Showing papers in "Review of Artistic Education in 2016"

Variables and Constants in the Curriculum for the Music Specialisations of the Romanian University Education

Abstract: 1. IntroductionWe intend to make an analysis on the options of university institutions providing and ensuring Bachelor's degree programs in Romania, for the specialisations Musical pedagogy (6, named from U1 to U6) and Musical performance / Instruments and Canto (4, named from U1 to U4). We will monitor if they are compliant with the Romanian and European occupational standards, according to the competences proposed to be acquired by covering them. These educational programs are periodically reviewed, every 5 years, in order to comply with the dynamics of university and professional qualifications, according to the university autonomy, to the demands of Lisbon and Bologna Convention and to the demands of the labour market. Within the faculties' departments, periodical analyses of the academic programs are taking place, being attended by professors, students, graduates and employers' representatives, who identify the reviewing needs of the curricula/ syllabi, after which they are reviewed and regulated by the educational policies in force and provided in the regulations concerning the initiation, the approval, the monitoring and the periodical assessment of academic programs, existing in every higher education institution of Romania. At the same time, as a complementary procedure, the professors taking part in the mobilities must make reports regarding the academic programs of the European universities visited, proposing different improvements of the curriculum, by comparison, in order to perform the compatibility of these programs with the European ones.2. MethodThe comparative analysis of the academic programs proposed to be analysed in this study, valid for the academic year 2015-2016, will offer us an overview on the preparation of future specialists in performing or pedagogy-musical arts, as graduates of the Bachelor's degree programs whose professional and transversal competences must correspond to the qualifications obtained. By means of periodical assessment procedures, reports and regulations are made, which permanently determine the change of curricula and syllabi according to the standards of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education - ARACIS / ARTS (1), as well as the opportunity of initiating, in the future, new programs, in line with the labour market dynamics. The first stage is represented by the internal assessment, and the second one is represented by the external one of the academic programs and considers several indicators which mainly reflect the correspondence between them and the qualifications which are to be obtained by graduates, such as the correspondence between the latter ones and the occupational field according to the Romanian National Qualifications Register for Higher Education - RNCIS (2, 3). The hypothesis consists in the fact that there should be a flexible constant of the disciplines' categories, as a name and division between fundamental, speciality or compulsory complementary disciplines, according to the amount of hours and credits allocated. The variables should exist between the difference between optional and facultative complementary disciplines, naturally determined by the didactic human resource available and the students' options.3. DiscussionsWe will further analyse the Musical pedagogy program, with the pedagogic disciplines included in the curriculum, since the academic year 2015-2016 (4) in line with the professional qualifications (according to ISCO 08:2332 - Secondary education teachers - 31) established by the Specific standards for the academic study programs of the Arts-Music Bachelor's Degree fields (1, pp. 4-9) and the Specific standards for the academic study programs of the Administrative Sciences, Education Sciences, Psychology Bachelor's Degree fields and Programs whose name and mission intend explicitly the professors' preparation for secondary education (6, p. 40). The relationship between disciplines and professional competences is direct and we notice that the first one is identical for all the programs proposed for analysis - C1. …

5. Creative Approaches in the Education of Students with Severe Multiple Disability

Abstract: Abstract The paper presents an empirical study in the area of special education, which clarifies the function of creative techniques, their application, pupils’ preferences and implementation of creative techniques in the processes of special education intervention in pupils with severe multiple disability. According to the current scientific concept, creative approaches in Czech special education are represented by various applications of artistic means in education. The methodology focus of the study is quality-based. Data collection was performed by means of interviews with 40 teachers, observations of 4 pupils during education and a content analysis of educational documents of 30 pupils. The analysis was performed by means of the embedded theory approach. The paper assesses the contribution of the study to special education in a practical context as well as delivery of artistic-oriented courses.

Artistic Personality in the Light of Socio - Cultural Integration

Abstract: 1. Cultural differences in creativityA pertinent question is that if some societies really stimulates creativity and if creative personalities and artistic productivity and/or innovation are higher in some societies than in others. At first glance, these differences seem too obvious to be discussed and the only question is which are the factors that stimulate creative personalities? If we go further considerations or exploring ethnographic elements, we see they make us ask questions on this subject, and our assessment is based so much on ethnocentric selection of what is art and creativity. It is very possible that there is a similar proportion of aesthetic and creative capital in any society, but it is coordinated by the circumstances offered by life and cultural interpretation, in ways that we do not generally consider art or that there are ephemeral forms over which we have not still a registered statistics. The general opinion is that: "The amount of creative expression that is permitted or expected may differ from one society to another, from one period to another, from one craft to another, from one genre to another, and even from one part of a carving to another" (Bascom 1969, p. 111). It is accepted the idea that some people are born with a special talent for artistic creation and at the other extreme is the idea that anyone can become an artist, because in each of us there is the latent creative potential.Anthropological interrogations were dealing with those aspects of culture that promote and discourages creativity or innovation. Example of Bali country is very interesting from this point of view, because it believes that a person "is an artist", even if it has a conservative civilization in which innovation is not the rule. Based on her experiences in Bali and in other cultures, Margaret Mead (1935, 1940 and 1959) offers some hypotheses on one of the important factors that seems to promote creativity. It is "a symbolic development experience" that occurs early in a child's life, the formalization of roles and statuses in which the child is placed successively before being integrated into larger groups of children.When this kind of experience is combined with exposure to more symbolically valued activities from an early age, he begins to manipulate and combine creatively many symbolic elements which are at his disposal. Some descriptions include Bali culture tend to use symbolic artistic situations so much that they seem a kind of escapism for a viewer from the outside. Other theories correlate the degree of creativity with social or psychological factors. Who is an artist? The definition of an artist can be: an artisan, man or woman, who, through a creative recombination and/or innovation make an artifact (tangible or intangible, i.e., a statue or a song) that reflects a high aesthetic component. This will include the ability to influence others in this kind of production. Such a definition is widespread, and this suggests the intercultural significance of this concept.Who were the artists whose efforts were regarded as special in their own society and how were they identified? Two complementary questions can be put in this situation: How to reconcile the perspective of primitive societies in which "every man is an artist" or that in society artists "select themselves", with the idea that some crafts are made only for certain classes or people? What chance has a creative person to become an artist in these societies that prescribe exactly who will practice some artistic pursuits? Being nominated by birth in a particular social class or being successful in the creativity comes in clear contradiction with the idea that anyone can be an artist. But the choice limitation is only a limit of conditions. Many artists, even in our society, highly specialized, choose if his work is just for daily use or a work of art with obvious aesthetic traits, to which undertook with devotion.The element of motivation, the opportunity to learn the craft and the recognition of this ability by other members of society are highlighted in the case of Abatan, a sculptor-clay female (African village, Yoruba), whose life was studied by D. …

Valorizations of Theoretical Models of Giftedness and Talent in Defining of Artistic Talent

Abstract: 1. Giftedness and talent conceptsBefore addressing the subject of artistic talent we want to clarify a situation encountered in psycho pedagogy of excellence literature: the relationships between concepts of giftedness and talent. Romanian authors have preferred a long period of time - at least until the 90s - the differentiated approach for "giftedness" and "talent" using the concept of "giftedness" to refer to hig her general intellectual abilities (Jigau M., 1994) or related to creativity (Roca 1990), and the concept of "talent" to refer to higher manifested specific skills (Begat M., 1967 Jigau M., 1994.). In the late 90s, international trends influenced Romanian authors' works. Cretu C. 1997 adopted in Global Success Model a differential meaning of the two concepts: giftedness is considered to be a high level of innate abilities expressed in a field, and the talent is considered to be systematic developed high level of abilities in different fields. In his later works she choose to use giftedness, talent, excellence, high skills, skills above average to "designate the phenomenon of exceptionality manifested in any field socially useful" (Cretu, 2005).On the international literature the terms giftedness and talent are most frequently used interchangeably as synonyms, receiving the necessary nuances. This is the version that we agreed since research has shown that both concepts are multidimensional, determined by internal and external factors, innate or educated. We adhere of synonymous option also because both terms are used to describe the same reality: the presence or the potentiality of outstanding performance, and whether that behavior denotes technical performance we talk about technical talent, whether that behavior denotes performance in art we talking about artistic talent, etc. In this situation both, talented in art and talented in technologies, are gifted or gifted in technology and gifted in the art.2. Approaches of talent and giftedness in theoretical modelsThe most contemporary models and theories on talent and giftedness give it to us by the research of psycho pedagogy of excellence explain the phenomenon by its multidimensionality. Feldhusen is an author who believes that talent is one of an important element of giftedness. These two concepts have different meanings for Gagne, the talent being the expression of becoming gifted through education. For Tanenbaum, Renzulli or Heller the concepts are synonyms. There are approaches that discus the concept of giftedness without speaking about the talent in any way. They are researchers concerned with explaining cognitive functioning of giftedness, rather than explaining how it manifests. We can enumerate Gardner or Sternberg. We will achieve a review of some of the most relevant theoretical models of talent and giftedness in defining artistic talent.2.1. Sea star model of giftedness (Tannenbaum, 1983)The model offered by Tannenbaum in 1983 stipulates the presence of five components of whose combination, in different proportions for each area of talent, provides the prerequisites for giftedness. Placing in star shape of the five factors important for defining talent and giftedness gave the name of the model. In each of the five points of the star are: general ability, special aptitude, nonintellective requisites, environmental supports and chance. In the light of these factors a gifted person is " that it denotes their potential for becoming critically acclaimed performers or exemplary producers of ideas in spheres of activity that enhance the moral, physical, emotional, social, intellectual or aesthetic life of humanity" (Tannenbaum, 1986, p33).He proposes four types of gifted and talented persons according to their contribution to society: "the scarcity talents" are the gifted that society needs to make our lives simple, safe, healthy (e.g. the inventor of penicillin); " the surplus talents" are the gifted who beautify the world (e. …

