Methodological functionality of the integrative approach in listening to music: Second garland, St. St. Mokranjac

Abstract

The Work of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac certainly represents the center of Serbian music history and Serbian musical culture as well. He showed a lot of interest in Serbian folk songs, which were the main inspiration for his creative work. His most significant works are his garlands. Garlands differ from similar musical pieces of other authors because Mokranjac did not reach any extreme when uniting folklore and artistic components in them. Many point out that this is precisely why the garlands represent a real artistic upgrade of folk art, not only their harmonization. Of particular importance is his innovative harmonic language. Therefore, his work must have a special place in the process of teaching music culture, if one considers that acquaintance with the one's own and other peoples' culture is one of the goals set by the teaching program.

The analysis of textbooks of music culture for the third grade of primary school showed that Mokranjac and his garlands were approached through the processing of folk song U Budimu gradu – the final song of the Second garland. Since the center of this particular lesson is certainly listening to music, during the analysis we emphasized the importance of asking adequate questions to students during the phase of selective listening (a stage in which special emphasis is placed on the analysis of musical characteristics such as tempo, dynamics, performers, etc., on the basis of which students expand their knowledge of music by listening to music). It turned out that one textbook did not anticipate the processing of this composition at all, and that only three gave students adequate tasks during selective listening.

This paper introduces a different approach, which implies that, through a series of five music culture lessons, all five folk songs, which inspired Mokranjac to write Second garland, will be processed and listening to the whole piece will be a natural upgrade to that. Particular emphasis is placed on the polyfunctional potential of folk songs, which implies that the songs of the Second garland have to fulfill some other teaching goals and tasks. The additional tasks that are accomplished during the processing of individual songs arise from the context which songs have in the music piece itself. Noticing the musical characteristics of the songs makes it easier for students to listen to the entire piece at the last of the five lessons. This is primarily related to the insistence on the dynamics and development of interpretive abilities in the song Osu se nebo zvezdama, playing harmonic accompaniment and initial work on the development of harmonic pitch in the song Jesam li ti, setting a new rhythmic figure in the song Smilj', Smiljana and playing a rhythmic arrangement with the characteristics of the rhythm of the baritone section in the song U Budimu gradu. Of course, it is also essential for students to work on reading the sheet music, because it is helping them develop the initial musical literacy. The sheet music is also important because it allows students to connect the sound of music to notes (music’s visual representation) and make it easier for them to understand the entire Second garland. This is achieved not only with songs that they can read, but also with those they learn by ear. This way, in addition to getting acquainted with the works of Stevan Mokranjac, students are able to complete other teaching tasks such as the work in initial music literacy, development of musical abilities, all through the framework of the Mokranjac’s Second garland