Pierre van Houwe and his concept of "Playing with Music" in the history of music education

Karamanova Marina Leonidovna ORCID: 0009-0003-2302-1437 PhD in Art History Associate Professor; Department of Musicology, Composition and Methods of Music Education; Krasnodar State Institute of Culture 350072, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Krasnodar, ul. 40 Years of Victory, 33 karaman86@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Asriyan Alina Gavrilovna ORCID: 0009-0002-8288-3769 Graduate student; Department of Music Teaching, Composition and Methods of Music Education; Krasnodar State Institute of Culture 350072, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Krasnodar, ul. 40 Years of Victory, 33 asriian.alina@mail.ru Other publications by this author

In the history of European music of the twentieth century, there were many iconic figures whose ideas forever changed the approach to music education. The concepts of E. Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950), Z. Kodai (1882-1967), K. Orff (1895-1982), M. Montessori (1870-1952) received the most widespread recognition. They can rightfully be considered the founders of entire pedagogical schools, whose representatives today continue to spread the ideas of musicians on all continents. Unique in this sense is the experience of the Dutch conductor, composer and teacher Pierre van Hauwe (1920-2009), who not only followed the ideas of colleagues of the older generation, but formed his own system of musical education "Spielen mit Musik" ("Playing with music"), based on combining elements of the concepts of Karl Orff and Zoltan Kodai.

His pedagogical approach is highly appreciated not only in Europe, but also in Africa, Asia, South and North America. However, in Russian musicology, the figure of P. van Hauwe has practically not found proper coverage. To date, there is only one work about the musician, published in 1976 ^[1], which contains mainly the impressions of the author of the article about a meeting with a Delft teacher in Vilnius in the early 1970s. Over the past almost fifty years since the publication of K. Ninis, no new works have been published about P. van Hauve, which would comprehensively cover his creative and life path, views on musical education and basic pedagogical principles. At the same time, the Dutch teacher successfully developed and applied his concept for another thirty years after 1976, not only in the Netherlands and Germany, but also in South America, Africa and Europe. The need to generalize the achievements and ideas of P. van Hauwe in music pedagogy determines the relevance of this work.

It is safe to say that the path in music for P. van Hauwe was predetermined. He was born on January 12, 1920 (Terneuzen, Holland) in the family of a conductor. His father was the regent of the church choir, led the city orchestra, and also played French horn and trombone at the opera house in Ghent (Belgium). In an interview with the newspaper Delft on Sunday, P. van Hauwe said: "Already at the age of five or six, I realized that I wanted to become a musician." Serious music lessons for Pierre began at the age of seven: he sang in the church choir, learned to play the piano, and loved percussion instruments with all his soul, which were entertainment for him. Already at the age of fifteen, he was appointed choirmaster at a boarding school (Sint-Niklaas, Belgium), where he studied. The first attempts at composing music, mainly choral, also date back to this time. Next, P. van Hauwe enters the conducting department at the Royal Academy (Antwerp). During the Second World War, he continued his studies at the Conservatory in The Hague. "There is a lot of suffering, a lot of destruction, a lot of dead people. A rotten time," he later recalled of this period. In 1946, the musician moved to Delft. This city became his second homeland, where he lived and worked until the end of his days.

It was in Delft that the active stage of his creative activity as a choirmaster began: in 1946 he took up the position of church regent, organized the Madrigaal women's choir in the city, and later the boys' children's choir. His concert activity with the Madrigaal choir (which lasted until 1965) brought him worldwide fame. The repertoire of the collective consisted mainly of works by authors of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (G. Dufay, P. de la Rue, J. Despre, N. Gomber, K. Jeannequin, K. de Rore, G. Costeli, G. P. da Palestrina, K. Monteverdi and others), and also a significant part was occupied by arrangements of folk songs by Dutch and foreign composers (A. Zagweina, Koos van der Griend and Z. Kodaya), as well as the choirmaster himself.

In the 1950s, P. van Hauwe was one of the organizers of the Folk Song Day in Delft ("Volkszangdag") ^[2]. The main event of the holiday was the collective singing of folk songs by the townspeople (several hundred people) in the central square of the city. For the first time such an event took place in Delft earlier, in 1923, but after that it was repeated only a few times. P. van Hauwe revived the tradition, and Folk Song Day was held regularly until 1970.