13. Enhancing Music Listening in Educational Context

Abstract: 1. IntroductionStudents of all ages prefer to listen to music as a recreational activity from which they benefit emotionally and socially, as most of them tend to build their self-identity and to establish interactions within peer-groups based on their musical preferences (Hargreaves & North, 1997).Music educators are interested in using adolescents' predilection for music listening in a way they can also benefit from it in an educational and a cultural manner. A growing body of research (Boal-Palheiros & Hargreaves, 2001, 2004; Todd & Mishra, 2013) has revealed that students view music listening at home and at school as two very different activities. A closer perspective on the functions of music listening and analyzing the content of music students listen to may bring a better understanding of how music listening can become an efficient educational resource.2. From repeated exposure to preferenceStudents' familiarity with diverse musical styles is one of the key elements of building music preference, and a frequent way of raising familiarity is by repeated exposure. Commercial music producers often use this strategy, as they simplify the melody in a way that a certain motif is repeated five or six times during the song. Also through multiple Radio and TV broadcasting during the day a simple song turns into a "hit", as it reaches the preference of many people just by repeated exposure. Although the success of the same song is often short lived (as we can also see many cases of overexposure), this strategy offers important data about the psychological processes involved in the development of musical preferences.Some scientists have raised the question of applying the same repeated exposure strategy in music education classes in order to build students' preference for academic music. During the mid-60's Gets (1966) asked a group of 339 seventh grade students to listen to 40 fragments of classical music over a period of 10 weeks. The researcher repeated five of these fragments several times during this time. At the end of the experiment, a test has revealed that students' preference for the five repeated fragments was significantly higher, due to the higher familiarity with the same music (between familiarity and preference Gets found a direct significant correlation).This finding is not singular, as other researchers (Bradley, 1971) established that the simple exposure of middle school students to academic music over a period of several weeks may determine the development of preference. Two Americans (Demorest & Schultz, 2004) asked 224 fifth grade students to report their preference for 19 songs from universal children repertoire (African, Spanish, American, Mexican, Vietnamese, Porto Rican, Jamaican, Khmer, Israeli) in two experimental conditions: in their authentic version (solo voices of different nationalities) or in a version arranged for children voices. The study's results have shown:· higher degrees of familiarity determine higher levels of musical preference; American students gave higher scores to American songs (authentic or arrangements for children voices) because these songs constitute the music they listened to more frequently;· no matter the cultural zone of the songs, the students preference was higher for the arrangements for children voices; therefore the familiarity with a certain timbre determined the preference for that same timbre, even when the musical style is completely unfamiliar.Siebenaler's study (1999) focused also on children's repertoire, only this time it was completely American and the researcher measured the effect of different exposure strategies on musical preference. In 1996, The American Association for Music Education has published a list of 42 songs, which "every American should know" (Siebenaler, 1999, p. 213) through music education classes. Siebenaler has selected 10 songs from this list, in order to include them in his experiment. …

9. The Concept of Nature and Its Applications in the Legal, Musical and Educational Fields

Abstract: 1. The changing relationship between nature and manNature is the whole of the physical world; it is also what exists outside of any human action. Man is in nature but he acts upon it, thereby emancipating himself of it: in some way, hit can be said that he is part and apart of nature.Let us briefly focus on this point. Humans live in the realm of nature, and are constantly surrounded by it. This means that they are part of nature and interact with it. In effect, some oriental religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, consider mankind and nature as so deeply connected that it is impossible to make clear distinctions. The air man breathes, the water he drinks, the food he eats, have a strong influence not only on his physical and psychic health, but also on his whole way of living and working. Living organisms are influenced by the peaks of solar activity, and the energy of distant cosmic bodies: although each organism has its own rhythmic beat, it also responds to the vibrations of the elemental forces of outer space, bringing itself into unity with their oscillations83. Thus, nature shall be careful observed and respectfully studied, in order to unveil its secret rules.In contrasts, Western culture usually emphasized the separation of man and nature, dividing the cosmos into two distinct parts. Man, characterized by subjectivity, feeling, logic reason and free will, is conceived as actively exploring nature in order to conquer it, whereas the latter may be conceived as menacing or at least passive84. Maybe remembering that the distant ancestors lived in fear of nature's destructive forces, and were often unable to obtain the merest necessities of subsistence, Western culture assumed a strong anthropocentric standpoint. Anthropocentrism is characterized by the following elements: i) man is the central or most significant fact of the universe; ii) he is the measure of all things; iii) the world is to be interpreted in terms of human values and experiences85. As a consequence, the direct and indirect interests of mankind are put at first, and nature is considered as something to be subjugated, dominated and exploited. According to this view, it was thought that the wilderness was to be tamed: forests were considered wild and hostile to civilization, and people tried to force them to retreat, increasing the area of arable land86.This trend, already present in the ancient Judeo-Christian cultural system, was enhanced by the Renaissance humanism, which glorified man's ability to give a rational order to the natural realm, making use of logic precision. For instance, during the Renaissance, Italian gardens were conceived as the concrete realization of the classical ideals of order and beauty, aimed at man's pleasure87. Italian gardens were considered as an expression of the visible dominion of man's intelligence and spirit over the confusion of nature. In the early 18th century English landscape gardens emerged, presented as places in which nature predominated. They were characterized by sweeps of gently rolling ground and water, against a woodland background with clumps of trees and outlier groves88. Although adhering to quite different viewpoints, both these conceptions envisaged nature as something in which architects and garden designers had to bring their own harmony, since the wild nature had to be organized and improved. Concluding this part, it can be affirmed that the relationship between man and nature was focused on by different thinkers, in diverse ages, showing divergent perspectives.2. Nature and natural in the early legal thinkingIn the course of time, the legal thinking reflected the leading ideas about nature, focusing on natural rights and natural law. Already in ancient Greece some thinkers posited the existence of natural law and thought about its implications89. The great classical dramatists wrote plays in which a distinction and consequently a conflict was shown between positive, man-made laws (ta dikaia), which vary in different states and at different times, and natural law (to dikaion). …

Utilization of narrative approach in art therapy in children with behavioural problems

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe narrative approach in therapy stems from the knowledge that a fact is such as thought and spoken about. The individual processes may be enriched in the logics of individual life stories. It is an undoubted human need to integrate experiences and put them into a meaningful whole. In the target group of children exhibiting problematic behaviour or the so-called disordered behaviour, the possibility of narrative work opens new perspectives in the use of intervention strategies that would lead to the desirable change in the view on their problems and, thus, change towards positive behaviour patterns. The author stems not only from her own sources of education, when the primary source represents special education, the second on the narrative approach in psychotherapy and the third on art therapy, but, in particular, from the experience in therapeutic work with children exhibiting problematic behaviour, within which it is indispensable to not only use time-proven approaches, methods and techniques of work but also look for new stimuli that could be useful to the target group individuals.2. Art Therapy conceptAn individual's fine art expression leaves imprints, has been a means of communication since ancient times, up to the current graffiti, and the healing effect of art has been evident since time immemorial. The co-influence of a safe therapeutic space, when the one perceived as a client or a patient creates a work and an individual imprint in the presence of a therapist and his reaction or intervention or in the presence, reaction and intervention of other group members, forms the basic framework of art therapy. Art therapy is a therapy through a means of fine art. A more essential factor seems to be the process of producing a work rather than its result (Hanusova in Vymetal et al., 2007). Art therapy is perceived as a multidisciplinary domain combining artistic, pedagogical, psychological and medical spheres, which ensues not only from the means used within it but also from the wide range of clients and facilities where it is applied (Bazantova in Vybiral, Roubal, 2010). Art therapy creative activity is perceived as a conscious and active process giving feelings difficult to communicate and unconscious reactions a specific form. Clients may consider fine art activity as an acceptable method of ventilating emotions unacceptable for him and other situations. Fine art enables the externalization of feelings, troubles, problems or difficulties into an object, artefact, which the clients may use at their discretion: keep them or change or destroy them.Art therapy works with both material and word by not only the production of a projective work in the presence of an art therapist but also by the subsequent verbal interaction, always by vision and in someone's presence. The current trend in art therapy stems from the presumption that fine art expression, at least in a certain form, may be included in each sphere of problems, that is, also in children and adolescents manifesting problematic behaviour. In art therapy, it is also important to establish a space for the production, that is, be able to create an environment where authentic work is possible. (Rubin, 2008) Art therapy allows working with various types of clients in clinical practise and special schools and facilities. It may be used in working with healthy people who want to deepen their self-cognizance and with children and senior people and is suitable for people having problems verbalizing emotions.The utilization in children is of special significance since in children, it is difficult to express experiences through verbalization. A fine art expression reflecting on the internal world is a good means of understanding a child's internal states and processes. (Rubin, 2008) For example, aggressive tense may be ventilated through a work accepted by a therapist without evoking a feeling of guilt in the child. At the abstract level, it is possible to work with value-based and moral factors and lead children towards tolerance and understanding of differences. …

Developing by Drawing Creativity of Children Activities

Abstract: 1. Conceptual delimitationsCreativity represents an extraordinary modern face but not enough known and harnessed. H. Jaoui, defining creativity as "an ability to carry out original and efficient assemblies starting from pre-existing elements", considers that anyone can be creative"261 (1990). The term of creativity is used in relation with three aspects. Creativity is evidenced firstly in relation with the action, the creation process, a phenomenon of extreme personality through which it is created either an artwork or a technical innovation, a mechanism, a device. The result of the creating process is explained by the creativity of a person by a complex ability of the human being, a characteristic structure of the psyche enabling the creating work. Finally, creativity is also objectively estimated by the activity product - more or less remarkable, new, original.However, it would be wrong if we would identify superior intelligence with creativity as it is defined by the originality and value of the created products. In other words, "superior intelligence does not mean by all means creativity"262 (Landau), since not all intelligent people are also creative. "Although the research in the field of creativity was intensified only in 1950 with studies since 1926, G. Wallace set out the phases of the creation process: training, incubation, illumination (inspiration) and verification. In 1971, A. Mole? and R. Claudedistinguished five stages: informing and documentation, incubation, illumination, verification and formulation."2632. Psychic-educational bases of developing creative abilitiesCreativity, in the broadest sense, represents that complex ability of the human being, that characteristic structure of the psyche that makes possible the creating work. L. Taylor talks about the five levels of creativity among which, at the preschool age, the only level that can be achieved is the one of expressive creativity. This type of creativity is characterized by a free and spontaneous expression of the person without being concerned for the product of its activity to have a certain degree of utility or value (e.g. drawing, collage, modeling activities etc). The preschool years are more and more appreciated as a period that contains the most important education experience from the life of a person; during it we record the most pregnant rhythms regarding the development of human individuality and some of the most significant gains with obvious echoes for the later stages of its development."264 At this age, creation, even if has no value of the "humankind", is extremely important for the "human becoming" of the child. The adult man cannot reach to higher forms of expressing creativity if, in the early stages of its evolution, he/she did not develop the creative potential, was not encouraged to have independent and original manifestations in answers and solutions to the issues occurred in childhood and adolescence.The psychological profile of the pre-school age includes many favoring conditions for the cultivation and stimulation of the creative potential. Considering the dynamism, impetuosity and expressivity specific to that age, this permanent excitement or that vibration and inner effervescence confers to the children specific notes of creative dynamism, chances of spontaneous exteriorization and vivid auto-expression, analogue to any creating upsurge. The receptivity and curiosity of the child, the richness of the imagination, his/her spontaneous tendency towards novelty, the passion for fable, his/her desire to create something constructive, the psycho-social climate or atmosphere in which the activity of the child is carried out can be "fueled" and adequately harnessed by requests and corresponding training that thus may be able to offer multiple positive elements in stimulating and cultivating the creative potential specific to the pre-school age. At the pre-school age, the child has the tendency to express in his/her works based on personal experience. …

