You Owe the Children Training for Ap

preciation of the Best Music

"The musician ought to be able to give the untutored music-lover something which will help him to a fuller enjoyment of the great masterpieces. It will not do to adopt the attitude of complacency one sometimes meets with amongst musicians who ought to know better. We had no aural culture and appreciation classes in our young days, but we are no worse musicians for that. The fallacy of this view is obvious. In the first place, the average school child is not, as a rule, a prospective musician; he lacks the sensitiveness to musical impressions, and the instinctive predilection for music which, presumably, the professional musician possessed. Moreover, who can say with certainty that he is no worse a musician for lack of such training as can be given in aural culture and appreciation classes? In any case, it is the amateur we are considering, and the amateur needs guidance in forming his taste, and, indeed, often asks for it. We must see to it that we do not offer him either the dry bones of pedantry or the husks of sentimental gush.

"It is, in fact, difficult for the trained musician to put himself in the position of the child, or even the unlearned adult amateur, with regard to music. But he must do so, But he must do so, so far as he is able, before he can be of any real help. He too often takes it for granted that the average concert-goer hears the music performed as he hears it, trained as he is to quickened perception of tone, of pitch, and of all the relationships existing between the sounds produced. In reality the experience of those who are unaccustomed to hear anything but the simplest and often the tritest of tunes, and the most obvious and hackneyed harmonic progressions, must, on hearing a work of any complexity, be

very much like that of a baby, to whom, as Prof. James says, the universe is 'one big, blooming, buzzing confusion.' To help the musical amateur to reduce this mental chaos to order is the task of the music-teacher. How is he to do it?

"In the first place he must begin with small things: he must not take too much for granted. It is no use plunging into an analysis of a fugue or a sonata movement. Such an analysis will convey nothing to a mind empty of the ideas necessary for its assimilation. There are many things which the student must become familiar with before he can grasp even a much simpler form of composition. First of all, he must understand clearly the part he has to play; he must be shown what real listening means, how it demands concentration and mental activity on his part (including considerable powers of memory). He needs to learn through practical demonstration, what melody, harmony, and rhythm mean; he must be shown how nature's craving for order is satisfied by tunes assuming a shape; how this craving resulted in musicians using repetition in various ways to give form to their works, and how the natural desire for getting variety without destroying the unity of a work led to the principle of statement of an idea, digression, and re-statement (a principle with which is bound up the idea of contrasting keys), i. e. to the birth of the universal three-part structural design. Thus far he can reach through the study of song. Indeed, it is in the school singing-class, properly conducted, that such elementary but necessary experiences should be gained. Musical appreciation classes are no substitute for singing-classes. The best results may well be attained by grafting the appreciation idea on to the existing singingclass. Even in more advanced stages of appreciation work the singing of themes is an

important factor, enabling us, as it does, 'to know' a work more intimately. In schools where time cannot be found for both appreciation-classes and singing-classes, the former must go and the singing-class be the center of musical activity, its scope being extended so as to include ear-training and appreciation, which are really inseparable. "When once a child has a clear mental perception of simple tunes, whether he can reduce them to notation or not, he has got an experience to which the teacher can appeal in leading him on to further experiences. The three-part structure manifested in many songs paves the way for instrumental compositions constructed on the same principle, and even sonata-form can be shown as merely an expansion of the same plan. It should be remembered, however, that the young child's powers of concentration are limited, and long works had better be left till later.

"But why, it may be asked (indeed it has been asked), why all this fuss about form? It is the content of music, its spiritual message that matters, not the form in which it is expressed. Certainly, but how many miss the message through inability to make head or tail of the whole thing? The procession of sound is so elusive, that without some familiarity with the usual procedure of composers the mind is distracted and gives up the struggle. After the simple bases of the various forms have become familiar, there is, of course, no need to harp continually on this question and to analyze in detail every composition presented to a class, but familiarity with the broader aspects of form is a distinct aid to the understanding of music. For in music the idea and its expression are inseparable, and form is part of its expression. "The teacher of appreciation, however, must not be content merely to analyze the form of compositions; he should be able, from his keener artistic perception, to open his pupils' ears to many beauties they would otherwise miss, to stimulate their imaginations so that they may feel something of the emotional impulse which inspired the composer.

"There is a tendency amongst teachers of young children, in their attempts to get at the meaning' of a musical composition, to explain it in terms of something external to it, in terms of natural phenomena, for example. Now there is undoubtedly a great deal of music which has a pictorial or story basis, and such music is particularly welcome to children, but to attempt to interpret all music in terms of something else is obviously absurd, and the teacher who relies entirely on this method fails in his duty and makes appreciation of pure music impossible. Music develops according to its own laws. It has a logic of its own, and the teacher must understand these laws, and communicate them in clear terms to his class, if the higher forms of the art are ever to be the source of aesthetic pleasure that they can be. Some people are particularly apt to visualize music, to see pictures when listening to a symphony, but, however much pleasure they may get from these pictures, they are not participating in a real musical experience at all. Such people are inclined to rest satisfied with this relatively low form of pleasure, but it is a poor substitute for the joy of the really musical listener, who, at times, comes very near to the creative joy of the composer, so much is he wrapt upon his thought and his unfolding of it.

Music is no mere harmless amusement. On its practical side it is, perhaps, the best channel for the expression of the child's emotional nature; on its appreciative side it is a wonderful quickener of perception, and besides, it is an important manifestation of the thought of any age. The teaching of history is no longer a matter of cataloguing dates, kings, and battles, but even so, few schools take cognizance of the arts in the history syllabus. The study of the history of any period should take account of the art and music produced at the time, not merely furnishing a list of names of artists and musicians, but discussing the ideals underlying their work and giving concrete examples of their style, reproductions of pictures being shown in the case of painters, and performance of characteristic works.

being given, mechanically or otherwise, in the case of composers. A scheme of this kind, which need not materially curtail the time devoted to other aspects of history, is worthy of consideration."―Journal of Edution and School World, London.