Since the early 1960s, the focus of attention and interest of P. van Hauwe has shifted to the pedagogical sphere. One of the reasons was an offer from the city's leadership in 1960 to open and head a music school in Delft.  During the same period, he travels to Salzburg, where he meets Karl Orff, Gunild Kitman (co-author of the "Schulwerk" method) and music educator Wilhelm Keller. The ideas of K. Orff and his associates inspired P. van Hauwe not only to spread the knowledge gained in Salzburg, but also subsequently formed the basis of his own method.

A significant number of works have been written about the essence of K. Orff's method to date (G. Lizunova ^[3]; O. Kulikova ^[4]; E. Dongauzer ^[5],[6]; V. Beloborodova ^[7]; A. Serdyukova ^[8]; N. Domanitskaya ^[9] and many others), therefore, we note only the fundamental points that turned out to be the most important for P. van Hauwe. First of all, the Dutch teacher was attracted by the idea of the need for unity of three components in learning: singing, instrumental playing and movement. K. Orff's concept brought to the fore the pleasure of the process of making music and improvisationality as the main feature. This can be achieved only by instantly introducing the child to creativity from the first days of education. This role is assigned to the most simple musical instruments in "Shulverk", and children also learn to use their own body and speech in the process of improvisation. P. van Hauwe adhered to a similar idea – introducing children to creativity by simple and accessible means, therefore, he assigned a special place to the K. Orff noise orchestra in his education system. "What captured me in my new work <...> was the joy that literally shone in the children's eyes at those moments when, instead of forcing them to endlessly repeat scales and sketches or memorize elementary music theory, I involved them in fun outdoor games, let them play on Orphan xylophones and metallophones" [cit. according to: 1, p. 127]. In addition, playing in an ensemble as a collective kind of creativity brought together and gave every child the opportunity to open up and express themselves without hesitation. Also, P. van Hauwe was close to the idea of relying on national folklore as the main material for making music.

In addition to K. Orff, the system of Z. Kodai, which he met during a trip to Hungary before the opening of his school, had a great influence on P. van Hauwe's concept. The teacher from Delft was impressed by the level of musical and theoretical knowledge of children of different classes. This significantly differed from the Z method. Far from the "Shulverk" system, where music theory was not a priority in classes with children. Comprehension of music according to K. Orff's concept went from simple to complex, from practice to theory. In the method of Z. Kodai, elementary musical theory was introduced from the very first stages of training (starting from rhythmic recording to simple analysis of musical form)^[11]. P. van Hauwe noted: "Orf is able to attract children to musical activities and arouse their great interest in music making, but his method is not enough to develop children's inner hearing, it is unsuitable for teaching singing and solfeggio. Meanwhile, this is exactly what Kodai is perfectly able to do. His system would be great if it took into account the tendency of children to intricate games, to improvise" [cit. according to: 1, p.127].

When developing his training system, Z. Kodai took into account the physiological capabilities of children of a certain age ^[12]. That is why P. van Hauwe took into his concept a number of pedagogical principles that underlay musical education in Hungary: the priority of relative solmization (to simplify orientation in notes); the priority of descending intonation (as the most natural for children); the priority of two-stroke (as a reflection of the natural pulsation that children encounter on a daily basis). Z. Kodai, like K. Orff, selected musical material, focusing on the songwriting of different peoples.

Choosing the best of two pedagogical methods, P. van Hauwe tried to find a balance between the pleasure of music and the theoretical basis necessary for future musicians. This is how his concept appeared, called "Spielen mit Musik" ("Playing with music"). At the same time, it should be noted that the author himself noted that his views were also influenced by the ideas of M. Montessori and J. Piaget, but only indirectly.

Pierre van Hauwe published several works on the methodology of music education "Music for youth" (1961), "Musical kindergarten: learning to play the recorder together" (1969). However, the main work can be called "Playing with music" ^[13]. This methodological manual, created in collaboration with Eva M. Kirchner, has become a kind of compilation of the basic pedagogical principles of P. van Hauwe. It includes material for the teacher and notebooks for children. The educational material, of course, is more intended for the teacher, since it provides comments on working with children, offers different ways of studying the material, and describes games.

P. van Hauwe held the opinion (supported by his long-term practice) that the development of musical abilities in children occurs sequentially: first, rhythm (as a basis), then singing, improvisation, accompaniment of songs and active perception of music. That is why the first section in the manual is entitled "Meter and rhythm". Based on his experience and visits to different countries with master classes, P. van Hauwe was convinced that children who have been hearing rhythmically complex music since childhood (especially in South America and Africa) later reveal their musicality more vividly, express themselves more freely in improvisation. P. van Hauwe believed that rhythm and rhythmics all children, without exception, should be educated. Therefore, in the Netherlands, compulsory rhythm classes with children begin long before music school, even in the garden. Next, the children whose abilities have been most clearly revealed are invited to study at a music school.

