x
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HUBERT FARNSWORTH 
 
 ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC 
 TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 NEW YORK : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 CHARLES HUBERT FARNSWORTH 
 
 Entbred at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
 Education Through Music 
 w. r. 13
 
 o 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Principles of Teaching 5 
 
 II. The Musical Idea 13 
 
 III. Ideas as Related to Interpretation . 20 
 
 IV. Ideas as Related to Structure ... 27 
 V. How Ideas Are Developed Through Ex- 
 perience 33 
 
 VI. First Year Work: Awakening Musical 
 
 Ideas 41 
 
 VII. Second Year Work: Defining Inter- 
 pretative and Structural Ideas . 61 
 VIII. Introductory to Third Year Work: 
 Two Aspects of Staff Representa- 
 tion 84 
 
 IX. Third Year Work: Completing the 
 
 Process from Song to Notation . 89 
 X. Introductory to the Second or Syn- 
 thetic Phase of Music Study . . 107 
 XL Fourth Year Work : Phrase Conception 112 
 XII. Special Work of the Fifth Year: 
 Formal Study of Tone and Key 
 
 Relationships 121 
 
 XIII. Special Work of the Sixth Year: Chord 
 
 and Key Relationships .... 134 
 3 
 
 n 
 
 cos 
 
 m ri 
 
 36<iIio7
 
 4 CONTENTS 
 
 XIV. Introductory to the Seventh Year: 
 Two Reasons for Change in Char- 
 acter of Work 147 
 
 XV. The Seventh Year 151 
 
 XVI. Introductory to the Eighth Year 
 
 Work : Repetition in Art .... 164 
 
 XVII. The Eighth Year 172 
 
 XVIII. Plan of Instruction by Topics . . . 189 
 XIX. The Broad and Narrow View of Edu- 
 cation in Relation to Music . . . 202
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 
 
 About one per cent of our population has a formal 
 education beyond the age of fourteen.* The musical 
 instruction that is given during this period is for most 
 people all the training that they ever receive in the subject. 
 Hence it is of the utmost importance that the little time 
 given to music should be spent in the most effective way. 
 This requires a consideration not merely of the musical ends 
 to be reached, but of the capacity of the pupil and his 
 musical needs, involving a cultivation of the desire for the 
 beautiful in music, and direction for its gratification under 
 the social conditions in which he lives. Such a broad view 
 of the subject demands that sound principles be followed 
 and that a rational plan of presentation be employed. It 
 
 * In i905-'o6 the number of children registered as attending public 
 high schools in the country at large was eighty-eight hundredths of one 
 per cent of the total population; or, including the children studying at 
 private secondary schools, over one per cent of the population was tak- 
 ing secondary education. David Snedden, Charities and the Commons. 
 April 25, 1907. 
 
 5
 
 6 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 may be of help if at the outset the principles upon which the 
 instruction is based be formulated, and the necessity for a 
 plan of teaching presented. 
 
 It is not always easy to differentiate between a method 
 employed, which is the way a thing is done, and the prin- 
 ciple that it is intended to follow, which is a general rule of 
 procedure constantly needing common sense for its ap- 
 plication. 
 
 No one way of procedure is the right way under all 
 conditions; but the principles that underlie the application 
 should have stability. Without this, the goal cannot be 
 reached. The principles are few and explicit; they are the 
 result of the experiences of many, and of the application 
 of physiological-psychological laws. The actual method 
 pursued, however, will be determined by the character of 
 the students and the conditions under which the work is 
 done. A principle requires a way, in other words, a 
 method, for its expression, but the wise teacher knows 
 very well that to confuse the two is to crystallize the 
 method, from which it is but a step to dogmatism and stag- 
 nation. Hence one is constantly testing principles in order 
 to separate the method useful only in a given case from 
 that which is always applicable. 
 
 The principles that have controlled the presentation in 
 the following chapters are: 
 
 (i) Experience should precede formal instruction. 
 
 (2) Where it is lacking, the teacher should supply the 
 experience necessary as a basis for instruction. 
 
 (3) The teacher should organize this experience, so that,
 
 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 7 
 
 while a particular effect is observed and studied, its re- 
 lation to the total effect shall not be lost. 
 
 (4) The motive or impulse in artistic education lies in 
 the desire of the individual to express himself. 
 
 (5) The purpose of education through art is to quicken 
 perception, clarify feeling, and stimulate initiative for the 
 beautiful. 
 
 Of the five principles which the book emphasizes, the 
 first demands experience as the prerequisite of all work. 
 The second begins the teaching with management of ex- 
 perience, as for instance, in the rhythmic acting in the first 
 grade, or the chord formation of the sixth, so that all the 
 students in a class, not merely the talented few, shall pos- 
 sess the foundation experience for what is to be taught. 
 The third takes the complex experiences that manifest the 
 subject studied, as in this case music, and breaks them up 
 by means of carefully arranged steps such as acting or 
 picturing. In that way the particular experience, the 
 nature of which the average student would otherwise be 
 unconscious, is observed and felt, and made to form a 
 basis for study, a definite object for notation. From the 
 imitative song singing at the opening of the first grade work 
 to the appreciation of the higher forms, the material has 
 been so arranged that at every stage it shall relate to a defi- 
 nite preceding experience. In this way not simply a mem- 
 ory appeal will be made, but definite ideas developed, so 
 vital, because of their relation to experience, that they can 
 form a foundation for new ideas and through them lead to 
 new experiences. This arrangement of the material with
 
 8 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 reference to experience renders it possible for the pupil to 
 make a vital connection with great works of art, by means of 
 which a deeper significance and an enduring worth are 
 given to life. 
 
 Thus three of the five principles formulated deal with 
 experience. The fourth is closely allied, for with reference 
 to it the work has been constantly planned so as to insure 
 such self-activity on the part of the individual as shall 
 not be vague nor haphazard, since this would vitiate the 
 ideas to be developed, but definite and systematic. For 
 instance, the child in connection with the song carries on 
 definite activities: he steps to the rhythm; he claps for 
 duration ; in speed work he is obliged to grasp the phrase as 
 a whole; later, he follows the separate sentences which 
 make up the thought of the larger form with lines that show 
 their number and relationship. In the creative work of 
 song-making and in writing what he hears, the induced 
 self-activity vitalizes his experience. Finally, the fifth 
 step still views the subject from the pupil's point of view; 
 for it limits the field of study to that knowledge and skill 
 which may be turned to practical use in the experience of 
 the average man. 
 
 Turning now to the plan of teaching employed: this 
 consists in presenting the material in topics thoroughly 
 worked out in the logical relationship of their parts and 
 dictated by the experience of the pupil. This requires 
 careful preparation on the part of the teacher. 
 
 Spontaneity is often looked upon as the one ideal con- 
 dition of instruction; the teacher is expected to be bub-
 
 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 9 
 
 bling over with enthusiasm and knowledge, ready to adapt 
 herself to whatever phase of the subject the humor of her 
 pupils may present. Hence the use of the words "plan of 
 instruction" referring to the way the work is presented, 
 and implying that something more than mere knowledge 
 of the subject is necessary for the teacher, has, on some 
 persons, the effect of the traditional red rag. A lesson to 
 such people is like an artistic performance whose death 
 knell is sounded if any regulative element is introduced. 
 Yet, if we accept this conception of teaching as an artistic, 
 rather than a scientific performance, owing to the personal 
 and emotional elements involved, does it follow that there 
 is no technique required for its realization? Not by any 
 means. 
 
 An illustration from the field of art is appropriate. 
 There is no doubt that a man like Paderewski enters upon 
 his career with a remarkable natural endowment, but in 
 spite of this he undergoes a rigorous technical training that 
 only an iron will and strong constitution could stand. Yet 
 all this training is simply to enable him to interpret a 
 musical passage to his audience. He practices much in 
 order that he may present something effectively to others. 
 A teacher who should stop simply with the acquisition of 
 the subject, and take no thought as to how it should be 
 interpreted with reference to the needs of the particular 
 class, would be doing the same thing that a Paderewski 
 might who mentally grasped the thought of the composi- 
 tion, and knew just how it should be performed, but did 
 not trouble himself to learn the technique necessary for its
 
 io EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 presentation. In other words, there is a difference between 
 knowledge of a subject and the ability to put it before 
 others. A great many people think that when an indi- 
 vidual knows a subject he is prepared to teach it; but 
 from the teaching point of view he is only ready to begin 
 his professional preparation. His peculiar technique, that 
 which justifies his being called a teacher, lies in his ability 
 to impart knowledge. 
 
 It is quite possible for a person to have a special gift for 
 imparting knowledge, a sympathetic appreciation of the 
 needs of the learner, enabling him to become a brilliant 
 teacher after he has learned his subject. But even under 
 these conditions such a person attains his skill, not at once 
 but through the opportunities he meets in teaching. 
 
 As soon as he has finished learning his subject, a gifted 
 teacher may give good lessons without any special atten- 
 tion as to how he shall teach ; but though he may have had 
 no pedagogical training, the fact that he is gifted in this 
 respect has caused him to observe and learn from his own 
 skilled teachers, so that he really has had professional 
 training, though not of a formal nature. While it may be 
 true that the teacher, like the artist, is born and not made, 
 it is equally true that, as an artist, he needs professional 
 training. Those who object to the planning of instruction 
 are really denying the value of professional training for 
 the teacher. 
 
 The teacher's training, like that of the artist, has two 
 sides; one the actual doing of the thing, modeling in clay, 
 painting on canvas, performing at the keyboard, actual
 
 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING II 
 
 teaching of children; the other, the thought, plan, prep- 
 aration for action. The fascination that the sketchbooks 
 of great artists, such as Beethoven or Leonardo da Vinci 
 or Hawthorne have for us is that they show how these 
 artists prepared for their work. 
 
 The plan stands in the same relation to lessons given, as 
 the sketchbook of the artist does to his masterpiece. The 
 teacher sketches his idea of how the subject should be 
 developed, changes it, emphasizes now one aspect, now 
 another, viewing it in the various lights of different ap- 
 proaches. He attains such a mastery over the presentation 
 that he is able to play with the thing. He has developed 
 a technique far beyond what is necessary: he has gained 
 what the engineer calls a margin of safety. Now he comes 
 to the class, not to reproduce something cut and dried, but 
 to mold the minds before him through the very activity 
 he draws out; like the sculptor who has a clear image he 
 wishes to realize, and yet is open to every inspiration that 
 may come to him as the figure emerges from the clay. The 
 plan does not tie the teacher's hands; it frees them. It 
 gives control of the situation by anticipating various 
 possibilities that may occur. The planbook of the teacher 
 is, then, the sketchbook of the artist. Let me not be mis- 
 understood : I would not lay undue stress upon mere plan- 
 ning of topics to the neglect of such experience as one gets 
 by actual teaching. Preparation must go hand in hand 
 with execution. To adapt a famous adage, planning with- 
 out doing is, like theories without facts, vain; and doing 
 without planning is, like facts without theories, futile.
 
 12 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 While the work in the following chapter is presented in 
 the form of stages and steps, implying a connected pres- 
 entation of the subject under complete topics, they are 
 not necessarily intended to be given in one lesson, but to be 
 treated so connectedly that the whole v/ill form a united 
 impression upon the mind of the pupil. A large proportion 
 of the actual lessons given will be those of review and ap- 
 plication. These are left to the good judgment of the 
 teacher. The greatest skill and closest thought is required 
 when a new topic is being first presented. This is the 
 birth of an idea in the pupil's mind. Whether it be de- 
 formed and sickly, or compact and healthy, depends largely 
 on its first formation, hence the emphasis on the way the 
 subjects are presented and the absence of directions for 
 review and practice, which would be necessary were the 
 book a manual of teaching and not a presentation of 
 principles.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE MUSICAL IDEA 
 
 The satisfaction derived from music is more dependent 
 on the way the tones are combined and employed than on 
 the tones themselves. The direct stimulus to the senses is 
 of itself entirely inadequate to account for the pleasure 
 music gives. 
 
 A visit to a Chinese theater will convince the reader of 
 the truth of this. He will find the acting intelligent, the 
 color scheme effective. When the interpreter by his side 
 translates the poetry it may appeal to him as good ; but 
 the music will be "sound and fury, signifying nothing." 
 Ask the interpreter what the music means and he cannot 
 put it into words. But the intelligent Ah Lee or Woo Sing 
 appears to understand and enjoy it. Consider what this 
 fact means. Here we have intelligent men, who in some of 
 their arts are our superiors, listening with enthusiasm to 
 what sounds to us like mere noise. We thus see how little 
 we are affected by an appeal to the senses pure and simple. 
 We do not appreciate Chinese music because we do not 
 understand the principles and ideals that underlie its 
 structure and interpretation. 
 
 Of all the arts, music is the least universally comprehen- 
 
 *3
 
 14 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 sible. Painting and sculpture do not require even to be 
 translated, because the objects on which the ideas of these 
 arts are based are the same throughout the world. Trees, 
 water, sky, and land are similar in Paris and Pekin. A 
 statue representing parts of the body put together amiss 
 would be as wrong in one locality as in another. Poetry 
 is translatable because the ideas of which it treats are more 
 or less alike in Asia and America. Human nature is prac- 
 tically the same the world over. However much its man- 
 ifestations may differ, there is a wonderful similarity of 
 experience. Love and hate, kindness and cruelty, are com- 
 mon to all dwellers on the earth. When the Chinese poet 
 weaves these experiences into a drama, the ideas are in- 
 telligible to the Parisian listener. For a good translation 
 can bring the Chinese poet in touch with a foreign audience, 
 and in spite of the difference in style any one may genuinely 
 enjoy the Oriental poet's work. As soon as the barriers of 
 language are removed, the Oriental and the Occidental 
 can look over the dividing walls of custom and civilization 
 and appreciate each other's art. 
 
 The reason that music alone of the arts is untranslatable 
 is because the elements of music, tone grouping, and the 
 manner of production by means of which specific musical 
 ideas are expressed, do not exist in nature, but are the 
 product of civilization and custom. Each race has its par- 
 ticular set of musical ideas, and the individual is familiar 
 with them because he is born into them. His mother sings 
 melodies that bring smiles of pleasure to his face or soothe 
 him to sleep. He hears the little songs of his brothers and
 
 THE MUSICAL IDEA 15 
 
 asters. Unconsciously he learns the prevailing idiom of 
 the musical language, and as soon as his faculties permit he 
 begins to imitate and to produce the kind of music pre- 
 vailing in his region, just as he talks French if he is born in 
 Paris. Hence, when a specific piece of music is heard by 
 those unfamiliar with the musical ideas which the piece 
 embodies, no comprehension can take place. The design 
 is not appreciated; only a more or less pleasing collection 
 of sounds is heard. This is why Oriental music is incom- 
 prehensible and untranslatable. 
 
 Since ideas lie back of music just as they lie back of lan- 
 guage, there is a similarity in the way they are acquired. 
 In learning a language the child first utters incoherent 
 cries and ejaculations; then he begins to use single intelli- 
 gible words; then he adds more words and forms sentences. 
 So with music; the child's incoherent calls and gurgles 
 give place to definite groups of tones; then he attempts to 
 sing, often with no better success than is attained when he 
 tries to pronounce the words he hears. This learning of 
 the sounds and forms of the music idiom depends, as does 
 his learning of language, on what he hears and on how 
 much he tries to imitate. 
 
 But the needs and wants of the child force him along 
 faster in the mother tongue; he is constantly hearing it 
 used, so that he has opportunity to connect the things said, 
 and gains an idea of what is being talked about. If he 
 is to get what he wants and be one with his fellows, he 
 must talk, and talk freely. No such force impels him in 
 music. The only reason a child sings is because he likes to
 
 1 6 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 sing. And many a child does not have much pleasure in 
 singing; often he has not learned to control the throat so 
 that he can sing what he wishes. There are people who 
 cannot even hum an air or tell one tune from another; 
 while, on the other hand, there is the prodigy who plays 
 and even composes before he reaches his teens. 
 
 The sensation of pleasure or displeasure that music in- 
 duces has led to the statement that music appeals directly 
 to the feelings. If this were true, music would be in the 
 same class with perfumes. If a person should smell two un- 
 familiar odors, unless they were similar to some he already 
 knew, so that he could say one resembled, for example, a rose 
 or violet, he would be unable to describe the difference in 
 such a way as to make it clear either to himself or to others. 
 He could say that the two odors were different and that 
 he liked one and disliked the other, but that would be all. 
 The point is that while at first thought music seems to ap- 
 peal directly to the feelings, it really does not do so, but 
 reaches the feelings through ideas which deal with definite 
 forms. These ideas relate to plan and arrangement and 
 to the manner of performance, showing that the emotions 
 music awakens result very largely from ideas of structure 
 and interpretation. 
 
 If a person had never heard Dixie or Suwannee River, 
 when the two tunes were played to him he would have 
 different feelings about them; he might like one and dis- 
 like the other. But, besides the difference in the degree 
 of pleasure felt, he could point out a number of particulars 
 in which the two differed. Even the average observer
 
 THE MUSICAL IDEA 17 
 
 would feel the difference between the swing of Dixie and 
 that of Suwannee River. 
 
 The fact that he could notice unlikenesses in the two 
 tunes would show that there is a difference in the designs 
 of which the tunes are constructed. Such differentiation 
 is also impossible between odors. If all associations con- 
 nected with the rose and the lily were blotted out, we could 
 only say in comparing their odors that they were different. 
 But if we compare the flowers themselves, we shall find 
 that they present certain ideas. That is, each flower mani- 
 fests itself in a certain way the lily through its cup-shaped 
 and the rose through its complex corolla. Our experience 
 in observing the arrangement of petals, the color, the shape 
 and the relationship of parts to a whole has produced the 
 ideas rose and lily, and we are able to judge whether these 
 ideas are adequately attained or not. So with the two 
 tunes mentioned above. The different relationships of the 
 parts to one another show different designs. We have ideas 
 of them which cause us, if a part be slightly changed, to be- 
 come conscious not only of the alteration, but of the nature 
 of the effect it produces. These are the ideas of structure. 
 
 But there is another class of ideas, those pertaining to 
 interpretation. Dixie and America might be so played 
 that the listener would say one is jolly, gay, and lively; the 
 other dignified and stately. This sense of difference is 
 caused by the way the tunes are performed. We can 
 imagine Dixie played in the solemn style of America, and 
 America played in the lively way suitable for Dixie. But 
 such performances would awaken feelings of incongruity. 
 
 Music 2
 
 1 8 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 We have, then, ideas of how a tune should be performed, 
 ideas arising partly from the nature of the particular tune, 
 and partly from the associations connected with it. 
 
 We have perceived how we can describe what we see in a 
 rose or lily. This is due to the fact that the eye is able to 
 recognize the relationship of qualities and parts to the 
 whole. Thus we get not only the idea of the entire rose or 
 lily, but also ideas of the component parts stem, leaf, 
 petal that make up the complete idea, percept, or notion. 
 The rose may be faded and dull, or it may be fresh and 
 bright; each of these is a definite idea pertaining to the 
 quality of the flower. The rose may be single or double, 
 its petals may be round or oval; each of these is a definite 
 idea pertaining to the structure of the flower. To be com- 
 plete, the notion or idea of a flower must be a combination 
 both of ideas of its structure and of ideas of its quality. 
 
 Similarly, a piece of music presents not only the ideas 
 of structure and interpretation already referred to, which 
 give the notion of the piece as a whole, but these in turn 
 can be analyzed into a still further group of ideas which 
 we shall term constitutive, because every definite musical 
 theme or motive and its adequate production, includes 
 these essential factors. There are seven of these; four 
 relating to interpretation, and three to structure. The 
 four ideas upon which interpretation is dependent are : 
 
 (i) Quality of tone, 
 
 (2) Quantity or volume of tone, 
 
 (3) Rate of movement, 
 
 (4) Articulation (such as separation or union).
 
 THE MUSICAL IDEA 19 
 
 The three ideas essential to structure are : 
 
 (1) Pulsation, 
 
 (2) Duration, 
 
 (3) Pitch. 
 
 The capacity to feel the effects of these seven constitu- 
 tive ideas is essential to the adequate appreciation of 
 music. 
 
 In developing the consciousness of these ideas it is 
 necessary to analyze them; but this, while supplying a 
 basis, by no means accomplishes all we wish in education. 
 The true science teacher attempts not only to lead the 
 children to know something of anemones and buttercups, 
 of butterflies and ants, but through this knowledge to 
 strengthen the love for the nature life about them; the 
 true teacher of English not only trains the children to 
 speak and write correctly, but awakens in them a love for 
 good literature. The teacher of physical training likewise 
 aims not only to make the little people stronger, but to in- 
 spire in them a pleasure in graceful posture and motion. 
 This aspect, the love for what is taught, while impossible 
 without the knowledge of the subject for we cannot love 
 what we do not know does not in all cases necessarily 
 follow knowledge. But music teaching which does not 
 awaken this feeling of delight is a failure.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 IDEAS AS RELATED TO INTERPRETATION 
 
 It is the purpose of this chapter to describe the prin- 
 ciples that deal with the way music is performed, that is, 
 with the interpretation of music. 
 
 The child with a weak sense of rhythm might play Dixie, 
 using a beautiful piano, but exhibiting such a lack of feel- 
 ing that the performance would awaken irritation; while 
 some street urchin might play the same tune on a Jew's- 
 harp with such individuality in the rendering that we 
 should say with pleasure: "There is a musical youngster." 
 Although both performers presented the same structural 
 form, and that produced on the piano would have great ad- 
 vantage in the quality of tones, we should prefer the Jew's- 
 harp version. Our quest is to know just what it is that 
 gives the preference in this instance to the poorer in- 
 strument. 
 
 Turn to the analogy of language. Listen to a school- 
 boy reciting the Gettysburg speech and compare his in- 
 terpretation with the declamation of a finished orator. The 
 words are the same that is, there is no difference in the 
 structure but how unlike is the effect ! The boy may have 
 the better voice, yet beside the orator, his recitation of the
 
 IDEAS AS RELA TED TO INTERPRET A TION 2 1 
 
 words is mechanical and full of inflections betraying a lack 
 of comprehension of the thought. The most striking 
 difference between the two recitations is that while the 
 orator brings out the meaning of the language, and causes 
 us to see even more in the words than when we read them 
 ourselves, the schoolboy's awkward presentation obscures 
 rather than illuminates the thought. 
 
 It is clear, then, that comprehension of the speech is not 
 communicated simply by the accurate repetition of the 
 words. The orator, a mature man, has had wide experi- 
 ence ; he has studied many great speeches and has learned 
 to value them; he has read history and realizes what a 
 powerful influence this particular speech had at a critical 
 period in the life of the nation. All this background 
 enables the orator, through inflection and tone color, to add 
 an emotional value. Our preference for the orator's in- 
 terpretation of the Gettysburg speech is due, then, to his 
 clear discernment of its thought, and to his power to feel 
 and express its worth. This second element, though often 
 spoken of as emotional and temperamental, is more than 
 this. The boy's delivery may have plenty of emotional 
 color; in fact, the ludicrous character of such performances 
 is very often the result of misplaced or exaggerated emo- 
 tional effects. The interpretation of the speech is deter- 
 mined by the character and skill of the speaker and the 
 wealth or poverty of his past experience. 
 