France Planning Free High Schools

"France is getting ready slowly to give free education in the high schools. The poor man's son today has little chance to get beyond the grades. There are a number of scholarships but they are given only to very promising pupils and after a good deal of effort by the parents. Often hard working parents think they need another wage earner more than the boy needs instruction.

"Edouard Herriot, Minister of Public Instruction, has committed the government, with Poincare's approval, to a policy of standardized free schools. The cost is estimated at 58,000,000 francs a year, but a beginning is to be made next year by abolishing tuition in some of the secondary 'colleges' which correspond roughly to American high schools but are not entirely under State control.

"The real high schools of France are the 'lycees.' Tuition runs about 1,100 francs a year and books and supplies cost several hundred francs more. As such an expense represents a month's income for a workman's family, it is generally conceded that the poor boy has little chance to get more than a common school education."-Detroit Free Press.

P

RESIDENT Gwinn Visits Boston.— A big convention requires a vast deal of preliminary work. Superintendent J. M. Gwinn came east in October for a busy week in anticipation of the fifty-eighth annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence at Boston, February 25March 1, 1928. A day spent at Washington headquarters in conference with members of the headquarters staff was enlivened by a luncheon at which United States Commissioner of Education John J. Tigert, Superintendent Frank W. Ballou, and Secretary J. W. Crabtree were among the guests.

In Boston the hours were all too short. Selection of speakers and arrangements of the daily convention programs were discussed with Commissioner Payson Smith, and Superintendent J. E. Burke. At the Mechanics Building decisions were made on

such problems as decorations, lighting, seating plans, usher service, loud speaker and projection equipment. Careful consideration was given to the exhibit layout, which will cover three floors and be in keeping with the fine displays at other recent winter meetings of the department. Registration and convention headquarters were tentatively located on the main floor and two motion picture theaters for showing school films, on the lower floor. Paul Revere Hall on the upper floor was chosen as the place for the living exhibits in which, with the aid of teachers and pupils of greater Boston, will be demonstrated the latest and best of classroom procedure. Then followed selection of the auditoriums and ballrooms which are to house twelve discussion groups, and eight section groups of the Department of Superintendence, as well

as the meetings of the fourteen allied organizations officially invited to participate in the convention. As usual, newspaper interviews and camera snapping punctuated all the proceedings.

The training ship Nantucket is maintained by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as the school home for the training of officers for merchant ships. The students are a fine lot of husky young Americans. Graduation day on the Nantucket came during President Gwinn's Boston visit, and he was impressed as a commencement speaker. The graduating class stood in line on deck for the exercises and everything was done with the speed and precision which characterize men of the sea. After the formal program, the guests were entertained by daring feats in the rigging, followed by a delicious lunch arranged by the wife of the Nantucket's commander.

Moving Pictures will Feature Boston Convention.-School activities of a kind such as ordinarily can be seen only by extended travel are to be shown in a super news reel of American education at the session of the Department of Superintendence Monday evening, February 27. In addition to this master reel, President J. M. Gwinn has arranged to borrow a number of films from various school systems throughout the country. These will be shown in two special projection rooms, to be known as the Augusta Avenue Theater, and the Hartford Avenue Theater. Each of these projection rooms, which will be located in the Mechanics Building, will have seating capacity for three hundred persons. Enough suitable films are assured to provide for continuous showings throughout the period of the convention. A similar moving picture program was operated successfully at the recent convention of the American Medical Association in Washington.

Committees at Boston.-President J. M. Gwinn has announced the appointments for the resolutions committee which is to report at the Boston convention. Those named

are A. L. Threlkeld, superintendent of schools, Denver, Colorado, Chairman; J. R. Barton, superintendent of schools, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; A. B. Meredith, State Commissioner of Education, Hartford, Connecticut; Charles L. Spain, deputy superintendent of schools, Detroit, Michigan; Estaline Wilson, assistant superintendent of schools, Toledo, Ohio; John W. Withers, New York University, New York City; Ada York, county superintendent of schools, San Diego, California.

Growing out of the Chicago situation and the situation in certain other cities, the Boston convention will give attention at the business meeting to the report of a committee of five which has been appointed to draft a statement in regard to the relationships which should exist between boards of education and superintendents of schools. This statement will probably be in the nature of a platform, somewhat similar to the platform statement prepared by the resolutions committee at the Seattle meeting. Members of this committee are E. C. Hartwell, superintendent of schools, Buffalo, New York, chairman; Zenos E. Scott, superintendent of schools, Springfield, Massachusetts; Paul C. Stetson, superintendent of schools, Dayton, Ohio; Frank Cody, superintendent of schools, Detroit, Michigan; J. W. Studebaker, superintendent of schools, Des Moines, Iowa.

An October Conference.-Up in the beautiful Green Mountains at the time when the foliage was displaying its finest colorings, a hundred or more New England educators gathered at Manchester, Vermont, to discuss their common problems. This meeting was unique. There were no officers and no resolutions. Conflicts of ideas were threshed out by small groups in rocking chairs in front of the Equinox House where the entire conference was housed. Bustle and confusion were notably absent. Everybody brought his wife. Programs were short and informal. At a dinner meeting which opened the conference, such able speakers as A. B. Meredith, Payson Smith, E. W.