Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE VALUE OF MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
question of the value of music in
the public school system has long since
been decided by educators, and it only be-
comes a question of special local needs.
Singing is now taught in all the best schools
in the country, and in New England it has
been well taught for many years. In some
cities music has been so highly valued as
a factor in developing the aesthetic side of
children that classes in musical form, har-
mony and analysis are formed in ihe high
schools. These classes are usually conducted
by an able pianist, who plays a series of com-
positions representing the various schools
of composition and points out certain
attractive features of the pieces.
This
work is only possible, or even advisable, in
communities where music has long been
taught and where there is a decided demand
for it on the part of parents.
Humboldt has somewhere said: "What-
ever we wish to see introduced into the life
of a nation must first be introduced into its
schools." I am quite sure that we are fast
learning that the best education does not
consist in simply collecting facts. The old.
idea of studying simply the three R's
and nothing more, is now as much of a relic
of the past as the old Murray reader. The
modern education which tries to train the
hands and the heart, as well as the mind,
needs music for this new work. It should
not be the province of the public school sys-
tem to train musicians any more than it is
to train ministers or doctors. The aim of
the public school system is to give to "all-
round" foundation for citizenship. No one
expects or desires it to turn out specialists,
but modern educators do desire some atten-
tion to the finer side of character building.
That music, properly taught, has a re-
markable power in softening the hard lines
in the character of children has been proved
beyond all possible cavil over and over again,
and it is this side of the teaching of music
in schools that is most valuable and should
be dwelt upon.
Of course, the teaching of the reading of
music is valuable, for it gives the child the
ability to know something of the one univer-
sal language which is now more than ever
a part of life. But it the almost indescrib-
able power to stir these emotions that gives
music its greatest claim to an important
place in a child's education. This point is
likely to be overlooked at first glance, be-
cause it is not one which can easily be meas-
ured by the yard stick or the examination
paper. Unfortunately, the peculiar kind of
teaching that gets the best out of music
and does the children the greatest good is
too little in evidence. There is altogether
too much of that purely mechanical teach-
ing that enables the child simply to tell the
names of notes and rests, while the real es-
sence of music—its aesthetic and emotional
significance—escapes them entirely. The
charm of the story-songs which unconscious-
ly convey the lessons of patriotism, heroism,
tenderness and sympathy, is entirely lost on
the children who are badly taught. Sing-
ing, above all subjects, should be taught by
a specialist, for it seems to require rather
more than anything else certain special qual-
ifications.
For financial reasons, however, it is usu-
ally necessary for the regular grade teach-
ers to do most of the teaching of singing,
guided and directed by the supervisor of
music. It is only possible for the super-
visor to visit each school occasionally, and
direct what work shall be done and how.
The supervisor is thus enabled to have a
general oversight of the work and correct
any serious defects in the work of the reg-
ular teacher.
It is by no means a serious reflection upon
the usual grade teacher to say that she is
not really competent to teach singing to the
children without special supervision, be-
cause it is an extremely difficult subject to
teach and many excellent musicians are not
successful in the handling of children's
voices.
One of the most serious difficulties in the
teaching of singing is the management of
children's voices. In most of the schools
the children sing ten or fifteen minutes at
each session, whether music is regularly
taught or not, and their voices, without the
guidance of an able supervisor, often are
entirely ruined by the harsh, unmusical qual-
ity which the unskilled teachers permit. The
utmost skill and simplicity are required in
teaching children to sing properly. Their
voices never should be forced and strained
M. L PINKH AM
Musical Bureau
into that strident cruel tone which classes of
children often employ. On the contrary, they
singing tone, which is not only grateful to
should gradually be cultivated into a mellow
the ear, but is the principal means of reach-
ing the soul of the child through the art of
of the most supreme importance in public
get children to sing with a loud noise and
with sufficient precision to win the admira-
tion of undiscriminating listeners, but he
misses the most important part of music
without which the teaching of it must prove
a failure from a higher point of view. This
important part is the expressiveness of music
which touches the emotions.
The ideal musical instruction in the pub-
lic school system would be a system in which
all the work would lie done under the im-
mediate direction of a specially competent
supervisor by a sufficient number of qual-
ified assistants to do all the teaching of mu-
sic. If the supervisor be competent and be
given a free hand, this would insure a sys-
tematic instruction from specialists who
would be far more competent than the reg-
ular grade teachers for this special work.
This would, perhaps, do injustice to some
grade teachers who are really competent to
do the work. Occasionally one finds a grade
teacher who is an exceptionally good teach-
er of singing. But this ideal system would be
somewhat more expensive than could be
considered at present.
Of course, the success of music in the
schools depends upon the supervisor. The
person who can do this work successfully
is not so easily found, but once found he
or she should be given a pretty free hand in
the matter of the system and materials to be
used. It would hardly appear wise to do
otherwise. A teacher can do his best work
with tools of his own choosing. Above all
things, a supervisor should be wise in the
management of the children's voices. The
child voice is so tender and delicate that it
is easily overburdened and its beautiful qual-
ity ruined forever.
Perley Dunn Aldrich.
j*
Augusta Holmes, the charming composer,,
comes in for a good deal of lionizing at pres-
ent in Paris. She has recently finished a
series of songs entitled "Les Heures," which,
owing to the warm commendation of French
critics, are enjoying a furore in the American
drawing rooms.
My list of artists for the season
of igo 1-2 is now being prepared, and
will soon be completed.
Musical organizations everywhere
87-88 Decker Bldg., 33 Union Square
NEW YORK
are requested to communicate
me respecting soloists for
with
their next
season s work.
The Pianists of the SM. L. Tinkham ^Musical "Bureau play the
SteirCtony "Piano exclusively*.
M. L. PINKH AM.