 Turning now to the two performances of Dixie, we see 
 that the preference for the Jew's-harp version instead of 
 that of the piano did not lie in the musical idea presented,
 
 22 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 for both gave the same tune; nor in the tone employed, for 
 the poorer tone was preferred ; but in the way the idea was 
 presented its interpretation. The power to interpret is, 
 popularly speaking, due to the inherent musical qualities 
 of the Jew's-harp player. This is but another way of 
 saying that the Jew's-harp player is more richly gifted 
 or that he absorbed a large amount of the musical language 
 in early childhood and often used it as a means of ex- 
 pression. The street urchin could make the gay tune ex- 
 press the emotion he felt, just as the statesman could 
 impress his audience with the force of his own feeling for 
 the speech he was reciting. 
 
 The popular notion of the process of musical interpre- 
 tation is the very reverse of what we have been describing. 
 The emotional element is supposed to come first, leading 
 afterwards to a discernment of the thought. But when we 
 ask what it is that awakens the emotions, unless we say 
 that it is a spontaneous reaction to the sound, as is the 
 sense of smell to the odor, we must admit that the emotions 
 are aroused through ideas. Two steps are involved : first, 
 realization of the structure of the idea presented; and sec- 
 ond, appreciation of the significance of this idea or its 
 interpretation, aided by previous musical experience. 
 
 This double discernment of the musical idea and its 
 value to us goes on subconsciously, for our fundamental 
 musical understanding, like our grounding in language, 
 takes place so early in childhood that we are not conscious 
 of the processes; we are sensible only of the result. The 
 more musical a person is, the more intuitive will be the
 
 IDEAS AS RELA TED TO INTERPRETA TION 23 
 
 feeling of reaction. How common it is to hear a musician 
 say: "I don't know how I do it; I feel it so." He does not 
 realize that an intuitive reasoning is taking place which 
 makes him perceive one form one way and another form 
 another way. The reason for his feeling how a composition 
 should be interpreted really exists, even though it is hidden 
 from his conscious self, in his musical rationality. If we 
 analyze the performances of musical people, we find that 
 the manner of their interpretation grows in a logical way 
 from the nature of the selection, and it is possible to for- 
 mulate the laws that underlie the performance of a given 
 work. Because the musician may be unconscious of these 
 laws, it does not follow that they do not control his proc- 
 esses. 
 
 What method should be taken to teach the boy to deliver 
 the Gettysburg speech adequately? Some instructors 
 would give a training in gesture and expression of face and 
 body, in the rolling of r's and the emphasizing of final 
 consonants. But such training alone would only add to 
 the ludicrous effect of the recitation and make its inade- 
 quacy more prominent. 
 
 The true teacher would begin by trying to make the boy 
 so thoroughly understand the thought of what he was re- 
 peating that he would see the bearing of each sentence on 
 this thought. Along with this training in the structure of 
 the speech would go a second kind of training in its in- 
 terpretation. In order to give the boy the necessary back- 
 ground, the teacher would tell him about Lincoln and the 
 influence growing out of the conditions, which led to the
 
 24 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 speech. He would be asked to study other great speakers, 
 and he would gradually, as far as possible for one of his 
 experience, begin to realize the force and beauty of the 
 masterpiece. He would begin to value it. 
 
 The same principle should hold true in teaching the 
 effective interpretation of music. The teacher who, with- 
 out reference to the significance of the ideas in the music, 
 teaches what he calls expression by variation in tempo and 
 emphasis, through these arbitrary changes makes only 
 more obvious the lack of true discernment of the musical 
 idea. A wise teacher will lead the pupil to conceive first 
 what the music means as a whole. Is it a brisk winter 
 song, or does it regret the passing of the flowers ? From the 
 thought will be decided the quality of tone to be employed : 
 there must be sustained energy in one, and pensive qual- 
 ity in the other. With the quality will be developed a feel- 
 ing for the proper quantity : the hilarious winter song must 
 have something of the shout; while the autumn song re- 
 quires a subdued tone appropriate to the regret it expresses. 
 There will be difference in velocity: skating, or sliding, 
 or snowballing, or the scurrying of snowflakes demands a 
 brisk movement of the music; while the passing away of 
 summer, the disappearance of the flowers, the sleep "n the 
 cold ground, and the drizzling rain will be expressed by a 
 slower movement. Furthermore, the articulation will dif- 
 fer: the zigzag motion of the skater or of the snowflake, and 
 abrupt motions of the snowball require an emphasis on the 
 separated or staccato effects; whereas the reverie of the au- 
 tumn song will utilize sustained and well-connected words
 
 IDEAS AS RELATED TO INTERPRETATION 25 
 
 and phrases. Thus, in the attempt to express the central 
 thought the pupil has gradually been made conscious of 
 the means employed to express it. Through realizing 
 their appropriateness in expressing the song, he has be- 
 come aware of the four constitutive ideas of interpretation, 
 as mentioned in Chapter II. 
 
 (1) Quality of tone, 
 
 (2) Quantity or intensity of tone, 
 
 (3) Rate of movement, 
 
 (4) Articulation (such as separation and union). 
 
 It will be readily seen that these interpretative ideas are 
 not applicable unless the structure of the song is appro- 
 priate to the sentiment it expresses. But if the song be 
 good the pupil, as he becomes conscious of the interpreta- 
 tive ideas, grows aware of the more subtle structural ideas 
 upon which the interpretation depends. As in the case of 
 the Gettysburg speech, a complete presentation necessitates, 
 in addition to the interpretative and structural ideas, a 
 knowledge of the external associations, such as the subject, 
 style, intention of the composer, and date of composition. 
 This is where the individuality of the interpretative artist 
 finds play. The value of the interpretation will depend 
 on his skill and his appreciation of the composition. 
 
 While the average listener is not conscious of the con- 
 stitutive ideas by means of which interpretative effects are 
 gained, their influence upon the complete interpretation of 
 the work is shown by the unanimous appreciation given a 
 really musical performance. 
 
 It is told of an eminent concert pianist that he found his
 
 26 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 best critic in an acquaintance who could not even sing or 
 whistle a tune correctly. Any one can easily bring to 
 mind instances of the quickness with which a musically 
 uncultivated audience will respond to a genuinely artistic 
 performance. Though they are not able to give an ade- 
 quate reason for their preference, the power of the gifted 
 player or singer is instantly felt and is summed up by the 
 word "musical." This shows how universal and how 
 definite are the ideas of inteipretation, by means of which 
 such sure verdicts are given even by nonmusical people. 
 
 We like the way one person performs a musical work 
 and dislike another's interpretation of the same work, even 
 when the performance by the latter is technically correct, 
 because the interpretation of the first has appealed to the 
 ideal of the beauty contained in the music, while the second 
 interpretation lacked that beauty. Our ideals are the 
 result of our previous musical experience, and beautiful 
 performances make us conscious of them. The awak- 
 ening of such consciousness is often like a further self- 
 revelation and gives us a rare feeling of exaltation. Hence 
 the importance of developing musical ideas. These will 
 be considered in Chapter IV.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IDEAS AS RELATED TO STRUCTURE 
 
 In marked contrast with the uniformity as regards in- 
 terpretative ideas stand the ideas of musical structure, of 
 which we shall treat in this chapter. Choice here is by no 
 means so sure and definite. To illustrate this divergence, 
 equally good presentations of two unlike compositions may 
 be taken. Imagine two church choirs which are equally 
 skilled in every way, but of which one gives historic music 
 of the style of Old Hundred while the other sings the Gospel 
 Hymn type. Each congregation is pleased with its own 
 music. Now let these churches exchange choirs, while 
 each continues to sing its own selections. The interpre- 
 tative work will be equally good, but the effect on the 
 audience will be very different. The first congregation will 
 consider the songs of the second, vapid, silly, unchurchly, 
 and impossible of conveying any spiritual meaning; while 
 the second will think the music of the first dull and cold, 
 without power to express spiritual fervor. This difference 
 in preference is evidently not one of interpretation, for 
 the choirs are equal in their ability to render their music 
 effectively. But the content of the two kinds of music is 
 totally different. They express different structural ideas 
 
 27
 
 28 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 which appeal, or do not appeal, to the different audiences. 
 The kind of music we like is determined by our immediate 
 environment. Whether we prefer the music hall type, or 
 the work of great masters depends upon which we are in 
 the habit of hearing, unless we are musically gifted and 
 can enter at once into the greater inheritance. 
 
 The two recitations of the Gettysburg speech exem- 
 plify the importance of interpretation. We realized the 
 necessity for the speaker's appreciation both of the speech 
 and its setting. That he might recite it effectively it was 
 essential for him to be able to value it. But if a speech 
 lacks ideas, no amount of interpretative skill can make it 
 affect us, for there is no vital meaning to express. More 
 important than expression, or form, is the thought itself, 
 or substance. In music, as in language, the idea is of 
 supreme importance. A single tone heard by itself means 
 nothing. Only the few who possess absolute pitch can 
 identify it by name. Before it becomes meaningful it must 
 be built up with other tones into a pattern or design. 
 
 We have seen that differences in preference are due to the 
 memory of what we have been accustomed to hear, but 
 there must be something in the structure to which memory 
 can attach. A person who has heard Dixie and The Star 
 Spangled Banner from childhood would not confuse the 
 two, even though he were not able to state in words the 
 different ideas the two tunes expressed; their difference 
 would be as distinct in the consciousness as the difference 
 between Barbara Frietchie and the Biglow Papers. 
 
 Let us examine the difference in the structural ideas of
 
 IDEAS AS RELA TED TO STR UCTURE 2 9 
 
 the two tunes. This requires us to consider the constitu- 
 tive ideas of structure that unite in producing their specific 
 effects. First, we can march to one tune, but we should 
 have to waltz if we wished to move with the swing of the 
 other. The grouping and emphasis of tone for the purpose 
 of producing this feeling of pulsation, enabling us to move 
 regularly to the swing of the tune, is technically known as 
 the metrical element of music. The metrical element for 
 instance, two-four or three-four can be thought of in- 
 dependently of these tunes. Meters are distinct ideas in 
 themselves, modes of pulsation necessarily used to form a 
 musical structure; but they have significance only as they 
 constitute a definite element of music. 
 
 In the second place, we notice as we sing the two tunes 
 that while we can keep a regular movement, the tones 
 through which the pulses are manifested are not of regular 
 length; some are long, even lasting over a pulse, and some 
 are short so that several occur in a single pulse. This 
 variation of the tones as to time duration is not arbitrary, 
 but fits in with the regular pulsation of the metrical rela- 
 tionships, forming with tbem a rhythmic pattern or design. 
 We find that the two tunes vary decidedly in this respect 
 of duration. These duration values are not invented for 
 these particular tunes; they are part of the inherent rela- 
 tionship in which tones are thought. In themselves they 
 form a distinct group of ideas, but as in the case of pulsa- 
 tion, they gain their significance only when expressed in a 
 given musical passage. 
 
 Finally, we have a third grouping of tones, which has to
 
 30 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 do entirely with the pitch of the sounds. Here, similarly, 
 we find that the selection of pitches is not arbitrary, but 
 consists of tones related in a definite way to what is called 
 the keynote of the composition its principal or most im- 
 portant tone. This key relationship is a distinct idea in 
 itself, independent of the two others mentioned; yet, like 
 them, not significant until it is combined with them. Such 
 combination results in a definite piece of music whose type 
 varies according to the way in which the constitutive ideas 
 have been used. 
 
 To recapitulate, the complete structural idea of the two 
 tunes, while felt as a sound motion or progress (for we 
 speak of the way music "goes"), takes its definite character 
 in each tune from the three ways in which the ideas consti- 
 tutive of structure are manifested: first, in relation to the 
 regular successions of time, which is expressed by means 
 of pulsations that throb in larger and larger units; second, 
 in relation to the relative duration of the tones, which, 
 fitting in with the pulsations, present a definite, rhythmic 
 design; and third, in relation to the pitch of the tones, a 
 selection of sounds with reference to a central or key tone, 
 which vary with reference to the direction up or down and 
 to the extent of change in each. These three ways in which 
 tones are grouped unite to form the structure or design of a 
 tune. This design is the idea the composer of the tune in- 
 tended to represent. We recognize the force and character 
 of the idea long before we analyze it; in fact, analysis into 
 these constitutive ideas might hinder enjoyment at the time. 
 
 Disassociation between a musical passage and the spe-
 
 IDEAS AS RELA TED TO STRUCTURE 3 1 
 
 cific idea it expresses cannot take place. All musical pas- 
 sages are specific; every combination of sounds, every tone 
 group that conveys a musical thought can express only that 
 particular tone thought, and it cannot be translated into 
 words. Change any constitutive factor, such as the dura- 
 tion or pitch of any of the tones, and you express some- 
 thing different. 
 
 As soon as we realize that every musical form or tone 
 group we hear is itself a concrete musical thought, and is 
 the product of combining the three tone relationships, 
 pitch, duration and pulsation, which are themselves con- 
 stitutive ideas, we perceive how important it is to hear 
 accurately these relationships. It is true that musical 
 appreciation does not need to break up the tonal move- 
 ment or progress into these three factors, but it is also 
 true that any indefiniteness in perceiving these relation- 
 ships must result in indefiniteness on the part of the listener 
 as to the idea expressed. 
 
 For this reason the Kindergarten stage of mere sensi- 
 bility without training in analysis for accurate hearing is 
 inadequate. Yet most of us never advance beyond this 
 childhood stage. Its limitations may be formulated thus: 
 first, experience is narrow, we learn to like few and poor 
 varieties; second, experience lacks intensity, is weak and 
 superficial. Most of us need development and widening 
 of the early experience through opportunities for inter- 
 pretation, and the making of this experience more sharp 
 and vivid through training in hearing accurately the consti- 
 tutive ideas.
 
 32 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 The importance of directing and guiding musical ex- 
 perience will be seen if we keep in mind these facts: first, 
 that while comparatively few make music, every one who 
 hears it takes part in it to the extent of his enjoyment; 
 second, that the part taken by those who enjoy it is by 
 means of the musical ideas that are presented; and third, 
 that the musical ideas presented would be unintelligible to 
 the hearer unless his previous musical experience had 
 made him familiar with similar ideas. The aim of music 
 teaching in the public school being to give not only technical 
 knowledge to the gifted few, but also a cultural training to 
 the many, the teaching should consist of the experience 
 that will widen and intensify the ideas of musical structure 
 and interpretation, and thus lead to comprehension and 
 enjoyment. 
 
 The following chapters suggest a way in which this may 
 be done.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HOW IDEAS ARE DEVELOPED THROUGH 
 EXPERIENCE 
 
 One of the editors of a large metropolitan daily says 
 that while almost all the writers in the office are college 
 men, and that, too, from a university that lays special 
 stress on English work, yet it is practically necessary to 
 teach these men to write after they enter the office. We 
 know that they have had eight years of English in elemen- 
 tary and grammar schools, and four years of secondary 
 school training; that they have specialized in English at 
 college; and that the subject, instead of being divorced 
 from actual life, requires daily practical exercise from 
 childhood. Then, too, we must remember that the schools 
 have almost entirely neglected the oral for the benefit of 
 the written language. In the face of all these facts, the 
 remark of the editor-in-chief that it is necessary to teach 
 college graduates how to write not academic English, 
 but the common English of every day life seems strange. 
 This can be accounted for, however, when we take into 
 consideration that, while the true aim of school work is to 
 prepare for life, the immediate aim is the study of such 
 subjects as reading, writing, and arithmetic. The teacher, 
 Music 3 23
 
 34 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 with all his energies bent on accomplishing these definite 
 activities, is liable to lose sight of the real end for which the 
 studies are prescribed. Hence, while the children learn to 
 read, write, and cipher, they do so under artificial condi- 
 tions, and are instructed with a disregard for the applica- 
 tion of these activities to living, so that the true aim of all 
 their work the participation in life is lost. Therefore, 
 owing to this radical difference in point of view, it is pos- 
 sible for a pupil to study English all his student life, and 
 still be unprepared for the practical demands of news- 
 paper work. 
 
 If this is the case in such a study as English, the difficulty 
 is much more apparent in a subject like music, the practical 
 exercise of which is but sporadic and occasional. To this 
 disadvantage must be added the fact that the relation be- 
 tween the thing studied, as scales, chords, and all the com- 
 plexities of notation, and the vital thing experienced as 
 beautiful music, is difficult to establish even for musically 
 gifted people. One can imagine, therefore, the state of 
 mind of the large majority of the ungifted. 
 
 Take the study of harmony. There is hardly any one 
 who is not sensitive to its effects, yet it would be safe to 
 hazard that not one in a hundred f those who write out 
 the exercises of an average harmony book is able to make 
 any practical connection between the knowledge and skill 
 he has gained and his musical experience. 
 
 In the vast amount of knowledge that children gain 
 spontaneously before school days begin it is the practical 
 use of what is learned that causes them to absorb it. A
 
 HOW IDEAS ARE DEVELOPED 35 
 
 rudimentary notion of current musical ideas has been 
 unconsciously acquired by the average child who enters 
 the first grade. He has picked them up just as he has 
 picked up his mother tongue. If he is born in London, 
 Occidental music sounds familiar to him; if he is born in 
 Tokio, Oriental music. 
 
 In order to understand language, the child has need 
 of a great background of language experience whereby, 
 through a series of unconscious comparisons of the sounds 
 he hears, aided by the common points in the circumstances 
 under which they are uttered, and through continual de- 
 liberate attempts to imitate the sounds, there gradually 
 and all unconsciously dawn upon him their purpose and 
 the method of using them. Thus he becomes conscious 
 of the idea. In other words, his consciousness of ideas is 
 the result of his attempts to make his experience practical. 
 
 The following illustration shows the necessity of applying 
 language forms, such as words, to our experience in order 
 to define ideas and make discrimination possible. A boy, 
 who, on account of brain deficiency, did not imitate sounds, 
 grew to the age of eleven without being able to talk. He 
 acted like an imbecile, did not play with the other children, 
 and expressed hunger and other elemental ideas only 
 through signs, intelligible to no one but his parents. At 
 eleven, the experiment of teaching him by Bell's visible 
 speech was tried. The result was marvelous. The boy 
 caught up with the other children; in fact, he advanced so 
 rapidly that it was necessary to stop teaching him for a 
 time lest his brain be overtaxed. The boy had the ex-
 
 36 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 perience, the necessary senses, and evidently the brain 
 capacity, but because of his inability to imitate sounds he 
 had been unable to apply the symbols of language to his 
 experience, and thus was left incapable of developing his 
 ideas. 
 
 If we apply to music the thought of the preceding illus- 
 tration, the first attempts of little children to sing will show 
 how the experience is being acquired from which musical 
 ideas may be developed. In his attempts at song, the 
 child's voice goes up and down in pitch, it produces long 
 and short tones, it occasionally places emphasis, and suc- 
 cessive outbursts produce a crude sort of rhythm. But 
 this rambling la-laing, although it contains all the elements 
 of music, and the fond mother may call it singing, cannot 
 be termed music; for it presents no organic material. But 
 let the child repeat a definite rhythm, expressed through 
 tones showing key relationship, and the very fact that he 
 can hold this unit and can keep repeating it shows that 
 his previous, unorganized experience has been organized 
 by means of this particular melodic form. His music at 
 first may consist of this one figure, but soon others form 
 and he shows preferences. He will need to hear but the 
 first strain of Little Bo Peep or Ding Dong Bell to dis- 
 tinguish it. In other words, he has gone through precisely 
 the same process and has organized and used ideas in 
 connection with these songs just as he did with the words 
 cat and dog. But there is this difference that the child 
 is probably more analytically conscious of the constitutive 
 ideas that combine to form the notions of objects, because
 
 HOW IDEAS ARE DEVELOPED 37 
 
 it is easier to think of phenomena presented in space than 
 of those presented in time. In music, pitch, duration, and 
 pulse changes all combined, succeed one another so subtly, 
 as presented in time, that the memory is unable to hold 
 them distinctly enough to permit the mind to compare 
 them. However, the essential thing their effect as reg- 
 istered in feeling is just as distinct and definite for Ding 
 Dong Bell and Little Bo Peep as it is for any visible objects. 
 
 Objection may be made to the preceding description as 
 not applicable to the facts presented by extremely musical 
 children. The musical child will produce organized mu- 
 sical effects in the form of melodies with apparently no 
 more preparation than the newly hatched chick requires 
 in order to peck. This means simply that the young inherit 
 strong tendencies to do things which favorable external 
 circumstances promptly set in motion. Because the child 
 produces melody at once, it does not follow that experience 
 and the forming of ideas have not preceded it; but that 
 environment makes available an experience which im- 
 mensely increases the effectiveness of his own. 
 
 Since language ideas are more universally employed 
 than those of music, they are of great assistance in teaching 
 music. By employing songs where language ideas already 
 familiar to the child coincide with the musical ideas, he can 
 be led to the proper musical interpretation. The child, in 
 singing the winter or autumn song described in Chapter 
 III, starts with the thought of the song as a whole, and 
 finds no difficulty in relating to the central thought what 
 he does for quality, quantity, rate, and articulation. Thus, 
 
 OOti?0 g
 
 38 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 if we choose an expressive song, and teach the child to sing 
 it so as to bring out its thought, we can easily make him 
 conscious of the reason for employing constitutive ideas, 
 and develop in him an intelligent notion of good inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 On the other hand, what is done with reference to pitch, 
 duration, and pulsation, or the ideas constitutive of struc- 
 ture, is not easily separated and made distinct in the move- 
 ment of the music. Hence no connection can be made 
 between such a specific act and its effect in the musicrl 
 impression; consequently no idea can be formed. What 
 is needed to form such ideas is something that will guide 
 the pupil's attention, so that, while he is feeling the swing 
 and go of the music, he can at the same time observe a 
 specific form or act, and notice its influence in the total 
 effect he feels. This will enable the pupil to develop an 
 idea of the specific act or form, so that he not only may learn 
 the symbol that represents it, but also may use both the 
 symbol and the ideas in recognizing or suggesting new 
 form combinations and new ideas. 
 
 To aid in accomplishing this end, the work has been 
 divided into four steps: observing, acting, picturing, and 
 notation. 
 
 In the first step the child is led to observe that there is 
 something in connection with the structure of the tune that 
 is appropriate to what it expresses. This something may 
 be separated into the three kinds of musical ideas already 
 referred to: (1) the metrical grouping the succession of 
 pulses; (2) the grouping with reference to tone duration
 
 HOW IDEAS ARE DEVELOPED 39 
 
 long and short sounds; (3) the grouping with reference to 
 pitch popularly described in terms of space as up and 
 down. 
 
