Music Education in the Focus of Historical Concepts and New Horizons

The 50th anniversary of the death in 1967 of the famous music teacher, ethnomusicologist and
composer Zoltán Kodály reminded us that another renowned music pedagogue, Leo Kestenberg
(1882-1962), was born in the same year as Kodály. As such, the joint Kodály Kestenberg Conference
provided a welcome opportunity not only to address aspects of music pedagogical and biographical
research which had hitherto received a limited amount of attention, but also to highlight a number of
key moments in history, and the resulting impact these had had on music pedagogy.
The significant level of international interest which music educators showed in the Kodály Kestenberg
Conference fulfilled the organisers' desire to create a forum for the free exchange ideas. It also
enabled participants to review our commonalities and differences and to look beyond our individual
national developments and evaluate the methods and concepts of two significant personalities in the
history of musical education in the first half of the 20th century.
The sheer diversity of historical and current topics in music education research both inside and
outside of Europe, not only reflects the fact that in the 21st century, music education research has
established and profiled itself in a wide range of sub-disciplines in addition to revealing new fields of
inter-disciplinary research.
The effectiveness of reforms initiated and implemented by Kodály and Kestenberg extend to the
present day and continue to influence discussions around the future perspectives of music education.
This is illustrated by the example of formal and informal learning in the field of elementary music
pedagogy. The "Century of the Child" proclaimed in 1900 by the Swedish reform pedagogue Ellen
Key (1849–1926) has left its mark on music education through reformers such as Kodály and
Kestenberg into the 21st century.
This conference book contains articles which are subdivided in five sub-categories: (1) The function
of Music Education, (2) The Historical Era of Kodály and Kestenberg, (3) Learning and Instruction,
(4) Assessment Technologies in Music Education and (5) Effects of Music Training. The contributors
come from six different countries namely, Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, Israel and
Luxembourg.
The editors would like to record their thanks to both: (1) the Pedagogical Faculty of the John von
Neumann University, Kecskemét and the dean Dr. Fülöp Tamás and the vice-dean Dr. Sági Norberta
for hosting the conference, (2) the International Leo Kestenberg Society. The editors also
acknowledge that this research is supported by EFOP-3.6.1- 16-2016-00006 “The development and
enhancement of the research potential at John von Neumann University” project. The Project is
supported by the Hungarian Government and co-financed by the European Social Fund. The editors
finally thank Ms. Caroline Reuter from the University of Luxembourg for the review of the layout.