Ilusiones De Richard Bach

The Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály Approaches: Training and Applications

Keith A. Koster, Ph.D.

In the United States and abroad, three approaches to teaching music to children comprise the mostreputable and respected canon of music education theory and practice. By their very names, these approaches acknowledge and honor their founders. The Dalcroze approach traces its origins to the work ofthe nineteenth-century Swiss music educator Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, the Orff-Schulwerk approach to the teachings of the twentieth-century German composer and music educator Carl Orff, and the Kodályapproach to the system developed by the twentieth-century Hungarian composer and music educator Zoltan Kodály. While any competent teacher of music education is expected and assumed to have some basicknowledge of the theoretical premises and practical applications of all three approaches (a knowledge typically gained in the course of a university graduate program), an important aspect ofprofessional growth and development for any university music education faculty member is the eventual completion of three levels of certification training in the two approaches that have come to dominateAmerican music education, the Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály approaches. Such training is typically offered in a progressive sequence of postgraduate training programs hosted by a small number of selectedcolleges and universities during the summer months. To ensure that certification candidates thoroughly assimilate the material introduced at each successive level of training and, furthermore, to ensurethat they acquire substantial experience incorporating what they have learned into their own teaching, the certifying agencies prohibit registration in all three levels within a single summer.
Beforejoining the faculty of Eastern Oregon University in the fall of 2001, I completed Orff-Schulwerk Level I certification training at George Mason University. At the close of my first academic year at...