Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

38 Juvas Marianne Liljas
but during the 1800s the idea of education as a way to improve levels of general
knowledge came from Germany. The teaching focused on human values
such as humanity and aesthetics, and was directed towards the family
and the way in which children were brought up. One of the neo-humanistic
philosophers who adopted classical literature as an effective teaching tool
was Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852), the founder of the kindergarten (Uddén
2001, p. 182).
Singing took centre stage in Fröbel’s way of teaching, and he likened the
teacher to a head gardener who tends his plants with a loving hand: “Just as
the sun affects plants, so music affects children”, he wrote in a letter to Robert
Kohl. 34 (Fröbel, referred to in Uddén 2001, p. 204). He did not represent
school pedagogy, more a kind of family education. He collected his material
in the family songbook Mutter- und Koselieder (1844), the first three songs
in which are designed to awaken the infant’s spiritual and mental powers.
In his view, the vocal coaching of infants leads to the early development of a
natural form of self-expression in song. The next series of songs systematically
practises the child’s ability to memorise (Uddén 2001, pp. 193-195).
David Björling lovingly used metaphors about plants and seedlings, the different
seedlings probably referring to his sons: some grow by themselves
and support is given where necessary, namely to the weaker ones (Björling
n.d., p. 4). The growth of plants is synonymous with the growth of the voice,
which was close to David Björling’s heart.
A useful starting point for understanding David Björling’s teaching
methods is to consider the meaning of the term musical upbringing. It has
its roots in ancient times and appears in Plato’s thinking, according to which
music is character-forming (Liljas 2010, p. 140). Later on it formed the corner-stone
of Friedrich Fröbel’s pedagogical philosophy, and was based on
the term Gesang als Unterricht, the principles of which I compare with David
Björling’s method of raising children with the help of music (Liljas 2007,
pp. 400-406). The method was inherited from Johann Henrich Pestalozzi
(1746-1827), and was based in part on developing the child’s musical ear,
and in part on stimulating its receptiveness, but above all on giving it a noble
character (Uddén 2001, pp. 133, 138-140, 203f, 215; cf. Hodges 1989).
The roots of David Björling’s pedagogy were probably in the older German
educational tradition and the assumed beneficial effects of singing in
children’s upbringing: it was about exploiting the ability of the very small
child to learn through tuition in singing. He also seems to have taken in-
34 “Som solljuset berikar växterna så verkar musiken på barnet.” Robert Kohl was one
of the composers contributing to the songbook Mutter- und Koselieder 1844.