 If the child has observed that there is a difference be- 
 tween the "go" of his slumber song and that of his march- 
 ing song, we should lead him to discover the nature of this 
 difference by letting him act what he feels the second 
 step for there is a natural and intimate correlation be- 
 tween movement and music; they mutually define each 
 other. One might not be able to tell the difference between 
 a tune in three-part and one in four-part meter, but if he 
 tried to move to these, the movement itself would make 
 him conscious of the difference. At the same time, move- 
 ment with the music does not destroy the consciousness 
 of the tone structure itself. The average listener may not 
 be able to tell what constitutes the differences in tone 
 length and grouping between Yankee Doodle and America 
 but if he "claps" the sounds as he sings them, by con- 
 centrating his attention on what he is doing with his hands, 
 he can, after sufficient trial, realize the metrical difference 
 between these two songs. Thus the step of preliminary 
 observation is made more intensive by combination with 
 action. 
 
 When the ideas have become distinct in consciousness 
 as forms of movement, we can define them still further by 
 diagram, making the third step. Strong and weak pulses 
 may be represented by large and small circles, long and 
 short tones by long and short dashes, the idea of up and 
 down by dashes of different elevation. Thus tone ideas
 
 40 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 have been translated into movement ideas, and these have 
 been represented pictorially. 
 
 In each of these steps the music is being sung while a 
 given tone relationship is being observed by means of 
 action, picturing, etc., so that there is no break between 
 what is felt as music and that which is representing one fea- 
 ture of its structure. We can now pass on to the final step, 
 which is to change the picture of the tone relationships to 
 the notation that represents the same ideas. 
 
 Thus the fundamental principle, the connection between 
 what is felt and that which expresses it, is so systematically 
 evolved by means of the four steps of observing, acting, 
 picturing, and writing the symbols that the dullest pupil 
 shall not be left behind. 
 
 We must not forget, however, that the act of appreciation 
 itself is one that feels the beauty of all the parts as related 
 to a complete whole; it is a synthetic and not an analytic 
 act. Whenever we study a piece of music we are only 
 preparing ourselves for appreciation. The objection so 
 often made that the study of an art work by drawing atten- 
 tion to its mechanism destroys its imaginative appeal is 
 well taken, for the analysis of a work of art involves a 
 different mental process from its appreciation. One is 
 the scientific attitude, the other the aesthetic. One cannot 
 be substituted for the other. The individual, fully to 
 realize his opportunity, must have the benefit of both 
 methods of approach. One prepares him; the other gives 
 him the fruition.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK: AWAKENING MUSICAL 
 
 IDEAS 
 
 first stage: rhythm work 
 
 If all the children entering the first year of school could 
 bring the same inheritance of musical talent and the same 
 amount of experience through its exercise, the organiza- 
 tion of the music work would be comparatively simple; 
 but, unfortunately, both of these factors vary widely in in- 
 dividuals. 
 
 Children in the first year represent perhaps greater vari- 
 ations in musical ability than in any other subject of the 
 curriculum. If music were a study carried on individu- 
 ally, it might still be possible to adjust the work to such 
 widely varying ability, but this subject, unlike all other 
 school activities is too often expressed only collectively. 
 Hence the untalented children affect not only their own 
 work, but also that of the talented. 
 
 The ordinary procedure of the school is to start at once 
 with the song. Experience shows that out of a room of 
 thirty pupils, approximately one-sixth catch the air im- 
 mediately and soon become leaders. One-third manage 
 to mumble along after the leaders and to add something
 
 42 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 to the total tone of the room. Another third take still 
 longer to fall in and are quicker in going astray, while one- 
 sixth at first seem hopeless. The visitor listening to such 
 a room will not be aware that the effect of the song is not 
 the result of the total activity of the class; but, as a matter 
 of fact, the real work is done by the few leaders, with a 
 more or less intelligent following of the second group, and 
 the decidedly unintelligent help of the third. The result of 
 such work is to educate most effectively those who are 
 already leaders, to do something for the second class, oc- 
 casionally to bring up one from the third to the second 
 group, and to do nothing for the remainder, thus making 
 greater rather than less the difference between musical and 
 nonmusical children. 
 
 When one considers that music work should be the con- 
 certed act of the entire class, and that it is the business of 
 the school so to arrange it that all shall be equally benefited, 
 one must admit that the procedure just described will 
 hardly satisfy the demands of good organization. Instead 
 of appealing merely to those who are musically the most 
 talented, a form of work should be undertaken that will 
 awaken musical thought and expression in the large major- 
 ity of the class. 
 
 Children entering the first year, unaccustomed to school 
 life, are shy, and since they have sung but little they cannot 
 easily discover the singing voice. The act of singing is a 
 comparatively strange one to most children. 
 
 But there is a simpler and more primitive form of musical 
 expression, which finds its vent in rhythmical action. Such
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 43 
 
 expression of musical feeling is not so much by means of 
 voice as by movements, for instance, walking, marking 
 time with the hand, the foot or the head, swaying the 
 body, movements all of a simple character thoroughly 
 within the control of the pupils. By selecting some very 
 simple songs like Hot Cross Buns or London Bridge, Jack 
 and Jill or Little Bo Peep, we have material in the swing 
 and go of which we can easily interest the children. If the 
 song is such that movement is an idea suggested in it as, 
 for example, a cradle song, a marching song, a wind song, 
 or one of the songs expressive of various occupations, the 
 motion can be made much more suggestive. 
 
 But it must be borne in mind that the point of the action 
 is not to dramatize the song. Dramatic activity in connec- 
 tion with singing is prone to lead away from the thought of 
 the musical movement to something more readily suggested 
 by the words, and hence be an element of distraction rather 
 than an aid. The aim is rather to get all the children in 
 the class interested in what is going on, some in the com- 
 plete song, others in its rhythm, all in musical movement, 
 not alone in ideas that may be suggested in the text. 
 
 This work has no analytical aspect; the children do not 
 know how to tell what they are doing; they simply march, 
 swing or clap in harmony. The teacher will soon discover 
 those who are musically deficient, and a large part of her 
 time will be taken up in bringing these laggards into the 
 rhythmic fold where they can be benefited by the exercises 
 of the class. Such work does not give the kind of musical 
 results that make a favorable impression on visitors and
 
 44 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 principals, but it is a much more honest effort toward the 
 ideal of what public school work should be than is the 
 course ordinarily followed, which is to give to those that 
 have and to slight those that have not. 
 
 SECOND STAGE: VOICE WORK 
 
 After a period varying from three to six weeks, during 
 which the main effort is to unify the class and have the 
 children realize that everyone can do something in the 
 singing hour, the teacher may enter upon the second stage 
 in the organization of the music work. This deals with 
 the tone quality which is based on the principle that the 
 quality of the voice naturally expresses the idea calling it 
 forth. Older persons learn to belie themselves in this re- 
 spect, but the child's voice responds with a charming frank- 
 ness to the imaginative or emotional conditions by which 
 he is influenced. 
 
 This fact gives us the clue for the first steps in voice 
 training, and at the same time is in harmony with the 
 fundamental principle underlying all the work, i. e., to de- 
 velop the form as always expressing an idea. Listen to the 
 little girl asking permission from her mother to go out to 
 play, and to the same little girl arguing with her mother 
 after she has been refused. Here we have expressive voice; 
 idea and form are closely related. Give a child such 
 a little song sentence as, "Good morning, my dearest 
 Mamma." Let it be sung and you will probably have a 
 thin, meaningless, coarse or squeaky tone; but awaken 
 in the child the thought of her mother and of how much
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 45 
 
 she loves her, get her to feel that she is singing good 
 morning to her, and then let the song be sung again; 
 there will be a magical change in its tone quality. 
 
 Such work demands that the song material selected shall 
 have some emotional element. Songs about facts of nature 
 which awaken no feeling in the child, descriptions that are 
 more concerned with the statement of facts than with 
 arousing feeling, are difficult material for voice work. The 
 changing seasons, fall, winter, and spring, bring with them 
 hundreds of apt occasions, from the falling of the leaves to 
 the appearance of the pussy willows, thus furnishing in- 
 cidents that prove extremely interesting for the time being. 
 A song well chosen in this respect has large expressive 
 possibilities for the voice. Again : the festivities of the year, 
 like the Thanksgiving season, Christmas, Easter, and the 
 patriotic days, give scope for the musical work that makes 
 it possible to awaken an emotional interest sufficiently 
 strong for the most effective tone training. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that this response in the child 
 is automatic. The emotional interest is awakened not 
 simply to make the work interesting to the child, but for 
 the effect it has on the voice. This result is obtained by 
 continually drawing his attention to the thought that the 
 voice quality and modulation must be true to what he is 
 uttering. In doing this we are awakening in him a sen- 
 sitiveness to truth of expression which is fundamental not 
 only to all his appreciation of music but to his intercourse 
 with his fellow beings. Such voice training becomes not 
 simply music work, but one of the basic activities in which
 
 46 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the child must be trained the first year. What should all 
 the school work amount to but to enable the child ad- 
 equately to express himself ? Music, like the other studies, 
 supplies but the necessary facts and means for such ex- 
 pression. In the voice we have a beautiful organ, most 
 delicately adjusted, and through the niceties of its cultiva- 
 tion we can awaken the keenest sensitiveness to the truth 
 of what is expressed and its expression as well. 
 
 Every word that the teacher utters should be a good 
 example in this respect. Every answer of the child gives 
 opportunity for training in this true music of life, for lan- 
 guage becomes musical as it becomes expressive. The 
 spoken word does not emphasize the vowel tone but draws 
 attention to the consonant; singing reverses this process 
 and draws attention to the vowel. Singing and speaking 
 are therefore mutually helpful. In order to sing intel- 
 ligently, the niceties of the consonant must be studied in 
 speech; to speak expressively, attention must be given to 
 the vowel tone of song; and back of both these effects, the 
 idea of which these are the means of expression must be 
 real and vivid. 
 
 Training in these ideas of interpretation, awakening 
 sensitiveness to the way in which the thing is done should 
 not be limited to songs nor to the singing period. Short 
 phrases and words should be repeated and the children 
 made conscious of the differences to which they have un- 
 consciously been responding. A word like "No," for ex- 
 ample, can be made to convey half a dozen shades of mean- 
 ing, from an absolute refusal to a practical consent.
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 47 
 
 In this work lies the opportunity for the so-called 
 "monotone," the child who cannot sing, whose difficulty 
 generally is that he is unable to grasp and prolong the 
 vowel. He can be asked to repeat his name as the teacher 
 does, prolonging the vowel and turning it into a singing 
 tone. Two-syllable names can thus be sung on the tones 
 soh, doh, or the tonic dominant, each child standing until 
 he can imitate the teacher's call to the satisfaction of the 
 class. The imitation of whistles and the sounds of nature, 
 as water and wind, gives to the skillful teacher a great 
 variety of opportunity for awakening consciousness of 
 tone in the backward members of her class. 
 
 Gradually, from the consideration of tone and its connec 
 tion with the meaning, attention can be drawn to beautiful 
 tone as significant in itself; but the order of work should 
 always be from the practical expressive use to its use for 
 technical purposes. In singing exercises to vowels, for ex- 
 ample, the attempt should be made to have the vowel sound 
 as beautiful as possible. This technical and abstract vowel 
 work, contrary to the practice of many, should follow and 
 reenforce the tone work of the song rather than precede it, 
 as would naturally be done with mature students. 
 
 While what has been said applies to the work as a whole 
 with reference to its underlying principle, it will be neces- 
 sary for the teacher to study each child's voice individually. 
 There will be some children with strident, piercing voices, 
 and others with gruff, chest-tone qualities, very often the 
 result of habits formed while having a cold; then there will 
 be the feeble, undeveloped voices. While the principle
 
 48 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 will remain the same, the instruction will vary according 
 to the needs of the pupils. 
 
 The practice of suppressing the children's voices in order 
 to attain the so-called sweet tone, while it avoids injuring 
 the voices by strain, leaves them undeveloped and un- 
 expressive, and the tone of the whole room becomes 
 "breathy" and without character. Quantity of tone is as 
 much a part of expression as quality. Children love to 
 shout and to sing loud and it is good for them to do so, but 
 it must be significant and controlled sound, not senseless 
 noise. The teacher need not be afraid of voice strain if the 
 tunes are properly pitched, that is, sufficiently high to avoid 
 the use of the chest tone. The constant tendency of the 
 teacher to judge the pitch of the tune by her own vocal 
 feeling is often misleading. The children's vocal organs 
 are smaller than those of a grown person, and are conse- 
 quently higher pitched, as the piccolo ranges higher than 
 the flute because it is smaller. Hence unless the teacher is 
 very sure of herself, the pitch of the tunes should be de- 
 cided by the needs of the class, which may sometimes 
 require the giving of the pitch higher than it is written. 
 Tunes requiring force on low tones should be avoided. 
 But phases of the question that deal with the means of ex- 
 pressive voice, the pitch of tunes, the avoidance of pieces 
 that are unsuitable, and the attention that should be given 
 to the individual qualities of the student, are problems for 
 the teacher. All that the child is asked to do has reference 
 to expressive purpose. By these means pure tone is 
 developed.
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 49 
 
 THIRD STAGE: PITCH, DURATION, AND PULSE 
 
 The second stage in the organization of school work is 
 connected entirely with ideas arising out of the interpre- 
 tative aspect of music. This aspect, however, cannot be 
 long pursued before it leads back to structural ideas. 
 After a few weeks, therefore, we begin a class of work which 
 has an entirely distinct aim, i. e., to make the pupils 
 gradually conscious not only of the material of expression, 
 but also of the structure of the forms, the interpretation of 
 which they have been studying. This is the third stage in 
 the organization of music work. 
 
 Such a song sentence as Gently Rocks My Light Canoe 
 can be given. After the song has been sung correctly, it 
 may be repeated, the upper tones being sung a third or an 
 octave higher than they are written. By this means the 
 children discover that the up and down movement of 
 the tones has a good deal to do with the interpretation of 
 the words "gently rocks." 
 
 =t 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 Gen - tly rocks my light ca - noe. 
 
 The children quickly grasp the significance in the struc- 
 ture of Birdie Fly as compared with Raindrops Fall; and 
 the relation of the tune to the words in Down Come the 
 A utumn Leaves and Up Goes My Pretty Kite is at once felt. 
 
 w 
 
 d 
 
 Bird - ie fly in the sky. 
 
 Music 4
 
 So 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 te 
 
 Rain drops small 
 
 down - ward fall. 
 
 m 
 
 ^* 
 
 J: 
 
 31 
 
 m 
 
 V- 
 
 Up goes my pret - ty kite in the blue sky. 
 
 I 9. 1_^_ 
 
 Down come the au- tumn leaves whirl-ing a round. 
 
 In order to make the contrast more striking, the words 
 and tunes of the last four songs may be exchanged, when 
 the absurdity of trying to express the thought of the ascend- 
 ing kite by the tune of the falling leaves, or the raindrop 
 song by that of Birdie Fly will be felt by even the most 
 obtuse member of the class. What makes this difference 
 is a problem that the little children do not take long to 
 solve. Ideas of direction and extent of direction are thus 
 made apparent, and when once clearly observed are acted 
 out, the hand showing by its movements not only the direc- 
 tion of each tone from the preceding, but in a general way 
 the extent of direction. After much practice in this kind 
 of observation of suitable songs, selections may be taken in 
 which the melody is not so baldly expressive of the pitch 
 movement. The idea once gained of tone movement with 
 reference to direction and extent, it is not difficult for the 
 children to apply their powers of observing and acting to 
 the movement of any melody. 
 
 But this is only one phase of the musical idea. Now
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 51 
 
 that attention has been drawn to tone direction, it can 
 easily be turned towards tone duration. Some quickly 
 moving tune like Yankee Doodle or a wind song com- 
 pared with the slow moving tones of a lullaby, will cause 
 the children to observe a difference in movement; they can 
 clap this difference, thus making themselves more distinctly 
 conscious of its nature. This is generally spoken of as 
 " clapping the words." The children are conscious that 
 the speed and movement of the tones are factors in the 
 structure of the tunes which decide their expressive char- 
 acter, that there is something appropriate in the grouping 
 of tones of See Saw as compared with Little Bo Peep 
 quite apart from the exigencies of the syllables. After the 
 idea is once grasped, through its significance the more 
 abstract idea of variation in tone duration itself can be 
 reached, and children can now clap the words to any tune 
 and be made to observe the tones in their relationship to 
 one another, as long and short, or in their durational value. 
 
 We are now ready to observe the most fundamental and 
 at the same time the most abstract element in tone group- 
 ing; that which has reference to the pulse or metrical ele- 
 ment of tunes. Here the connection between expressive 
 values cannot be made so clear. On the other hand, the 
 phenomenon itself is much more simple. What we wish 
 the children to know, i. c., that there is a steady pulsation 
 running through music, we can make them conscious of 
 by letting them keep step or mark time. 
 
 Children have plays that bring out this idea: the various 
 "counting out" games, for instance, such as "Eeny, meeny,
 
 52 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 miny, mo," where the metrical grouping depends upon the 
 regular recurring pulse. Perhaps more effective still is 
 to have the class play they are a band. While the musical 
 children carry the air, those who need development of the 
 metrical sense give various drum beats, the little drums 
 marking all the pulses, the larger ones only every other 
 accent, while the largest of all give only the strongest ac- 
 cents. Or if toy instruments can be procured, drums, 
 cymbals, triangles, and tambourines may be used to ad- 
 vantage. Thus the feeling of grouping, the relation of 
 pulses to one another and their regularity, are readily and 
 practically brought home. The children get so interested 
 in such work that the unmusical ones have been observed 
 in process of being coached by the more musical during 
 recess. 
 
 The difference between this work and that done at the 
 opening of the school is that in the early work no attempt 
 was made to observe the phenomenon itself. It was merely 
 a means to get the pupils to join in the music. Now we 
 wish to have them notice the effect itself. Mother Goose 
 songs supply good material, especially those in compound 
 or six-eight meter. In these the two large swings that throb 
 through each measure are easily felt and acted. The same 
 grouping of two can be applied to most four-pulse meter, 
 as well as to all two-pulse and many three-pulse meters, 
 especially those that are written for children. The three- 
 part songs may be treated as if they were compound, and 
 acted in the same way as the six-eight song. 
 
 It will be noticed from this enumeration that the object
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 53 
 
 is, not to discover the metrical signature, but simply to 
 make the children conscious of the fundamental swing, like 
 that of a pendulum, which runs through the music. Along 
 with this song work the same principle of observation and 
 acting can be applied to the recitation of Mother Goose 
 rhymes and jingles. Valuable discriminating thought can 
 be awakened by repeating Jack and Jill first marking every 
 beat of the foot, then marking only the strong beat, and 
 finally grouping and marking only every other foot. 
 
 Poetic rhythm v v v 
 
 Third v v v v 
 
 Second v v v vvvvv 
 
 First v v v v v > vv vv ^^ww 
 
 Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of wa - ter. 
 
 The children will feel the choppy effect of the first and 
 second ways, and choose the third. 
 
 If we examine the illustration of Jack and Jill closely, 
 we shall find that there is a still higher rhythm that which 
 deals with the thought. Like the others, it presents a 
 series of large pulsations, but instead of grouping these 
 pulses mechanically on the basis of the foot, it prolongs or 
 hurries these as the thought may require: for instance, 
 Jack and Jill would form the first group; went up the hill, 
 the second; and to fetch a pail 0} water, the third. Thus 
 Jill, hill, and water would form the climaxes of these pulse 
 waves. In order to make these of equal proportions, the 
 second group must be uttered a little faster than the first, 
 and the third considerably faster still. Thus three pulses 
 would take the place of four. Thought grouping is of 
 prime importance in serious poetry, where the rhythm is a
 
 54 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 helpmeet to the thought, and justifies Professor Scrip- 
 ture's contention with reference to the true nature of poetic 
 rhythm. 
 
 The purpose of the work suggested here, however, is to 
 arouse in the average, or those below the average, that 
 feeling of regularity in succession which is the necessary 
 basis of sensitiveness to the truly artistic use of rhythm. 
 The child who is unable to regulate rhythmically his phys- 
 ical movements, such as walking and clapping, will later 
 be pretty sure to find difficulty in extending and com- 
 pressing the foot in poetry as is essential in order to mani- 
 fest the true poetic rhythm. As a means of strengthening 
 the sense of recurring pulsation, there is great value in 
 employing jingles such as Mother Goose supplies, where 
 evidently the pleasure consists in the rhythm rather than 
 in the thought expressed. The reason that the majority 
 of people read poetry in a sing-song which disregards the 
 true flow of the lines is because the rhythmic sense is so 
 undeveloped that they rely on the mechanical regularity 
 of the foot to steady them. It is the nonmusical dancer 
 who is most dependent upon uniform tempo in the music; 
 he who is truly musical and has perfect command over 
 himself can readily accelerate or retard his movements to 
 accord with the artistic interpretation of the music. 
 
 There can be no more genuine musical training than 
 awakening and making the pupils sensitive to the true 
 pulse in both music and poetry. Some children will find 
 difficulty in catching even the dogtrot of the iambic foot, 
 and it is only by appealing first to the mechanical regular
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 55 
 
 grouping that they can be taught to vary this as may be 
 needful for the sympathetic rendering of whatever may be 
 the music in hand. 
 
 With reference to the three aspects of study here de- 
 scribed, pulsation, duration, and pitch, it will be ob- 
 served that we have gone through the first two stages of 
 the process outlined in the preceding chapter, i. e., those 
 of observation and acting. Yet the aim of the work has not 
 been to make the pupils analytically accurate with refer- 
 ence to tone relationship. 
 
 The important point was not that the tones moved in 
 seconds or octaves, but in small or large skips; not in halves, 
 quarters, or eighths, but in long or short tones; not in two- 
 part or three-part meter, in four-part or six, but that there 
 was a regular pulsation in all music, which when recognized 
 made it go easily. We have been aiming at fundamental 
 ideas rather than at analysis. 
 
 The principle can be similarly carried on to a rather 
 rough and ready picturing of these three effects by using 
 dashes at different heights to represent pitch, dashes of 
 different lengths for duration, and large and small circles 
 for strong and weak pulses. 
 
 The idea of musical structure, felt as a "go" or move- 
 ment, is developed, as we have already shown, through the 
 recognition of tone relationships. The difficulty has al- 
 ways been that when a relationship simple enough to be 
 grasped has been presented, the musical movement for 
 which it exists has been lost. When the child is thinking 
 out how the first three tones of America arc related to one
 
 56 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 another with reference to pulse and pitch, he is pretty sure 
 to forget that they have to do with the design of the tune. 
 On the other hand, when pitch, duration, and stress rela- 
 tionships are presented as materials out of which music is 
 made, as scales and time exercises, only musical pupils are 
 able to make the connection between the material and the 
 structure it forms, or to recognize it in the music they hear. 
 The processes above described start and end with the mu- 
 sical passage, and while they detach by action or picture 
 some one feature of the movement and make it possible 
 for the pupil to develop that phase of the idea, the passage 
 as a whole is being sung or heard at the same time, so that 
 relationship to the whole is never lost. 
 