Spirituality of Music as a Factor of (Self) Instruction and of (Self) Education of Personality

Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)1. IntroductionI have always been haunted by the second side of the official formulation in the relevant documents of the ultimate goal of music education: formation of musical culture as an integral part of the spiritual culture. (Emphasis added - "integral part"!) Formerly, in "materialist" times, I paid little attention to the essence of this second side or I understood it abstractly, without great pretensions: the music is a spiritual phenomenon; it is the representative and the expression of the human spirit etc. In general terms, it is true, of course. Then I started to realise that this is the outside of what spirituality is in the true sense of the word. But spirituality still has an inner side, respectively - an inner experience. So music can appear before us as "spirituality" both in the first and in the second sense. This side of the question has aroused interest in the philosophy of music and of music education / training. After all, the "spirituality" is a philosophical, metaphysical concept. Therefore, besides the works on the philosophy of music [1] and music education, published by me (as a result of researches, reflection, study of the matter and on the basis of my own experience of music at this level), some books with musical and metaphysical contents are both emerged "spontaneously" [2; 3; 4]. The results received were reflected in the content of academic subjects at the Faculty of Music and in the course of teaching traineeships for students, but also in the curriculum of music education, updated, in music education textbooks, of which I am co-author and scientific coordinator.2. DiscussionsSo the question is: In the process of music education, do we arrive to the second side of the stated objective - "as an integral part of the spiritual culture"? Do we correctly understand this situation in all its complexity? What is the unique specificity of music in that sense, what are the properties of its spiritual essence? There are many questions. Compared with the educational principles and methods of music education, D. Kabalevsky said they should be based on the nature of music, come from the essence of music itself etc. It is reasonable to assume that not only the educational principles and methods need to "represent" the music itself (therefore, not only the learning process itself), but also the solution of the final goal, that is the result (or in other words, what is left in the soul or consciousness of the child / adult) must bear the stamp of the immanent nature of music.The first point (most importantly), when we talk about music in the context of spirituality (or its connection to spirituality), requires the separate existence of the two sides (or they may exist that way). This interpretation implies that when it will be a must, we can "bring them into line", that is to sa y, "implant" spirituality in music or "teach" it the spirituality, for example, using the titles of works, programs or words (works on a religious text - Requiem, Mass, Liturgy etc.). But it's not like that. Spirituality is the objective quality of music, the same sound, the same sounds that compose it. But this "spirituality" is understood in its deep and true sense, that is to say, in the sense of "cosmic and universal". Do we have the right to say that Mass in B minor of Bach is a spiritual work, but his Brandenburg Concertos or the famous Scherzo from Suite no. 3 are not? The instrumental performance is no less spiritual than the vocal one of a "sacred" text. So the question: what is the spirituality of a purely instrumental work (e.g. the fugues). Because they do not have lyrics to express spirituality. But they express, contain, transmit spirituality etc.Spirituality is not related only to the "religiosity" (in the ordinary sense of the word). There is also a kind of spirituality that is not related to religion. Spirituality contained within music is above the religious one (of course it includes it in known situations. …

2. Gestaltdrama as an Integrative Psychotherapeutic Approach

Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)1. IntroductionThe following text is an overview study which defines the basic phenomena and effective factors of Gestalt drama and outlines some of the researches carried out in this area by the author during recent years. Gestalt drama is the name of a specific psychotherapeutic approach applied by the author in his practice, which combines Gestalt therapy with expressive approaches (especially with dramatherapy, theatrotherapy and fairytale-therapy). This approach can be used not only for individuals with mental illness (possibly neurosis) but also in the self-development of people with psychosocial hazards or disruptions. Consequently, the author often works with children and adolescents with behavioural problems, adults with burnout, with homeless people, etc. (Cf. Ruzicka, 2013.) Dramatherapy consists in the application of theatrical means in therapeutic intervention. It is a therapeutic-formative discipline involving mainly work in groups and the theatrical means are used to influence group dynamics; it is focused rather symptomatically. (Cf. Valenta, 2001 and Muller, 2014.) Theatrotherapy can be defined as an expressive therapeutic-formative approach consisting in the overall preparation of the theatrical form and its subsequent presentation to the audience with a therapeutic-formative goal, whose participants are usually individuals with special needs. (Polinek in Muller, 2014.) Fairytale-therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach falling into expressive therapies which use fairytale imagery to achieve therapeutic targets. (Polinek in Muller, 2014) Gestalt therapy is a dialogical method that is based on the phenomenological approach and awareness. In dialogue with the client, the therapist distinguishes perception, feeling and acting from mere interpretation. The basic objective is to make the client aware of what he/she does, how he/she does it and how it could be changed. In Gestalt therapy, we focus rather on the process (What is happening?) than on the content and interpretation (Why is this happening?). (Cf. Roubal, 2010, Yountef, 2009, Mackewn, 2004.)2. Effective principles of Gestalt dramaWhile the expressive-formative approaches (dramatherapy, theatrotherapy and fairytale-therapy) provide very effective and safe methods and techniques for universal work with any client, the Gestalt psychotherapy offers models and constructs of how to understand the therapeutic process, how to approach a client or group. When applying all these approaches, we find an amount of common effective principles. The author believes that the definition and subsequent application of these principles can significantly streamline the therapeutic (or self-development) process.Holistic approachIt means that the whole being is perceived and influenced at once (when accepting his/her mental, physical, rational, social and spiritual dimensions). Dramatic and literary arts are synthetic (comprised of many different interconnecting and influencing components - dance, visual arts, music, drama, creative writing ... but also a contact with the audience, the stress before the premiere, etc.); Gestalt drama thus may affect the human subject from different angles, in different ways, it can act simultaneously in various areas (Polinek in Hutyrova, 2014). The basic thesis of Gestalt therapy is also a holistic approach. F. Perls (1996, p. 13), the founder of Gestalt therapy, says: "First and foremost, we have to take into account that the body always works as a whole. We do not have liver or heart. We are the liver and heart and brain, etc. ... We are not simply the sum of individual parts but a coordinated whole ..."Projections, metaphor - a safe distanceAlready Aristotle, in his Poetics, describes some ability of drama to cleanse the viewer (catharsis) by arousing grief (eleos) and horror (phobos) (Gronemeyer, 2004); therefore, he also presents a kind of therapeutic effect of the theatre. …

Creative interdisciplinary math lessons by means of music activities

Abstract: 1. Introduction"Music is hidden and unconscious mathematical problem of the soul"Gottfried W. LeibnizThe project Comenius "EMP-Maths", (2013-2016) entitled 'Providing mathematics with music activitieswas initiated by Swiss music pedagogues and scientists who searched the ways of improving mathematic literacy skills by means of interconnection and integration of music and mathematics. The main objective of the project is to enhance and innovate the teaching of mathematics by using music activities (Pridavkova, Simcikova, 2015). It indirectly follows the project which was already completed and is entitled European Music Portfolio a Creative Way into Languages(EMP-L), (http://maths. emportfolio.eu/). The research and experience of previous project (EMP-L) indicate that language and music are mutually supportive and that they encourage motivation of pupils by fluent development of their foreign language skills and understanding. Listening, perception and imitation creates basic skills in both subjects: English language and Music education. The project objective was to integrate music in foreign language education at elementary schools. Music activities and games for pupils were directed to improve memory for sounds and structure of the new languages. This approach facilitated language acquisition and contributed to decreasing language barriers and social integration. This social aspect can help to increase confidence in the use of foreign languages, self-expression and improvement of intercultural understanding.2. Integration of Music Activities in Mathematics in the Project "EMP-Maths"In this subchapter we explain why we consider the integration of mathematics and music education to be beneficial for pupils. Mathematics, science and technical educational school subjects are given a prominent significance in present-day society. On the other hand, education in humanities is measured and summarized in tables of technical sciences and is subordinated to them. Artistic education, inclusive of music education, is often entitled Multicultural education or Heritage protection, but artistic-aesthetic ideals are presented to young generation below the surface of the commercial mass media and television shows. Real values are presented mostly in secret.From this aspect of the two "worlds", one that is favour ed - technical world, and the other one that fails to be appreciated morally and financially - cultural world, we consider the project "EMP-Maths", (2013-2016) entitled 'Providing mathematics with music activitiesto be beneficial for educating contemporary children and youth. By the integration of mathematics and music there have been identified new challenges for a kind of equality between the two school subjects Mathematics and Music Education. According to Kopcakova (2014, p. 44) "(...) mathematical education is considered to be the basis for an Information Society. Scientific research shows that present-day school practice fights with the lack of interest, motivation and trust in obtaining mathematical skills. To overcome this condition it is necessary to use innovative and creative strategies and materials. Only then learning maths can offer children more discoveries and they become more interested in them." The key idea of the project is to develop and enhance mathematical abilities and skills by means of cross-cutting themes with the help of music education and music activities. Other important project objective is to enhance interdisciplinary competences of teachers by the course Continual Professional Development in their further education (Pridavkova, Simcikova, 2015)The supporters and followers of developmental philosophies of 1990s - that place an increased emphasis on understanding our own emotions, empathy, feelings and self-motivation - claim that 80 % of our success depends on our emotional intelligence (Kopcakova, 2015). However, exceptionally and profoundly gifted children do not grow into a successful one, if there is no emotion, motivation, and self-motivation. …

