which pianos are required to be kept in order and in tune, and to be used as aids to, not as substitutes for, musical instruction. The rooms without pianos are being supplied with a simple pitch-pipe which can be made to give any sound of the middle octave in the treble clef. A series of elementary charts, clear, well-arranged, and progressive, illustrating the course of instruction by an easy and first gradation, is placed in every class-room. Accompanying these charts is a manual for the teacher, explanatory of their use, which is likewise placed in every room.

An important point is made in the establishment of classes for normal instruction in music among the teachers of all the schools, which is being carried out more or less faithfully by the professional teach

ers.

A combination of vocal and physical training, in connection with their musical tuition, has been devised for the younger pupils by the joint effort of the teachers of vocal and physical culture and of music. A systematic and progressive course of musical instruction is thus given to all the pupils of the public schools in the city of Boston, except the boys of the Latin and English high schools, where the plan is not yet fully in operation, commencing with the children of five or six years of age, when they first enter the primary school-room, and ending with the highest class of the pupils of the Girls' High and Normal School, who are themselves preparing to become teachers in their turn.

To any one who will visit these schools, and who

will attentively observe the operations of this plan of musical instruction, two features will present themselves as characteristic and essential, the thorough scientific training imparted to the pupils, and the provision requiring the instruction to be given mainly by the regular school-teachers, aided and superintended by a limited corps of professional teachers of music. He will notice also that this training begins with the youngest pupils,—indeed that here the greatest care and pains is taken in order that the tender shoot may be so nurtured and directed as to ensure its future full and vigorous growth. He will note that the Pestalozzian or inductive mode is mainly used in all the stages of this instruction,-in the teaching of sounds before signs,—in leading the pupil to observe, by hearing and imitating sounds, their resemblances and differences, their agreeable or disagreeable effect, instead of attempting to explain these things, in teaching but one thing at a time, rhythm, melody, expression, etc., etc.,--in making him practice each step of each of these divisions until they are masters of it before passing to the next,-in giving the principles of theory after practice and as an induction from it.

At first very little is done with text-books. A blackboard, a piece of chalk and a pointer are the implements mostly required. Very soon a series of charts is brought in, by which the teacher fixes the attention of the pupil upon the signs and characters employed in musical notation, and leads him by gentle and progressive stages up to the point at

which it is as easy for him to read at sight, and express in singing tones a musical phrase upon the staff, as to understand and articulate in words a paragraph in his School Reader.

Let us go over this method of instruction in somewhat of detail. And I will confine your attention more particularly to the stages of instruction during the period of primary and the lower half of the grammar school pupilage, i. e.,—a period extending from the age of five to about twelve or thirteen years, this being the compass within which the large majority of the children attending our public schools may be found, and, to my mind, by far the most important age for public musical education.

The first attempt of the teacher is to gain the attention of the children by singing to them some easy melodic phrase within the range adapted to their voices, and asking them to repeat it after him,-to imitate the sounds he has given them in their proper order. This, after a few trials, the majority of the class will do. Some ten or fifteen minutes are spent in this way, and they have taken their first lesson in music. The interest of the children is excited, their attention aroused, their appreciation of musical sounds for the first time, perhaps, awakened. A few lessons are given in this way at the outset. It is purely a matter of note-singing of the easiest and simplest kind. It is an appeal to the imitative faculty which young children possess in so great a degree of perfection; and hence the greatest care should be taken that the example be a proper model

for imitation, as regards method and style and purity and correctness of tone, even in the utterance of the simplest musical phrase. These preliminary notelessons should therefore be given, when possible, by the professional teacher himself.

Even at this early stage in the musical instruction, great attention is given to the formation of a proper quality of voice. The difference between a good and bad quality is illustrated by examples. The child is called upon to use a smooth and pleasant intonation in speaking, in reading, in recitation and in singing. Above all he is taught to avoid a noisy use of the voice.

As preliminary to the exercise of the voice in singing, and it applies to reading and declamation as well,-the young children are trained in the following points:

1. A proper position of the body.

2. The right management of the breath.

3. A good quality of utterance (as just mentioned.)

4. The correct sound of the vowels.

5. A good articulation.

6. An intelligent expression of the sense.

Care, too, is to be taken in the singing-exercises of young children that a too great compass be not attempted. The child is allowed to sing only in the middle register, or where he makes the tones with the least effort,-commencing our instruction with the rote singing as already stated, the first six sounds of the G scale are only attempted at the outset.

Even within this limited range, many of the best juvenile songs may be found. After the voice has been well practiced in this compass, it may be extended upward and downward to a judicious extent, taking care not to strain the voice in the least degree.

The pitch and compass of the voice having thus been attended to, musical phrases of easy rythmical structure are next taught in double and in triple time, the rote-method still being used. Various devices are resorted to here to attract and keep the attention of the child to the lesson (i. e., marking the movement by a curve upon the blackboard, holding up the hand and pointing out the motives, sections and phrases upon the fingers in turn, etc.) At this stage, musical notation, in its simplest form, is begun. The teacher explains,-gives examples which the pupil is required to imitate. With all these, practical exercises upon the sounds of the scales are intermingled.

In the second year of primary instruction, the pupil is taught to know the different kinds of notes and rests, to understand the nature of quadruple and sextuple time, and the manner of beating the same, the accentuation as applied to music, etc. He is also mildly indoctrinated into the mysteries of the chromatic scale, so far as the simple change from the natural, into the keys of G and F major is concerned.

In the third and last year of primary instruction, he is taught to describe by its intervals the major diatonic scale, etc., etc.

In the lowest class of the grammar schools the