The Multimedia Technologies Applications indd

Bibliography
• CRHA, B. - JURČÍKOVÁ, T. - PRUDÍKOVÁ, M. (2010). Výzkum využití multimediál-
ních technologií v hudební výchově. Zpráva z grantového specifi ckého výzkumu MUNI/
A/1025/2009. (Research into the Use of Multimedia Technologies in Music Education. 
Report from the Specifi c Research Project MUNI/A/1025/2009). Teoretické refl exe hudeb-
ní výchovy (Theoretical Refl exions of Music Education), Brno, Masarykova univerzita. 
ISSN 1803-1331, 2010, vol. 6, no. 1, 288 p., [on-line] (studium/doktor/vyzkumna_zprava/obsah.htm>).
• KNOPOVÁ, B. (1989). Hudebně pohybové činnosti (Musical Movement Activitis), candi-
date dissertation, Brno.

---

81
The Questions on the Vocal Repertoire in Music 
Education
Vladimír Richter
In the opinion of the music teaching community we notice the scepticism related 
to the decline of general songfulness in children and adults, the decadence of liste-
ners’ taste and dismal state of music education. This dissatisfaction with the state of 
music education has lasted in the professional community for dozens of years, and 
the feeling of scepticism usually grows with the age of teachers. School music edu-
cation has not long yielded satisfactory results in way of generating mass popularity 
of classical music genres or a general growth of music interpretation activities. Being 
aware of historical consequences, let’s now admit that desire for such goals is quite 
idealized. New interest preferences, greatly infl uenced by the development of infor-
mation technologies, come with new generations of pupils, an exceptional variety of 
listeners’ liking of various music entertainment genres, kinds and styles affected by 
the never-ending possibilities of recoding and distribution of music records is charac-
teristic of the present time. Besides the infl uence of school, the young generations are 
also shaped by more and more powerful manipulation by the show business industry 
which gives not only young members of cultural and musical communication the 
unequivocal role of passive consumers. No essential change in this trend was brought 
either by e.g. so called new concept of music education implemented into schools 
in the 1970’s, whose main idea was to activate the creativity in pupils in all aspects 
of music education. The above given sceptical views are not new, but in the present 
years, they may newly provoke the most basic fatal questions whether the meaning 
of the general music education at schools is still topical, or if it is worth existence at 
all.
In this situation we need to revive arguments that clearly support arts education 
at all stages of the school system, which have been collected by the professional 
community and have been tried and tested for 200 years practical acts – publishing 
of songbooks, music textbooks – and which was aptly formulated in the 20
th
century 
on the basis of scientifi c refl ection in the professional literature. (Vladimír Helfert 
wrote Basics of Music Education at General Schools – Základy hudební výchovy 
na nehudebních školách in 1930.) (H
ELFERT
1956). The latest representative ‘the Re-
search in Using of Multimedia Technologies in Music Education’ carried out by the 
Music Education Department of the Pedagogical Faculty of Masaryk University of-
fers relevant information on the present state of school public opinions on general as 
well as some sub-disciplinary problems of music education. Let’s take advantage of 
this rare occasion and pay closer attention to the question of singing: regarding the 

---

82
V
LADIMÍR
R
ICHTER
fact that singing is the main activity in music lessons and is gaining more and more 
popularity among pupils, topics, which are discussed again and again among profes-
sionals include updating of singing repertoire, maintaining or reducing the present 
rate of representation of folk songs in songbooks, possibility of implementation of 
popular music into the vocal education, defi ning criteria for alternative choice of 
popular songs suitable for work with children. Before we list the topical opinions 
introduced by the mentioned latest research, let’s look back into history, presuming 
that the present state is infl uenced by the historical situation.
Over a hundred textbooks for music education and songbooks have been publis-
hed in the Czech language since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Names of 
such personalities that are famous even beyond the sphere of general music education 
appear among authors of older textbooks for music education, e.g. Jakub Jan Ryba, 
Josef Leopold Zvonař, Jan Nepomuk Škroup, Roman Nejedlý, Josef Cyril Sychra, 
Bohuslav Jeremiáš. In the latter half of the 20
th
century similar authorship was part of 
music-pedagogical scientifi c erudition: this situation is presented by the appearance 
of such names as Jitka Snížková, Jan Budík, Ladislav Daniel, Radko Rajmon, Jaro-
slav Herden and others. All of the listed authors really cared for the development of 
general music education, and, besides their pursuit to cover basic topics of music the-
ory, they also always bore in mind the importance of rhythmical intonation practice, 
which was realized in close connection with the cultivation of vocal skills.
Folk songs have always been the core material for music education. It could be 
stated, without need for any perfect statistical data that they made about 50-60% of 
song material. In connection with dates of origin of textbooks, besides the description 
of music and text qualities, we can also fi nd motivation notes of the patriotic char-
acter, and comments on important secondary effects of arts activities in education. 
E.g. Ludvík Kozel in his Cvičebnice zpěvu pro školy měšťanské chlapecké i dívčí 
(Songbook for girls’ and boys’ basic schools): ‘...for educational purposes, the clear