Exploring the Teaching of Solfeggio, Harmony and Counterpoint in Croatian Music Schools

Along with learning to play an instrument and singing by notes, theoretical music subjects are integral to formal music education at all levels. They aim to facilitate learning the musical language and elements necessary for understanding music, such as harmony, melody and rhythm. Their teaching is particular, considering that understanding musical phenomena requires systematic work on acquiring skills and knowledge. With the aim of a closer insight into the learning of theoretical music subjects, we investigated the methods1 and ways of organizing the teaching of the critical theoretical disciplines: Solfeggio, Harmony and Counterpoint. The research took place during the second semester of 2018/2019 school year and included 101 teachers from 24 primary and secondary music schools in 17 counties in Croatia. The results indicate that in Solfeggio, equal attention is paid to musical dictation and singing when practising intonation. At Harmony, teachers mainly implement a thoroughbass, but the most prominent method is the analysis of the examples from the literature. Species counterpoint dominate Counterpoint, but studying examples is the preferred method. Teachers' dissatisfaction with outdated learning concepts indicates the need to modernize theoretical disciplines through content that will be transferred to musical activities and enable the acquisition of skills to learn music.