On Modern Music Education Of Church Schools In Shandong

As the undeniable existence in history, church schools were the beginning of modernschool education in China. After the Opium War, gunboats and unequal treaties ofimperial nations became channels to develop western capitalist culture rapidly.Missionaries landed the coastal cities in Shandong and founded new schools-churchschools, which were used as the basis to extend education to inland locations.The purpose of the missionaries who came to China in the early time was to spreadreligion in order to expand the parish, to invite more members and to found the churchschools gradually. Advanced intellectuals of the first generation to accept Westerncivilization were trained in the church schools, where missionaries played a pioneeringrole modern music education in China. The new schools opened music curriculum thatwas different from the style of the old school education. The new school curriculum putthe emphasis on music and materials used for courses were written by missionariespersonally. For example,<Hymn Accompanying Music Spectrum·Law Enlightement> waswritten with Chinese tunes, which was seen as the first influential work to introduce thewestern music theory in modern China. Tengchow was the model of numerous churchschools in Shandong and the music education is the most representative. As the founders,the Mateers made great contribution to music education in modern China and the impactwas quite far-reaching. The church schools founded by Missionaries were the birthplace ofChinese school songs. And the ten songs in Sing-election Copy were the first songs of thiskind, which created the origin of the Chinese school songs.Through the research on music education cases of church school in modern times inShandong, the paper roughly reflects the history of music education in this indispensablestageand its special significance in general. In this paper, the modern history of the churchschool and the origins as well as the development will be discussed, with the focus on thegeneral situation in the primary and secondary schools rooted in Shandong. The schoolcurriculum can reflect the importance of music teaching in church schools, and teaching situations from everyday music can also reflect the purpose and significance of it in thisperiod. Investigation on music textbooks reflect how the missionaries pay the attentionand make the effort on the music education. Finally, the positive impact of the musiceducation will be analyzed from the angles of the promotion of cultural exchanges toimprove musical notation, learning western music culture, the introduction of the localculture and the cultivation of talents in the field of music. The negative impact will bediscussed as well, including how music education serves the spread of religion and how itassaults the traditional music.