A French Music Education That Values Practice
The word “solfège” comes from French. France has a long tradition of music-theory education, with carefully structured curricula for every stage of learning. This education is built on the assumption of real musical activity: the aim is not merely to memorize knowledge, but to develop skills you can apply directly to performance and composition. This practice-centered approach is its defining feature.
Take dictation (dictée musicale), one part of solfège. It is the practice of listening to sounds and writing them down as notation. This is widely done in Japan as well, but in France the material is far more varied. In lessons, it extends beyond major and minor to include the church modes, and dictation is given not only at the piano but on a variety of instruments. Actual repertoire, such as orchestral works, is often used directly as dictation material. In this way, students develop an ear that responds to a wide range of sonorities and a sensitivity to tone color.
The same practice-centered approach applies to harmony. Harmony is regarded as a craft learned by actually writing, and it does not end with producing a theoretically correct answer. The work is judged on whether the voice leading and chord connections sound natural as music, and whether they suit the character of the piece.
In recent years, solfège has come to be called “formation musicale” in France. In practice, however, the word “solfège” is still used frequently, and since it is the more familiar term in Japan, Utla Studio uses “solfège” throughout.