 
 My 
 
 Coun 
 
 try, 
 
 'tis 
 
 of 
 
 thee 
 
 Picture of: 
 a pitch 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 b duration - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pulse 
 
 Tpnoor* 
 
 But the description of pitch differences in terms of space, 
 while serving well enough for the first presentation, is 
 neither accurate nor sufficiently true to experience. We can 
 describe the difference between the octave of a tone and 
 the seventh by saying that the former is a trifle higher, but
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 57 
 
 the difference in effect is much greater than the distance 
 idea suggests. In other words, various tones, owing to 
 their relation to the key tone, take to themselves certain 
 qualities derived from key feeling. If the pupil is to hear 
 accurately, he must be able to recognize these qualities 
 due to key feeling. In order to do this he must be able to 
 hear them not as effects in the general flow of the melodic 
 movement but associated with the individual tones that 
 produce them. The first step in this recognition is a 
 difficult task for all except musical people. Hence to ac- 
 complish it, a device dating back to the eleventh century 
 is employed, i. e., associating the tones with what are called 
 sound names, so that a tone occupying a given place in a 
 key will always be sung by a given name. In this way the 
 key qualities of the tone are gradually associated with the 
 name, and when the tone is heard in its musical relation- 
 ship, the key feeling suggests the name and thus defines 
 it for the mind ; or, when the sign that suggests the name is 
 seen, it so brings to mind the key feeling associated with it 
 that it is possible to think or sing the tone. 
 
 It is obvious that in order to use such a device effectively, 
 the singing of these names in connection with the tones as 
 they occur in music, must be practiced, forming the nec- 
 essary association, and the less musical the pupil the more 
 is this essential. The ordinary way of starting out with 
 these sound names and forcing an association with them 
 entirely from the scale aspect of the tones, makes of the 
 connections a set and artificial grouping. This, although 
 well enough for exercises written for the beginner or for
 
 58 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the scale idea, tends to break down in the free movement 
 of tones as they actually occur in songs, the very time 
 when its help is most required. In other words, the expe- 
 rience which is to form the associations between the tones 
 and their musical qualities is too narrow and artificial. 
 
 What is needed to make the device successful is a wider 
 experience for forming a more accurate association. To 
 supply this we very early in the year connect with the 
 simplest song sentences, after they have been thoroughly 
 learned, their sound names. For example, after the child 
 has sung Gently Rocks My Light Canoe and has thor- 
 oughly learned the expressive qualities of the tones with 
 reference to the idea expressed, the same two tones are 
 sung as doh* re, and he associates these names with the key 
 feeling that these tones awaken. This process is kept up 
 through the year, the sound names being used not as is 
 ordinarily done, to suggest the tone required, but after 
 the tone is learned and its quality is thoroughly in mind, 
 for the sake of connecting these qualities with the names by 
 which we later wish to suggest them. 
 
 The sound names, though they have nothing to do with 
 the expressive rendering of the song and hence seem incon- 
 sistent with the principles we are following, are, in this 
 case, connected with the tones after their expressive values 
 
 * The phonetic spelling used for the syllable names in this work is that 
 employed in Tonic Soh-fa method, with the exception of the syllables for 
 the second, third, and seventh and fourth and fifth sharped of the scale, 
 for which the American spelling of re, mi, ti, fi, and si is adopted in order 
 to avoid confusion with the usage in this country. The value of the Tonic 
 Soh-fa spelling tending to keep a pure vowel tone, is obvious.
 
 FIRST YEAR WORK 59 
 
 are felt. They are not an aid in the present work, but 
 preparation for more complex work to follow. 
 
 It will be observed that the three stages of work so far 
 outlined all grow out of song material and hence imply that 
 actual song singing is the larger part and the most im- 
 portant feature of the work. What has been described 
 with reference to tone relationships has grown out of the 
 song work and is necessary for the organization of the ex- 
 perience. Such observation of song material as has been 
 described follows the song singing after its full expressive 
 value has been developed. Observation that some of the 
 tones are high or low, or long or short follows the learning 
 of the song and awakens new features of interest. 
 
 But this is not all. These observations help the child in 
 learning new songs in the latter part of the year. Instead 
 of repeating passages to be taught over and over until 
 there is an automatic memory of them, the child's obser- 
 vational powers are directed by means of the devices used. 
 For instance, in teaching a new song the children are asked 
 at the outset to notice whether the tones go up or down, 
 whether in wide skips or little skips, whether they move 
 rapidly or in long-sustained tones. Thus the process of 
 musical observation is developed and musical passages 
 are quickly grasped. The pupils feel the force of the work 
 done in aiding them to observe how the tones go, and a 
 keen competition is awakened in the exercise of their new 
 powers of tone discrimination. To go on teaching songs 
 through mechanical repetition after the children have 
 begun to observe definite features is like supplying tools
 
 60 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 without giving opportunity to use them. They fail to 
 apply what they have learned and miss the exhilaration 
 and interest that this might awaken. 
 
 At the end of the first year the pupils should have a keen 
 feeling both for tone quality and for its expressive use in 
 connection with their songs, in other words, for interpre- 
 tative ideas. Experience has shown that the way the song 
 goes, or its structural idea is due to the grouping of the 
 tones in pulses, with reference to their being long or short 
 and with reference to high or low. And they have formed 
 associations between the tones of their songs and the sound 
 names of these tones, so that when the first and second of 
 the scale are sung, doh, re come tc the mind. 
 
 All knowledge gained has been in the form of experience 
 in acting and picturing songs, playing with the material in 
 its constructive aspect without analyzing it. If the work 
 of this year has been successfully carried out, an effective 
 basis of experience has been laid for a more accurate and 
 definite observation of tone as used in the music necessary 
 for the more advanced work of the second year.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK: DEFINING INTERPRE- 
 TATIVE AND STRUCTURAL IDEAS 
 
 The first stage deals with the interpretative idea, the 
 expressive use of song; the second individualizes the tone of 
 the key; the third carries the rhythmic thought to the point 
 where notation can be considered, and the fourth intro- 
 duces the staff. The rest of the year combines this material 
 and adds one distinct feature which also requires the union 
 of all the previous knowledge, that is, the practice of song 
 making. 
 
 first stage: voice work 
 
 In the first of these four stages, dealing with the inter- 
 pretative idea, the children learn that songs are expressive. 
 In Chapter V it is stated that the good tone gained in the 
 first year is an automatic response to proper imaginative 
 and emotional conditions. Through constant attention the 
 children not only have been getting experience in effective 
 singing but have also been forming good habits. They 
 are now a year older; the shyness of the first year has 
 disappeared and the change in maturity is greater than in 
 older pupils. They can be made conscious of some of the 
 
 6i
 
 62 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 simpler technical steps necessary to get good tonal results, 
 and systematic effort can be made to correct tonal faults. 
 
 The study of the vowel is now introduced and the chil- 
 dren begin to learn that of the various sounds that make 
 up syllables and words, one is chosen for the singing tone 
 while the other sounds come in very quickly before and 
 after as the syllable requires. Take, for instance, the 
 word "My" it consists of three sounds: a humming sound, 
 required by the m followed by a as in father and i as in ill. 
 A good singer makes the first and last quickly while the a 
 is the sound on which the word is sung. If the pupils 
 try singing My Country 'Tis of Thee they will find that 
 many, instead of singing on the tone a go on to the tone i 
 and this not only makes the word sound badly, as if it had 
 two syllables, but also requires the making of a singing 
 tone on a sound difficult to sing. The study of the vowel 
 consists first in learning to select the right sound for the 
 singing tone, and, second, how to hold it without changing 
 its quality, at the same time learning to make the sounds 
 that come before and after, not only quickly, but so 
 distinctly that the words will be clearly understood. 
 
 Supporting this work and making it effective is the neces- 
 sity for good position of body and sufficient breath. The 
 relation of pose of body, flexibility of jaw and control of 
 breath to what they are trying to do in tone production is 
 easily made apparent to the children. If the work is done 
 in connection with the song and if the relation of the word 
 to the song is felt, then the relation of the vowel to the word 
 can be carried and both these can be related to the good
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 63 
 
 position of the body and breath control. Thus all the 
 factors can be coupled with the expressive end they serve. 
 On the other hand, if the breath exercises are taken as in- 
 dependent work at one time, the vowel work in arbitrary 
 exercises at another time, the pronunciation of the words 
 of the song at still another time, and general drill on ex- 
 pressive singing of the song at yet another, we have what 
 too often happens under the so-called systematic teaching 
 of music: all the essentials necessary for effective singing 
 are practiced because their logical importance is felt; but 
 they are so disassociated one from another that little prac- 
 tical use is made of them, hence that which unites them and 
 makes them significant is lost. 
 
 Good position of body, breath control, and the nature 
 of the vowel and the consonant are technical elements, of 
 whose place in singing the pupil is gradually made con- 
 scious by their employment to attain expressive ends. The 
 first stage of the second year work emphasizes this mastery 
 of means through the ends they serve, which goes on prac- 
 tically through the year in connection with the song singing, 
 the point now aimed at being to make these features so 
 important and vivid to the children that they can be car- 
 ried along and progress can be made in their successful 
 use through the regular practice of learning songs. 
 
 second stage: key quality 
 
 After a few weeks spent on the first stage of work, it is 
 left for that of the second stage, learning the character- 
 istics of the tones of the key. The tones in the melody are
 
 64 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 not like a string of beads all of the same size and color, but 
 their relations in the key give them various qualities so 
 that the scale made up of these tones is really like a spangle 
 of diverse jewels. As the effect of jewels varies according 
 to the light they are in, so the effect of tones varies ac- 
 cording to the successions in which they are grouped. It 
 is not difficult to memorize the tones in scale succession, 
 but put these tones into a song and the children find it dif- 
 ficult to recognize them. 
 
 The first year's work has given the children a feeling 
 for tones so that they recognize bright or dark tones, repose- 
 ful or active tones, without any attempt either at definition 
 or analysis. They have felt these qualities in the songs 
 they have been singing and an effort has been made to 
 connect the sound names with the feeling of the tones that 
 the song has developed. This has been done by repeat- 
 ing the same little melodies, using instead of words the 
 syllable names, after their character has been fully de- 
 veloped and felt in songs. 
 
 The advanced work aims to make the pupils conscious 
 of the qualities so that they will know definitely what key 
 characteristics belong to each tone. Let us illustrate by 
 means of language. The child becomes familiar with the 
 sound " d " through speaking words in which it occurs. For 
 instance, he has often said the word "did " but he has never 
 separated it into the different sounds that make it up. In 
 time he learns the symbol that represents the sound "d" 
 and then he finds this symbol in written words that he 
 already knows, such as "day" or "good." He realizes
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 65 
 
 after a number of such experiences that the symbol "d" is 
 the mark for a sound with which he has long been familiar 
 in his verbal experience. Hereafter the sound "d" is a 
 separate thing to him and he is consequently aware of it 
 wherever it occurs. It no longer merges in the whole 
 word. The form and the experience have united; con- 
 sequently an idea is developed. 
 
 In music the child has already sung as wholes short 
 musical phrases to the syllable names, and he has felt 
 bright or dark characteristics, or active or reposeful qual- 
 ities in the different phrases. For instance, in the song 
 
 sentence, "I'm so gay" he felt the gladness of the whole. 
 
 < 
 
 ^^m 
 
 I'm so gay. 
 
 When he broke up the word "day" into its parts he found 
 the peculiar effect that was due to the presence of the sound 
 "d." Now in his singing his attention is drawn to the par- 
 ticular sounds which produce a particular effect. He finds 
 that the peculiar gladness of the phrase "I'm so gay" 
 comes from the sound soh, the fifth in the scale. If the 
 reader will sing the passage, ending first on the fourth and 
 afterwards on the sixth (the two tones on either side of the 
 fifth), he will realize that the fifth tone gives the quality 
 which expresses the thought of the word. True, this qual- 
 ity of the fifth is due to what has preceded it so that the 
 characteristics of tones studied in this stage are really 
 effects dependent on a harmonic relationship of which the 
 pupil is only aware in the single tone; here lies the benefit 
 
 Music 5
 
 66 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 of this work that, by making the pupils sensitive to the qual- 
 ity of the individual tones, an elementary harmonic feeling 
 is being developed. As the first music the pupils attempt 
 to read is of the most obvious harmonic structure, the de- 
 scriptions here given hold good to their experience. As 
 skill in reading increases, experience with more complex 
 harmonies grows and a subtle feeling for tone relationship 
 takes the place of this stage. Both the use of the syllable 
 or sound names, and hand signs are for the purpose of 
 impressing on the memory the quality of the tone in the 
 key. Their influence is dependent on the thought they 
 stimulate; when they are constantly used as mnemonics 
 for the memory they may easily come to take the place of 
 thought and thus become a hindrance to musical thinking. 
 We begin this work by singing to the pupils two little 
 sentences, "I want to stop," and "I want to go," set to 
 almost the same notes except that the first ends with doh 
 and the second with re. 
 
 I want to stop. I want to go. 
 
 After we have sung the second, we bid the children sing 
 the first. They sing the words of the first, but generally to 
 the tune of the second, which is, of course, more distinctly 
 in their minds, and resembles the first in every respect but 
 one. "That doesn't sound as if it wanted to stop," we 
 observe. The children shake their heads; they feel that 
 something is wrong. A new idea has been brought to their 
 attention; one tone has a different feeling from another
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 67 
 
 tone. They have never thought of it before, but there is no 
 escaping from it now. We sing "I want to stop" to them 
 again. Now they have it and hereafter cannot be shaken. 
 "I want to stop" ends on a tone that wants to stop, and 
 they have no doubt about it. That tone, we tell them, is 
 named doh, and extending the closed fist, "Here," we say, 
 "we have a picture of it." Similarly we tell them later 
 that the name of the tone that wants to go is re, and drive 
 its progressive quality home by picturing it with the palm 
 spread out sloping upward. 
 
 We now study the third of the scale, repeating the same 
 two songs, but commencing on mi. This gives us the 
 half step above rather than below the initial tone. If the 
 tonic is clearly in mind, the repose quality of the third 
 will come out, and at the same time its sensitive, plain- 
 tive character. The open hand well illustrates this tone 
 quality. While the fourth helps bring out the quality of 
 the third, it is not individualized, the whole attention be- 
 ing centered on the similarity and difference between the 
 third and the first between mi and doh. This relation- 
 ship is further tested by the teacher's singing the doh in 
 different pitches and asking the children to sing the mi. If 
 the pupils have a true idea of mi, the reverse step will be 
 possible, though it is much more difficult, i. e., when the 
 teacher sings mi in different pitches the children can give 
 the corresponding doh. 
 
 The next step is to compare the third repose tone with 
 the two already studied. For this the teacher takes the 
 sentence "I'm so gay," given on page 65.
 
 68 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 The three tones are now practiced from hand dicta- 
 tion, the lower fifth being easily added as the octave of the 
 upper. It will be best to practice not only reaching the 
 fifth from the tonic and the third, but also the reverse 
 giving the fifth and having the pupils sing the other two 
 tones. If the fifth has been really learned, when it is sung 
 on different pitches by the teacher it will not be difficult 
 to reach the other tones. Practice and great care will be 
 needed not to have the acquiring of these tones result in 
 merely learning a mechanical formula, but to have it a 
 response to genuine musical thinking. 
 
 The next step is to study the tone just below doh, using 
 the following sentence : 
 
 E 
 
 m 
 
 This 
 
 the 
 
 teas 
 
 ing tone. 
 
 Emphasis of the word "teasing" will bring out the qual- 
 ity of the seventh its incisiveness and the demand for 
 resolution upwards. Using the Tonic Soh-fa name, we 
 call it ti, and the index finger pointing up pictures it to 
 the eye. This is now practiced with the others in a similar 
 way. 
 
 The next tone is studied, the fourth, fa. For this the 
 phrase "so far away" is added to the already familiar "I 
 want to go." 
 
 tit. 
 
 vM 
 
 s^ 
 
 4=r 
 
 want 
 
 to 
 
 go 
 
 far 
 
 way.
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 
 
 69 
 
 The dark, unsatisfied quality of the tone is 
 brought out by the song. Its tendency to 
 drop down to mi is illustrated by the index 
 finger's pointing down, the opposite of ti. 
 
 Finally, the last tone la, the sixth, is taken 
 below the tonic in the little song, " I'm so 
 sad." 
 
 I'm so sad. 
 The rather dark quality is brought out by 
 the song. The downward tendency of the 
 tone la is indicated by the whole hand point- 
 ing down, the opposite of re. This posi- 
 tion shows its downward tendency from the 
 tonic, while its opposite upward progression 
 towards doh is indicated by the wrist's being 
 raised from the soh position. 
 
 The true test for learning the key quali- 
 ties of these tones is not the ability to reach 
 them from the tonic, but the ability to form 
 the tonic when the tone is given in different 
 pitches, thus resulting in the ability to think 
 new keys. 
 
 Last year's songs and song sentences are 
 sung and the pupils feel that their past ex- 
 
 The hand signs are those used by the Tonic Soh -fa 
 teachers. The cuts are taken from Pocket Modulator, 
 published by Biglow and Main. 
 
 LA 
 
 SOH 
 
 Ml 
 
 DOH
 
 70 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 perience in singing the sound names is being supported by 
 their new observations. The advantage of the past experi- 
 ence is that it keeps a pupil from making a too narrow and 
 arbitrary deduction with reference to tone character, which 
 is bound to be contradicted by later experience. For 
 context, harmony, and rhythmic position are constantly 
 changing the effects of tones even in simple melodies, thus 
 making it especially necessary that experience should pre- 
 cede definition. 
 
 So we go through the seven notes of the scale, bringing 
 vividly into the child's consciousness the key quality of 
 each tone through song sentences that emphasize its pe- 
 culiar characteristics and through hand signs that suggest 
 it physically. Thus the beginnings of work made in the 
 previous year, observation, acting, and picturing, are con- 
 tinued. In this work with tone definition the shape of the 
 hand closed or open, pointed up or down represents to 
 the eye distinctive qualities of the tone and takes the place 
 of the blackboard picture, for obviously such qualities 
 could not be pictured. All that the blackboard can do is 
 to suggest distance and direction. 
 
 Taught in this way the tones interest the children and 
 become so real to them that music can be easily dictated by 
 use of the hand signs. The hand sign suggests the quality 
 of the tone, the raising or lowering of the hand when the 
 sign is made suggests the direction and duration of the 
 interval. Thus we have, combined in one act, three 
 suggestions of tone relationships. The children will sing 
 readily new tunes thus dictated : the ease with which they
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 71 
 
 follow this dictation makes it possible, by using both hands, 
 to dictate two-part exercises in the second grade, long 
 before they can be sung from notation, showing that the 
 hand signs are the simplest and most accurate way of 
 suggesting tones, with reference both to pitch and rhythm. 
 
 In arithmetic, after the child has acquired a certain 
 amount of knowledge about numbers we organize his 
 knowledge for him in the shape of the multiplication table. 
 Similarly we organize the tone knowledge that the child has 
 now acquired by grouping the tones, in the scale, for in- 
 stance, showing their relative places there. The child's use 
 of the scale is not dissimilar to his use of the multiplication 
 table. The latter is useful to him in most arithmetical 
 operations. So the knowledge of the scale, involving ac- 
 quaintance with the sequence of the tones in a key, is of 
 use constantly in music. Moreover, the scale is a mode of 
 movement that occurs often in music, like an idiom in 
 language. Beethoven's Hymn to Joy in the Ninth Sym- 
 phony moves almost entirely in the stepwise movement 
 of the scale. The fact that the scale is such an idiom is so 
 obvious that is needs no illustration. The child in his ex- 
 perience discovers that the song Up Goes My Pretty Kile 
 (page 50), is practically the scale that he has been learn- 
 ing, and that in many of the songs he has been singing 
 parts of the scale. 
 
 THIRD STAGE: TONE DURATION 
 
 After attention has been centered for some six weeks on 
 the tones of the key, ending with scale practice, observa-
 
 72 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 tion is directed to the third stage, or rhythm, which in- 
 cludes both pulse and duration. The object here, as we 
 have said, is to lead to the discovery that the tones have 
 various lengths which are capable of being measured. Be- 
 fore the pupils are through with this they also find that the 
 measurement can be represented. 
 
 We open the new work some day by making the children 
 sing a song and then asking whether all the tones are of 
 the same length. They are not quite sure, perhaps. 
 
 "How do we notice the long and short tones? " 
 
 "Clap them out." 
 
 "All right," and the children proceed to clap out the 
 song. 
 
 "Now, are the tones of the same length? " 
 
 "No, some go fast and some go slow." 
 
 Following such a course of questions and answers, we 
 at last elicit from the children the idea that if we are to 
 discover how long the tones are, we require a means by 
 which to measure them, just as we need a yardstick to find 
 the length of a piece of cloth. 
 
 "Is there anything regular in music?" we ask. 
 
 "Yes," they answer, "there was something that we 
 walked to and acted and pictured by circles." 
 
 Here we have a measuring stick at hand, namely, the 
 regular pulsation. We apply the measure. While the 
 class sings the song, clapping the tones, the teacher swings 
 a circle for the pulse. This is a way for measuring tones. 
 It is seen that some tones last as long as the circle, some 
 twice as long, some only half as long. The children in the
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 73 
 
 first year have already pictured both pulse and duration 
 separately on the blackboard. Now they combine the two. 
 One child, for example, draws the pictures of the pulse by 
 means of circles, dividing the space above them by vertical 
 lines, one being placed before each large circle, thus mark- 
 ing the strong pulses. Then while the class sings the song 
 again, another child draws horizontal lines above the 
 circles and between the vertical lines. These show the 
 duration of the tones with reference to the circles that 
 mark the pulses. 
 
 Hot cross buns Hot cross buns One a penny two a penny Hot cross buns 
 
 J J J J J J AW /.W J J J 
 
 They have now a united representation of pulse and 
 duration. 
 
 We now do for duration what we did for pitch in giving 
 the names of the scale. We tell the children that a tone 
 which lasts a circle may be represented by a quarter note, 
 one lasting two circles by a half note, one lasting half a 
 circle by an eighth note, at the same time marking the 
 notation on the board. 
 
 As we developed the child's skill in the recognition of 
 tone qualities by singing very short and striking passages, 
 so we give him practice by changing the tone durations, 
 introducing those with which he is already familiar, i. e., 
 quarters, halves, and eighths. He is extremely interested,
 
 74 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 not only in telling the teacher what he hears but in writing 
 it down; and in all new songs learned afterward his skill 
 is put to practical use in those portions that are within his 
 grasp. 
 
 FOURTH STAGE.' SIMPLIFIED PITCH NOTATION 
 
 We now take up the fourth stage of the work, the ob- 
 servation of pitch, and with the purpose of discovering some 
 more accurate way for its notation than the rather rough 
 and ready picturing so far employed, we begin with a prim- 
 itive picturing of songs. The children have already made 
 pitch pictures of songs in a crude way on the blackboard by 
 placing dashes up and down to show pitch changes in the 
 melody. They see that the dashes give a visible outline of 
 the melodic movement, and a child enjoys making such a 
 picture of some song of which he is thinking and then hav- 
 ing his classmates guess what the tune is. 
 