When teaching rhythm, P. van Hauwe relies on the system of Z. Kodai, offering to pronounce, clap words familiar to children in certain rhythms, combining "ta-ta" (longer durations) and "ti-ti" (shorter durations). The use of rhythmic syllables allows you to "read" rhythms even to those children who are not yet familiar with music theory. At the same time, the author offers different options for rhythmic exercises and games: from pronouncing and patting words known to children to puzzle games, when children name any of the objects around them that would fit the studied rhythm. The lessons are designed in such a way that in the future rhythm classes may become more complicated due to the selection of more complex material, or the division of children into different groups, beating their own rhythm and the inclusion of noise instruments in the learning process.

The second section is devoted to theoretical questions about the scale and the main steps. Here, the authors use the example of comparisons from life, understandable to children, to talk about the scale, major and minor, the ratio of T and D frets. Knowledge of these simple theoretical points allows students, without having a complete musical education, to participate in the playing of the orchestra. For the convenience of children's orientation, the tonic fifth (P. van Hauwe calls this ratio "bourdon") was marked with color on the keys of a xylophone or metallophone.

The next section is devoted to working with Orf tools. In this chapter, the authors consider how to teach children accompaniment, playing in an ensemble. To develop freedom of improvisation, P. van Hauwe recommends initially dividing children into two groups, one of which will sing, and the second will accompany singing on instruments. Then the groups switch tasks. This form of work allows you to teach children singing and creating musical accompaniment evenly. The ultimate goal of such classes is to develop the skill of simultaneous singing and playing an instrument. For a group of children responsible, for example, for "bourdon", the authors recommend removing part of the xylophone plates, marking them with color (as mentioned earlier). This allows children to focus on the right sounds at the initial stage, without fear of falling out of the sound ensemble.

The next section of the textbook is devoted to the development of hearing and intonation. P. van Hauwe relied on the ideas of Guido Aretinsky and Z. The codes that used the relative solmization system. According to Z. Kodai, singing the scale according to the established names of sounds (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti – for major, and La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So – for minor), allows you to develop conscious intonation regardless of tonality. But at the same time, P. van Hauwe notes that other systems for the development of intonation hearing can also be used (B. Chenek, F. Liski, L. Daniel, etc.) The main message of this section of the manual is to convince teachers of the importance of early development of musical hearing.

Next, P. van Hauwe gives a number of recommendations for the healthy development of a child's voice. This section shows his many years of experience as a choral conductor. In particular, such important principles of working with the voice are noted as: proper breathing, the inadmissibility of forcibly expanding the range, correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants. The importance of developing children's reading skills is also emphasized.  The latter is acquired by practicing solmization and correct transposition. It is not difficult to transfer a song to another key in relative solmization, even for children. While the accompaniment of the percussion group (based on the "bourdon"), the teacher can also quickly change by installing new keys on melodic percussion instruments.  Recommendations for practical work with transposition in the Orff orchestra – the corresponding section in the manual by P. van Hauwe is devoted. And in the final paragraph, the authors talk about improvisation skills and their development.

P. van Hauwe taught his concept of "Playing with Music" for many years at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, and distributed it through organized master classes. Since the late 1960s, there has been a tradition of Christmas courses ("Orff Week") in Delft, where teachers and educators from all over Europe gathered. In the 1970s, his lectures were recorded and broadcast on radio and television in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Switzerland. The concept of "Playing with Music" has been translated into Hebrew, Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, and Spanish. This contributed to the spread of P. van Hauwe's ideas around the world, the special influence of which was manifested in the music education system of Brazil and Mexico. The last seminar in Delft was held in 1988, "it was attended by 330 people from 12 different countries" [cit. by: 2]. From 1991 to the end of his life, P. van Hauwe conducted "Christmas Courses" in Bavaria at the Musikschule Inning, where he continued to popularize his method.

Today, the concept of "Playing with music" has not lost its relevance. P. van Hauwe's students, his children and colleagues (Peter Schumann, Walter van Hauwe, Rosemik van Hauwe, Hans Spitjens and others) continue to spread the ideas of the Delft teacher all over the world: textbooks and notebooks in different languages are published, master classes for teachers are held. The ideas of "Playing with music" form the basis of the musical education systems of Mexico and Portugal.