学習法をめぐるバトル

「今までのやり方じゃダメなんだ」といって新しい自分のやり方を売り込もうとすることはどの分野でも行われています。バイオリンの習得法のSuzuki Methodへの批判は個人攻撃にまで発展しているようです。

'Twinkle' Sparks Fireworks As Fiddler Guts Violin Method
November 16, 2014 5:41 AM ET

If you're a parent, the sound of a small child sawing away at the strains of the "Twinkle Variations" may be all too familiar.

It's Song One, of Book One, of the Suzuki method, a musical pedagogy developed by Shin'ichi Suzuki in the 1960s.

But lately there has been discord among music educators, a feud over methods and credentials and accusations of fraud.

Fiddle player Mark O'Connor — who has his own instruction method — has been criticizing the Suzuki method for years. But what started out as a debate over technique and style turned personal. O'Connor laid out his allegations against Suzuki to NPR two weeks ago.



この件はニューヨークタイムズで知ったのですが、Most E-Mailedで昨日の時点で５位となっていました。自分も含め他人の喧嘩に対する野次馬的な人が多いんでしょうか（苦笑）

ニューヨークタイムズの記事ではKarl Klingerに師事していなかった、博士号もないのにDr.を名乗っていた、アインシュタインやパブロカルザスとのうその仲を自慢していたなど、彼に対して突きつけられた疑問を検証していきます。

Violin World Yowls at Challenge to Fabled Teacher
Mark O’Connor Fans a Debate About the Suzuki Method
By MICHAEL COOPERDEC. 7, 2014

His main factual charges involve several episodes Mr. Suzuki described in his book “Nurtured by Love,” which is part memoir and part exploration of his method. He questioned Mr. Suzuki’s claims that he took lessons from the German violinist Karl Klingler in Berlin in the 1920s, his account of having been part of Albert Einstein’s circle in Berlin and his description of a 1961 concert that some of his students gave in Japan for the cellist Pablo Casals.

Mr. O’Connor also asked why Mr. Suzuki is often called “Dr. Suzuki” when he lacked a Ph.D. Gilda Barston, the chief executive of the International Suzuki Association, said he did not refer to himself that way, but that many of his followers called him “Dr.” as a sign of respect after he was awarded various honorary doctorates.

In a blog post titled “Suzuki’s BIGGEST Lie,” Mr. O’Connor questioned whether Mr. Suzuki had studied with Mr. Klingler for eight years, as he claimed, and posted a photograph of records showing that Mr. Suzuki was not accepted by the Berlin Hochschule, where Mr. Klingler taught. “Shinichi Suzuki had no violin training from any serious violin teacher that we can find,” Mr. O’Connor wrote.

鈴木メソッドの団体はこれに対して、KlingerとDrの件について反論しています。XX is groundless and wrong. The allegations have no factual baseという反論表現は覚えておきたいですね。

Inaccurate and false statements by American fiddler Mark O’Connor about Shinichi Suzuki
Mainstream media has recently reprinted comments from the blog of Mark O’Connor, a violinist in the United States. In his blog, Mr. O’Connor alleges that Shinichi Suzuki, the founder of the popular music teaching approach named after him, lied about his past and is therefore ”the biggest fraud in music history”.

To call Shinichi Suzuki “the biggest fraud in music history” is groundless and wrong. The allegations have no factual base and can only be interpreted as an attempt by Mr. O’Connor to manipulate the media.
Shinichi Suzuki had violin lessons with the prominent German violinist Karl Klingler in Berlin in the 1920’s. Klingler’s daughter, Marianne Klingler, was a strong supporter of Suzuki’s teaching principles and became the first chairperson of the European Suzuki Association. Ms. Klingler confirmed many times that Suzuki had indeed studied with her father.

方法の有効性を問うならともかくこのような人格攻撃はどうなんでしょうね。下記のような団体の主張はうなづけます。Wikipediaで知ったのですが、メリルストリープのMusic of Heartは鈴木メソッドだそうです。

One can only speculate as to why Mr. O’Connor, who publishes and sells his own approach to violin playing, is so eager to discredit Shinichi Suzuki and why he has chosen to manipulate media at this time. These may be questions for serious journalists to work on further.

In the end, however, it is not what Shinichi Suzuki did or did not do in the 1920s that is of importance. The important issue is the successful use of his teaching principles which have enriched the lives of students and has positively influenced music education worldwide for the past 70 years.



鈴木を調べていたら、アメリカンヘリテージにはイチローが載っていました。彼の偉大さを改めて感じたところです。

（アメリカンヘリテージ）
Suzuki, Ichiro Born 1973.
Japanese-born baseball player who set a major-league record of 262 hits in a single season with the Seattle Mariners (2004).