Linguaggio grafico-pittorico e comprensione musicale nella scuola primaria: “Bydło” di Modest Musorgskij

The article focuses on the use of drawing in connection with music listening, aimed at the comprehension of a piece. Knowledge of music history and the development of music comprehension - as «the ability to have an overview on the structure of a piece even by giving it a listen» - are an essential aspect in the cultural education of citizens, as early as in primary school. This issue generates specific problems, and calls for appropriate approaches and methodologies to tackle them. These methodologies can be both discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary in nature. The article provides an example based on a piece from Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, in the orchestral transcription of Maurice Ravel. This activity is addressed to primary schools and aimed at introducing children to reading a page of art music and understanding it through a music listening process mediated by the use of drawing (“graphic-pictorial language” according to National guidelines) in relation to the music work.