3. Specifics of Implementation Forum Theatre for People with Mild and Moderate Mental Retardation

Abstract: 1. Introduction"The Theatre is a form of cognition, as well it should and could be a means to transform society. The theatre will help us make our future better than simply waiting for it." (Augusto Boal)Simultaneous dramaturgy was the predecessor of Forum Theatre. Viewers invent their script and the actors play it simultaneously. Actors played only the ideas and opinions of other spectators, until they were satisfied with the story. Augusto Boal worked with this method until the moment when he had a very unhappy woman with a story replayed in one of his performances in the auditorium. The woman always stopped the storyline and told how she would resolve the situation. Actors played the show again, but the woman was still dissatisfied. So it repeated several times until the emotions of women escalated enough that the women decided to play how she would deal with the situation presented herself. Boal got so interested by this improvisation that he altered the rules and the viewers become co-star. (Chytilova, 2003)Forum Theatre is the most sophisticated technology of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. Actors play the story, which is common for a group of spectators. This story is based on the needs of this group, and should more or less affect each individual. The story is called antimodel which must always end wrong to force the viewer to think about the topic and to have the desire to change something during the show and concerning the audience to be satisfied with the concluding and resolving the situation. This technique is used for various target groups and in many countries around the world, but its course and the rules are different with different customs. As part of the contribution we have focused on a target group of people with mental disabilities, specifically on clients who use the service of sheltered housing. One of the goals of this service is to develop the abilities, skills and knowledge of clients, as well as the highest possible degree of self-sufficiency and independence from the service. Clients often encounter, in their daily lives, with a variety of stress, crisis, conflict situations, which they do not know how to solve. Therefore, we decided for the experiment, to use Forum Theatre and together with our clients to seek possible solutions to these situations.2. Basic TerminologyMental retardation - Mental retardation can be defined as a developmental mental disorder with reduced intelligence demonstrated primarily by reducing cognitive, speech, movement and social skills with prenatal, perinatal and postnatal ethology. (Valenta, Kozakova, 2006). Mental retardation is defined as the inability to achieve an appropriate degree for intellectual development, even though the individual was educationally stimulated in acceptable manner. (Vagnerova 2004 in Kozakova, 2013). In terms of the depth of impaired mental retardation, we distinguish between mild, moderate, severe and profound. (Kozakova, 2005)Theatre Forum of Augusto Boal - the specific name indicating Forum theatre in the form in which it Boal described in his literature, etc. then Newspaper Theatre of Augusto Boal, Image Theatre of Augusto Boal etc. Forum theatre - a generic name, as physical theatre, puppet theatre, drama etc. Scenario of Forum theatre - Boal uses the so called anti-model; this is a performance that, after warm-up, is most often the first part of the workshop and shows the negative end of the story. Forum - mostly the second part of the workshop - performances with spectatorsinterventions. Forum Theatre workshop - the workshop with participants. Project of Forum theatre - addresses the entire process including the preparation, testing, production, Joker preparation, realization of forum theatre workshops and reflection. (Available on the World Wide Web: http: //fedifo.jamu.cz/terminologie.htm,cit.23.10.2015).3. Research methodologyThe main objective of the research was to create a project of Forum theatre for people with mild and moderate mental retardation from sheltered housing and to determine by means of implementation whether it is possible to implement Forum theatre technology even to this target group, whether they are able to engage in the process of forum theatre and work with these techniques. …

The Formation of Musical Competences: Methodological Approachesin the Process of Artistic-Aesthetic Acquisition

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe concept of artistic - aesthetic acquisition as a component part of the musical experience, opposed to entertainment - only came along in the early nineteenth century thanks to L. van Beethoven: "To understand the being of music, you need to have the rhythm of the spirit. It leaves us understand the heavenly sciences and it is the intermediary to their inspiration. That which the soul receives through sensors is the incorporation of the spiritual acquisition." [9, p.121] The specificity of the musical acquisition, as integrated part of the artistic-aesthetic acquisition, consists in re-creating the object of learning (the message of the musical creation) and its deep affective feeling, so, it is mainly an emotional and creative acquisition. The truth here is not just discovered, but re-created, lived affectively, thus, it is a personalized truth. Therefore the formation of the musical competences is a double-unitary process: experiencing profoundly the heard music along with the discovery/re-creation of the message by deciphering the musical language elements of the creation. The two subjects of the pedagogical reception of music realize specific actions:* The teacher is teaching the contents of the curriculum, creating a contextualized environment of musical acquisition through the actions of rendering, explaining and defining;* The pupils acquire the subjects taught, reproducing the teacher's actions, giving them though a personal connotation, and to the musical message as well. Both subjects tackle the contents in the live process of music reception.As an action of general knowledge (gnoseological), the formation of the musical competences is an act of interaction of the learning factors, of psychological and pedagogical origins:a) the sensorial acquisition - the perception of the musical information, resulted with mental representations and images;b) the conscious acquisition - understanding, abstractization and generalization of the information through comparisons, analyses and syntheses, in essential elements of the musical creation, in the form of ideas, concepts, theses, principles/laws, theories;c) fixation (storage) - creation of the apperceptive fund, logical memorizing of information; the intervention and supplementing feedback, re-taking or correcting of information;d) application - formation of capacities and attitudes, design and elementary scientific investigation, organization of development experiments of the reception/comments/interpretation of music;e) evaluation - designed by the teacher; has a regulatory and interactive character; consists in the control (verification), appreciation of formed skills, emphasizing the level, value and efficiency of the teaching of musical knowledge [1: 231].As a specific musical-pedagogical action, the formation of the musical competences takes specific paths:I - primary perception and auditive representation of the musical creation starts with the aesthetic re-experiencing of the soul state of the composer in the period of the musical work creation and results in the accumulation of auditive experiences;II - the aesthetic feeling of the musical creation is responsible for the personalized capitalization of the knowledge; it is characteristic to music, as without it, it is not possible to create or receive the musical creation, in the musical acquisition the rational acquisition is dominated by the emotional one;III - understanding, application and synthesis - resulted with the experience of proper musical cognition [2: 97]. And the actions organized on routes specific to the formation of the competences interacts, actually taking place simultaneously; the third route only is prolonged after the primary perception of the musical creation, too.2. Knowledge and skills training artistic aestheticThe triadic concept of the processuality in the artistic-aesthetic knowledge, in which they include the whole process of formation of the pupils' skills and attitudes, served as foundation in the elaboration of the theoretical basis and in the settlement of the classification typology of the musical knowledge. …

Challenges to understanding curriculum development: lessons from a pedagogy class with arts pre-service student-teachers

Abstract: Abstract The intent to structure valuable learning experiences, focusing on student-teachers’ exercise of pedagogical creativity and informed critical reasoning, may prove particularly challenging in the current national curriculum for pre-service teacher education. It is proposed here a reflective view of the challenges to arts pre-service student-teachers understandings of concepts and processes related to curriculum development; findings of previous empirical exploratory research questioning student-teachers conceptions of learning, and identity issues related to induction practices drawing heavily on apprenticeship models of learning feed into the proposed analysis. It is concluded on possible conceptual and methodological shifts towards understanding learning in teacher education.

The Openness of the Visual Art Curriculum Towards a New Visual Art Language

Abstract: 1. IntroductionArts subjects are integrated in the education of each individual from the earliest years of life. They are representative of two artistic fields, that is music and visual art, and they are part of the Arts curriculum. The curricular area represents a well-established range of school subjects which share some objectives and methodologies, and which offer a multi- and/or interdisciplinary vision on the study subjects. Arts curricular area includes disciplines such as Musical Education and Arts/Visual/Artistic Education. The framework plan is a way of solving the matter of study time distribution in which curricular areas are assigned, the compulsory subjects and the number of hours allocated weekly to each study subject.2. The Analysis of Curriculum Documents - Framework Plans and School CurriculaA detailed analysis of the framework plans reveals that in the Romanian theoretical education, starting with the secondary level (5th -7th grades) Arts are taught one hour a week in 5th -7th grades and a half hour a week in the 8th grade. In high school, Arts are studied only up to the 10th grade. Only in humanistic institutions, artistic disciplines are taught up to the 12th grade. In what concerns vocational education, Plastic/Visual Arts are taught at secondary school and throughout the whole high school period. Compared to general-theoretic education, vocational education is found to manifest a significant increase in Arts specialty classes, differentiated according to profile and specialization. In schools with a technological profile or in vocational schools, the Arts curriculum is not covered by the framework plan.For each artistic discipline included in the learning framework plan, a curriculum is set, a part of the national curriculum. The curriculum describes the educational offer of a certain subject for a determined school course. Current school programs are developed in a unitary structure, keeping in consideration clearly defined curricular strategies, but the current national curriculum comes with a flexible learning offer. This allows teachers to adapt the formal framework - the curriculum requires the development of certain skills and completing certain contents - based on the personality and the specifics of the students they work with. The elements that facilitate this adjustment are represented by the fact that:- the teacher can intervene in the succession of big content themes from the curriculum, but on condition that he maintains or ensures thematic coherence and he follows the internal logic of the field/discipline;- in the curriculum - which is a centralized school document - there is no prescribed period of time allocated to each content item;- examples of learning activities presented in the curriculum may be amended, supplemented or replaced.These three aspects allow the development of a customized educational process, personalised depending on the specific development needs of the students and on the group they belong to. The instructive-educational contents: openness towards the new language of contemporary art. Analyzing the current curriculum, one can see a certain degree of openness towards artistic phenomena manifested since the second half of the twentieth century.From a simple reading of the presentation note of the curriculum for 5th - 8th grades, an orientation mainly towards fine arts training can be noticed, until the first part of the twentieth century. Content proponents, which are binding and which will be taught throughout the whole cycle, are artists and theorists strongly connected to the artistic movements of the 19th century century and the first part of the 20th century, including artistic movements and educational principles of the Bauhaus school. Therefore theories about shape, color, contrast and chromatic dominants, composition are systematized and structured in this direction. The conclusion is supported by the general skills, values and attitudes proposed to be developed by the secondary school curriculum, and by specific skills and mandatory contents specified for each level of study. …

Principles of Art from Antiquity to Contemporary Pedagogy in the Context of Methodology of Art Education

Abstract: 1. IntroductionIn the context of determining the methodology of art education there were researched important aspects of art pedagogy significant to our research, from the educational value of art (I.Kant, N.Dunare, V.Vasilescu) to artistic-aesthetic education principles (Aristotle, A .Guliga, I.Kant, Plato, M.Florian, Schiller, Humboldt W.von, C.Radu, Ch.Morris, M. Heidegger, Vl.Pâslaru) and from these, to the characteristics of a creative person (I.Moraru, I .Bontas, Gh.Popescu, V.Munteanu, M.Dinca) to those of reception (M.Bejat, Gh.Popescu, Al.Rosca, M.Dinca, D.Muresan), of the specific methodologies to arts education (I.Cergit, S.Cristea, Vl.Pâslaru etc.). There are mainly investigated the creative process and the artistic creativity laws of development, methods and forms of organization of the training process for training / development of creativity, discovering creative potential of education.2. DiscussionsThe issue of research. Because all human activity is caused by an issue, need, necessity, we defined the scientific problem as a necessity of establishing the benchmarks for theoretical and methodological development of the artistic creativity in art - pedagogy students in studying the textile art the artistic print.Establishing the object framework of the issue. Following a constituent principle of art and artistic reception - recreating the message of thework by decoding the artistic form / artistic language elements - we have located the problem in our research, namely in the language of the plastic arts, thus meeting the requirement of conceptualizing the research: establishing the object framework of the problem or linking the object to a research problem.This was followed by the action of establishing the principles of the art of "Methodology of Artistic-Plastic Education" course in the artistic education. As demonstrated in the previous chapter, the defining components of creativity - the artist's personality, creative artistic activity, the created product (= masterpiece) and receiving, all these are subject to specific principles of artistic knowledge.The historic excursus and the systematization of the theoretical marks for the methodology of artistic development of the students suggested a system of ideas, concepts, principles and theories, which are to be based on the methodology of this paper, which we present in Figure 1.An unique research of the artistic form / language was performed by Vl.Pâslaru (2001), which for the first time, systematized principles in art and literature in: constitutive principles, regulative principles and principles of poetic language (artistic). The Principles of the poetic / artistic language component is presented as it follows from different points of view:* Origin from the form not from the concept (Aristotle, A. Guliga);* Harmony; Rhythm (Plato, Aristotle);* Form as conceptual essence of an object; Trimorphosis of the poetic form (rhythm, harmony, intone); Metaphorical nature of poetic language; The clarity and the originality of poetic language; the Miraculous nature of poetic language (Aristotle);* Universal communicability (Kant, M. Florian);* The artistic form is significant (Schiller);* Total symbolism of art; Conventionality of art; Art as a form of language; The specific structure of the artwork; The status of specific language, a means of interpersonal communication; The principle of equivalence expressive function of language to the degree of freedom in interpretation (C. Radu).* The uniqueness of the artwork and its genuriala integration; the Specifycation of the works on the subject or the subject's dominance; The principle of continue consecutiveness; The principle of unity; The principle of coherence; Unit shape (W. von Humboldt);* Principle of iconicity (Ch. Morris, C. Radu) [Apud 11, p. 111 -114].Vl.Pâslaru (2001) has structured the system of the constitutive principles, regulative and poetic language (= art) of art and literature, the productionreception; stated nature of the relationship subject-object-subject literary and artistic reception; has developed the original structure of the reading activity (= reception) [11]. …

