Music Trade Review

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THL MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
returns for their money than has been
given them in the past. And that is only
the beginning of what we hope to do in
the way of public music in the city of Bos-
ton. In advocating the establishment of
this commission, I used the argument that
no city could be truly musical unless
music was popularized; that the reputa-
tion which Boston has to a certain ex-
tent, as a musical educational centre, re-
quired that if we were to live up to it
music should be thoroughly popularized
in Boston—brought down to the people,
or rather that the people should be ele-
vated up to the appreciation of music.
And I believe we are going to accomplish
G. F. BLAKE.
something in that line in the city of Bos-
ton, and other cities can do equally well.
Of course the education of the great mass
of the people in music is a slow matter.
It cannot be done in a year, or ten years,
but the longer it takes the more important
it is that a beginning should be made.
(Applause). We are proud here in Bos-
ton of the Symphony Orchestra, and what
it stands for and the work it has done. It
is certainly a splendid illustration of what
can be done by organization in the field of
music; for it represents a work of care-
ful, painstaking, self-sacrificing mission
which has extended over a number of
years and at last has produced results
of which we are proud.
We have been successful in doing what
New York has done with such distinct
success—organizing the people into classes
—making people's choruses and that work
indirectly in this line in which we are
working in Boston, and it produces magni-
ficent results. And I merely want to add
one word as to what we are going to do in
the winter. I do not believe in confining
public music to the outdoor season; people
forget during three-fourths of a year what
they learnt in .one-quarter. Now this
music commission which we have esta-
blished in Boston proposes to give concerts
indoors next winter to the people of the
different sections of the city utilizing the
warerooms and public halls for that
purpose. The concerts may not be of an
ambitious character. We hope to get
amateur talent to help out. We expect to
have a small professional orchestra as a
backbone. But we expect to give the
citizens of Boston, through the winter as
well as through the summer, opportunities
of listening to good music, elevating
music, and having programs which can be
adapted to the audience which is to listen
to those programs. It seems to me, there-
fore, that music in a great city has a place
to fill. It has its place in the system of
public education. The view of public
education which confines itself to the chil-
dren of a community is a narrow one.
Education does not stop with the child,
grammar school, or high school. Educa-
tion should keep on through life. One of
the most encouraging things about the
growth of the modern public educational
systems is that we are coming to recognize
that education does not stop with the
school; therefore we are establishing
evening high schools and giving public
lectures. So it seems to me that in educa-
tion in this larger sense music has an
important part to play. But music is dif-
ferent from other forms of education in
this respect—that it has distinctly a moral
character; it has distinctly a refining in-
fluence. It affects the character of the
community, and while the effect cannot be
seen in a short time, I have no question
that the large department of public music
in any community will in time have its
influence upon the character of the com-
munity (applause). You know what dis-
tinguished work has been done in some
foreign countries, notably in Germany, in
the popularizing of music,—in making
music. It will take many decades with
the best we can do to implant in the
American people any such capacity for the
understanding and appreciation of music
as years of the development of music has
implanted in £he people of Germany. But
it can be implanted to a great extent in
the American people. We have got in the
first place a great many people incorpo-
rated into the body of American life who
are indeed musical, who were brought
from Germany, Italy and other nations of
Europe, — people who have inherited
musical tastes.
I have taken the liberty of letting you
know what Boston is starting to do in
modest and not in boastful spirit, and in
order to show that a start is being made
in the direction of elevating music to a
higher plane and to encourage, if my
words can do so, a desire to do elsewhere
in other municipalities something of this
sort. But I have occupied, Mr. President,
a longer time than I should have, and I
am far from the interesting subject of or-
ganization; in fact, I have touched very
briefly upon its branches, upon its fringes,
so to speak.
This association exemplifies one form of
organization, and it doubtless has within
its scope and within its sphere, important
work to do. May I be permitted to make
this association the suggestion that it
should consider its object while primarily,
perhaps, to advance piano manufacturing
of America, that such subjects as the pro-
motion of music, co-operate with other
business organizations in educating the
people to a fine sense of music. I think
that I have said that the branch of manu-
facture in which you are engaged comes
very nearly under the head of an art.
Perhaps it would not be too much to say
that the manufacture of a perfect musical
instrument like a piano does come under
the head of an art, and therefore those who
are engaged in such a branch of manufac-
ture may well feel it incumbent upon them
to take a more aesthetic view of some of
the problems which confront our American
life than those engaged in some cruder
form of manufacture. As is natural in a
new country, we do not inherit artistic
traditions as do the older countries of the
world. .We have to create this for our-
selves, and the work of building up a
national art is certainly worth the interests
and efforts of every one interested in the
true greatness of the American people. I
am sure that members of such an associa-
tion as this are able to contribute a great
deal as individuals, or as an association, in
raising the standard of art, particularly
the art of music. (Prolonged applause.)
The Chairman:—In introdticing the
next speaker I am at a loss to give you the
words. I can only say to you that I am
going to present to you a man whom Bos-
ton loves. A man who has written a book
entitled*," 'A Man Without a Country,' but
whose sympathies, and whose own heart
have a care and a thought for the souls of
every nation, and more especially those of
America. I take great pleasure in intro-
ducing Reverend Edward Everett Hale.
Rev. E. E. Hale—Mr. President and
gentlemen, there is a story of the distin-
guished Judge Dwight Foster, to this
effect, that he used to say, "If there is
anything you don't know go to a dinner
party and ask."
I have been listening to His Honor with
the greatest interest. I read—yes, I read a
great deal more than is good for me, as
W. H. POOLE.