A Contribution to the Improvement of Children’s Choirs in Serbia Through an Analytical Review of 1957 Children’s Choir Collections

Abstract

Singing in a choir, in addition to the primary development of aural and vocal skills, enables children to adopt a valuable part of national culture. By participating in the singing of choir songs, the child develops a musical taste, and through the literary text acquires new knowledge about the world around him or her. Namely, if a choir song is artistically valuable, the educational and teaching goals of singing in a children’s choir are fulfilled (for example, developing a love for musical art, fostering the sense of beauty, forming aesthetic criteria, as well as versatile personality development). With a brief insight into the problems of children’s choir singing in Serbia today, this paper will present two collections of songs created in 1957, at the time of the creation of a socialist society in the country. The first collection contains poems by authors who had written before 1941, while the second collection includes the compositions of composers current at the time. Being mostly based on verses of well-known Serbian poets, it can be claimed that they represent a treasure trove of national art for children. The paper analyses the representative songs from both collections, explaining that they can still attract the attention of conductors and choir leaders of elementary school choirs and other children’s choirs today. The selected songs were viewed from the standpoints of music pedagogy and music analysis, with the intention of offering a better understanding of their content and facilitating their implementation in children’s choirs’ repertoire.