 Now a song is taken in which the same tone recurs of- 
 ten, and while the children recognize the familiar air and 
 sing it correctly the teacher draws attention to the fact 
 that although a certain dash represents the pitch of a cer- 
 tain tone throughout, in this free way of suggesting the 
 pitch it is impossible to put the tone exactly on the level 
 that the pitch idea requires. Difference of ability among 
 pupils in this respect is very marked. The more precise 
 and exact ones come quite near what is intended, but 
 the majority require considerable guessing. The teacher 
 shows how valuable it would be if we could tell exactly 
 where the same note would come each time. She takes
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 75 
 
 great pains to have the pupils feel the necessity for what 
 she wishes to teach them. 
 
 She then asks for suggestions as to the means that might 
 be employed to help get the same note on the same level 
 throughout the song. One of the first suggestions is to 
 draw a line on which the note can be placed. The teacher 
 then sings a song limited to two tones, such as Gently 
 Rocks My Light Canoe. (See page 49.) 
 
 The usual way % \ \ \ * 
 
 The new suggestion V V - V - \ 
 
 A line will define the lower tone, and the children quickly 
 see that the space above the line serves to show when to 
 sing the other tone. 
 
 The next step is to have the children outline a song 
 which includes three tones, one above and one below the 
 center tone, such as " I want to go." (See page 66.) 
 
 The children discover that a single line defines three 
 tones; the one on the line, the one above and the one be- 
 low it. 
 
 Thus the function of lines and spaces is thoroughly 
 learned in its simplest form, and by using melodies which 
 call for more and more pitches, the need of new lines and 
 spaces is brought to the children, until at last they have
 
 76 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 built up a primitive staff of five lines and six spaces. In 
 writing on this staff we can use the note heads, which the 
 children already understand, while for the circles we sub- 
 stitute vertical straight lines which show the accent of the 
 rhythm represented hitherto by the big circles. 
 
 But as the circles are to be omitted and the vertical line 
 represents only the accent, there is nothing to tell how 
 many pulses there are between the lines. Again, the teacher 
 develops the necessity for some mark to show the number 
 of pulses. The children see that some songs have two, some 
 four, and others, three pulses. 
 
 So far we feel the necessity for marking only the number 
 of pulses. The necessity for the lower fraction in the 
 meter signature must also be equally well prepared for 
 by comparing melodies in the compound time of six* 
 eight with simple time. For the children will readily 
 realize that the large circles they have been making in com- 
 pound meter can be broken up in groups of three circles 
 each. Thus the two circles representing the larger groups 
 may be represented by six small ones. The Mother Goose 
 rhymes will furnish many excellent illustrations for this. 
 When the necessity for differentiating between the two- 
 part grouping of simple meter and the two-part grouping 
 of compound meter is thoroughly realized, the necessity 
 for a second figure to state the nature of the pulse, placed 
 underneath the one that gave the number in the measure, 
 will be felt and clearly understood.* 
 
 * For further illustration of rhythm notation, see " Plan of Instruction 
 by Topics," Chapter XVIII, page 191.
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 77 
 
 Showing compound pulse as sfrongly felt 
 
 Showing simple basis of compound 
 
 Thus all the characters for writing simple music have 
 been developed out of a necessity in the musical experience 
 of the pupils. 
 
 In connection with the staff we have now given, the 
 children sing passages that run on the lines of the three 
 fundamental chords, the tonic, the dominant, and the sub- 
 dominant, although we do not give the names. Variety 
 and interest are lent to these exercises by varying the 
 rhythm and manner of singing the chords, and through 
 this practice the children come to feel the difference in 
 musical meaning between the group that runs doh, mi, soh 
 and the group that runs ti, re, soh or doh, ja, la. We place 
 the chord passages on a group of five lines and the children 
 can sec that when doh is on the line, mi and soh are on the 
 two lines above it and re, ja, and la are on the spaces; while 
 if doh is on the space, the reverse is the case. The acquire- 
 ment of this knowledge sounds like a mere mechanical 
 bit of information. In reality it is a significant step, for it 
 means the beginning of rapid music reading by tone
 
 78 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 grouping instead of by separate notes. The moment the 
 child thinks of a particular form of musical expression, 
 as a familiar group, when he sees a succession of three 
 notes on three successive spaces, of which the first is doh, 
 he has begun to read music by the words instead of by 
 the letters; he is on the way to understand what he 
 reads. 
 
 Another bit of apparently technical work which can 
 come in the latter part of the year is to have the children 
 read scale passages, commencing on some other tone than 
 the tonic and taking various pitches, calling them first mi 
 and then soh, and singing them to the doh above or the doh 
 below. Drill of this kind develops the child's command 
 over tone relationships, for if he starts to sing the scale up 
 from a tone thought of as mi, he has to sing the second tone 
 only a half step above the first, a mode of progression 
 wholly different from that when the first tone thought of is 
 doh. The ear and the mind are alike trained. 
 
 fifth stage: application of knowledge 
 
 Under four stages we have described the formal work of 
 the second year. The last stage will be taken up with the 
 unifying of this knowledge through its practical applica- 
 tion. This is carried out by means of two distinct lines of 
 work. 
 
 One of these is by the teacher singing a short motif 
 consisting at first of only three or four tones taken from 
 actual song material, the children being asked to tell how 
 it should be written. The process is then reversed, the
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 79 
 
 teacher writing a motif and the children singing it. From 
 the very first attempts at sight singing, we must insist 
 that the children conceive the idea of the movement 
 suggested by the three or four notes as a whole, not as a 
 series of individual notes. 
 
 To cultivate the children's skill in reading music, va- 
 rious devices suggest themselves. They may be told to 
 look at a motif, then to turn the head, or shut the eyes and 
 tell what they saw and sing it ; or, the little motif may be 
 written on the blackboard and rubbed out, the children 
 then being asked to sing it or to show its pitch and rhythm 
 by action. 
 
 Two points are insisted on: first, concentration of 
 attention for observing what is written; and second, weld- 
 ing what is observed into a musical movement. We do not 
 use motifs which consist wholly of tones of the same length 
 and which lack accent, for, even though we limit the 
 motifs to a few notes, we must present all the factors, 
 such as pitch, change and variety in tone length, that 
 are always present in music, and we must insist on a 
 musical rendering, not a mechanical spelling. When this 
 is done musically the necessity for the application of ideas 
 of interpretation will be felt by the children. Thus, in 
 this motif work, we are combining interpretative ideas 
 with pitch and rhythm ideas through their notation, prac- 
 tically applying all that has been gone over. 
 
 But this is only the first of the two ways in which this 
 knowledge is to be applied. The second makes vividly 
 clear to the child the necessity for the knowledge of the
 
 80 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 structure of music. This new work is in the form of song 
 making. 
 
 In connection with some appropriate event, such as the 
 first appearance of the birds or flowers or the coming of 
 the pussy willows, or the reading of some unusually in- 
 teresting story, the teacher will begin by asking the chil- 
 dren if they would not like to make up a song about it. 
 Suppose the arrival of the pussy willows has supplied the 
 impulse. Left to themselves, the majority of the children 
 would be at a loss for ideas about the pussy willow that 
 would be appropriate for a song. For the subject of a 
 good song we need either some movement idea which 
 lends itself to verbal or musical description, or some 
 emotional idea which will serve to color words and music. 
 The teacher's work is to develop a situation dramatic 
 through either motion or feeling and then let the children 
 put it into words. In preparing the way for the pussy 
 willow song, the teacher will ask the class questions that 
 suggest the feeling of the brown and gray fuzzy things 
 peeping out into the cold. Would they not be timid, 
 venturing out thus long before warm weather came? 
 
 When the story or emotional idea of the song has been 
 established, we ask the class for suggestions for the first 
 line of poetry. We write five or six of the best on the 
 board, the class discuss them, and observe the good and 
 bad points, and vote for the one to be adopted. So with 
 each succeeding line. Sometimes the lines come rapidly 
 and are quickly accepted; sometimes there is much dis- 
 cussion and modification of phrases.
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 8 1 
 
 When the couplet or quatrain is finished, we ask for the 
 opening phrase of the melody. A number of children sing 
 their suggestions, and with the aid of the class as to time 
 and duration, we put the phrases on the board. This 
 process forces the singer to have his phrase clearly in mind, 
 in order to sing it over and over in the same way. A good 
 many phrases will be sung which are obvious imitations 
 or variations of others. We throw these out of court. 
 
 When a number are on the board three or four are 
 usually enough the class discusses which is the most 
 suitable. The argument between the partisans of the 
 different versions is often spirited, and the keenness with 
 which the children give reasons why one is better than 
 another would surprise the person who has never attempted 
 this work. The constant insistence in all the songs the 
 children have had that the music interpret the words, has 
 given them the fundamental ideas of the musical language 
 needed. They know very well that the rhythm of a march- 
 ing song is different from that of a cradle song, and, though 
 they might not be able to put it into words, they have 
 deduced the fact that plaintive effects, for instance, have 
 mi, }a, and la prominent and that vigorous effects make 
 much use of doh and soh. 
 
 In writing the songs that they themselves have com- 
 posed, their previous work in breaking up the song into 
 its elements becomes valuable to them. If they had never 
 clapped to a song, though they might have made up mu- 
 sical phrases, they would have had no idea of the particular 
 
 element of time in it. By writing songs themselves, they 
 Music 6
 
 82 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 learn to use casual discoveries concerning the elements of 
 music made in the course of clapping, circling, and pictur- 
 ing, and they likewise perceive that the particular way the 
 elements are put together gives the song its emotional char- 
 acter. The exercise connects the expressive song work with 
 the structural work. 
 
 This stage also develops the musical judgment in the 
 keenest form in which it can be exercised. For after chil- 
 dren have made up a song and have discussed the reasons 
 for using certain tones and rhythms, they are quick to 
 apply the same judgment to the rote songs they have 
 learned. Hereafter their interest in a new song depends 
 not only on the sensuous feeling for melody and rhythm, 
 but on an intelligent appreciation of the way effects are 
 produced. This addition heightens enjoyment and makes 
 it possible for them to sing songs demanding higher ar- 
 tistic perception. 
 
 There are, however, two serious drawbacks to this 
 work. First, it takes considerable time. Second, it re- 
 quires a reasonable amount of either musicianship or 
 poetic feeling on the part of the one who conducts the 
 exercise. Unfortunately, the necessity for making the work 
 conform to a schedule in our public schools leaves little 
 play for creativeness on the part of the teacher. Instead of 
 being a suggestive inspiration to her pupils, she becomes 
 an automatic guide to direct them to certain formal acts. 
 To take up this song-making work as nothing but a mu- 
 sical exercise, approaching it from the technical rather 
 than the poetic side, would be to rob it of all its value.
 
 SECOND YEAR WORK 83 
 
 Rather than that, it would be better to have the children 
 do the regular singing work. 
 
 At the end of the second year, the child has individ- 
 ualized the tones of the scale ; with the aid of song senten- 
 ces and hand signs, he has learned the simpler notes and 
 their metric values, has constructed the primitive staff, 
 and has learned to read short passages or motifs on that 
 staff, as a single whole. In interpretation, his tone quality 
 and feeling for musical expression have been directly de- 
 veloped by his daily rote song work. An incentive for 
 more intelligent observation has been supplied, while at 
 the same time the growth of musical judgment has been 
 powerfully stimulated by song making.
 
 CHAPTER Vm 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THIRD YEAR WORK: 
 TWO ASPECTS OF STAFF REPRESENTATION 
 
 One essential fact in regard to the staff is commonly 
 forgotten, or at least ignored, in teaching it to children, i. e., 
 that the staff represents tones as fixed instead of as strictly 
 relative. When the G clef appears upon it, the space be- 
 tween the second and third lines represents the pitch A, 
 the international standard for which is 435 vibrations a 
 second. It always represents this one pitch, whatever the 
 key. 
 
 The tendency of the instrumentalist is, as soon as he 
 sees the notation, to think what he shall do to produce the 
 sounds called for. That is, unless he be very musical, the 
 concepts he forms from the notation are those necessary to 
 produce the tone, and since this production through his 
 instrument depends upon rapidly relating the notation 
 with what he has to do in order to gain the tones called 
 for, the notation thought tends to become one of fixed 
 rather than of relative pitch. 
 
 On the other hand, the vocalist who does not play an 
 instrument is indifferent to the actual pitch, and does not 
 care if it be a little higher or a little lower than that called 
 for by the staff. His whole concern is the interrelation- 
 
 84
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THIRD YEAR WORK 85 
 
 ship of the tones presented. After he has sung Yankee 
 Doodle in the key of F, he would add nothing to the 
 difficulty of his performance by singing it a minor second 
 higher, although it would then be in the key of six sharps 
 instead of one flat. But the physical operation of the in- 
 strumentalist in producing Yankee Doodle in six sharps 
 is totally different from that required for it in one flat. The 
 staff presents these differences, and it is therefore true to 
 the conception of the instrumentalist, although confusing 
 to that of the vocalist. 
 
 The vocalist needs a knowledge of the staff so thor- 
 ough that he can rapidly interpret fixed pitch notation into 
 the relative pitch by means of which he thinks tone 
 relationships. This process is often simplified in the early 
 stages of music teaching by going around it instead of con- 
 quering it; by telling the children, for instance, that be- 
 cause doh is on the same space for one flat and six sharps, 
 it is therefore the same doh or tonic. 
 
 So long as the piece stays in the same key, the fixed 
 pitch character of the staff will not bother the child by 
 forcing itself upon him. But if his piece passes from the 
 key of F to its nearest related key, that of C, he will find 
 a cancel mark on the third line. On the other hand, if the 
 piece is in F sharp and makes exactly the same modulation, 
 he will find a sharp on the third line an apparently 
 opposite mark, rather difficult to explain to a person un- 
 familiar with the fixed pitch character of the staff. Such 
 accidentals are very frequent in modern music; sometimes 
 they entirely contradict the key signature.
 
 86 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 The vocalist who, in the manner of children, thinks of 
 the staff as representing merely relative pitches, is obliged 
 either to stop while he figures out the real key of the pas- 
 sage before he can sing it; or, depending on his musical 
 instinct and the general up and down movement of the 
 notes, to guess what the passage is. If, however, the vo- 
 calist has a knowledge of the staff like that of the in- 
 strumentalist, that is, of its fixed pitch character, although 
 he may not be able to state in what key the passage is, he 
 recognizes the exact intervals presented; hence he knows 
 the relationship between the tones, and this helps him to 
 sing the passage with certainty. 
 
 His advantage over the singer who thinks of the staff 
 as representing only relative pitches is apparent. For in- 
 stance, a musical passage might lie along the track of a 
 chord consisting of a major third, a minor third, and a 
 perfect fourth. This chord might be number one, the 
 tonic, in one key; number five, the dominant, in another 
 key; or number four, the subdominant, in still another 
 key. If the vocalist has grasped the relationship of the 
 four tones that represent it, he can form a clear conception 
 of the group, though the context may be such that he is 
 unable to tell instantly in which of the three keys the pas- 
 sage lies. But if he were entirely dependent on key feeling 
 as expressed through the doh, re, mi names, he would find 
 that the necessity for deciding the exact relationship of the 
 chord would prevent him from conceiving it rapidly enough 
 to sing it in time. But if his knowledge of the staff, like 
 that of the instrumentalist, presented to him definitely the
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THIRD YEAR WORK 87 
 
 distance between intervals, he could with this knowledge 
 think of how they would sound, and for the moment ignore 
 the more definite analysis the key thinking would require. 
 Instead of depending on the doh, re, mi names, in order to 
 know that the distance from one line to the next is like 
 that from mi to soh, la to doh, or ti to re, through his knowl- 
 edge of the staff he would recognize it as a minor third, 
 and with the aid of the tone feeling produced by the con- 
 text he would be more likely to sing the passage correctly 
 than if he had to wait until he settled what the sound 
 names should be with reference to the key of the passage. 
 
 Besides this ability to recognize the interval from the 
 staff representation without waiting to figure it out ac- 
 cording to the key, fixed pitch notation involves a second 
 element which can be made of great help to the singer, 
 i. e., the actual pitches of the tones themselves. Without 
 training, very few people can remember fixed pitches ex- 
 actly; but the ability exists in every one in a more or less 
 rudimentary state, and when developed it greatly facili- 
 tates music reading. If, for instance, we ask the pupils 
 to sound the pitch C before we give it to them, it will not 
 take long for them to learn to strike it with a fair degree 
 of certainty. By constantly testing the children in this way, 
 and by always starting pieces on their actual pitches, and 
 using the letter names in giving the tone, we can establish 
 a memory for the pitches. In reading, pitch memory is 
 of little help without the key feeling, but is of great assist- 
 ance when combined with it. 
 
 The work of the third grade should do for the students
 
 88 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 with reference to the staff, what the formal learning of the 
 multiplication table does with reference to arithmetic. If 
 instead of thoroughly learning the whole table at first, the 
 pupil were to learn only parts of it at intervals and never 
 gain a knowledge of it as a whole, he would very likely go 
 through life without being able to use it readily. This is 
 what happens ordinarily as regards the staff. For eight 
 years the pupils have been told various things about the 
 staff, but in such driblets that they have been practically 
 vaccinated against a comprehension of it as a whole. The 
 result is that, while capable of solving difficult problems in 
 other subjects, they seem unable, even with serious effort, 
 to pass a simple examination in the notation of music.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THIRD YEAR COMPLETION OF THE PROCESS 
 FROM SONG TO NOTATION 
 
 The work of the third year completes the first phase of 
 music teaching. In this the aim is to have the pupils con- 
 nect what they do with the particular effect desired, to 
 make the tone sweeter and more expressive, so that they 
 gradually form the constitutive ideas of interpretation. 
 Similarly, they learn to connect by means of observation, 
 by acting rnd picturing what they feel as the movement of 
 music, with the particular rhythm and pitch forms that 
 produce this movement: thus they develop constitutive 
 ideas of structure. 
 
 Besides developing these two classes of ideas they have 
 learned much of how to note the structural ideas on paper. 
 Their need now is to complete the notation of music and 
 prepare for the new phase of the work which, instead of 
 passing from the song to its notation, reverses the process 
 and passes from the notation to the song. 
 
 first stage: review work 
 
 The first few weeks of the school year will logically be 
 spent in reviewing the old songs for tone work similar to 
 
 89
 
 oo EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 that suggested in the first stage of the second year; the pu- 
 pils will also learn new rote songs, and practice singing 
 short motifs from the staff. This plan recalls the techni- 
 cal knowledge gained in the previous year and introduces 
 new pupils to the methods of work. 
 
 second stage: completion of staff notation 
 
 It may seem, perhaps, that already the essentials for 
 staff notation have been given; and as a matter of fact, as 
 much as is usually attempted has been done. But there 
 still lacks one essential element to make this notation com- 
 plete, i. e., the knowledge that the pitches represented by 
 the staff are not relative but fixed ; up to this point the re- 
 lationship idea has been suggested by means of the sound 
 names, and the staff has indicated only the order and 
 number of steps; not their actual distances as whole or 
 half steps. 
 
 first step: bases for comparison 
 
 The first need is for the children to attain the power 
 to sing major and minor seconds up and down from any 
 given tone. When they gain this ability it will enable them 
 to compare the relative series represented by the key with 
 the fixed pitch series of the staff, with the result that they 
 will then understand the nature of the staff and apprehend 
 the necessity for sharps and flats. 
 
 To begin this work, a song is selected that introduces 
 the minor second out of its regular key position, Nevin's 
 Wind Song, for example; or a song sentence such as the
 
 THIRD YEAR gt 
 
 following made up by one of the pupils, " Here I come 
 creeping." 
 
 k 
 
 Jz 
 
 I 
 
 fat 
 
 2 
 
 t 
 
 Here I come creeping,creeping,creep-ing like a mouse. 
 
 Although the children have been singing minor seconds, 
 they have particularly observed them only in their key 
 position, as ti, doh or mi, ja and the peculiar nature of the 
 interval has been necessarily associated with these two 
 places. When they sing these illustrations, however, they 
 find that the minor seconds can be produced in any position 
 resembling the mi, ja or ti, doh with which they are already 
 familiar, and they begin to realize its true nature. 
 
 Yet, although they can sing the minor second as mi, ja 
 or ti, doh in the key position, they find much difficulty in 
 producing it simply as a minor second starting from any 
 tone. Hence, the song experience where the minor second 
 is introduced chromatically is given to the children first; 
 then their "stunt" performing capacity is appealed to 
 and they are given the minor second above doh to sing, the 
 teacher always taking care that the tone is thought of as 
 doh while the interval is sung to the syllable la. They can 
 sing it easily enough from direct imitation; but let them 
 precede the minor second to la by singing doh, re, doh first, 
 and only the musical ones will show a sufficiently clear 
 conception of the nature of the minor second to be able to 
 change to it after singing the whole step. 
 
 While the work is commenced with the aid of the key
 
 92 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 names, this is done merely as an introduction, in order to 
 make it possible to utilize the skill already possessed in 
 singing major and minor seconds. The plan is to gain the 
 ability to sing such distances independently of any key 
 feeling, simply as certain definite intervals. 
 
 The exercises consist of three formulas sung from the 
 same pitch. 
 
 till 
 
 ^ 
 
 ~^m 
 
 zt 
 
 t=t 
 
 M 
 
 Doh 
 
 soh 
 
 RE 
 
 DOH- 
 
 Tl 
 
 LA 
 
 Ml 
 
 FA 
 
 
 RF 
 
 
 --SOH- 
 
 FA 
 
 A glance at the above diagram shows that in the first the 
 half step is below the initial tone; in the second, above; 
 while in the third, the tones both below and above are 
 whole steps. The pupil can sing these easily enough if 
 they are taken in their key positions; but when thus sung, 
 they fail to impress the average mind with the differences 
 in distance that the intervals represent. By taking all 
 three exercises on the identical tone, their differences are 
 brought into juxtaposition in such a way that the pupil
 
 THIRD YEAR 93 
 
 is vividly conscious of what a whole step or a half step 
 from a given tone means. 
 
 The three weeks during which a portion of the music 
 time is given to such drill should be adequate to give a 
 vivid comprehension of the major and minor seconds to all 
 the pupils, even if some do not perform the work readily. 
 The object is not to make the child do it right the first time, 
 but to make him ultimately conscious of the nature of the 
 two intervals. 
 
 second step: relative and fixed pitch names 
 
 In singing with the sound names, the children are using 
 the family names of the tones, and the doh that acts as papa 
 and gives his name to the group may be placed on a line 
 or on a space; he may be a doh, low or high, but wherever 
 he is his entire family cluster about him. Now it is clear 
 that to distinguish between a high doh and a low doh we 
 must have some definite name to indicate the exact pitch of 
 doh. We must know on what street either the high doh or 
 the low doh lives; in other words, we must have the fixed 
 pitch names. 
 
