Medieval Methods: Guido D’Arezzo’s Innovative Approaches to Music Education

Authors

Lydia C. Kee, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Publication Date

11-21-2022

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Guido D'Arezzo, Guido of Arezzo, Music, Education, Music Education, Medieval, Middle Ages, Notation, Music Staff, Composition, Solfege, Johannes Tinctoris, John Curwen, Kodaly, John Feierabend

Abstract

Music education has been influenced by many people throughout history, but arguably none of them have done so as much as the monk, Guido D’Arezzo. His teaching methods have been embraced and developed by music educators throughout the centuries. For example, it is recorded that Guido was the first to use the five-line staff as we use it today. This was especially groundbreaking in a world of rote memorization. Today it is used globally in music education. The roots of solfege are also found in Guido’s writings; his syllables have been adapted by Zoltan Kodály. Not only that, but John Curwen’s hand signs are derivative of the so-called Guidonian Hand. Guido’s writings also provide ideas on including composition in teaching music. These ideas have been adapted by John Feierabend, a proponent of improvisation in the music classroom. Therefore, many of our modern practices can be traced back to the roots of Guido’s ingenuity.

Volume

13

Issue

2

Article Number

1

First Page

59

Last Page

71

DOI

10.15385/jmo.2022.13.2.1

Recommended Citation

Kee, Lydia C. (2022) "Medieval Methods: Guido D’Arezzo’s Innovative Approaches to Music Education," Musical Offerings: Vol. 13: No. 2, Article 1.
DOI: 10.15385/jmo.2022.13.2.1
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol13/iss2/1

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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