Did you ever stop and consider what an amazing musical culture and heritage Santa Barbara has?
In almost every area of music — classical, rock, jazz, pop — Santa Barbara has made a notable achievement, has an outstanding proponent, or a historic footnote.
And for more than a century.
This topic is probably worth a number of fun columns, but today I want to bring your attention to a very little known story: That our town was where the Kodály music method curriculum was launched.
(What IS the Kodály method? Hold on and all will be revealed … !)
Our story involves Katinka Daniel (1913- 2010), a quietly gracious, red-haired, brilliant scholar and musician. She was fluent in six languages: Hungarian, English, Italian, French, German and Arabic.
But her worldwide reputation was as concert pianist, an educator of music teachers, and a trailblazer in, and promoter of, music literacy for children.
She is credited with pioneering the Kodály method curriculum for elementary education in the United Sates, and it was developed and tested right here in Santa Barbara.
Raised in Hungary, Katinka Scipiades was just 5 years old when she was auditioned and accepted into the preparatory division of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.
She studied piano with virtuoso István Thomán, who had taught Béla Bartók. (I am name-dropping here for all the classical music people reading this.)
She planned a concert career, but her father noted that World War II would curtail performances, so she pursued music education and taught music in Budapest schools.
In 1943, Katinka married Dr. Erno Daniel, another acclaimed Hungarian musician who was a pianist, conductor, teacher and authority on Hungarian music. He was also a professor at the Liszt academy.
The Great Zoltán Kodály
At this time, arguably the most celebrated Hungarian musician was Zoltán Kodály, composer, ethnomusicologist and music educator.
Erno had trained under and worked with this great Hungarian composer and educator, and would later conduct a number of Kodály’s works.
Kodály was a passionate proponent of musical literacy, and developed a philosophy to music education using solfège (<— More on that later) and familiar (Hungarian) folk songs for music literacy and appreciation.
His method uses a child-development approach that introduces musical concepts organically and intuitively as the child matures.
Jenő Ádám, a close associate of and collaborator with Kodály, was a musical mentor to Katinka, and she became one of the very first teachers in Hungary to implement Kodály’s methods.
Coming to America
In 1944, Hungary was invaded by the Soviet Union; the Daniels ended up getting separated for more than a decade because of the Communist regime.
But by 1960, Katinka and their two children were able to make it out to join her husband in America; the family was reunited and came to Santa Barbara.
Here Erno held a position on the music faculty at UC Santa Barbara and was the conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony from 1959 to 1967 as well as the university orchestra.
In 1964, Katinka began teaching music at the now closed-San Roque School, a small, kindergarten-through-eighth grade parochial school on the campus of San Roque Catholic Church at 325 Argonne Circle.
She first developed the curriculum for first-graders, and the following year developed their second-grade curriculum, adding a new curriculum as they advanced each year.
Meanwhile, Katinka could continually test the efficacy and appropriateness of the previous material with the younger classes. She also developed curriculum aimed specifically at kindergarteners.
Katinka was keen on incorporating American folk tunes — first as a cultural education, but also because of the simplicity and familiarity of many tunes would aid children in their learning.
She also had the children experience with “feeling the beat and gaining a sense of rhythm and to recognize the patterns.”
For example, she had them differentiate between fast and slow.
As teachers across the United States became interested in applying the Kodály method, they searched for curriculums and guides.
Not surprisingly, people from all over the world came to Santa Barbara to observe Katinka’s classrooms, where she taught music with the Kodály method while working from her own curriculums.
Katinka did not want to publish her curriculum until she had throughly tested it. She completed and presented it in 1973 at the first International Kodály Conference.
She went on to write 20 workbooks and journal articles.
As testimony to her thoroughness, her students still remember her fondly and retained what she imparted to them: a love and an understanding of music.
Rosemary Avitabile Einolander was a little girl in Katinka’s class at San Roque School, and remembers looking forward to them when she came to teach.
“Mrs. Daniel was a no-nonsense person, so we all were very well behaved while she taught us,” she recalled. “I had so much fun in her class.
“I remember ‘Ta-ta-tee-tee-ta-Rest.’ Because of her and the method she used, I’ve had a working knowledge of music my whole life.
“I saw her again when we were invited to her home to watch our friend from our madrigal group play her senior recital. What a treat that was!
“She was just as I remembered: a dedicated happy woman.”
Another student, Amy Grat, recalls “so many great memories that Mrs Daniel taught me at San Roque.”
“I still remember her Kodály method of teaching music,” she said. “The hand signs for ‘do re mi.’
“She also celebrated American folk music. I still hum ‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’ after learning it in her class.”
Katinka wrote numerous books, workbooks, instructional materials and transparencies (this was before PowerPoint!), and presented at conferences and colleges all over the world.
