IO1

Best Practice Teaching Guide in Music Education

Young and very young people who want to study at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole immediately find themselves growing in musical knowledge and awareness by playing together with others, both in small groups and in orchestral ensembles. Proceeding in this way, they develope a naturalness in playing together which contributes to the blossoming of musical and instrumental passion.

If in a very early stage the musical repertoire is mostly composed by reductions and arrangements of music and/or melodies taken from well known repertoire (from classical music rep. as well as popular and folkloric one), we move on to the original repertoire as soon as possible. 

This repertoire is based on music of the baroque and classical period, largely using music by Boccherini and other authors of the Italian eighteenth century, as well as Mozart, Haydn and other great composers who however had close connections with the Italian music of that stylistic period, given the leading role that the Italian instrumental tradition has had in the history of music, combined with the invention of string instruments and piano which took place in Italy.

Students’ musical growth develops following two parallel but contiguous study-lines: instrumental music and ensemble music, which includes both chamber and orchestral practice and/or for large instrumental groups.

After several decades of experience following these didactic lines, the results achieved in terms of training of future professional musicians and aware amateurs attentive to the heritage of art music are excellent.

IO5

Innovative pilot courses in Music Education - Advanced Level

The Scuola di Musica di Fiesole study-pack included the practice and study of a chamber music and orchestral repertoire focused on the Italian repertoire. Teacher training was realised through a small series of lessons given online by prof. Petru Horvath and Riccardo Cecchetti, who illustrated a teaching practice consolidated over the years in the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. Fiesole’s students start very soon to play together, both in chamber music and orchestral ensembles, as part their study program. Trying to develop a natural relationship in sharing the musical language through one's own instrument, training lessons began in each country before the mobility in Italy which took place from 2 to 6 May 2022.

During these intense days, students from Finland, Latvia, Spain, and Belgium, well prepared by their own teachers, integrated with the Italian students and their own instrumental and choral ensembles, contributing to the creation of relevant musical results.

After three days of orchestral and choir rehearsals, on the fourth day an orchestral and choral concert was given by a group of almost 100 elements who performed a repertoire of Italian music – Overture from Giuseppe Verdi's Opera Attila, and Waltz in F by Verdi/Rota – and other European countries – Sinfonia by J.C. Bach and Valse Triste by Sibelius, together with pieces from the Italian choral repertoire – Palestrina and Molfino.
Link from the Orchestra rehearsal: https://fb.watch/n1fcCRLLBO/ 
The artistic result of this concert was greatly appreciated by the large audience who attended the concert, held at the Rogers Auditorium in Scandicci (Florence).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c5NrkXJnYohgXdTW6zJU4iqi9ouXEi2E/view?usp=share_link

The following morning it’s been given a concert dedicated to the chamber repertoire, where ensembles made up of young musicians from different countries played together Boccherini music – string quartets and piano quintets. After this concert there was a final moment of discussion among all the participants, where the need to continue playing together arose, promising to explore the possibility of continuing this practice by exploiting the possibilities offered by new information technologies.

This was achieved thanks to the fundamental contribution of the Belgian friends of the "Academic door Muziek, Woord en Dans" of Bornem and in particular of professor Pieter Stas.

After an in-depth technical rehearsal held on Tuesday 25 October, on Friday 28 October 2023 an ensemble formed by a pianist connected from Osuna (Spain), a violin from Bornem (Belgium) and a violin, viola, and cello from Fiesole (Italy), have implemented playing together remotely and simultaneously, under the guidance of prof. Riccardo Cecchetti, who gave them a lesson from the Fiesole Music School. Until recently playing together at a distance was simply impossible, given by the even slightest delay on the internet. Through the use of an open-source software, Jamulus, which works to reduce this specific delay, some external microphones and good, stable but normal internet connections, this dream became real and concrete.

If the practice of playing together remains an activity that strictly requires face-to-face sharing, these new concrete technological possibilities open up interesting future possibilities.