Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXII. N o . 1
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., N«|w Yflifc^ifiW. iQPJ916
'UDLIC LIDH
SINCI.K COI'IKS, 10 CENTS
$2.00 PER YEAR.
Business Question
T was the old Greek philosophers who held music to be the essence of order,
and that it leads to beauty, whether it is beauty that appeals to the eye
or the ear, to the touch or to the sense of smell, or even to the taste.
If the idea is accepted that music is the essence of order, why is it not
easy to understand why certain types of music are popular at one time and cer-
tain types on other occasions to suit the morals and manners of the times?
Music is a power—greater than is realized, and every normal child possesses
an instinct for the harmonious. That is to say that rhythm is a primal instinct.
Now, then, just in accordance as the sense of rhythm is cultivated or disre-
garded, so does music appeal to the individual.
Music has a decided effect upon the morals and happiness of the people, and it does not occupy
the position which it should in the public schools of to-day, where the children should be taught
what true music is.
In brief, music should have a fixed position in the public schools just as mathematics, languages
and other admitted essentials, and the only way to teach music is to begin at the childhood stage
and to cause children to continually hear songs and instrumental music so that they may be able
to perform upon musical instruments of quality.
One writer has said that a nation that has no deep-hearted songs—a nation that cannot and wi-1
not sing, can be no organic thing—it is but loose dust.
The greatest danger confronting this nation is that it is becoming utterly material and trivial,
for triviality invariably accompanies materialism, and destroys ideals. It would seem to me that
thousands of piano merchants scattered all over this land could be a powerful force in aiding to
bring about a stronger position for music in our school curriculum.
We must begin with the children if we are to have a musical nation.
We prate about the talking machine supplanting the piano in various ways and that we are
becoming a mechanical people.
True, but what is being done to counteract this inertia on the part of our people? Are the
children being taught just what music means to them in their lives? Are they being acquainted
with the fact that if they can play even passably well upon a musical instrument there may
never be a lonesome moment in their lives, that with this asset they cannot only give pleasure to
themselves, but to others?
Throw out the ethical point, if you will, for a moment, and look at it from a practical viewpoint.
A musical people means a vastly increased absorbing power for musical instruments—hence a little
energy placed at the right point in encouraging a larger sphere of usefulness for music in our public
schools would mean that the investment would pay large cash dividends later on.
Unless the children of to-day are taught music, how can we reasonably expect that the pianos in
future years will be anything more than the successful rounding out of the room equipment?
It has been claimed that the American people to a large degree are losing their interest in piano
playing, and if this statement is permitted to go unrefuted the effect will be to add to the present
indifference.
The influence of the men whose interests are primal in the subject of music should be focalized
(Continued on page j . )