12. Collaborative Learning – A Possible Approach of Learning in the Discipline of Study Musical Analysis

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe educational typology of the student pertaining to the vocational branch of instruction is particular by its double ramification - collective and individual. The individual learning is achieved both following personal study and within the instrument classes, the relationship teacher/student being, in this case, determinative in the motivation consolidation, attaining performing excellency, in building a set of instruments necessary to the approach of the musical repertory. The collective learning is achieved, at its turn, on two study directions: instrumental, by inclusion in chamber and/or orchestral groups and theoretical, with a special curriculum, intended to complete the knowledge in the instrumental field with an analytic, historic and stylistic approach of musical texts in the specific repertory.With regard to the learning by means of a group activity, the studies performed by the researchers in the field of music psychology and educational sciences focused, until now, upon the implications, either positive or negative, of collaborative learning, achieved in the instrumental, chamber (quartet, quintet) or orchestral assemblies (e.g. Ford&Davidson 2003, Ginsborg&King 2012, Malhotra 1981, Murnighan&Conlon 1991, Seddon&Biasutti 2009, King 2004, Young&Colman 1979). Moreover, there are studies proving the benefits of the collaborative learning in musical specializations, which involve, by definition, an activity mainly individual: composition or improvisation (e.g. Berret 2006).The training of the musician student on theoretical-analytical streaming involve learning activities similar to the non-vocational fields, but which are apparently taken from the context of the activities' typology, specific to the musical field. The phenomenon occurs due to the individual placement in an extended study group (between 35-50 members) and minimization of the personal contribution to the learning process by adopting a traditional-type information transmission pattern. The education system becomes closed and self-protective, a system in which the information holder and provider is the teacher exclusively. In time, the phenomenon may lead to the decrease of the student's interest and motivation, to the development of adverse and disruptive attitudes in class, to absenteeism and, finally, to the risk of failure.As pedagogical instrument, the Collaborative learning aims to place the learning responsibility upon the student, the teacher waiving the status of absolute knowledge holder and providing an accessible, easy to uptake knowledge. This study proposes several solutions of approaching the learning activity within the discipline of study Music analysis, based on a working instrument grounded on the group activity, underlining the advantages of approaching this strategy and several implementation modalities specific to the discipline.2. PremisesIt is possible for a team exclusively conducted by the teacher, hierarchized in descending order from the beginning, with students who closely follow the instructions provided by the leader not to offer sufficient development opportunities of information understanding and it does no create the possibility of students' involvement in the decision-making process (Webster, 2011). Webster says that the mere argument of "learning-by-doing" is not enough for active involvement of the student in the act of learning, but his encouragement is necessary in order to associate the new information with the old ones by using collaborative-type working units and his engagement in working techniques which entail problematizations and hypotheses solving."Cooperative learning" is one of the main learning patterns (self-directed learning, cooperative learning and inquisitive learning), recommended by the reforms in the European educational systems, in particular the English system (Yang 2004). Collaborative learning (CL) represents a learning/teaching technique and, at the same time, a philosophy intensively discussed in the educational literature in general, as well as in various disciplinary branches, in particular, but absent for a long time from the field of music education143. …

11. Traditional and Innovative Methods in Approaching Music Styles. Pedagogical Implications

Abstract: 1. General considerations on styleThe reflection on musical styles from a pedagogical perspective clearly involves the confrontation between various sources on the conceptualization of this phenomenon, as regards the manner in which the latter was delineated in articles easily accessible to young researchers. For example, on the page dedicated to the general presentation of the discipline in question, Wikipedia provides the following definition: "Stylistics is the discipline that studies style and is applied in art in general, or in one of its branches in particular".112 In turn, in his article published in Dictionarul de termeni muzicali (Dictionary of Musical Terms), the musicologist Alexandru Leahu views style as an "aesthetic category defined by the creations of a culture, an era, a group of creators or an artist, representative by adopting structural solutions or configurations"113.By comparing these two possible definitions or conceptualizations of the phenomenon, the complexity of the discipline, the features of which derive not only from an artistic perspective, but also from its relation to the other fields of knowledge, becomes indisputable. To return to the article mentioned in the Dictionary of Musical Terms, the researcher draws attention to Lucian Blaga's opinion, brought forth in the study Orizont si stil in Trilogia culturii (Horizon and Style in the Trilogy of Culture), on the relation between this concept and contradictions of a philosophical, psychological and general-cultural nature in the development of historical stages: "in their temporal sequence, styles also have a historical dialectic, just like the cultural periods the expressions of which they are, thereby betraying their anaesthetic origin"114.2. Approaching the discipline Musical Stylistics from the perspective of researchBased on the general considerations of the term, this study proposes a didactic approach to style from the perspective of the most relevant theories and publications that have appeared throughout the ages. In this regard, the relation between style and rhetoric is important in understanding the discipline, starting from the conceptions of some of the ancient philosophers. In Aristotle's vision, the eloquence of discourse depends on the manner in which it is exposed. This is one of the defining characteristics of rhetoric as regards the art of oral persuasion, or the purpose of the message, establishing three phases of style (plain, humilis; medium, mediocrus; grand, grans). This particularization was also applied in the classification of literary genres until the Middle Ages (according to the tragic or comic styles)115.As regards sound, the reflection on the international models produces by the various cultures - oriental maqamat, ancient Greek hymns and other monodies (Delphic Hymn, Seikilos Skolion Epitaph), Byzantine modes, Gregorian sequences, medieval secular songs - entails not only the analysis of linguistic parameters (i.e. the belonging to various modal structures, the establishment of rhythm categories), but also the knowledge and understanding of the ethos, religious and historic conceptions of various civilizations, attempting all the while to establish the importance of music within other disciplines and fields of activity.In the evolution of the ancient musical eras, more precisely in Ars Antiqua , through the two creators, Leonin and Perotin (promoters of incipient polyphonic genre and works), one of the representatives of medieval secular music, Adam de la Halle and, most importantly, Guillaume de Machaut (La Messe de Notre Dame) in the 14th century, the increasing importance given to compositional techniques, language processes and, especially, to the role of the creator in the artistic and intellectual society of the era, as author of full works, belonging to secular or religious genres, is emphasized. Only a few aspects have determined Alexandru Leahu to comment on the fact that style could derive from that "maniera di comporre"116, an idea taken over from Le Institutione harmoniche, Gioseffo Zarlino's Treaty which appeared in 1558. …

8. Therapeutic and Educational Potential of Combining Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Art – Qualitative Analysis of a Case Study

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe cognitive behavioural therapy originated in 1970s by integrating behavioural therapy and cognitive therapy. The essence of behavioural therapy is an analysis of an individual's apparent behaviour in a problem situation, and its core principle is to strengthen desirable behaviour. The aim of cognitive therapy is to analyse thinking, opinions, beliefs and attitudes. Generally speaking, the cognitive behavioural therapy attempts to analyse maladaptive patterns of thinking and behaviour, explain how these patterns originated and what maintains them, and in the course of therapy helps the patient substitute them with more suitable, constructive and effective strategies to mitigate or eliminate the patient's negative emotional experience.(Chandler, L., Dahlqust, C. 2002). The core features of the cognitive behavioural therapy are as follows. These include:* Time limitation.* Structured nature and directiveness.* Intensive therapist-client cooperation.* Focus on the present.* Concreteness and boundedness of the monitored phenomena.* Scientific nature.* Educative nature.* Primary focus on problem maintaining factors.* The therapeutic procedures applied are not the aim themselves, but rather a means to achieve a particular objective agreed between the client and the therapist in advance.* CBT focuses on specific changes in life.* CBT is of a scientific nature.* The ultimate goal of CBT is client independence. (Prasko, 2007)The Cognitive behavioural psychotherapy (CBT) is, just like other psychotherapeutic systems, of an eclectic nature. However, its eclecticism is not boundless. Should a therapist be successful across a wide range of issues, he/she needs to be adaptable, flexible and eclectic in terms of the techniques applied. An ethical therapist will use techniques that seem beneficial irrespective of their origin. However, the therapist must be cautious before enforcing any theories that brought forth a specific procedure. In fact, methods or techniques can be effective for reasons other than those that gave rise to them. Eclectically oriented therapists use a wide range of interventions; however, they adhere to individual theoretical structures. (Lazarus, 2005) The following text concerning the combination of art and CBT is based on this assumption.2. Selected methods of cognitive behavioural therapy and their combination with artExposure methodsAvoiding unpleasant situations and security behaviour leads to maintaining negative convictions. Therefore it is important that therapy encourages the client to actively face situations that he/she fears. CBT methods suggest that an individual is repeatedly and systematically exposed to situations that lead to anxiety. (Prasko, 2007). Prasko further describes the importance of exposure. After being exposed to a stimulus that causes fear and anxiety, very quickly - within a few tens of seconds - the feelings experienced by the client become very unpleasant, and sometimes unbearable. This period is referred to as the sensitization stage of anxiety. If the client aborts the exposure during this stage, anxiety decreases quickly, but is of the same intensity next time. The next stage is called habituation - this is a period during which anxiety maintains roughly the same level. This can last from several minutes to several tens of minutes. Habituation time extends, if anxiety is maintained by automatic anxious thoughts. After some time, however, anxiety decreases - this period is called desensitization. Even during desensitization anxiety might increase temporarily, but gradually decreases to an acceptable level. If the client is repeatedly exposed to feared stimuli and situations, anxiety gradually decreases to a lower level and habituation time shortens. Generally speaking, after repeated exposures, anxiety disappears completely from specific situations. In some cases, a single exposure is sufficient to eliminate anxiety. …

