Music Education
School of Education
HEmily Patton (b. 1831) who propagated Tonic Sol-fa at Yokohama (Japan)
from 1889 until her death in 1912 as well as in Shanghai (China) at various
periods from 1901. Her principal reason for migrating to Japan was
a "distaste" for Australia following the deaths over a three-year period
of her father, husband and son. (Sadly, her daughter, who accompanied Patton
to Japan, died soon after their arrival.) At Yokohama, Patton promoted
the Tonic Solfa method through singing classes for both adults and
children (including a highly successful Juvenile Tonic Sol-fa Choir).
Patton also introduced Tonic Sol-fa to Julia Moulton, the music teacher
at Ferris Seminary in Yokohama. As a result, Tonic Sol-fa was adopted
as the sole music teaching method at Ferris until the early 1920s and,
as such, demonstrated the successful transfer of this Western music pedagogy
to the Japanese cultural setting. During 1894, Patton with an Australian
colleague, Ada Bloxham, was appointed to teach Tonic Sol-fa at the Tokyo
Academy of Music but her appointment was short-lived due to the increasing
influence of the German "conservatory" approach to music education.
Later in life, Patton went to Shanghai where she established a music teaching
practice. Patton returned to Yokohama and died there at the age of
eighty.
Biographical notes by Robin S. Stevens.
Reference:
Stevens, R.S. (2000), 'Emily Patton - An Australian Pioneer of Tonic Sol-fa in Japan', Research Studies in Music Education,no.14 (July 2000), pp.40-49.
