has the right to receive a high-quality music education. Though it was published 40 years ago, the impact of the French adaptation of the Kodály concept remains very modest. That is why La Voix de Kodály en France needs to be recognized by the world of professional music.

And this brings us to our main subject. The Lyon Opera House has its own children choir of about 100 singers, ages 8 to 17. The principal objective for the group is to participate in the company's stage productions but also, of course, to provide its pupils with a stimulating musical education. In 2004, the directors decided that this training needed adaptation and improvement. Alan Woodbridge, choirmaster of the Lyon Opera, received the mission to organize for the children of the choir a different basic musical training, more focused on the voice and on a collective, oral approach of music.

Alan Woodbridge had met Zoltán Kodály's concept in Great Britain, his country. Via our website, he took a contact with La Voix de Kodály en France. As he sought our help, I immediately turned to my compatriot and friend Professor Edouard Garo, a Swiss educator, choirmaster and composer who seemed to possess the various qualities required to fulfill such a need. In 2002, I attended a conference organized by him in Geneva: "L'oralité retrouvée". I understood then that he had kept on studying deeper and deeper the Kodály’s concept to adapt it to the school of nowadays and to the specific French problem. Later, I discovered that, as soon as 1973, Edouard Garo welcomed, on the shores of Lake Leman, Professor Szõnyi Erzsébet and two other Hungarian professors with 3 children groups of various ages to allow his colleagues to discover the music education practised in Hungary.

Edouard Garo's mission with the children choir of the Lyon Opera

His interventions took place from January 2005 until June 2006: one hour per month with 20 students from 8 to 10 years old in presence of the pedagogical team, followed by one hour of discussions with the team.

Obviously, Kodaly's concept was present in his lessons. However the pedagogy was adapted to the specific needs of a French opera house. Edouard Garo privileged 3 directions particularly important for children preparing themselves to onstage performances:
a. developing a free vocal expression
b. listening to one's neighbours
c. developing the inner ear

Here are some ways to promote the two first points a. and b.

To stimulate the students to improvise, Professor Garo addressed the children in this way, on the first day:
(speaking)
" My name is Edouard. We are going to get to know each other, but first, here are the rules of the game. We are in a house where, instead of speaking, we sing. So, let us sing!"
(then, only singing)
"Bonjour à tous! Imitate everything I sing, please
In Hungary, Szervusz (bis)
In Haïti, Bonjour à la Société (bis)
And in Japan, Konnitchiwa (bis)

A great French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, in his opera 'The Yellow Princess', said 'hello' in this way in Japanese:

In Greece, they tell "Kalimera" to greet somebody. Who wants to propose other Kalimera? Whose turn is it? "

In this way, the teacher improvises in front of the students, mainly using the pentatonic scale (beginning by the call third s – m) to stimulate them to “improvise” at their turn. Remarkably, the students adopt nearly always pentatonic forms. The golden rule is to accept the proposal of each child without any appreciation and to repeat it with all the children immediately afterwards.

The students accept to participate right away. Their attention to the others is astonishing. These improvisation moments, systematically introducing each lesson, are a good way to warm up the voices. The pedagogical team had soon realized that it was also an appropriate method to select potential soloists! The field of the improvisation topics is endless: their own identity, their preferred or desired pet, proverbs (written on posters found on the wall). Another example: the master starts a story "Once upon a time, there was a red cucumber…" Most of the time, the children accept to continue the story, re-discovering unconsciously the nonsense tradition.

Street cries are another way to promote the points a. and b. Edouard Garo uses street cries at every session. Among many, here are three examples of songs by itinerant vendors presenting their products. The selected examples [illustration 1] are coming from three different French-speaking regions: Wallonie, the francophone part of Belgium, Franche-Comté, in France, and Val d'Aoste, a region of Italy where they commonly speak French. The oral singing tradition ignores political borders! The street cries usually include a pentatonic signature tune and particularly the call third s-m.

Later, when some street cries have been assimilated enough, they are sung with different intensities and tempi. It is also possible, by overlapping, to obtain a merry random polyphony.

Songs in our musical heritage are, of course, an essential part of each lesson. From the long list used with the Maîtrise de l'Opéra, we have selected two songs. It is obvious that they allow the promotion of the points a. and b. (developing a free vocal expression, listening to one's neighbours) but mainly the promotion of the point c. developing the inner hearing. For the talk in Columbus I selected: J'ai descendu dans mon jardin (I Got Down in my Garden) and The Harbour of Tacoma [illustrations 2 and 3]. The latter is well known in France and almost everybody believes that this is a typical French song. Actually, it's a re-creation, probably by French sailors in the late nineteenth century on the melody of The Campton Race composed by Stephen Foster.

In the classroom a solmiplot [illustration 4] was always available. It’s a perfect tool to deepen, by means of the visualization, a melodic relation when it is poorly assimilated or to better understand modality. It's an inexhaustible reef to favour the inner ear and it excellently completes the phonomimy. The movements of a pawn allow the children to recognize the melody of the two songs but also to train with innumerable other exercises. Thanks to the solmiplot, the students then discover a modal variant of J'ai descendu dans mon jardin. This variant can give us a "canon à la seconde".

The song The harbour of Tacoma shall lead to explore the polyphony on two ways:
• with an accompaniment ostinato, drawn out of the refrain.
• by overlapping another song in quodlibet.

Rhythm was also dealt with. Almost all music teachers in the French-speaking part of Switzerland are strongly influenced by Jaques Dalcroze. We know that the ideas of this citizen of Geneva were used by Kodály. In the lessons given to the Maîtrise, the "Dalcroze rhythmic" is integrated to the physical movements and to the displacements in the room suggested by the proposed nursery rhymes, dances and songs of the heritage.

During his mission, to the traditional songs, Edouard Garo added several excerpts of the classical repertoire, from French operas in particular with some similar melodic features. You will find attached some examples of extracts among those proposed to the students [illustrations 5 and 6]. It was the occasion to let the students discover the Curwen- or stick-notation before they read on the staff, of course without any clef to begin.

In order to complete this description of his mission in Lyon, visit the website of Edouard Garo (www.garo-ed.com). Generous as usual, he puts at your disposal the outcome of his researches.

A happy follow-up of the introduction of Kodály's concept in the Lyon Opera House

After the end of Garo's mission, in Autumn 2006, his former pupils and the girls' choir of Lyon Opera House had the privilege to work during two months with Evelyne Girardon, a collector and "transmitter" of folk songs in French language. At the 18th Symposium in Columbus, the participants could see excerpts of the movie filmed during the concerts given in December 2006 at the Opéra [illustration 7]. The French spectators appreciated these children playing and singing a capella a so unusual and authentic repertoire, faithful to its style, voice colours and ornaments. The songs were either in unison but enriched by dialogs between soloists and choir or in several parts. They revealed then polyphonies according to the oral tradition with drones, ostinati and subtle imitations always respectful of texts and modality.

This pedagogic renewal wished by the directors of the Opera House is fruitful. Laure Pouradier Duteil, in charge of the musical education of the Maîtrise has enriched Edouard Garo's contribution by attending the 2007 Summer Seminar in Kecskemét. She gave two lessons with two groups of different age during the Carrefour Musical 2007 organised by La Voix de Kodály en France in front of teachers under the charm of the quality of her work.