1. Several Considerations on the Settlements and Buildings of the First Neolithic Period on Romanian Territory

Abstract: 1. CHARACTERISTICS OF ENTIRE NEOLITHIC PERIOD ON THE ROMANIAN TERRITORYShorter than the Palaeolithic but much more dynamic, the entire period of the Neolithic is characterised by the superior technique of polishing stone and the production of ceramics. In the Neolithic, people start to create and appreciate beauty (the purpose of the Palaeolithic art had not been an aesthetic one). On Romanian territory, the Neolithic (cca 6 600/5 500203 - cca 3 800, 3 700 (3 500 BC)204) lies on the foundation of the Neolithic which came from the south of the Balkan Peninsula; the new cultures had strong contacts with the Mesolithic found here which led to the destruction of the latter's populations205. Consequently, the first Neolithic cultures belong to meridional populations with a pre-Indo-European character; the end of the Neolithic civilisation will be a gradual one and will be brought by the invasion of Eastern tribes, coming from North-Pontic steppes. Man's transformation from hunter and picker to farmer and shepherd could not occur without polishing tools which had been only carved before. Communities become stable, sedentary and live in secure settlements with a producing economy.Neolithic settlementsIn the Neolithic people found their permanent settlements near running waters on heights or hills to control the neighbouring areas206. Temporary Palaeolithic huts were gradually replaced. From hollow settlements in the beginning (either round or oval of approx. 20 sq.m. and even over 100 sq.m.)207 - living holes are the oldest types of Neolithic settlement -, reaching solid constructions elevated at surface, with a rectangular pillar beam structure of resistance to fit families with many children. Communities consist of families and common interests start to be important, not just the degree of relatedness.Neolithic beliefsThe entire Neolithic period is responsible for the spread of the cult of the Great Mother Goddess, as well as the cult of fecundity and fertility as shown by the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines; the cult of the dead is also generalised - all these were sporadic in the Palaeolithic. As proven by the representations and sanctuaries, there is a complex spiritual life, the religious system being a dualistic one organised around two symbolic characters: the feminine one, the Universal Mother, the god that subordinated the cosmos and was symbol of fecundity and the masculine one, first reincarnated from the Taurus and then, gradually, and with anthropomorphic representation, subordinated in relation of filiation with feminine divinity208. The cult of the dead (also less encountered in the Palaeolithic) will also be generalised. We still do not know much about their conceptions on death: people probably believed in the afterlife, therefore they buried their dead wearing jewellery and objects they considered necessary in another existence. Inhumation has started to be practised ever since the middle Palaeolithic209 when the body was buried in squatting or sleeping position and there had been various burial rituals.2. INFORMATIONS ON THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD ON ROMANIAN TERRITORYCultures in the Early NeolithicIn the first period of the Neolithic - the early (old) Neolithic (cca 6 600/5 500210 - 5 500211/4 500 BC212) - man's main occupation was to grow plants and the communities were always seeking fertile fields (nomad agriculture), which led to the detachment of some groups and their swarming213 on bigger or smaller places, the current of neolithisation going from South to North (from the Anatolian-Hellenic-Balkan space to the Danube and the Carpathians). Where they settled, south Neolithic communities influenced by assimilation and acculturation the local Epipaleolithic communities which also perpetuated traditional cultural elements which led to the rise of many cultural groups and cultures in the Balkans.The stage of formation of the two cultural types (the one of first neolithic ceramic communities settled in the Carpathian-Balkan area, as well as the one in which the synthesis with local Epipaleolithic groups occurs) is a period of expansion for the cult of the Great Mother Godess as well as artistic definition of the future iconographic types and the shape of a stylistic tendency of the entire Neolithic by stylisation and geometrisation. …

4. Evaluation of Programmes in Psychomotor Therapy

Abstract: 1. Introduction189The goal of the paper is to analyze and evaluate programmes in psychomotor therapy, which were realized and published in master's theses of therapeutic educators. The goal of the evaluation was an effort to capture effective factors in psychomotor therapy in therapeutic education in its application in various client groups. The paper is constructed as a review study and a meta-analysis of conducted researches; however, it is based on the original research data, not on the analyses of findings. Researches published in the years 2000-2013 and realized as diploma researches of students of therapeutic education in the area of psychomotor therapy were included in the study. First, the authors of the paper define psychomotor therapy in therapeutic education and its place within the art therapies. They point out the components of psychomotor (neuromotor, sensory-motor, psychomotor and social-motor), which represent the establishing paradigms of setting goals in psychomotor therapy and the consecutive understanding of its effective factors. Expression of the clients in their own way becomes an artistic creative action in psychomotor therapy. People do not execute movements of the body automatically, but in a deeper connection with their mental activity and social interactions. The importance of body work in psychotherapy was, for example, proved by Davis190. Art in movement is a means of self-expression also for people who do not have the possibility to express verbally and it has very strong positive therapeutic effects.The first part of the study is oriented descriptively. It outlines the external factors of realized psychomotor programmes: target group from the perspective of the problem solved or the area of support and from the biodromal perspective (pre-natal age, early age, pre-school age, primary and secondary school age, adolescence, adulthood and senior age); frequency of sessions; length of programme and the number of recorded sessions.The second part of the study is oriented analytically. The authors processed psychomotor programmes from the perspective of the components of psychomotor and evaluated them on a five-point scale according to the presence of these components as effective factors of psychomotor therapy. Based on this evaluation, the authors interpret the research results in the context of the theory of psychomotor therapy and its usage in various groups of clients.2. Theoretical background of psychomotor therapyMovement is a part of human being. It is present in heartbeat, breathing or blinking of the eye. Except the area of the human body, everything is surrounded by movement - in everyday life, in blowing of the wind, in rising of the sun during the day. Already in the past, movement was considered one of the ways in which the unconscious can gain a concrete form.191 According to Szabova192, movement is everywhere around us, it was connected with the development of our planet, the creation and development of life and humankind. Movement accompanies our life; it is in the air, water, fire, earth or in the nature. Movement is an expression of life, a means of communication and a source of self-awareness. It is a basic necessity of life. These all are definitions of movement as such. Psychomotor therapy is therapy through movement. It uses the characteristics of movement and its dynamics for expression of people. The main theoretical background of psychomotor therapy is psychomotor itself. This term first appeared before the end of the 19th century, then, however, describing an area of psychology dealing with the study of perception.193 Psychomotor in its most simple meaning indicates a close connection of motor functions (somatic activity) with psyche (mental activity). In this context, Kiphard194 wrote that the mental and physical area a human are in such close relationship that we have to look at them as at two sides of one happening. He also mentioned that psychomotor as such in its broader concept may be divided into certain components: neuromotor, sensory-motor, psychomotor and social-motor. …

10. Strategic Dimensions of Permanent Musical Education as a Part of the Development of Personality’s Musical Culture

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe issue of education in contemporary society acquires new connotations, determined especially by the unprecedented changes in all areas of social life. The education goes beyond national standards and values and aspires to universality, to the common values of humanity's heritage. Thus lifelong learning occupies an important role in the formation of the personality. Contemporary educational ideal aims at developing the human potential to create a harmonious and creative personality, able to practise the competency with optimal yield. It aims at developing the most important human qualities: attitudes, skills, motivations, ideals etc. As the society is changing, generating new demands in education, it means that man, at his turn, must be a good receptor of the educational action, particularly referring to the artistic phenomenon that is "educational it self " [4], and has a continuous impact on the whole life. Art, that gives the possibility to the subject to live differently and, at the same time, creates the subject's inner world, participates actively at the creation of the individuality, ensuring his "full life" [10]. In general, the art education is efficient when, the taught personality is regarded as an agent, but not an object.2. DiscussionsSubject-centered approach in the educational process means that the student is the subject of this process. Consequently, the educational process is to ensure conditions for the student's active participation in it. I. S. Bruner says that to train somebody does not mean storing of information, but it means student's active participation in gathering knowledge [4]. Art, from this point of view, has a well known educational force. According to the European education current perspective, art education is a continuous individual spiritual self-realization process of the personality. This process is realized through many forms of contact with the fine arts, these being ways of reflecting the universe.The Romanian psychologist M. Stefan asserts: ,,All education derives from the experience of child social situation" [4], educational environment representing all the conditions under which the educational action develops. In the theory of psychological functions development, the great Russian teacher L. Vigotskii notices: ,,... any function in the child's culture development manifests its double appearance, initially - in the social sphere, then in the psychological one; first - in the society as an interpsychological factor, later - inside the child as an intrapsychological category" [5]. In the field of pedagogy, this configuration of the factors existing in the development of an educational act is educational (educative, pedagogical) environment. The concept was defined by the Romanian researcher D. Todoran as ,,a structural and functional complex of forces (,,subjective" and ,,objective") which determines the human spiritual growth and development" [8]. The content of education has a larger sphere than the contents of the educational process, the last one being represented only by the suggested and organized by school values. The education includes values which pupils assimilate by methods and means less systemized than the educational ones, outside the school.The up-to-date vision on European education treats the notion of artistic (musical) education as an individual continuous process of personality spiritual self-realization by multiple forms of contact with the fine arts these being ways of reflecting the universe in which the person is retrieved as a component, musical culture representing the core of personality culture in general. Art education comprises values that students assimilate permanently through methods and means less systematic than those didactic. The family, the religious, cultural and art institutions, media etc. are considered educational resources and they have a great influence on the personality. Spiritual development by / for art is done under the influence of a group of internal and external factors. …

