Lietuvių liaudies vaikų dainos: archajinė melika ir jos didaktinės galimybės
Lithuanian Folk Songs for Children: Archaic Melodies and their Didactic Possibilities

Summary/Abstract: This article reveals the peculiarities of the melodies of Lithuanian children’s songs, the didactic possibility of the use of the songs from the old layer in early musical education is examined. The study uses 366 melodies from the collection of children’s songs gathered by P. Jokimaitienė. The study revealed that around half of the songs in this collection have the characteristics of archaic melodies: they are narrow range (not exceeding the fourth or fifth), based on a limited number of scale steps (2-4 different notes). In structure, they are fundamentally different from the major and minor melodies typical of classical and popular music. The melodies of children’s songs are simple, catchy and therefore correspond with the musical comprehension and expression possibilities of 7-9 year old children, they are appropriate to start learning solfège and writing sheet music. It is interesting to note that such archaic scales are the basis for spontaneous vocal improvisations of children today.

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