She was an indefatigable, lifelong teacher and mentor on music education to thousands of people internationally.
She also was the recipient of numerous honors: Outstanding Educator of the Year from OAKE (Organization of American Kodály Educators) and, later, OAKE’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1993, then-Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, honored Katinka for her lifelong leadership in music education by naming their performing arts theater the Katinka Scipiades Daniel Fine Arts Theater.
The school, later renamed Holy Cross College, closed in 202o.
In 1993, the Hungarian ambassador to the United States personally awarded Katinka with the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary for her decades of teaching, in Hungary, in the United Staes and throughout the world …
30-Second Solfège and Kodály Music Lesson
Solfège is a system to know music, using syllables to identify the notes on a scale in any key.
Confused? Don’t be. You already know this! Remember in The Sound of Music when Julie Andrews’ character, Maria, sings “Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do!”
There, that’s it!
Now you know the names of each note in an eight-note scale, no matter what key you sing in (i.e.: whether you sing high notes or low notes).
Solfège is used to recognize intervals in music, such as a minor third, an octave, etc.
OK, so what does that mean?
Well, to sing the interval of a “fourth” you can count up the scale: “Do” is the first note n the scale, “Fa” is the fourth note.
What does that sound like to sing Do and then Fa? It’s the first two notes of a song you know: “Here Comes the Bride.”
Here’s another example: “Re” (second note) to “Sol” (fifth note) is also an interval of a fourth. It will also sound like “Here Comes the Bride.”
A “fifth interval” — for instance, from Do to Sol — will sound like “Twinkle Twinkle (Little Star).”
Now for more fun: The Kodály method added in hand signals that represent each note.
Don’t get too confused yet, you’ve seen these before, too!
Remember in Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the scientists were playing that weird melody for the UFOs?
The scientists are describing the musical intervals to be played, and the corresponding solfège syllable.
Then another scientist uses the solfège hand signals to represent the notes of that melody. Now you can hear and see all this in the clip (just watch the first 20 seconds).
Kodály Comes to Santa Barbara
In 1966, Kodály was touring the United States and Canada. His protégé, Erno Daniel, took advantage of his position as head of UCSB’s Department of Music to draw him to Santa Barbara.
The tour was to culminate in Santa Barbara with a two-day conference, “The Role of Music in Education: A Conference with Zoltán Kodály,” which would be chaired by Daniel.
It was a last-minute arrangement but music professionals from across the country came out to celebrate and honor the man.
The conference started with a televised interview of Kodály with Daniel centered on the fundamentals of musical education.
This was a momentous occasion and achievement.
The interview was conducted in English by the two native Hungarians, and provided the only video documentation of Kodály explaining in his own words about the importance of, and approach to, music education.
Daniel himself recounted the success and impact of the conference:
“It was perhaps that conference that best reflected Zoltán Kodály’s appeal.
“Kodály accepted the Santa Barbara invitation in the last minute; it was to take place in summer, that is, during the summer vacation (2 and 3 August).
“Yet, despite the late invitation, hundreds of well-known music professionals attended.
“But even more uplifting was the fact that, at the festive concert held on the occasion of the conference, all artists offered to perform for free, including the The Roger Wagner Chorale, one of America’s most distinguished choirs.
“The concert was an immense musical success. When Zoltán Kodály entered the room with his wife, the audience greeted him with a long-lasting standing ovation, celebrating the great master.”
• • •
But, wait. The story updates!
Now that you are intrigued, there is a second part to this story.
Over at Cold Spring School in Montecito, Superintendent/Principal Amy Alzina has invested in music education as both a component of the academic setting and also to make connections with classroom subjects.
Last year, Cold Spring music specialist Sara DiSalvo was introduced to Level 1 Kodály Training in the three-week summer course for professional development.
Before the first day was over, the light went on.
“I knew THIS was what I was looking for,” she exclaimed. “A way to really impart music education to my students.”
DiSalvo was thrilled to realize this was the results-oriented approach to elementary music education that she had always been seeking.
She recognized the potential for her K-6 music classroom, and secured Alzina’s support.
The result is that Cold Spring School will be hosting a Kodály Workshop from noon to 4 p.m. Feb. 3 at the school’s auditorium at 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road.
The workshop is open to all: teachers and college students, intrigued local musicians, and music enthusiasts who would love to see how it works.
More exciting, the clinicians are Kathy Hickey, a music professor at the University of Redlands, and Kelly Adams.
Hickey studied directly with Katinka Daniel and is a widely regarded music educator specializing in elementary music education, musicianship training and Kodály pedagogy certification.
A graduate of USC, Adams holds degrees in Music Industry and Music Education and teaches Kodály methods. She was certified under Hickey and was DiSalvo’s instructor.