Didactic Strategies for the Development of Professional Musical Hearing

Abstract: 1. MUSICAL HEARING - ESSENTIAL CONDITION FOR THE TRAINING OF FUTURE ARTISTSMusical hearing is a set of skills or native predispositions necessary for the training of future musicians, traits that should be identified and developed since the first years of the pre-school period (3 years old). If we talk about specialized types of education, these skills, native qualities, are tested through a detailed examination, organized before the first year of primary school. The oral tests which condition the success of a child at the admission exam in the first class at a musical high school include: detection of the melodic musical hearing or, respectively, harmonic, of the sense of rhythm and musical memory. Without these early native data that will develop over the years, children will not be able to study and especially to perform in the musical field.As Ion Gagim states, this area was always fascinating. Thus, ''research on the issue of musical skills has started even since the nineteenth century through the works of C. Stumpf (1883, 1890), T. Billroth (1895), A. Faist (1897), M. Meyer (1898) etc. /.../. According to Revesz, musicality itself includes, among other qualities, the faculty of aesthetic enjoyment through music, the ability to get into its disposition, to capture the form and construction of the phrase, the subtle sense of style. K. Seashore, on the contrary, interpreted musicality as a sum of separate talents, unconnected, classifying them into five major groups: auditory sensation and perception, musical action (the musical act itself), musical memory and musical imagination, musical intellect, musical sensitivity. (...)" 57.In the stages of school learning, the mental development of the child is the main reference in the process of acquiring knowledge, of skills and abilities formation, ,,the continuous restructuring and training process of certain characteristics, processes, functions and psycho-behavioural structures through the subjective capitalization of the socio - historical experience, in order to amplify the body's adaptive possibilities"58. If we take into account the main stages of mental development of the child, as they are broadly discussed in the volumes concerning age-related psychology by Jean Piaget, Ursula Schiopu etc., we can follow and establish a number of ways of training and development of musical skills and abilities for each age.Although the contact of the child with music occurs even since the first year of life, we can really talk about a first stage of development in the artistic direction beginning with preschool (3 years old), known under the name of preoperative intelligence stage, when the child develops from a mental point of view, acting particularly with objects. During this period, the affective-emotional side is predominant, having an unquestionable value for the child, music being regarded as a particularly relevant field. In this sense, we can organize various activities for learning music through age-appropriate songs, accompanied by movement, through actual games, through exercises for developing musical memory, hearing, etc.2.MUSIC THEORY-CONCEPTUAL AND PRAGMATIC. FRAMEWORK IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL HEARINGMusic Theory - Solfeggio - Dictation is the basic subject in the development of musical reading and writing skills, in the development of hearing, memory and thinking. ,, In this context, the issue of the development of skills, abilities, capabilities for receiving and decoding the musical text must not be limited to revealing a primary linear order (...), but it must be oriented, as much as possible, towards a tree development, simultaneous, that would include advanced aspects of musical thinking (dynamics of tonal organization, morphological and syntactic articulations, basic transformational processes etc.)"59. Referring to children following the intensive study of music in specialized high schools, we can say that around the age of 6, the learning and understanding ability of the child increases, compared to the pre-school period, being doubled by the desire to know better the surrounding reality. …

8. From Thales to Berio: Water as a Common Theme of Philosophy, Physics, and Music

Abstract: 1. IntroductionTeachers can stress the unity of knowledge proposing interdisciplinary projects centered on a common theme, and guiding their pupils at focusing on the links among different points of view. Water may be an interesting theme to reflect on. For many centuries natural philosophers focused on the problem of the nature of matter and its transformations. The Greek philosopher Thales (c. 624-548 B.C.), centered his research on water, positing that it could be the basic element which gave rise to everything in the world75. The first observation might have been that water can readily be observed in the three physical states of liquid water, ice, and steam. Moreover, it is quite usual that coasts and river banks show a constant increase in size, and this may have suggested the belief that water had the capacity to thicken into earth. This theory has been proven wrong only in the eighteenth century, following experiments of Antoine Lavoiser (1743-1794).Furthermore, the high concentration of nutrients in wetland water, which feeds different species of plants and animals, gave rise to the theory of spontaneous generation. This misconception was disproved only in the nineteenth century, as a result of the work of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). Indeed, it is quite unsurprising that water has been considered of major importance to all living things; we know now that in some organisms, up to 90% of their body weight comes from water, and in the human adult body up to 60% is water. After Thales, also the Sicilian poet and philosopher Empedocles (495-430 B.C.) centered his research on the basic elements (water, earth, air, and fire), which he called roots, defining them as both, material substances and spiritual essences76.2. DiscussionsAlso modern psychology focuses on these elements, considering them as archetypes, that is universal structures in the collective unconscious77. Besides scientists and natural philosophers, also many musicians pointed their attention on waterbodies, such as seas, lakes, sources, and on precipitations as snow and rain. Among these composers are Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), whose Concerto in E flat major RV 253 for violin, string and basso continuo, is called "The sea storm", Ernest Bloch (1880-1959), who wrote Poems of the Sea, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) who composed Au lac de Wallenstadt and Au bord d'une source, and Claude Debussy (1862-1918) who wrote Jardins sous la pluie and Des pas sur la neige. However, in this article I limit the scope of my research to the examination of some pieces whose titles refer exactly to the general term "water": Les jeux d'eau a la villa d'Este, by Liszt, Reflets dans l'eau, by Debussy, Jeux d'eau by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), and Wasserklavier by Luciano Berio (1925-2003).In these pieces the composers hinted to specific characteristics of water - fluidity, undulation, wetness, and reflectivity - and depicted them using musical means. Fluidity may be defined as the state of a substance whose molecules move freely past one another. This characteristic can be depicted by means of ceaseless motion: such an effect can be obtained using specific intervals, rhythmic figurations, and meter changes. In the selected pieces there is a frequent use of particular intervals, such as seconds and fourths, which are quite unstable tone combinations. The tension deriving from this instability demands an onward motion to more stable combinations such as thirds and fifths78.Fluidity is enhanced also by fast figurations, which may be written out in short value notes, such as sixteenth-note, thirty-second-note, or sixty-fourth-note values, as in the following examples,or prescribed by specific directions included in the score: in Wasserklavier a footnote recommends to perform grace notes and arpeggios very fast. A third way in which fluidity can be alluded to is by means of irregular groups and meter changes, as we can see in the following examplesUndulation is depicted by means of melodies based on ascending and descending scales and arpeggios, which are frequently repeated with some minor changes, conferring to the passage a substantial staticity. …

Evaluation of an Art Therapy Programme for Clients with Difficult Life Situations

Abstract: 1. Art therapy in SlovakiaIn the circumstances of Slovakia, art therapy is a relatively young field in the framework of expressive therapies. In the context of this paper, art therapy is understood as healing through visual art302. From a historical point of view, art therapy has been included in the studies of Therapeutic Education at the Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava since 1967. After the beginning of normalization, the studies of therapeutic education were forcefully interrupted for twenty years. Only in the 1990's, with the rehabilitation of the field of therapeutic education, the possibility to study art therapy was reestablished. Roland Hanus was one of the art therapy representatives. The pioneer of contemporary history of art therapy in Slovakia, Jaroslava Sickova-Fabrici gave birth to the foundations of a complex perspective of art therapy (Basics of art therapy, 2002). In 2000, the organization Terra therapeutica and its centre were founded. Its main activities include organizing individual and group art therapy for children, youth and adults with various problems303. Currently, it is possible to study art therapy within the field of therapeutic education and also at the Institute of education in art therapy, in connection with the civic organization. In Slovakia, art therapy is contained also in the education of helping professionals (therapeutic education, special education, social education, social work or psychology) and artists as a part of supportive programmes within particular fields (psychosocial rehabilitation, social rehabilitation, crisis intervention and re-socialization).304 In 2012, Slovak Art Therapy Association was founded in Slovakia. Other than gathering art therapists (professionals who use art therapy in their practice and fulfil the art therapy education requirements), the goals of the association include professionalization of the field of art therapy.2. Art therapy for clients with difficult life situationsThe prevailing treatment of mental disorders is mostly biologically oriented. Most of the clients with a mental illness belong to the group of people with difficult life situations. Especially within the treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation of people with mental illnesses, art therapy and its use carries a long tradition in Slovakia. Based on research results from 2006, Grohol305 mentions that art therapy is used in treatment or psychosocial rehabilitation of people with mental disorders in 93.3% of these institutions. Working with clients with mental illnesses, Andre306 states that the treatment of a person with a mental disorder goes beyond the biological frame of a more or less lifelong treatment and therefore the usage of art therapy is another possibility of supporting the client. Fabry Lucka307 pointed out also the necessity of supporting the family of the client in their competences of helping and keeping resilience.Working with a client with a mental disorder, art therapy creates space as a means of communication 308, as a means of reflecting problems, anger, depression, chaos, fear, and despair. Their materialisation into a product of art helps integrate these feelings as a part of themselves309. Through the art work, clients can be brought to understanding themselves, their inner processes and situations in which they reside. It helps to map, find a way, correct and solve life challenges. The tradition of art therapy itself is empowered by the research work and professional praxis of therapeutic educators. Art therapy is used, for example in work with people with addictions310, in treatment and rehabilitation of people with mental illnesses at specialized clinics - for example, Orosova, within her work, focused on patients with a borderline personality disorder311, at psychiatric departments of hospitals, at specialized hospitals, institutions of social services and day care centres312. Penzes et al.313 claim that by observing the reactions of the client, the (art) therapist gains insight into the mental health and feelings of the client during the art therapy intervention. …

5. Bessarabian in the Modern Engraving Constitution and Interference with its European Art

Abstract: 1. IntroductionDeveloping as artistic phenomenon in the Russian culture and European ambiance, but spaced considerably in time and space, Bessarabian modern art has its beginnings in the 90s of the nineteenth century and is considered as a process of 2-3 decades of twentieth century, marking the first appearance of professional artists on our land. Most of them were from Bessarabia and this moment was fully revealed in the way of reflecting picturesque reality of the landscape.Bessarabian engraving in modern times and its interference with European art continues to be known only in general, as well as other kinds of arts. There are known authors and works discovered in Chisinau and Bucharest's museums, in the archives of Estampa Ofice of the Romanian Academy and in National Archive of Republic of Moldova. Thus, while providing a solid background of works, engraving permanently identify with the general notion of graphics or prints, easel graphic or lithography. Therefore, the kind of art concerned is diverse and "diluted" in the ambiance of other areas, remains little known both in the local and in neighboring artistic space, being in the shadow of all artistic events in Chisinau. This point is reflected by the artists and their works even in moment of appearance of Bessarabian professional engraving in the interwar period. Initially, engraving has reflected in miniature styles and general trends in European art of the respective epoch, selectively addressing the general topic, characteristic to the genre, but also having its specific peculiarities.2. DiscussionsStudying the creative activities, and exhibitions of Basarabians convince us that under the influence of itinerant exhibitions in Chisinau is established the Amateur Arts Society of Bessarabia (1903), among its founders appearing Vasile Blinov, Alexander Climasevschi and Vladimir Ocusco271. The creation of this first association following the model on those structures in Russia and Ukraine was an important phenomenon for the local culture, encouraging professional development of Bessarabian professional art.With the change of political situation, following the union of Bessarabia and Romania, artistic life is increasing in the area of Bessarabian painters interests pervade Western art styles and guidelines. At the initiative of Alexander Plamadeala, and Vladimir Donchev, Auguste Baillayre and former members of the Amateur Arts Society in 1921 in Chisinau is founded Fine Arts Society of Bessarabia272.And the first, and second company, appeared in Chisinau, were based inside the urban Drawing School, and later - at the School of Fine Arts, being permanent centers of artistic activity in Bessarabia. Professional art, including engraving, appeared in Orthodox environment due to founding artistic education institutions, which stimulated the emergence of art genres, reported to the European ones but also those areas that represented. This process has developed differently in different regions, sometimes at distances of decades.Thus the beginnings of the specialized studies in the Principality of Moldavia are inextricably linked to the name of Gheorghe Asachi (Mihaileanu Academy in Iasi, 1839) and Gheorghe Panaiteanu Bardasare, who founded the Fine Arts School in Iasi (1864) 273. In Bessarabia, as it is known, the occurrence of initial training forms of fine arts dates back to only the 1887, at a considerable distance for the creation of such institutions in neighboring countries. It is these complex moments and stylistic of certain guidelines issued identification, that show only by the first decade of the twentieth century, they have conditioned the appearance of late modern art and engraving Bessarabia.The beginning of the new century (XX) attest Bessarabian art only a decade of experience and a professional activity (the first evening school of drawing appears in Chisinau in 1887 and is due to Terinte Zubcu Fellow of the Academy of Arts in St. …

