Music Education at Vitebsk Teachers' Institute (1910-1918)
Advancement and popularization of knowledge on the history and culture of Belarusian people is a dynamically developing sci-entific direction in the Republic of Belarus at present. Thus, we may speak about the priority of historic research. A number of do-mestic historic and pedagogical works have emerged recently, which are connected with the history of Vitebsk Teachers' Institute and which reveal preconditions of the foundation of the Institute, its functioning and significance in the development of professional education in Vitebsk Region in the late XIX - early XX centuries. At the same time, domestic and foreign researches do not sufficiently reveal the issue of the organization of music education at Vitebsk Teachers' Institute. The purpose of the article is to conduct a historical and pedagogical analysis of music education practice at Vitebsk Teacher's Institute. Material and methods. The research material is made up by contemporary studies by domestic historians and teachers as well as documents of the National Historic Archive of Belarus in Minsk which refer to Vitebsk Teachers' Institute. A complex of general theoretic (analysis, synthesis, concretization) and definite pedagogical methods (theoretical analysis of pedagogical sources, the method of sign retrospection) is used. Findings and their discussion. The main form of music education organization at Vitebsk Teachers' Institute was compulsory signing lessons which contained elements of the theory of music, works of folk, spiritual and secular music. Apart from lessons there was a weekly general singing session. During the year musical shows for public events were prepared, students were taught to play musical instruments and there were attempts to have a symphony orchestra, would-be teachers gave lessons of singing at the City School which worked at the Institute. Conclusion. In 1910-1918 music education of would-be teachers at Vitebsk Teachers' Institute was paid great attention to. This was due to various forms of music education organization and highly professional teaching.