中国近代“教会音乐教育”及其启蒙意义省思

Music Teaching through the Churches and its Enlightening Significance in Modern China

关于我国近代音乐教育的起点,音乐学术界普遍存在的认识是:学堂乐歌。本文通过对19世纪30、40年代外国传教士始在中国开办学校、至20世纪初教会教育已全面覆盖大中小学及幼稚园这一史实的考察,认为:西方教会在我国开展的音乐教育活动乃是我国近代音乐教育之始——诸多教会学校开设音乐课、琴法课,西方音乐文化观念与音乐理论、演奏艺术等凭借外国音乐家的教授而在全国多数地区的少年、儿童中播下种子。教会音乐教育的启蒙作用不可否认,但各国政治势力对本国在华教会音乐教育的利用企图,使得近代中国教会学校开展的音乐教育带有浓厚的殖民主义阴影。

This survey investigates the history of foreign missionaries setting up schools in China from the 1830’s to the beginning of the 20th century and concludes that the earliest modern-time music education in China was not the 'School Song'('Xue Tang Yue Ge') movement but rather the music teaching provided by the church schools established by the foreign missionaries.A large number of the church schools offered music courses and private lessons and planted seeds of the Western music theory and teaching methods in the Chinese youth.The enlightening functions of the education provided by these church schools are undeniable,although such activities were attempted of exploitation by the political forces in these foreign countries,shading this important event in recent Chinese history with a colonial shadow.