Original scientific paper
Music Textbooks and Manuals in Zagreb in the Last Two Decades of the 19th Century Represented by Vjenceslav Novak’s Work: a Contribution to the History of Music Pedagogy
Marija Benić Zovko
orcid.org/0000-0002-1868-7547
; Vatroslav Lisinski Music School in Zagreb Gundulićeva 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
There has not been a lot of musicological research on the 19th century music
textbooks and manuals as historical sources for the development of musical
didactics and pedagogy of the time. Vjenceslav Novak’s textbook Introduction to
Music Harmony, intended for students of the teachers’ school, is being analysed
in correlation with Novak’s text published in the report of Music Institute’s school
in 1891. Both the text and the textbook made significant contributions to the
definition of theory of music (especially a part of it the author refers to as “basic
theory of music”), defining pedagogical and didactical principles of teaching, and
to the making of a comprehensive curriculum for theoretical disciplines. The author
found the meaning and purpose of these disciplines in aesthetics, and the ultimate
purpose of music in knowing God. In this sense he viewed the educational process
as a path from the practical to the speculative. The textbook is also a reflection
of the sociopolitical circumstances it was written in. Aesthetical and theological
principles of Novak’s concept of theory of music enabled teaching to be a medium
for religious and moral upbringing, and the use of folk songs gave it the necessary
element of national consciousness.
Keywords
aesthetics; Mažuranić’s law; Music Institute; teachers’ school; theory of music
Hrčak ID:
247854
URI
Publication date:
21.9.2020.
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