Counterpoint is an essential technique for the composition of European art music. Few studies have reported its pedagogical possibility in school music education because of its difficulty ; counterpoint requires comprehensive musical ability. Although teaching counterpoint in school education is impractical, treating introductory practice to it seems to be instructive. “Block composition”, a pedagogical composition method devised by the author, includes a comparison between the note groups and this feature is expected to function as an introduction to counterpoint in terms of its serious consideration of the relationships in the sounds. In this research, high school students practiced block composition with contemporary music style and effects of the practice was analyzed with questionnaires and an evaluation of their works. The results showed an improvement of students’ thinking and listening abilities for the relationship of musical elements. In addition, some students used advanced imitative techniques in their works. This suggests that the practice has a potential for connecting students to contrapuntal technique. All the results suggest positive pedagogical value of block composition as an introduction to counterpoint in school music education.

  This paper aims to clarify the use of chord acoustic training practiced in Sakai City in the 1930s. Chord acoustic training was conducted for approximately 20,000 school children enrolled in 20 elementary schools from 1937 to 1939 under the guidance of the city school music director, Kichigoro Sato. In the elementary schools, children were systematically and intensively drilled in chord acoustic training. Chord whistles and small organs were used to make a better educational environment. The chord acoustic training model existed in two forms : the widely used general form relying on systematic and intensive drilling and a musically rich advanced form such as at Tonobaba Elementary School. Chord acoustic training in the 1930s showed a way for public education to expand from songs to music education, via the ideal of “kokumin-kaisho” (all of the people sing together). Insisted on by Sato was “equivalent to the expression of group training that would unite the purpose of the nation,” subsequently leading to the ambiguous logic in which music education and national defense education were united through chord acoustic training.

  The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which was first reported in December 2019 has had many impacts on society. School education has not been an exception. Especially in music classes that involve singing and other expressive activities, the risk of spreading respiratory droplets requires urgent preventive measures. However, scientific research on this topic has been scarce. We investigated droplet infection control measures during singing activity by visualizing the spread of droplets, from which scientific knowledge was obtained. The subjects were asked to engage in singing activity while wearing five different items of personal protective equipment (PPE), namely a non-woven face mask, gauze face mask, mask for singers, face shield or mouth shield, during which the investigators visualized the spread of droplets. We found that a non-woven face mask was most effective in preventing the spread of droplets while singing. The spread of droplets was also compared among humming, singing (with words), and reading lyrics aloud as well as between singing in Japanese and German. Acoustic changes caused by wearing the PPE were also monitored and subjected to phonetic analysis.