ABSTRACT

Music is an art to communicate human feelings and ideas through sound. One of the primary goals of music education is to encourage students to understand themselves better by developing their sensibility through musical experiences. Music appreciation is the very basic form of experiencing music. It is generally assumed that appreciative ability can be improved by training such as paying attention to the qualities of sound, responding to the music expressions, as well as grasping the concepts on musical elements and principles. It is an essential constituent of music education. The purpose of this study is to systematize the musical materials for elementary school music appredation classes in regard to the developmental stages of elementary school chffdren. With this goal in mind, I surveyed the general stages of music appredation described in the several prevtous studies. I suppose three developmental stages of elementary school children. The psychological as well as musical characteristics of each stage is considered briefly as a preliminary study. In the main body of this study, I made actual selections of music appredation materials with these stages in mind. I made the selection exclusively from the instrumental program music. I presented the selections by their title and described the content focusing on their expressive characteristics and constituent musical elements.