 When the difference between relative and fixed pitch 
 names is understood and the necessity for the latter is 
 appreciated, the names themselves are given. This step 
 may be prefaced by the story of the Greek use of the 
 alphabet names, especially if the children have had any of 
 the Greek stories; or the fact can be stated that the fixed 
 pitch names of the tones are taken from the first seven let- 
 ters of the alphabet. The pupils arc already familiar with
 
 94 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the fact that after the first seven tones the first tone re- 
 appears an octave higher or lower, and they can be told 
 that the same thing occurs with the seven letters of the 
 alphabet. 
 
 The pupil is now able to compare an actual experience 
 between a song sentence such as "I want to go," sung on 
 the tone G (see page 66), and the actual tones required 
 from a similar sequence commencing with the same letter. 
 The song will call for a half step below G, while the staff 
 will represent a whole step below G. By actually singing 
 what the staff calls for with the letter names, and com- 
 paring it with what the tune calls for, the pupil is made 
 vividly conscious of the necessity for the sharp, in exactly 
 the same way that a piano pupil would be, if he did not 
 know the keyboard and commenced to play the tune on 
 G. He would realize that the white key below G didn't 
 sound right, and he would immediately feel for the tone 
 that he wanted. This distinction, which is so easily taught 
 at the keyboard, is a difficult one to establish where no 
 instrument is used; and without some such device for 
 supplying the necessary experience, the knowledge taught 
 with reference to the staff is apt to become purely theo- 
 retical and confused in the minds of a great many of 
 the pupils. The basic drill in interval work that such 
 practice requires is of greatest importance and becomes 
 especially valuable because of its introduction early in the 
 course. 
 
 The motive for this work is similar to that of the first 
 step; but here there is an additional purpose, i. e., to learn
 
 THIRD YEAR 95 
 
 the actual names of the tones and get the ability to sing 
 from the fixed pitch ladder, starting on any letter as the 
 initial tone. If the work with the aid of the sound ladder, 
 in the previous step, was thoroughly done, the class, as a 
 whole, will have no difficulty in singing the fixed pitch 
 names. It must be borne in mind throughout that these 
 pitches must be taken independently of the major key of 
 C, that they must be thought of simply as whole steps and 
 half steps, hence the commencement on A rather than C. 
 
 third step: connecting fixed pitch names with the 
 
 STAFF 
 
 The problem that the teacher gives the children is how 
 to make the staff represent not only doh, re, mi, but also the 
 exact pitch or the letter names of the same tones; in other 
 words, how to combine both relative and fixed pitch repre- 
 sentation. The previous work shows the need for such 
 representation and also supplies the material. It remains 
 to make the combination. 
 
 The story can be told to the children of how, when the 
 staff was invented, people had this same difficulty, which 
 they overcame by choosing one of the letters of the fixed 
 pitch series and writing it on a line of the staff, thus having 
 a particular line represent a particular letter. When one 
 line was thus fixed all the other lines and spaces repre- 
 sented certain related pitches, which followed in the series 
 just as the letters do. The question may now be asked 
 what letter the children suppose the early musicians chose 
 for naming the staff. By writing a few ornamental G's in
 
 9 6 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 script on the blackboard it will not be difficult to have them 
 realize that the G clef, which they have noticed in music, 
 
 The Claves or Clefs 
 
 is simply an ornamental G, written on the second line of 
 the staff, for the purpose of making the clef represent the 
 fixed pitch names. 
 
 It will now be necessary to make them observe what has 
 happened to the staff through this christening process. 
 The first line now represents the pitch of E, because the 
 second line has the G clef upon it ; the space between, there- 
 fore, represents F. Since this line and space represent the 
 letters E and F in the fixed series, the distance between 
 them will be a minor second. There is the same distance 
 between the third line and the space above it (representing 
 the letters B and C). The little song sentence Gently 
 Rocks My Light Canoe is written on the line and space 
 of E and F. 
 j *- 
 
 Poll 
 
 Jti- 
 
 sot_ 
 
 This now can be sung to the letter names and the children 
 will realize how different it sounds from the way they have 
 been in the habit of singing it. In other words, they find
 
 THIRD YEAR 97 
 
 that doh cannot now be placed on the staff anywhere we 
 choose, but only where the sound ladder and the pitch 
 ladder agree. The children practice singing the names of 
 the lines and spaces, starting at any letter and passing to 
 the one above and the one below, until they appreciate 
 the fact that the placing of the G clef on the staff has 
 given all the lines and spaces a definite relationship to one 
 another. 
 
 FOURTH STEP: THE SHARP, FLAT, AND KEY SIGNATURE 
 
 We are now ready for the final step, i. e., to show how 
 the staff with the G clef can be made to represent the tone 
 relationship of the relative pitch ladder shown on the card- 
 board, starting at any tone. The little tune representing 
 the intervals of the formula doh, re, doh, ti, doh, that is, a 
 major second up and a minor second down, can now be 
 sung from the sound ladder with doh on the cardboard 
 held against C on the pitch ladder.* The children will 
 find that the sound names and the pitch names exactly 
 agree. The ladder can now be slipped up to F and the 
 same thing tried; there will be a similar agreement be- 
 tween the two series of names. 
 
 But if we slip it up to G, and then sing the series with 
 the fixed pitch names, we shall find that we are singing the 
 formula not as the little tune calls for it, but as if it were 
 re, mi, re, doh, re, that is, a major second both up and down. 
 In other words, the tone F does not represent the tone we 
 want below G. The children know that there is a tone 
 
 * See illustration, page 96. 
 Music 7
 
 98 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 there, for they can sing from the sound ladder the formula 
 for that pitch. What is lacking is room on the staff to 
 represent it. The next sound below G is F, a major 
 second away. The tone the children are singing, as in- 
 dicated by the sound ladder, they realize is a minor second 
 below. The problem now is how to represent this upon 
 the staff. 
 
 They will probably announce that a sharp must be 
 placed on the space for F; when asked what this will 
 represent, they will probably state that it will raise the 
 pitch of F. It is best to nip this incorrect form of speech 
 in the bud and show that F cannot be raised because it 
 represents only a minor second from E, and that if we 
 raise its pitch it ceases to be F. What we really sing is an 
 augmented prime above F. 
 
 As we have no place on the staff between E and G to 
 represent this tone, except on the space of F, we do it by 
 putting a sharp sign on this space. It is not F raised a 
 minor second but is a tone a minor second higher, repre- 
 sented in the place of F by means of a sharp. 
 
 The same formula can be repeated at A, when the neces- 
 sity for a sharp on the line of G will be appreciated. By 
 holding the tone ladder up against B, repeating the song 
 and comparing it with the series required by the letter 
 names, we find not only that the tone below is too low, as 
 in the other cases, but that the tone above is also too low. 
 Thus the possibility is realized of using the sharp on any 
 line or space which represents a sound a half tone lower 
 than that we wish to sing.
 
 THIRD YEAR 99 
 
 When the function of the sharp has thus been learned 
 thoroughly, that of the flat is studied, and the necessity for 
 a sign to take the place of a tone that is represented too 
 high on the staff is noted. Taking such a song sentence 
 as / want to go so jar away, doh, ti, doh, re, mi, fa, ja, 
 mi, and singing from F, the pupils find no difficulty in 
 introducing all the tones. rit. 
 
 I 
 
 s# 
 
 p33 
 
 I want to go so far a - way. 
 
 Now let them sing the same series, but with the letter 
 names, repeating the tone of A often enough to destroy the 
 tendency that the memory of the song would have to make 
 them sing a minor second above instead of the major 
 second which the A B represents. The children recognize 
 that while the distance from the space of A to the line of B 
 represented the distance between mi and ja when they 
 sang with the doh, re, mi names, when they sing the same 
 thing with the names that the staff calls for, the distance 
 between A and B requires a major second instead of a minor 
 second. In other words, they discover by actual singing 
 that mi to ja requires a minor second and A to B represents a 
 major second. They will be made to see that they are sing- 
 ing the tone halfway between A and B, and that there is no 
 way to represent this on the staff, for the next tone above 
 A is B, a major second. They now realize that the sharp 
 sign they have been using will not do, because this repre- 
 sents a tone above that of the line or space on which it 
 occurs.
 
 ioo EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 Now the necessity for a new sign may be fully developed 
 so that even the more thoughtless children will understand 
 what is required. As in the case of the sharp, the flat 
 should not be given until the need for it has been thor- 
 oughly felt and the object that it will accomplish realized 
 by the entire class. Then the flat sign can be put upon the 
 line B and the children will perceive that in singing with 
 the fixed pitch names, as required by the staff after the 
 flat is used, they are singing exactly the same tone that 
 the song requires. 
 
 They can now be shown that this relation between mi 
 and fa may be represented on lines or spaces a major 
 second apart. Thus in singing G as mi the space of A can 
 be utilized to represent fa simply by placing a flat on it, 
 exactly as in the case of A, where a major second was re- 
 quired by the pitch names and a minor second by the 
 sound names. 
 
 When the functions of the sharp and flat are thoroughly 
 understood, the pupils are ready for the explanation of the 
 key signature. Taking the cardboard with the doh, re, 
 mi names and placing it so that doh will come against 
 G in the letter column, we find that the two series 
 agree with the one exception that F sharp is required 
 to represent the sound ti below doh. This relation can be 
 grasped by singing both pitch names and relative names. 
 Since F sharp has become a regular member of the family 
 when doh comes on G, it will save time in writing it to place 
 it at the very beginning; hence, it is put on the fifth line 
 where it is readily seen, and thereafter every note written
 
 THIRD YEAR ioi 
 
 on the fifth line or F is understood to mean F sharp. This, 
 the children are told, is called the key signature and always 
 necessitates that doh shall come on G. Now by placing the 
 ladder on the cardboard so that doh will come on F, it will 
 be discovered that fa requires B flat to represent it, and B 
 flat therefore becomes a regular member of the family 
 of tones in which doh comes on F. Hence, by placing B 
 flat at the beginning of the staff we imply that doh is 
 on F. 
 
 Parallel to this work, the teacher carries on song sing- 
 ing which requires drill in tone work, articulation, and ex- 
 pression of the idea. In the process of learning these 
 songs, the accurate observation work of pulse, duration, 
 and pitch of the previous grades is continued. At the 
 same time, the children are made to understand that this 
 accurate learning of the staff is the main business of the 
 singing period, and that a test of their efficiency will be 
 given them at the end of the work dealing with it. Its ac- 
 complishment requires three or four months. 
 
 The latter part of the third year work will be taken up 
 with practice in the relationship of the three keys C, F, 
 and G, songs being used that make transitions from one to 
 the other and cause the pupils to appreciate the change of 
 key. There should also be considerable writing of the 
 same song sentences in the three keys, both on the black- 
 board and on music paper, the modifying sharp or flat 
 being placed as the key signature. The work now intro- 
 duced will apply this knowledge and develop further the 
 notation of rhythm.
 
 102 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 third stage: fractional pulse 
 
 Short motifs similar to those previously mentioned are 
 now written in the three keys, reviewing the time values 
 already learned. Sequences of three or four tones from 
 songs may be sung by the teacher or one of the pupils, and 
 the class may write them in three keys. 
 
 Although the children in their rote songs have sung all 
 varieties of rhythm, the forms they have learned to recog- 
 nize are limited to the pulse represented as a quarter note, 
 the union of two pulses or half note, the division of a pulse 
 into two or the eighth note, and the dotted half and the 
 whole note. These same values with their equivalent 
 rests have been used in both simple and compound meter. 
 The compound meter required one new sign, the dotted 
 quarter; but as the addition of the dot to a quarter exactly 
 completed the pulse, leaving no fraction of time to be rep- 
 resented by a fractional pulse, it resembled in this respect 
 the dotted half and was easily grasped. 
 
 The pupils are now ready to study the entirely new effect 
 of placing a dot after a note when the dot leaves a fraction 
 of a pulse to be represented by a succeeding note. For 
 instance, if a dot is placed after a quarter note the tone 
 represented lasts one and a half pulses, and a half pulse 
 note is needed to complete the second pulse. Again, if a 
 dot is placed after a half pulse note the resulting fractional 
 note required is a quarter of a pulse. This produces an 
 entirely different musical effect from that resulting from 
 the use of dots where no fraction of a pulse is left over. 
 
 The musical movement or idea thus represented should
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 103 
 
 be thoroughly grasped, together with the comprehension of 
 the sign that represents it. The most characteristic feature 
 to be borne in mind is that while the fractional tone that 
 follows a dotted pulse or dotted half pulse seems to fill out 
 the time in the pulse of the note preceding, it is sung as if 
 it belonged to the tone immediately following. If, for in- 
 stance, one were to sing the Battle Hymn 0) the Republic, 
 in which the dotted half pulse is constantly occurring, he 
 would notice that the quick, or fractional tones, though 
 they seem to the eye to be joined to the tone that precedes, 
 are heard as if belonging to the tone that follows. Their 
 representation in the printed music gives them as exact 
 fractions of preceding pulses instead of relating them to 
 what follows. 
 
 
 
 - N- 
 
 ^=^ 
 
 ^=W- 
 
 inzw- 
 
 X 
 
 The same characteristic is true of the dotted pulse. If 
 one should sing the first two measures of America, he would 
 notice that the tone, which comes on the word "of," 
 while represented as a fraction of the preceding pulse, is 
 sung as if united to the last note of second measure. The 
 caesura is after the word "'tis," and would be impossible 
 after the word "of." 
 
 k: 
 
 My coun-try, 'tis of thee. 
 The first thing that we should do, then, is to call the chil- 
 dren's attention to the effect produced by this way of
 
 104 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 grouping fractional pulses. Familiar songs which involve 
 the dotted pulse or half pulse are sung; such are The Star 
 Spangled Banner, Home, Sweet Home, The Red, White 
 and Blue; in fact, there is hardly a song that does not 
 supply many illustrations. It is best to take strongly 
 rhythmic tunes which the children have sung by rote, and 
 as they sing have them swing the pulses and think how 
 the tones are related to them. It will help greatly to have 
 on the board a diagram representing the tunes, -by circles 
 and dashes, to show the relation of the short to the long 
 tones, and make it clear that the former belong to what 
 follows rather than to what precedes. 
 
 After this peculiarity has been carefully observed, the 
 way it is expressed in notation will be studied. The chil- 
 dren will notice that in writing the tune the fractional tones 
 are part of the time measurements of the preceding tones; 
 that in this respect dotted pulses and half pulses are alike, 
 but that there is a fundamental difference by which they 
 can always be distinguished : the dotted pulse requires not 
 only the pulse on which the tone begins but the commence- 
 ment of a new pulse before the fractional tone and thus it 
 follows the second pulse, while in the dotted half pulse 
 the fractional tone is sung just before the next pulse; the 
 dotted pulse and its fraction complete two pulses; the dot- 
 ted half pulse and its fraction complete exactly one pulse. 
 
 It will be seen in this presentation of dotted notes that 
 the attention is first drawn to the musical effect, then to 
 the idea itself, and lastly to its representation in relation 
 to the idea and not in relation to the arithmetical problem
 
 THIRD YEAR 105 
 
 which the notation presents. The latter is really diametric- 
 ally opposed to the musical effect, since it represents the 
 fractional note as part of what precedes, while the musical 
 idea requires the fraction of a note to be united to what 
 follows it. 
 
 After this principle has been represented, it is prac- 
 tically applied to motifs. For instance, the scale is written 
 as dotted quarters and eighths, then as dotted eighths and 
 sixteenths, and is sung in both ways, the pulses being 
 swung meanwhile. It is also sung at different rates of 
 speed, until the children realize that the dotted quarter 
 followed by an eighth is not a longer representation of the 
 same effect, as is the dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth, 
 but one entirely different, due to the entrance of the second 
 pulse into the first. For if we change the speed of our 
 pulses and sing the dotted pulse followed by an eighth so 
 that it is faster than an eighth followed by a sixteenth, the 
 effect is still the same. 
 
 FOURTH STAGE." APPLICATION AND DRILL 
 
 Motifs are now taken from songs in which the melody 
 moves in pulse tones, and the children are asked to change 
 these according to their fancy by introducing dotted pulses 
 and half pulses. They should write both the original as 
 well as the changed version on the board and the class 
 should sing both. With this increase of their knowledge 
 the children should be practically able to write the notation 
 of their own songs. 
 
 The children now have an understanding of the notation,
 
 106 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 for all the essentials have been worked out from the feeling 
 of the idea in music. This principle has been indicated by 
 action and diagram until the idea has been thoroughly 
 grasped, and then the notation that represents the idea has 
 been learned. What they need now is sufficient drill in 
 the application of this knowledge. The rest of the third 
 year is taken up with making perfectly clear the staff rep- 
 resentation of both pitch and rhythm so far illustrated. 
 With the commencement of the fourth year, as will be 
 seen in the following chapters, systematic drill will develop 
 a technique for a sufficiently rapid use of this material to 
 make it musically practical.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE SECOND OR SYN- 
 THETIC PHASE OF MUSIC STUDY 
 
 The purpose of this chapter is to explain the principles 
 that will govern the work in the next three grades and to 
 compare it with that of the work of the first three grades, 
 in order to give a clearer idea of the principles underlying 
 the work as a whole. 
 
 The pupils have been learning the exact differences of the 
 pitch and time durations of the tones occurring in their 
 songs. At the same time this analytic process has been 
 carried on with reference to the song or part of the song 
 as a whole, so that the musical significance of what was 
 being learned should not be lost. The necessity for recog- 
 nizing the separate tones as parts of a melodic movement, 
 or musical thought, is especially urgent in music in which 
 analytic study so soon loses its significance for lack of 
 connection with what it serves. Such connection is not as 
 readily lost in studies where the material is presented to 
 the eye, as, for instance, in nature work. 
 
 The way in which the study of a flower is taken up will 
 serve to illustrate our purpose. From the beginning the 
 impression of the thing as a whole is perfectly clear in the 
 
 107
 
 io8 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 mind; the ideas of dandelion and violet cannot possibly be 
 confused. The aim of the teacher, therefore, is to lead her 
 students to discover how these beautiful wholes are made 
 up of complicated parts; hence by a process of analysis 
 the flowers are dissected into calyx and corolla, stamens 
 and pistil, and these in turn are further subdivided. The 
 teacher has no fear that anywhere in the process the parts 
 of a dandelion may be confused with those of a violet. In 
 other words, the consciousness of the whole is never lost 
 because of emphasis upon the relationship of its parts. It 
 would be absurd to suggest that the teacher while showing 
 how the petals of a rose unfold, runs any risk of having her 
 pupils think they are examining a cabbage. This ex- 
 amination of parts is as far as nature study goes. 
 
 On the other hand, in the analysis of music, the relation- 
 ship of the part to the whole must be constantly kept in 
 mind. In this it resembles manual training in which the 
 parts of the sled or stool that are being made are constantly 
 thought of in relationship to the completed article pres- 
 ent in the mind. In this respect the purely creative artist 
 requires constructiveness in a far greater degree than the 
 mechanic. In the beginning, the object he is to create 
 exists only in the mind, and he gradually makes this mani- 
 fest by combining parts. He is distinguished from the 
 scientist in that the scientist is interested in parts because 
 they are elements, whereas the artist cares about them only 
 as they may influence the effect in the whole conception. 
 The aim of all his work is so to relate the parts that one 
 strong, dominant impression shall be made: if he be a
 
 SYNTHETIC PHASE OF MUSIC STUDY 109 
 
 painter, all the separate colors must combine to form one 
 tone. 
 
 The composer, like other artists, aims to produce a 
 certain effect of the whole. By means of various tone 
 relationships woven together, he expresses one theme, 
 which would be altered were any of the component parts 
 omitted. But in his effort to present his composition as 
 an entirety, the musician meets an obstacle foreign to 
 other artists. Music, unlike painting or sculpture, or even 
 architecture, does not immediately impress one as a uni- 
 fied whole. It has to be presented in time through an 
 infinite series of effects; tone succeeds tone in a melody, 
 chord succeeds chord in a symphony. Tone and chord 
 must be held in memory and related to larger and larger 
 units, however unperceived the process may be, until at 
 last we have one of the most complex demands on the 
 synthetic ability of the human mind. 
 
 Unfortunately, human experience affords but little op- 
 portunity to prepare for this demand. The ordinary naive 
 experience of the race produced the foundations of music 
 in folk song and dance, but between these and the vast 
 tonal creations of Wagner or Beethoven there is a gap that 
 this folk music does not supply. Where talent and en- 
 vironment are favorable this may be easily bridged; but 
 unfortunately for the large majority, general experience 
 and average ability do not suffice for bridging this chasm. 
 In order to give the large majority the possibility of en- 
 joying music otherwise beyond their comprehension, it is 
 preeminently the function of the public schools to supply
 
 no EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the needed training in musical synthesis, or the relating of 
 the parts to the whole composition. 
 
 In the first three years of school training, starting with 
 the song learned as a whole from imitation, we lead the 
 pupil step by step to recognize the part that tone color and 
 manipulation play in the expression of the whole ; in other 
 words, we give him ideas of interpretation. Then, too, 
 by means of acting and picturing, and finally by nota- 
 tion, he has learned the subtle tone relationships that pro- 
 duce the movement of the tune. Thus he has developed 
 ideas of structure. 
 
 The aid of music teaching is primarily to make possi- 
 ble a deeper appreciation. Appreciation is constructive. 
 Hence, the work of the following three years utilizes the 
 power gained in observing parts in relation to the whole, 
 for it starts, not with the whole as in the first three years, 
 but with the parts themselves. The aim is to have the 
 pupils conceive the whole from the parts. Therefore the 
 study of the second three years is a more formally syn- 
 thetic process, doing for music what we do for architec- 
 ture, painting, or literature when we appreciate a building, 
 a picture, or a poem, by getting the effect of the whole 
 through becoming conscious of how the parts unite to pro- 
 duce it. 
 
 This process may seem to lead merely to the attainment 
 of the skill necessary for sight singing. But while sight 
 singing is the immediate aim, the real aim is to attain the 
 artistic power of grasping the unity of the separate impres- 
 sions that the eye or the ear conveys to us.
 
 SYNTHETIC PHASE OF MUSIC STUDY in 
 
 On the other hand, that it is impossible to master the 
 constructive side of music essential to full appreciation, 
 unless one first goes through the analysis requisite to make 
 clear the nature of the musical elements, will be evident as 
 soon as the relation between the analytic and the synthetic 
 process is understood. 
 
 The first three years' training has been concerned with 
 learning the musical ideas and their notation. The pupils 
 are now ready to test the knowledge by putting musical 
 ideas together. In the following chapter the first step of 
 this synthetic process will be described.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FOURTH YEAR WORK: PHRASE CONCEPTION 
 
 first stage: accuracy in phrase conception 
 
 In order that a beginner may think out how a musical 
 passage goes, it is necessary that the passage have a form 
 distinct and definite enough to enable him to grasp it as a 
 whole; at the same time it must not be so long that it will 
 be beyond his capacity to relate all its parts. If the reader 
 will sing the first two tones of America (see page 114) he 
 will not necessarily be conscious of any characteristic idea 
 in connection with the form that the sound represents. Let 
 him add the third and fourth tone and a fairly definite 
 form will be established; still, the passage does not seem to 
 be complete. Now let him add the next tones, making six 
 in all, and he will have a clearly defined passage. The 
 passage is so clear and well defined that it forms, as it 
 were, the text of the entire composition, being repeated 
 in different pitches with only slight changes, and these 
 in the form of variations rather than of radical changes. 
 Take another illustration. If the reader will hum over the 
 first six tones of The Star Spangled Banner he will find that 
 
 the first four tones group together, as do the last two, and 
 
 112
 
 FOURTH YEAR WORK 
 
 "3 
 
 that these groups unite to form the rhythmic text of the 
 tune. 
 
 THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 Phrases 
 
 m 
 
 motifs 
 
 motifs 
 
 ^ 
 
 m 
 
 It is obvious that if we should take a portion of one of 
 these units by itself, it would require considerable musician- 
 ship to decide from exactly what tune it was taken, but he 
 would be a very dull person who could not recognize the 
 complete unit. This unit in both these tunes forms a 
 complete design which keeps recurring in the remainder of 
 the tune, and which gives it a definite character. Hence, in 
 training a beginner to grasp the complete musical thought, 
 we should take such an organic element for our unit. 
 
 If the reader will sing America and The Star Spangled 
 Banner through, he will see that the rhythm of the phrase 
 expressed in the first six notes in both tunes keeps re- 
 curring, though it is almost always more or less changed. 
 These changes occur sometimes in the number of tones 
 used in a pulse, making a variation in duration; more often, 
 however, change is in the distance of pitch interval or me- 
 lodic curve, while sometimes it is in both pitch and dura- 
 tion, leaving only the metrical number of pulses to show 
 the relationship of thought to what precedes and follows. 
 
 It is evident that there are two essentials in the study of 
 such elements: first, the grasping of the phrase itself; and, 
 Music 8
 
 ii4 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 second, the ability to recognize its main features under the 
 variations through which it passes. We can recognize in 
 both these tunes a number of familiar passages where the 
 phrase is well marked. In making this point clear to the 
 children these phrases are put on the board, under one 
 another. For instance, if we write the tune America in 
 two-measure groups, we shall have it in phrases. 
 AMERICA 
 
 i 
 
 W- 
 
 i 
 
 Phrases 
 
 ^ 
 
 i: 
 
 
 f 
 
 5=t
 
 FOURTH YEAR WORK 1 15 
 
 There will be seven groups, all alike with reference to 
 metrical grouping, each containing two measures of three 
 pulses each. The first, second, fourth, and fifth groups 
 vary in pitch as well as in melodic curve, but are alike in 
 their duration values; the third, sixth, seventh, and eighth 
 vary in durative elements as well as in pitch and melodic 
 curve ; these variations, however, are only in parts, so that 
 the relation to the original is perfectly evident. After a few 
 tunes have been thus analyzed the pupils see how changes 
 in pitch, melodic curve, and duration are introduced in 
 the metrical pattern, without departing so far from the 
 original as to prevent recognition of the relationship. 
 
 For further practice the phrase of a familiar tune, or 
 of a new one, is taken and the pupils see how many effect- 
 ive variations they can write for themselves. This may be 
 done by one at the board, the others criticising and sug- 
 gesting; or separately at the desks, with only the original 
 phrase written on the board. In the latter case, each pupil 
 sings the variations he has written while the class state 
 whether the changes introduced are in pitch or rhythm, 
 or both combined, and in what pulses. It must always 
 be borne in mind that the changes should be only varia- 
 tions; through them all must be felt the original. 
 
 There can be little doubt of the value of such an exercise 
 in developing the very qualities essential to the aim of 
 public school music. It draws attention to the idea, brings 
 out the structure and nature of the melody, and prepares 
 the student to follow the complex designs that the great 
 works of the masters present.
 
 Ii6 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 second stage: speed in phrase conception 
 But this training can be made more intensive if we add 
 to it the skill needed by the sight singer. The sight singer 
 must not only grasp the original design and hold it firmly 
 through the multitude of changes that it undergoes, he 
 must also do it rapidly, thinking ahead of his singing, for 
 his whole ability to sing at sight rests on his power of 
 rapid comprehension. Like the reader of poetry, he must 
 see a line or two ahead. This additional feature we shall 
 term speed work, for it is necessary for the pupil not 
 simply to grasp the idea eventually, but to do it with 
 sufficient speed to enable him to sing the passage. If this 
 process that precedes the singing is definite, the production 
 rarely causes difficulty. 
 
 To give training in this division of work an unfamiliar 
 phrase is written, at first one not longer than an idea of 
 three or four notes, which, after it has been fairly seen, 
 is quickly rubbed out, and the children are asked to sing 
 the passage. By gradually increasing the length and com- 
 plexity of the unit there will be a steady advance in the 
 capacity to see and comprehend. Another way to attain 
 the same result is to point out a phrase on the blackboard 
 staff without writing the notes. This is easier than the 
 preceding in one respect: the moving of the pointer suggests 
 the rhythm. A third method utilizes the geography charts 
 which most rooms have. A number of short phrases can 
 be written on the board before the children come in and 
 the map pulled down over them. By once raising the 
 map and promptly lowering it again, the children get a
 
 FOURTH YEAR WORK 117 
 
 rapid glance at the passage; they can sing as much as they 
 have been able to grasp. 
 
 The essential thing in this work is that the pupil shall 
 not spell note by note, but shall get a conception of the 
 phrase as a whole before the first note is uttered. This is 
 one of the most difficult things to accomplish, and in the 
 early stages of the work even the most experienced teacher 
 may be deceived as to which process the pupils are follow- 
 ing, because they are so skillful at singing without thinking 
 that they can spell out passages fast enough to make them 
 sound as if the correct mental process had taken place. 
 But the limit of this rapid spelling is soon reached, and 
 just at the time when musicianly work is expected from 
 children in the upper grades, we unfortunately discover 
 that the very foundation of right musical thinking has not 
 been laid. Hence the need of the strictest attention in 
 order to make sure that in the first steps of phrase reading 
 it is a legitimate reading and not a spelling. If this first 
 step is taken correctly, practice will develop skill. If not, 
 the ability to spell rapidly from note to note will prove in- 
 adequate just when the teacher is expecting to see the 
 fruit of her labor. 
 
 Children of this age enjoy speed work intensely. It is 
 a challenge to their ability, and a chance to show their 
 skill and power of concentration. The difficulty lies in 
 seeing that every individual does the work, for it is easy 
 to get an apparent class response while in reality a few of 
 the leaders are giving the idea and the majority are merely 
 following. In this event it becomes a stimulating exercise
 
 Ii8 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 only for those who least require it, and entirely leaves out 
 the slow and dull who really need the practice. This 
 result can easily follow and the teacher hardly be aware of 
 it. The way to prevent it is by careful selection of the 
 material, to the end that it may exactly suit the capacity 
 of the pupils. If the passage is too difficult or the changes 
 allowed are so radical that the original is lost, a large ma- 
 jority of the class will derive no benefit from the work. 
 
 All the exercises so far described in this chapter are 
 supplementary to the reading of the music that is used 
 in the grades, and should be carried on in connection with 
 it. If the phrases in the songs of the reader are taken 
 as material, the exercises become a stimulating aid, not 
 only for learning the songs rapidly but for the musicianly 
 comprehension of their structure. 
 
 Constant comparison can be made between the structure 
 of the music and its adaptation to the words. In a good 
 song book much attention is paid to this element and the 
 words become a helpful index to the structural thought 
 of the melody. Unfortunately there are a great many 
 songs some of them fine ones in which the form of the 
 melodic thought and the form of the poetic thought do not 
 agree. The first measure of America is an unfortunate 
 example of disagreement between the accent of the pulse 
 and that of the foot. Where singing is done with proper 
 consideration of the ideas of interpretation and structure, 
 the pupils become critics of the material given them and 
 it is easy to awaken their interest when they find a really 
 expressive song. Their pleasure now is not confined to a
 
 FOURTH YEAR WORK 1 19 
 
 senseless reaction to its jingle or sentimental sensuousness 
 but is a real appreciation of the work, for this appreciation 
 is being judged for its expressive value in relation to ideas. 
 
 third stage: learning new keys; rhythm practice 
 
 The phrase work, with the training in musicianship that 
 it demands, is of so great importance that it can well be 
 made the chief work in structural ideas for the entire year. 
 In connection with this it will be well to enlarge the knowl- 
 edge of keys by applying the principles learned in the 
 third grade. 
 
 The essential thing to bear in mind is that in passing 
 into a key requiring one more sharp or one less flat the 
 fourth of the old key becomes the seventh of the new; 
 while in passing into keys requiring one more flat or one 
 less sharp the opposite is true, for then the seventh of the 
 old key becomes the fourth of the new. Memorizing the 
 relationship of the new doh or tonic to the new signature 
 helps in the quick and sure recognition of the key. The 
 last sharp will be the seventh, while the last flat will be the 
 fourth .of the key. By this method the keys are presented 
 in their relational aspect and a basis for appreciation of 
 modulation is laid. 
 
 The advance work in tone measurement for the fourth 
 year will be special practice in compound rhythm. This 
 introduces no new duration values, but the swing, or go, 
 of its pulses needs practice. The pupils by this time will 
 have had plenty of experience in their songs, hence all that 
 is needed is to associate the sound of the compound pulse
 
 120 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 with its appearance. The first two units in the even and 
 uneven ratios given in Chapter XV, page 152, should be 
 practiced in monotone in various combinations until the 
 students are familiar with the swing of the pulse. 
 
 It would help to make frequent comparison with the 
 similar ratios in simple grouping until the distinction be- 
 tween simple and compound can be readily conceived.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR: FORMAL 
 STUDY OF TONE AND KEY RELATIONSHIP 
 
 The regular work of the fifth and sixth years merely 
 develops further what was introduced in the fourth, i. e., 
 the passing from the notation to its conception and ex- 
 pression; or, in other words, learning to think rapidly from 
 the way the music looks to the way it sounds, and then 
 singing it. Nothing fundamentally new can be introduced 
 either in pitch or in notation, with perhaps the exception 
 of syncopation, in which the metrical regularity of the 
 pulses is disturbed. The complexity of syncopation can be 
 easily studied in connection with the songs in which it 
 occurs, this practice being sufficient for the use of the 
 general student. 
 
 There is, however, some further technical knowledge 
 which is of great value in general musical training. The 
 introduction of a limited amount of such technical work is 
 for the aid its practice gives in musical appreciation. This 
 technical work is needed during the fifth and sixth years, 
 but its exact place may be regulated by the efficiency of 
 the individual class. We shall, however, describe the
 
 122 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 various kinds of work in the order in which they would 
 naturally come in this period. 
 
 FIRST STAGE : THE FUNDAMENTALS OF VOICE CONTROL 
 
 In the fifth grade, for instance, it would be well to de- 
 velop a more precise knowledge of the essentials of good 
 tone. So far, all the work done in tones has been ac- 
 complished by focusing attention on the nature of what is 
 being expressed. Even in singing scales, chord passages, 
 and exercises on vowels, where the aim has been correct 
 intervals and pure vowel tones, the expressive purpose of 
 what is done has not been lost. Scales, chords, and vowels 
 have been so sung that they would be significant would 
 have a meaning in them because of the pleasure they 
 awaken. And in trying to make them significant, the 
 pupil has made them beautiful. In other words, all the 
 study has been so planned that the child should not lose 
 the connection between what is done to produce good tone, 
 and the idea or reason for doing it. Consequently, by the 
 time he reaches the fifth grade, he possesses fairly well- 
 established habits of good tone production. The aim of 
 the work now is to formulate the principles that underlie 
 these habits, in order to enable him to act with greater 
 certainty and sureness. What is done is identical with 
 what is accomplished in language, where, after habits of 
 correct speaking have been established, not by rule alone 
 but by appeal to meaning, the pupil takes up, in the latter 
 part of his school days, the formal study of the principles 
 of good usage as embodied in grammar.
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 123 
 
 So with regard to tone production, formal rules for some 
 of the steps in attaining required results are now presented. 
 Ever since entering school the pupils have had experience 
 of the closeness between sitting up straight, good breath, 
 and tone quality. This experience is formulated as the 
 first rule for good singing, i. e., that the tone is controlled 
 by the organs with which we breathe. This doesn't mean 
 that we fill the lungs, then tighten up the throat and hold 
 the air in, much as the small boy does with the paper bag 
 he bursts; but it does mean that the tone is controlled by 
 the muscles about the chest, ribs, abdomen, and back, no 
 one held rigid against the others, but all in control and 
 moving together. Whatever is done consciously to produce 
 good tone is through this breath control. 
 
 The second principle is that all the muscles about the 
 throat and jaw must be loose and flexible. It is necessary 
 to state this rule because children knowing that the tone 
 is produced in the throat, will probably as soon as they 
 endeavor to get good tone, unconsciously make effort in 
 th'e throat; this effort tightens it, thus doing much mischief 
 instead of good. 
 
 The third principle is that the body itself is the in- 
 strument that sounds. With every change of pitch and of 
 vowel, whenever these tones are well-made, there goes on a 
 corresponding change, especially in the head. It is possible 
 for the body so to reenforce and develop the tone started 
 by the throat, that such changes become practically the 
 chief factors in tone quality and color. This vibration 
 indicates a harmony between what starts the tone and
 
 124 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 what gives it character. When the tone is felt as being 
 entirely in the throat, without the accompaniment of this 
 sympathetic vibration, especially of the lips, face, and nose, 
 it shows that part of the organs which should produce the 
 tone are not at work, and the resulting tone will be hard 
 and coarse. A flabby, devitalized body has the same effect 
 on the tone quality of the voice as the loosening of the 
 joints would have on the tones of a violin. Hence, it is 
 important to draw attention to the need for a sympathetic 
 vibration of the body with the tones which we sing. The 
 formulation of these three principles will help in strengthen- 
 ing the good habits already formed and will keep bad ones 
 from being developed. 
 
 All this can be made practical, however, only when 
 presented by good example; for imitation, after all, is the 
 main thing to depend upon. At the same time, since the 
 pupils have had experience and are sufficiently mature, 
 it is necessary to arouse a mental consciousness of the 
 agents employed in good tone. In the fifth grade the chil- 
 dren's voices have not yet begun to change and there is 
 still time enough ahead of them in school to apply the 
 principles taught. They have had four years of practice 
 to supply them with the necessary experience upon which 
 to base this technical knowledge. The efficiency of many 
 public speakers would be vastly increased if only good 
 habits of tone production and an intelligent comprehen- 
 sion of the essentials had been started in childhood. Even 
 if the early application had not accomplished much, these 
 would have borne fruit in maturer years.
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 125 
 
 second stage: development of the minor modes 
 
 Before formulating the experience which the pupils 
 have had in their songs with reference to the minor mode, 
 it will be well to consider the problem by itself, since 
 among teachers there is considerable divergence of practice. 
 One group makes tonality the central thought. To them 
 each tonic has two aspects or tonalities the major and the 
 minor and the nature of a tonic is not thoroughly under- 
 stood unless these two tonalities are developed together. A 
 second group of teachers emphasize the identity of the 
 tones employed as expressed by the signature. To them 
 every key signature has two tonalities; but the tonalities, 
 instead of being on the same tonic as with the first group, 
 are on different tonics, a minor third apart. Those who 
 emphasize the unity of the tonic thought would naturally 
 first take C major and then C minor, thus changing sig- 
 natures, but keeping the same tonic. Those who empha- 
 size unity because of the identical tones employed, put their 
 stress on identity of key signature, and in studying C major 
 would relate A minor as being an identical group of tones, 
 but a shifting in emphasis taking la rather than doh as 
 tonic, thus producing the relative minor mode. 
 
 In the plan about to be given here, I have followed the 
 second procedure. The reason for this lies in the practice 
 common in America of not changing the key names in the 
 ordinary modulations that occur: for instance, in going 
 from C to the key of G major, G F sharp will not be sung as 
 a new doh, li, but as soh, ji, in spite of the decided presence
 
 126 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 of the doh, ti feeling. The reason for this practice is probably 
 partly in the nature of staff notation, and partly because 
 the new key, for the very reason that we expect the return 
 of the opening key, is not so completely established in the 
 mind as a change in the sound names would imply. In 
 the greater number of modulatory changes, pupils both 
 young and old prefer to struggle on through a modulation 
 with the tones, partly contradicting what the key names 
 suggest. Thus so little practice in changing key names 
 is obtained that wherever the change would be easier, it is 
 not employed for lack of facility to do it readily. For this 
 reason, in teaching the minor mode, as well as the related 
 key group treated in the fourth stage of this chapter, the 
 plan has been to awaken a consciousness of the changed 
 key feeling that results from modulating into the tonic 
 dominant, and the three relative minors, while continuing 
 to use the key names of the original tonic. Through the 
 frequency with which these related keys come, the pupils 
 learn to adjust themselves to the modifications that the 
 sound names of the original tonic undergo from the pres- 
 ence of these related modulations. Thus the key names 
 are not those of a single key, but those of the tonic of the 
 piece, and gradually acquire the wider significance that 
 the modulations introduce. This association is helped by 
 the modified names that are introduced for the tones ac- 
 tually changed from those employed in connection with 
 the original key. In accordance with this plan, the minor 
 will be introduced first as relative minor, where no change 
 in key signature is required, rather than as tonic minor,
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 127 
 
 where an unusual change in key signature is necessitated. 
 When we consider how rarely pieces beginning in the 
 minor are used in schools, and how by far the larger part 
 of the children's experience with the minor up to this time 
 has been in the form of passing from a major tonic to its 
 relative minor, the treatment of the relative rather than the 
 tonic minor seems fairly consistent with experience. On 
 the other hand, to start out with a minor song and call its 
 tonic la when no relative major is present, seems a gross 
 inconsistency, for the excuse of identity of key signature 
 is not present. In dealing with such a song as The Jolly 
 Miller, after beginning as I have done and developing the 
 sense of the new tonic feeling on G, many would prefer, 
 instead of keeping the relative sound names of the major, 
 to call the new tonic doh and its minor third mi. This would 
 greatly help in developing the true quality of the minor 
 tonic, but for a successful carrying out, it would necessitate 
 that the same practice with reference to a tonic minor as 
 is given to the tonic major be carried as far back as the 
 second grade, when the nature of the major tonic was first 
 established. Since little opportunity is given for singing 
 songs which commence in the minor, it has not seemed wise 
 to go into the distinctions necessary for presenting this 
 method of teaching it, however valuable it might be from 
 the point of view of musicianship. The minor as here pre- 
 sented is consistent with the experience of the pupils with 
 reference both to tone and notation. Its inconsistency lies 
 only in singing the minor tonic to la and in the changes 
 hereby involved.
 
 128 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 Turning now to the way the minor thought will be pre- 
 sented to the pupils, we must bear in mind that they have 
 not only sung many minor passages, but that they have 
 had an occasional song which began and ended in the minor 
 mode. These songs have been learned chiefly by rote and 
 the minor effects have been observed only for their ex- 
 pressive values, without any attempt at explaining how 
 they were produced. 
 
 Some such song as The Jolly Miller is now placed on the 
 board and the children notice that, although the signature 
 indicates the key of B flat, the doh of the key does not control 
 the tune as it does in most of the songs they have sung. 
 Owing to their previous experience there will be no diffi- 
 culty in drawing from them the necessary observations that 
 the la and mi of this tune seem to be the important tones 
 corresponding to doh and soh of their usual experience. 
 Other minor tunes are sung in other keys and the children 
 make their first generalization that the signature does 
 not always tell that doh and soh with their brilliant qualities 
 are to be the ruling tones of the key, but that their places 
 can be taken by la and mi, the whole group being thus 
 given a darker and more somber effect. Comparisons of 
 major and minor tunes are made by singing them in turn 
 and focusing attention on these two groups of tones. If 
 the teacher is wise and patient she will be able to lead a 
 large majority of the class to feel that the la and mi of the 
 minor tunes have the same relationship in the minor 
 group that the doh and soh have in the major. 
 
 The developing of the feeling for the minor tonic and
 
 i 
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 
 
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 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
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 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 131 
 
 the recognition of its tone quality are of the utmost im- 
 portance, not only for learning the minor, but also for a 
 clearer understanding of what the tonic quality really is. 
 When this has been thoroughly felt, the reason for calling 
 la number one of the minor key, as we have called doh num- 
 ber one of the major key, will be grasped, as will the con- 
 sistency of naming the minor from the pitch or letter name 
 of la its tonic. The children will now see that The Jolly 
 Miller, which according to their former knowledge seemed 
 to be in the key of B flat, is really in the key of G minor. 
 
 Enough minor songs may be given the children to show 
 that a major signature can represent a minor key. The way 
 in which the same signature can stand for both major and 
 minor tunes can be well illustrated simply by transposing 
 a tune, or part of a tune, so that a melody which began on 
 doh shall begin on la. It will be seen that while such a 
 transposition from major to minor does not alter the es- 
 sential outline of a tune, yet it does give the same group of 
 tones a dark instead of a bright aspect. The difference is 
 comparable to that between the same object as it appears 
 in sunlight and in shadow. 
 
 The essential thing for the pupil to bear in mind is that 
 when, on beginning to sing the sound names from the sig- 
 nature, as has been his custom, he finds la and mi the prom- 
 inent tones, he must think of the group as being in the 
 minor. He must give to these tones not only the color they 
 have had in the major, but, more important still, the 
 added qualities that their position as first and fifth (tonic 
 and dominant) of a minor key demands. He will have
 
 132 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 to be cautioned that hereafter in starting keys, he must 
 do something more than look at the signature; he must 
 also look at the music and see whether doh or la is the 
 important tone. In other words, he must imagine how the 
 music would sound. If the qualities of la and mi are pre- 
 dominant, the piece is in the minor and must be called 
 after the pitch name of la rather than of doh. 
 
 After the qualities of the la and mi in the minor have 
 been thus observed and studied, the chromatic tones that 
 so often occur in the minor can be observed. For example, 
 just before la in a minor group instead of soh we may often 
 have soh sharp, which we sing to the sound name si. By 
 their previous practice the children are able to sing la, soh, 
 la and la, si, la and can be made to notice that changing 
 the soh to si helps to give la its important position, which 
 makes it seem like the tonic of the key. Taking a tune in 
 which the melodic form of the minor occurs, they find 
 that }a as well as soh is often changed, especially in up- 
 ward passages. 
 
 When all this observation and analysis has been care- 
 fully worked out from the songs, the work requiring a 
 number of weeks, the children are ready to study the scale 
 formation of the minor. They will have no difficulty in 
 singing what some call the natural minor scale, i. e., the 
 sound names just as they occur in the major but beginning 
 and ending with la. We take this series first, in order that 
 the relation between major and minor keys may be well 
 illustrated. The fact that the pupils have had soh sharped 
 in many of their minor songs makes them see the necessity
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE FIFTH YEAR 133 
 
 for a scale which substitutes si for soh. In order to sing 
 this effect readily it would be well to practice mi, ja, mi and 
 la, si, la (above) in succession, one requiring a half step up 
 and the other a half step down. Then mi, ja, la or la, si, 
 mi can be sung, and finally a half step following the wide 
 skip may be introduced, mi, ja, si, la and la, si, ja, mi. 
 
