It is often the tradition in newsletters such as this to include quotes attributed to Kodály. These are more often than not uplifting sayings that bolster the love each of us holds for working with others through singing and musicking. These quotes, presented without reference to context and too often as aphorisms, do little to call us to attend to critical engagement with what it is we believe. We live and work now, and have for quite some time, in spaces that too often do not afford support for the arts within the educative space. The globalization of capital and the free market agenda have effectively served to reward efficiency over artistry. Indeed, Kodály (1974), expressed this same worry when he writes, “…our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself as a machine.” We need remind ourselves, however, that the answer for Kodály lay in the aesthetic encounter entered and experienced through singing: “only the spirit of singing can save us from this fate” (p. 206). Singing, he counsels us, is more than a tool on a conveyor belt toward ‘literacy’; singing is the very essence of freedom.
Reference:
Kodály, Z., & Bónis, F. (1974). The selected writings of Zoltán Kodály. Boosey & Hawkes.
Cathy Benedict
KSO Vice-President
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