John Curwen

John Curwen (1816-1880) was an English Congregationalist minister, and founder of the Tonic Sol-fa system of musical teaching.

John Curwen was born November 14, 1816 at Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, the son of Spedding Curwen and Mary Jubb. His father was a Non-conformist minister, as John was also from 1838 until 1864. Curwen gave up full time ministry in order to devote himself to his new method of musical nomenclature. Curwen's system was designed to aid in sight reading of the stave with its lines and spaces. He adapted it from a number of earlier musical systems, including the Norwich Sol-fa method of Miss Sarah Ann Glover (1785-1867) of Norwich. Her Sol-fa system was based on the ancient gamut; but she omitted the constant recital of the alphabetical names of each note and the arbitrary syllable indicating key relationship, and also the recital of two or more such syllables when the same note was common to as many keys (e.g. C, Fa, Ut, meaning that C is the subdominant of G and the tonic of C). The notes were represented by the initials of the seven syllables, still in use in Italy and France as their names. Curwen taught himself to sight-read based on Glover's Norwich Sol-fa, made alterations and improvements, and named his method Tonic Sol-fa. In the Tonic Sol-fa the seven letters refer to key relationship (relative pitch) and not to absolute pitch. Curwen utilized the first letter (lower case) of each of the solmization tones (do, re, me, fa, sol, la, ti), and a rhythmic system which used bar lines (prefixing strong beats), half bar lines (prefixing medium beats), and semicolons (prefixing weak beats) in each measure.

Curwen felt the need for a simple way of teaching how to sing by note through his experiences among Sunday-school teachers. Stemming from his religious and social beliefs, Curwen thought that music should be easily accessible to all classes and ages of people. Apart from Miss Glover, the similar ideas had been elaborated in France by Pierre Galin (1786-1821), Aime Paris (1798-1866) and Emile Chev (1804-1864), whose method of teaching how to read at sight also depended on the principle of tonic relationship being taught by the reference of every sound to its tonic, by the use of a numeric notation. Curwen adapted French time names from Paris's Langue de durees.

Curwen brought out his Grammar of Vocal Music in 1843, and in 1853 started the Tonic Sol-Fa Association. The Standard Course of Lessons on the Tonic Sol-fa Method of Teaching to Sing was published in 1858. In 1879 the Tonic Sol-Fa College was opened. Curwen also began publishing, and brought out a periodical called the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter and Magazine of Vocal Music for the People, and in his later life was occupied in directing the spreading organization of his system. With his son, John Spencer Curwen (1847-1916) who later became principal of the Tonic Sol-Fa College, Curwen incorporated the J. Curwen & Sons publishing firm in 1863. This firm continued as the Curwen Press into the 1970s, when it was closed. The Sol-fa system was widely adopted for use in education, as an easily teachable method in the reading of music at sight, but its more ambitious aims for providing a superior method of musical notation have not been generally adopted. In 1872, Curwen changed his former course of using the Sol-fa system as an aid to sight reading, when that edition of his Standard Course of Lessons excluded the staff and relied solely on Curwen's Tonic Sol-fa system.

John Curwen married Mary Thompson (1816-1890) in May of 1845. They had four children – Margaret, John Spencer, Spedding and Thomas Herbert. Curwen died at Heaton Mersey on May 16, 1880.

Curwen technically did not invent Tonic Sol-fa. Rather he developed a distinct method of applying it in music education, including both rhythm and pitch. The name and current form can be traced to Curwen.

Related articles of interest include Shape note and Solfege.

External links

• A History of the Tonic Sol-Fa System (http://uk.geocities.com/exeteryoungstrings/history_of_the_tonic_solfa_system.htm)
• Curwen's Hand Signs (http://busboy.sped.ukans.edu/~memt450/chronister/curwen.htm)
• John Curwen & the Tonic Sol-fa method (http://education.deakin.edu.au/music_ed/history/curwen.html)

Books

• John Curwen: A Short Critical Biography, by Bernarr Rainbow
• The Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method, by John Curwen