14. Distinctive Features of Music Education in Iaşi: An Overview after 155 Years

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe historical research of music education in Iasi has a deep -rooted tradition. In the beginning, it was Teodor T. Burada (considered to be the first Romanian musicologist) who, in significant studies153 published in the 8th and 9th decades of the 19th century, described the School, later the Conservatory of Music and Declamation, within the cultural ambience of the city of Iasi in those times. The rigorous and objective Annual written by Alexandru Aurescu in 1905154 was also of cardinal importance in this respect. This volume was meant to be part of the work of the National Exhibition organized in 1906 to celebrate 40 years of the reign of King Carol I of Romania, to show "the progress made by the Romanian people under his happy and wise reign"155.The ambitions and the accomplishments of music education in the city of Iasi of the first half of the 20th century and of the following decade were recorded by the professor and musicologist George Pascu, who produced scientific and cultural well-founded research dedicated to the Conservatory upon celebrating 100 years of existence156. The events that followed were recorded by Professor Mihail Cozmei, who published successive volumes on this topic up to 2010157. The research which focused on the history of the institution can be correlated with and complemented by the information published in books dedicated to music issues, periods and personalities in Iasi. 158This study is based on personal research, valorized firstly (2009) in the broadcasting of 12 radio programs under the slogan Iasi, people and music159, secondly by dictionary articles (2014-2015), published (or in the process of being published) in Grove Music Online 160, and thirdly by participating as co-author in creating the monographic volume 155 Years of Modern Artistic Education in Iasi161. In this article, I intend to identify and to argue the distinctive features of the school of music of Iasi, which are formulated as premises for research, as follows:1. openness to assimilate a variety of pedagogic and cultural influences, both from Europe and from Romania;2. the role played by leading personalities, musicians - professors, in rising performance levels and in perpetuating the project;3. valorizing Romanian music traditions - liturgical songs of Byzantine origin and regional folklore - through education (specializations, courses, creative activities and music performance);4. the constant involvement of music education in concerts and musical performances in Iasi.2. Openness to assimilate a variety of pedagogic and cultural influences, both from Europe and Romania2.1. Premises for establishing Western-style music education in IasiIt may seem surprising to the Romanian researchers today that, in a city with a deep-rooted tradition of Byzantine religious music schooling (The Vasilian College attached to the Three Hierarchs Monastery, 1640, Seminar from Socola, 1802), and in a city placed under Phanariote rule for a century (1711-1821), thus cultivating the Turkish-Greek court music, as well as Gypsy fiddler music, the first European music institution - The Philharmonic Dramatic Conservatory - was already established in 1836, followed by The School of Music and Declamation in 1860.The cultural mutation produced in the middle of the 19th century can only be explained by taking into account several coexisting phenomena, the effects of which have lingered for a long time in the background. I am referring first of all to the constant influence of Polish Catholicism162 and to the introduction of German Protestantism (Schola latina from Cotnari, 1563). To the same extent, the neighboring Russian culture became, at the beginning of the 18th century (1711 - the visit of Tsar Peter the Great to Iasi), a means by which European cultivated music163 was able to penetrate Romania. The French and Italian immigrants who settled in Iasi after 1800 (also in the aftermath of the terror of the French Revolution), who included trained musicians164, some of whom become professors of music for the boyars, also played a fundamental role. …

3. The Fields of Arts the General Education System the Republic of Moldova

Abstract: 1. IntroductionFrom ancient times till present, arts are included in education. The antic phrase "man developed armonis" is still not losing its topicality. "Art is the essence of the being", according to the French philosopher of Bessarabian origin, Stefan Lupascu [Apud: 15, p.18]. The modern reality confirms that by excluding art from a child's life, is like excluding education from his life. Educating the person is the common purpose of pedagogics and arts. In the human society, art operates under different aspects: (a) practical-utilitarian (accompanying different daily activities related to labour, holidays, cult, ritual); (b) general-aesthetic (embellishing life); (c) artistic (artistic creations and artistic performances as concerts, festivals, vernisages, plays, exhibitions, etc.) [6, p. 37].In C. Cucos's opinion [4, p.22], the new performances of the social, cultural and technological praxis activate new arguments for grounding the educational efforts through arts, on the following grounds: 1. Axiological, 2. Cultural, 3. Related to self-realization and self-affirmation of the person, 4. Sympathetic, sharing the experiences and mutual acceptance, 5. The grounds of the identity structure and formation, 6. The grounds of the positive use of the time, 7. The grounds of the projection and transparency of the individual and humanity, 8. The grounds of the creativity potential, 9. The grounds of modelling the existence according to the artistic exemplarity. These grounds represent arguments for the support of the need of a coherent and responsible effort, inspired by pedagogical foundation of the artistic education realized within the school.In I.Gagim's opinion, understanding the relationship "man - art" in the educational act depends on its functions [6, p.22-23]: gnoseological, axiological, hedonistic, suggestive, illuminist, communicative, heuristic, catharsis, esthetical, educative. All these functions could be summed up to four forms of attraction for art [10, p.6]: 1. In its largest meaning, art may be entertaining; 2. Art can attract by its power of reflect reality, natural world or that of the thoughts and actions of the humans; 3. Art provokes aesthetic attraction, through which the beauty is perceived from art and life; 4. Art offers a hierarchy of the psychological, moral and spiritual values.As N. Hartmann states [8], the world created through the work of art is a world existing through its value, but it exists for a living spirit, interfering twice: (1) in the modelling of the artistic matter and its impregnation with the spiritual content, (2) in the receipt and recognition of what the creating spirit incorporated in the work of art. From this perspective, the values of education through the intermediary of all fields of art, if selected carefully, can become future life values of student's personality. Artistic cognition, specific to all types of art, are realized by means of emotional sufferings-imagination-thinking-artistic creation, being oriented towards self-knowledge and towards the creation of the inner human universe [13, p. 10].How do arts configure in the general education system and which are the perspectives of their practical use in education? We will answer to these questions on the basis of the general education system from the Republic of Moldova. The word "field" comes from the French word domaine, the latin dominum. As regards arts, this term means a sector, a sphere of activity, area, unit, sphere. Therefore, the field of an art is not limited to a school subject or a certain type of art.2. The status of arts in the education systemAccording to the classic, traditional concept, the aesthetic education is often limited to the level of artistic education or the perception of artistic education supposes only one "pattern of aesthetic education, exemplary through its capacities of modelling sensitivity, rationality and human creativity" [13, p. …

6. Brief History of Fixed do Solmization in Japan

Abstract: 1. IntroductionThe Fixed DO Solmization is used mostly in non Anglo-Saxon areas. The definitions of Fixed and Movable DO systems and Solmization vary, depending on the topics, contexts and background of the authors. In this paper, the terms are generally used as follows:- Fixed DO - is note names, and also solmization syllables. The dual nature normally combines the symbols in the staff notation, note names and their actual pitches;- Movable DO - is solmization syllables normally used in conjunction with letter note names, whilst not exclusive. It represents the relative intervals from the key notes of each piece or section of music;- Solmization - is part of musicianship training of music reading, normally using DoReMi syllables and a pupil`s own voice.2. DiscussionsThe two systems, Fixed and Movable DO, have long been in constant debate and comparison, whilst the two systems are very different and cannot be subject to direct comparison. In Movable DO, for example, the entire process is based on the theory of key and Tonic, while Fixed DO is merely reading or singing note names with their actual pitch. What is meant by the word `sense of key` is also different. Movable DO educators mean relative sense of intervals and their positions within the scale, while Fixed DO educators mean simply different colours of different tonalities. Moreover, it is often criticised as if Fixed DO confuses #, b and natural in one syllable (1:4, 2:366), possibly because Movable DO needs different names for different pitch intervals. In the Fixed DO practice, distinction of chromatic names is less important. Fa# is often called Fa if there is not enough time to sing, omitting the word but keep thinking Fa# in mind. For example, MiReMiReMiSiReDoLa- is easily understood as `For Elise without using the two Re#s. The two systems, therefore, simply have very different characteristics and process of sight-singing, that is, theoretical versus intuitional. The Fixed/Movable DO debate tends to polarise in specialist and generalist views, or professional sector and non-professionals (3), despite that Fixed DO is not the Absolute Pitch or talent-based skill of minority elite. In the areas where Fixed DO is used, Solfege/ Sorfeggio/ Formation Musicale is the most essential subject in musicianship training (4:48, 5, 6: 81, 7:71). Positive examples of Fixed DO can be seen not only in Latin language and former USSR countries but also in Japan where Fixed DO was introduced long after Movable DO.In the former USSR, for example, Fixed DO solfeggio is used as essential musicianship training. As Brainin notes, the `Russian solfeggio is a comprehensive musicianship training which develops `predicting ear` of music (8:2-3). It involves both fixed and relative pitch senses. The entire content of music education and consistency from infant to higher education has long been under strict quality control by professionals of music and music education (9:120), which enabled pupils transferring between specialist- and non specialist- sectors smoothly. It is worth mentioning that school pianos in some Eastern European countries are rarely in tune, and can be as flat as half or more tone. The very out of tune piano that Western researchers sometimes created for Absolute Pitch research purposes is merely a conventional school instrument in this area. Teachers and pupils therefore have to allow some flexibility in `fixed` and absolute pitch sense, in another word, flexibility and relative pitch sense within their Fixed DO system.Japan probably is a unique example in the Fixed/Movable DO comparison. The national music school (Tokyo Music School, est. 1879) initially used English and Japanese note names with Cipher system, since the first official foreign music teacher was from the USA. By the 20th century, German teachers became the major influence, and this was eventually replaced by German and Japanese note names with Movable DO (10). …