A Historical Study Of Guido Of Arezzo’s Theories On Musical Pedagogy

As one of the most important music theorists and educationist in the middle ages,Guido of Arezzo devoted himself to getting rid of the traditional mode of music education.His concern was mainly with the learning and singing of church music,and he was opposed to learning music by rote.In the early 11^th century,Guido developed a system of precise pitch notation through lines and spaces.This notation proved to be a vital step in Guido’s reform of music education,which greatly improved the learning efficiency of singers.And then Guido obtained great fame rapidly.Later,Guido developed other theories on musical pedagogy such as Hexachord and Solmization,which were all keeped in his four major surviving works.With the influence of Guido’s theories on musical pedagogy becoming wider and wider,people gradually believed that Guido is the inventor of these theories,and credited Guido with other related theories on musical pedagogy.However,recent research has found that most of the theories was not invented by Guido.So,this paper mainly discusses the main background of the development of Guido’s theories on musical pedagogy and the historical source of them.The first chapter analyzes the background and factors of Guido’s theories on musical pedagogy from three aspects:the development of music theory,the demand of music education and the influence of political and educational environment around11^th century.The second chapter discusses the three stages of Guido’s theories on musical pedagogy by combing Guido’s life and works.The third chapter takes the main theories on musical pedagogy related to Guido as the research object,which traces their historical origin and measures Guido’s role in the development of these theories.Finally,the fourth chapter of this paper gives the spread and development of Guido’s theories on musical pedagogy,and analyzes the influence of these theories on the political and educational environment of later generations.