Date of Award

1982

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

The primary purpose of the study was to determine the effect of Dalcroze Eurhythmics on the melodic musical growth of first grade students. The secondary purposes of the study were to determine the differences between boys and girls in the ability to discriminate pitch register and melodic contour and to determine the differences created by the interaction of method, sex, and time. Seventy-six first grade students in four intact classes participated in the study. Two classes, control group, used the melodic units of the 1978 Silver Burdett Music (SBM). Two classes, experimental group, used Silver Burdett Music and Dalcroze Eurhythmic activities (DE). The eight-week study included six weeks of instruction and two weeks of testing. The investigator-designed Melodic Achievement Test, consisting of two sub-tests, was administered as the pretest and posttest measures for both groups. Sub-test A consisted of twenty-five items of two tones each. The students answered if the the second tone was higher than, lower than, or the same as the first tone. Sub-test B consisted of twenty-five items of five tones each. The students answered if the tones were moving higher, lower, or higher and lower. All directions and test items were recorded on cassette tape for administration. The data were subjected to a Three-Way Analysis of Variance with a repeated measure on time. The results indicated that SBM scored significantly higher than DE on the pretest (p < .05). There was a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores for DE (p < .0001) and no difference between pretest and posttest scores for SBM. No significant difference existed between DE and SBM on the posttest. An examination of the means revealed that DE scores increased to meet SBM scores on the posttest. No significant difference existed between boys and girls on the test and between the interaction of method, sex, and time. From the results of the study, it appears that Eurhythmic activities have a positive influence on melodic discrimination ability of first grade students and should be considered for inclusion in the study of melodic concepts. Chapters on the related literature and the Dalcroze method are also included.

Pages

150

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.3755

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