Die Suzuki-Methode und ihre Genese

Abstract

The Suzuki Method, which stems from Japanese violin teacher Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), is one of the most well-known music pedagogical methods. It is far less known, under which specific conditions the Suzuki Method originated in Japan and what it defines as such, because its image is by no means perceived the same in its worldwide dissemination. In addition, on the basis of these research results, the fact that it is repeatedly declared to be ‘Japanese’ in its essence is probably more of a construct than an explanation. In her critical examination, the author draws on the original Japanese sources and uses them as a basis for re-elaborating Suzuki’s original conception. To this end, she explores the concept’s development processes as complex transmission paths for different ideas in a historical and cultural context. The result is that the ‘method’ is by no means a simple ‘export’ of a mature pedagogical concept – rather, amid Japanese imperialism and caught between different cultural spaces, a conflict-ridden and far from straightforward development took place. Ayako Ito follows the by no means always clear paths of the Suzuki Method through changing adoptions and adaptations and analyses it as a cultural phenomenon that has only found its present form through several processes of transculturation