The melodic dictation in the traditions of Russian music education

Abstract

In Russia solfeggio became an academic subject at the time of foundation of Saint-Petersburg and Moscow conservatories. Coming from Western Europe, in Russia solfeggio gained its own traditions of teaching. There were established three main activities – vocal and intonation exercises, hearing analysis and dictation. They were defined by the scientist of the ХХth century – professor of Moscow Conservatory I.V. Sposobin. It is a melodic dictation that became a comprehensive model for the development of prospect musicians’ skills. The reason is in the combination of various tasks, such as the ability to hear, realize, memorize and record a relatively complete musical part based on a certain number of replays. Over the years of evolution in the Russian teaching school the dictation obtained logical representation, enabling to teach and perceive music, tonal and atonal. The same dictation significantly differs in the Russian tradition from its French analogue. The report describes the evolution in the three-level system of music education, comparing it to the traditions of other countries. Key words: solfeggio, a melodic dictation, a comprehensive task, multilevel musical thinking.