 $ 
 
 F^- j4H-tl 
 
 Nothing has been said of singing the augmented second. 
 Ability to sing the unfamiliar intervals lies not simply in 
 recognizing the nature of the distance between them, but 
 in feeling their relationship to the strong and fundamental 
 tones between which they occur. After singing tunes in 
 which the melodic form of the minor scale occurs, a me- 
 lodic scale is constructed and practiced. If pupils have dif- 
 ficulty in singing the mi, ja, si, la of the upper passage, it can 
 be practiced as soh, la, li, doh until the intervals are clearly 
 in mind, the return group being sung as la, soh, ja, mi. 
 The children observe how this series both resembles and 
 differs from natural and harmonic forms already familiar. 
 
 This practice in constructing and singing the harmonic 
 and melodic scales, following as it does experience in sing- 
 ing songs based on the keys, makes the technical knowledge 
 thus gained, vital and of real value in musical education. 
 This work in the minor mode can be supplemented by the 
 use of minor phrases in a way similar to that in which 
 major phrases were used, by transposing minor phrases 
 into major, and vice versa, and by making up minor songs.
 
 CHAPTER Xni 
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR. CHORD 
 AND KEY RELATIONSHIPS 
 
 The regular work of the sixth year continues the study 
 of sight singing introduced in the fourth and developed 
 in the fifth year. Starting with notation, the pupils aim 
 at the quick recognition of short musical passages accu- 
 rately enough to sing them as wholes, not spelling note by 
 note, but reading by phrases. The sixth year closes this 
 second phase, already mentioned as passing from sight to 
 sound, and brings the pupil to a point where he can begin 
 to apply the power gained in recognizing musical phrases, 
 especially those for instruments, so as to combine them in 
 larger forms. In considering the special work presented 
 in this chapter, it must be borne in mind that the largest 
 portion of the time should still be given to the regular 
 training in sight singing. 
 
 first stage: observing and naming chord qualities 
 
 Children from the second year onward have practiced 
 singing along chord lines, doh, mi, soh or }a, la, doh for in- 
 stance, and divisions of the class have occasionally sus- 
 tained the different tones of the chord, an excellent tuning 
 
 134
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 135 
 
 exercise. In the fourth and fifth years something in part 
 work was attempted. It is now time to gather up this 
 experience and organize the knowledge of tones sounded 
 simultaneously in chords, thus doing for the chord work 
 what the formal work in tone and in the minor mode has 
 done for these two subjects. 
 
 While the direct relation of the chord work to the pre- 
 vious musical experience of the pupil cannot be as closely 
 shown as in the previous topics mentioned, the practice 
 in singing and observing chord combination as an inde- 
 pendent exercise is of special value in quickening the mind 
 to tone relationship. Hence its indirect advantage to mu- 
 sical appreciation is great. But this advantage will not 
 be realized unless the teacher so conducts the work that 
 the pupils are constantly obliged to observe and describe 
 what they individually sing in relation to what they hear. 
 
 The work is commenced by dividing the class into three 
 parts, or choirs, without any reference to high or low voices. 
 The first step is the study of the triad or three-toned chord 
 in its root or A position. The pitch of C or D is given, and 
 the chord of doh, mi, soh is sung, the choirs taking turns 
 in singing each of the tones of the chord. After the pupils 
 have tried the chord and know what they are to do, they 
 are asked to observe the characteristics of each of the tones 
 as they sing them: the ease with which they are sung: the 
 quality of each tone which stands out more distinctly be- 
 cause of the relationship to the other two tones: and to tell 
 for which one of the three tones the chord should be 
 named. This work will reenforce the practice that the?
 
 13O EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 pupils already have had in recognizing the character and 
 positions of the tones in the key. In fact, singing them to- 
 gether as a chord makes their quality more distinct than 
 when singing them in succession as melody. There will be 
 no difficulty in giving positive descriptions as to the char- 
 acteristic effects of each tone in the chord, and the pupils 
 will decide that doh is the only tone after which the com- 
 bination or chord can be named. 
 
 The second step will be to arrange the same chord in the 
 two other possible positions, that of mi, soh, doh and soh, 
 doh, mi, the problem now being to observe and describe the 
 new effects produced. For, while the same tones are em- 
 ployed, the smooth and solid character of the first arrange- 
 ment has given way to one less so. The three arrangements 
 of the chord are now named A, B, and C positions of the 
 doh chord. They are practiced, compared with each other, 
 and described. 
 
 It will be a surprise to a teacher who has not tried this 
 work to see how accurately the very large proportion of the 
 class can describe what they hear. 
 
 The third step is to combine similar chords to accompany 
 this (see page 139, Ex. A, I, II, III, IV). The pupils are 
 told that it would be no more than common sense to have 
 one tone at least the same in two chords if they are to sound 
 connectedly. When people wish to move smoothly they 
 take up one foot at a time and take short steps, and so if 
 we wish to go to another chord from doh it would be best at 
 least to hold one tone and let the other two go to the near- 
 est possible position.
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 137 
 
 Starting with the doh chord we can try holding doh and 
 moving mi and soh to fa and la, or we can hold soh and 
 move doh and mi to ti and re. These are the only two 
 chords that can be formed under these conditions. Each 
 of them is now studied as was the doh chord so that they are 
 practiced in different positions and the tone after which 
 they should be named is described. They are then prac- 
 ticed in succession, the teacher calling for them as the doh, 
 fa, doh, soh, doh chords, and after this sequence has been 
 learned the middle doh chord can be omitted, the choirs 
 passing directly from the ja chord to the soh without a tone 
 in common. This sequence should be practiced starting 
 with the doh chord first in its A position, then B and then C. 
 While the chord succession will be the same, the positions 
 in which the chords follow each other will be different, 
 obliging the student constantly to think not only of the 
 tone that is common to the chords, but of the nearest tone 
 that they should sing so as not to interfere with the tone 
 that belongs to one of the other choirs. While this work 
 may be started with the use of the syllable names, as soon 
 as the tones are definitely learned the syllable names 
 should be omitted, and the various vowel tones practiced. 
 This is especially necessary in studying the effects of the 
 chord. 
 
 The exercises can be varied by having three of the more 
 musical pupils sing the chords from a sequence written 
 for them, the class naming from hearing the chord and its 
 position. This gives opportunity for excellent ear practice, 
 especially for classes who have not the opportunity of hear-
 
 138 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 ing a piano. The sustained way in which the tones are 
 sung are better even than when given on a piano. 
 
 The fourth step is the practice of the minor chord (see 
 page 139, Ex. B, I, II, III, IV). The doh chord is again 
 taken to start with, but instead of changing both of the up- 
 per tones only, the soh is changed to la, resulting in the doh, 
 mi, la chord. The pupils will immediately recognize that 
 this resembles in quality the minor scale with which they 
 are familiar. After the chord has been practiced in three 
 positions there will be no difficulty in seeing that it should 
 be called the la chord. The fact that this chord has two 
 tones in common with the doh chord would justify its being 
 named the relative minor to the doh. The ja and soh chords 
 are then treated in the same way, and it will be discovered 
 that each has a similar minor chord, one on the second 
 degree of the scale related to the ja chord, and one on the 
 third degree related to the soh chord. We thus have six 
 chords, three major with their three relative minors. 
 
 It is now possible to make long dictations combining 
 all six chords. Such dictations will come easily if they are 
 first written out on the blackboard, the pupils first suggest- 
 ing the chords that will follow each other well, such sugges- 
 tions being tested by singing and comparison. 
 
 By starting on different positions of the doh chord a large 
 variety of movement can be obtained. By writing the 
 chords in different keys, excellent practice is obtained in 
 realizing the similarity of effect in different presentations 
 to the eye. 
 
 The fourth step is to practice on the four-toned chord
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 
 
 139 
 
 of the dominant seventh (see page 140, Ex. D). The pupils 
 will have 'already discovered that the three-toned chord on 
 the seventh degree of the scale sounds different from both 
 the major and minor chords learned. But by adding soh 
 to the three a very interesting and, at the same time, com- 
 monly used chord results. In order to practice this it would 
 be necessary to double one of the tones of the doh chord. 
 The most likely one for such a purpose would be the tone 
 that gives its name to the chord. The four-toned chord of 
 soh, ti, re, ja is then practiced in the position of re, ja, soh, 
 ti between two doh chords. 
 
 While this work is not exhaustive from the ftarmonic 
 point of view, it is sufficient to give most valuable practice 
 in tone hearing, and supplements not only the work in 
 part singing, but develops a most sensitive feeling for 
 harmony, making a deeper appreciation possible. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FOREGOING CHORD EXPLANATIONS 
 I II III IV 
 
 LflU-U-j Ur4 j I I I U-j I I 
 
 A I. Finding ja or subdominant chord. 
 II. Finding soh or dominant chord. 
 
 III. The three chords in combination. 
 
 IV. The cadence, leaving out the middle tonic chord. 
 
 ill IV 
 
 :J= j I -U =J=|=1 f I 1 I
 
 140 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 B I. Finding re or subdominant minor chord. 
 
 II. Finding mi or dominant minor chord. 
 
 III. The three minor chords in combination. 
 
 IV. Leaving out the middle minor tonic. 
 I it 
 
 c 
 
 'fe ^y ^ gpiii^iigi 
 
 C I. Showing chords studied as constituents of tonic key. 
 II. Showing chords studied as tonics in related keys. 
 
 a, d, and e tonic, subdominant, and dominant 
 keys. 
 
 b, c, and f minors related to above major keys. 
 
 D 
 
 *W 
 
 D Showing the inclusion of soh with the ti, re, fa chord. 
 
 SECOND STAGE : KEY RELATION THROUGH SIGNATURE * 
 
 There remains but one more technical stage to be pre- 
 sented. We have had in the fifth year work the technical 
 aspects of tone production, the minor mode and its re- 
 sultant scales, and so far for the sixth year, chord charac- 
 teristics, both in themselves and in their relationships to 
 one another. 
 
 The idea of the key group is the last of the technical 
 subjects which need be attempted in this phase covered by 
 the fourth, fifth, and sixth years. 
 
 * See discussion introductory to second stage in Chapter XII.
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 141 
 
 The principles of this relationship are already familiar. 
 The children know that every key signature stands for two 
 keys, one a major or doh, one a minor or la. The keys have 
 also been introduced as soh and ja keys in relation to a doh 
 key. The pupils have had plenty of experience in the rela- 
 tion of these keys. They have used soh as a new doh and 
 then changed it back to soh. Still oftener the sound name 
 has remained unchanged, but soh has taken the doh feeling 
 because fi has been sung instead of ja, showing that short 
 change has been made to the key of soh. The aim of the 
 work now is to gather together and formulate as much as 
 has been experienced in key changes. For this purpose, a 
 large number of familiar songs will be taken and the keys 
 to which they change marked on the blackboard. The 
 children discover that each key change has a chromatic 
 tone that serves as an earmark by which the eye, on looking 
 at a piece of music, can readily tell the key modifications 
 that occur. It should be noted here that a great many of 
 the chromatic marks which occur in the ordinary music 
 of the public schools only suggest a possible change. They 
 are useful in helping to articulate the tune, to break it into 
 parts. These changes are so common and uniform that 
 to understand their principle helps not only in reading but 
 also in hearing music. 
 
 To illustrate the two ways in which the chromatic tones 
 are introduced, the children can sing The Star Spangled 
 Banner. They will notice that many of the phrases end 
 on the chord of soh, or the dominant, and that some of 
 these are preceded by a chord having a sharped four in it,
 
 142 
 
 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
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 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 
 
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 thus making the soh chord that follows it in strong opposi- 
 tion to the doh chord of the piece. The children observe 
 that what follows is in the original key and that what has 
 happened has served merely to emphasize the separation of 
 the phrases. Xow Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean can be 
 sung, and it is found that in this also the fourth of the key is 
 sharped but that here it continues through the passage. 
 Hence the music is changed to this key. 
 
 After singing in different keys a large number of ex- 
 amples which illustrate the sharping of the fourth, the 
 children realize that however different the end served, the 
 means employed is the same, and, moreover, that the 
 change is one of the most common in music. They have 
 also noticed that when the return is made after singing in 
 the key of soh, the sharped four of the old key that became 
 the seven of the new, often required a modifying mark such 
 as cancel or flat to show this return. The ear always feels 
 the difference, but very often the context is so clear that 
 the change is not represented to the eye, the original sig- 
 nature being sufficient. This is true of the return in Co- 
 lumbia, the Gem oj the Ocean. Furthermore, illustrations
 
 144 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 should be given of the fact that when we wish to return 
 from the key of soh, we flat the seventh of this key. 
 
 A tune can now be taken in which, instead of first 
 changing to the key of soh the seventh of the key of doh is 
 flatted; and the children discover that the key of fa has 
 been reached. Thus what they are already familiar with 
 as a change from the dominant to the tonic is applied to the 
 change from the tonic to the subdominant, a transition 
 which occurs much less frequently (see page 140, C, II, 
 a, d, e). 
 
 After the formulation of this group of related major keys, 
 the next step is to study the relationship to a central tonic 
 of the relative minors, i. e., the keys that have the same 
 signatures but use la instead of doh for the tonic. From 
 their study of the relative minor of the tonic the children 
 already know the principle of this relationship. It is 
 difficult to find melodies that give sufficient illustration, 
 but examples will occur in the three-part music which is 
 being studied. 
 
 It can now be shown that when we pass from the key 
 of doh to the key of its dominant, or soh, we are passing 
 through only one aspect of this dominant key, that is, the 
 major; and that we can with equal consistency go to the 
 dark key for the same signature, that is, the minor, which 
 has the same relationship to soh that la had to doh. This 
 would be the minor starting on mi, the third of the scale. 
 The same thing would hold good in changing from the 
 doh to the ja key. Instead of taking the bright aspect of 
 this group of tones we can take the dark aspect represented
 
 SPECIAL WORK OF THE SIXTH YEAR 145 
 
 by its relative minor commencing on re. Thus we have 
 minor keys on the third and second of the scale which are 
 related to doh in that they would have the same signature 
 as the majors soh and ja (see page 140, C, II, b, c, f). 
 The formulating of these key relationships is especially 
 valuable because while they all follow the same principle 
 each has a different appearance to the eye. Sometimes 
 cancels instead of sharps show the change to the key of soh, 
 and similarly they, instead of flats, show the change to the 
 key of ja; or again, double sharps or flats may be required. 
 So if the chromatic tones necessary to form the melodic 
 and harmonic minors for the three relative keys were 
 learned in reference to a central tonic, many a passage that 
 seems to bristle with tonal difficulties would be recognized 
 as a familiar friend. 
 
 The point of all this work is the study of key changes 
 in relation to a central tonic. Thus we have a group of six 
 keys represented by three signatures, one of which is that 
 of the tonic, one that of the dominant, and one that of the 
 subdominant. When we change to the dominant and sub- 
 dominant, or the soh and ja keys, the signature is not 
 changed; only the chromatic necessary to form the new 
 seventh or fourth is written. The dark aspect of the major 
 keys gives us the three minor keys, one on la related to doh, 
 one on mi related to soh, one on re related to ja, so that 
 the six keys have all to be learned from the same signature 
 (see page 140, C, II). Each of these minor keys requires 
 an additional chromatic tone showing that it is the dark 
 and not the bright aspect of the group. This tone is th? 
 
 Music 10
 
 146 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 seventh of each minor, that is, the tone below la, the tonic. 
 This seventh when sung with the sound names of the 
 original tonic will require soh to be sung as si indicating 
 the change to the key on la; re to be sung ri for the change 
 to the minor key on mi ; and doh to be sung as di for the 
 minor key on re. 
 
 Thus the chromatic tones are introduced as indicat- 
 ing a group of six keys, all related to the central tonic 
 as the seven tones of the scale are related to the tonic 
 tone. 
 
 This study might be continued to include the tonic 
 minors of the major keys, but sufficient work is given here 
 to establish the principle that keys are related, as tones are. 
 In fact, it might be enough in a great many cases to go no 
 further than the changes to the dominant and relative 
 minor. None of this technical work that cannot be re- 
 lated to practical musical experience should be done. It 
 can be justified only when it serves to formulate practice.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO SEVENTH YEAR: TWO 
 REASONS FOR CHANGE IN CHARACTER 
 OF WORK 
 
 The work of the seventh year will be better understood, 
 if, before describing it, we compare what it aims to ac- 
 complish with the two previous aims, the one extending 
 through the work of the first three years, the other of the 
 next three. The first phase begins with singing songs and 
 ends with learning notation. This is brought about by 
 observation, acting and picturing, which accompany the 
 singing, and enable the pupil to learn the constitutive 
 ideas that make up the structure of the song. In the second 
 phase this process is reversed. The pupils start with the 
 constitutive ideas suggested by the notation, and unite 
 these in order to form concepts of the motifs and phrases 
 of musical passages. The ability to sing these is the 
 practical test of accurate conceptions. 
 
 The question now arises, shall this grade continue the 
 work of sight singing in the same spirit as during the 
 second phase, or are there reasons for a change? If the 
 nature of the pupil remained the same, and if work in 
 sight singing included all that pupils should know about 
 
 147
 
 148 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 music, there would be no necessity to change. But both 
 these hypotheses are contrary to fact. 
 
 The adolescent period into which the pupils of the 
 seventh and eighth years are entering produces self- 
 consciousness and sensitiveness as to the opinions of the 
 other sex, evident in dress and manner. With this external 
 change there is more profound intellectual and spiritual 
 change, the significance of which is clearly brought out in 
 Dr. Hall's Adolescence. The voices of the girls are affected 
 as well as those of the boys, and this makes it wise to lessen 
 rather than to increase the use of the voice, especially 
 since its exercise gives poor results. The self-consciousness 
 that particularly affects boys makes vocal utterance a dif- 
 ficult and hence undesirable form of self-expression. Pu- 
 pils at this period feel a dislike for "stunt-doing" acts, 
 which in the earlier music study were both helpful and 
 enjoyable. Furthermore, they demand a certain spiritual 
 content, a social significance in what is done. These facts 
 alone would justify a new grouping and presentation of 
 study. 
 
 But there is still the second reason to be considered. 
 Does the training in sight singing cover all that the general 
 public should know about music ? The pertinence of this 
 question will not be felt unless we bear in mind that the 
 majority of our citizens end their school work with the 
 eighth grade or its equivalent. The tone thinking that 
 sight singing demands gives the most intensive ear training, 
 and hence the best preparation for grasping musical ideas. 
 Yet the interest awakened in music simply on its vocal
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO SEVENTH YEAR 149 
 
 side, and the musical work that such vocal approach makes 
 possible, do not supply a wide enough experience to enable 
 the student to apply in the most effective manner the ability 
 he has gained in this way to the musical experience of his 
 later life. The modern graduate of the grammar school 
 when he enters upon life, works under a pressure that 
 leaves little vitality for either spiritual or artistic expression, 
 and those forms of art that require severe concentration and 
 effort are left more and more to those persons who have 
 special talent for them. The desire for self-expression is 
 as great as ever, but the medium through which it acts 
 must hold attention without too severe a demand on vitality 
 that is already overtaxed by the pressure of modern life. 
 Hence the general experience in music will be more likely 
 to take the passive form of listening than the active one 
 of solo or chorus singing. 
 
 The truth of this statement will be appreciated if one 
 will only stop to think how very much larger is the number 
 of those whose musical experience comes to them through 
 the work of others than of those who make their own 
 music. In fact, of the latter class, the technical demand 
 of the music they themselves produce may so absorb their 
 attention that they are oblivious, to the aesthetic side; so 
 that they also nourish their true musical life through what 
 they hear. 
 
 If now we ask what form of the music which brings us 
 intimately into contact with the great masters do we hear 
 most, one must admit that it is instrumental music. Apart 
 from what is heard in the homes (so wonderfully enlarged
 
 150 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 by music printed on rolls and disks), we have the music 
 of the streets, parks, pleasure resorts, steamers, hotels, 
 restaurants, and, in addition, the regular concert halls, 
 all ministering very largely through instrumental forms. 
 This, after all, is the musical opportunity for which the 
 public schools should train. For whether this immense 
 amount of music shall be good or bad depends upon what 
 the musical intelligence of the listener demands. The pub- 
 lic school can become a most potent factor in training 
 this intelligence. 
 
 After the training already given, it only remains to 
 apply to the practical sphere, in which the greater part of 
 the future experience of the pupils will lie, that intelligence 
 and sensitiveness to sound which sight singing has awak- 
 ened and strengthened. Such is the aim of the work begin- 
 ning with the seventh year. Starting with the ability the 
 pupils have developed for conceiving of motives and 
 phrases, the teacher shows how the larger vocal and instru- 
 mental forms are developed through a combination of these. 
 The school should furnish the opportunity to hear instru- 
 mental music, and it should definitely organize the expe- 
 rience given. By this means, the pupil is enabled to enjoy 
 music that would otherwise have little meaning for him.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 
 
 first stage: review 
 
 As the majority of the school population does not go 
 beyond the grammar grades, it is essential that the musical 
 work should be so planned that it should not be dependent 
 on study beyond these grades for results. Hence the work 
 of the third phase according to the plan presented in this 
 book, covering the seventh and eighth years of school life, 
 is designed to accomplish two main results. 
 
 The first of these is to review and solidify the musical 
 knowledge already introduced; and the second is to widen 
 the scope of the musical work so that some interest will be 
 awakened in instrumental music as well as in the story 
 and form of music. 
 
 The review work does not signify that exhaustive re- 
 views have not already taken place, but that the review 
 itself is to be made more of a feature and presented not 
 so much in the form in which the work was originally 
 given, as in generalizations, implying that the principles 
 are fairly well in mind, and putting the knowledge into 
 such compact shape that it would be of service long after 
 much that was learned in school is forgotten. 
 
 '5 1
 
 152 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 The review for the seventh grade centers about the 
 notation for rhythm and pitch. The first will be best 
 illustrated by the following table. 
 
 Typical movements to be memorized. 
 
 (a) Simple grouping, with the quarter as unit. 
 
 i. Even ratios _J 3__TH STZ- 
 
 2. Uneven ratios _J J^ J"T_ 
 
 (b) Compound grouping with the dotted quarter as 
 unit. 
 
 I. Even ratios 
 
 2. Uneven ratios 
 
 It will be seen by this table that the pulse and not the 
 measure is taken as the unit in the measurement of tonal 
 duration. It is quite true that in simple music moving to 
 single pulse tones, the measure grouping is of the utmost 
 importance especially to an unharmonized melody; the 
 ordinary melody, however, will establish its own pulse 
 grouping if the pulses themselves are clearly conceived 
 and produced. By bringing the compound and simple, 
 the even and uneven pulses into juxtaposition, the whole 
 table is easily classified and remembered, and while it is 
 not by any means an exhaustive treatment of pulse types, 
 it is fundamental, and students who have mastered it 
 thoroughly, easily grasp further changes. This table
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 153 
 
 should be put on the blackboard and the pupils tested by 
 having the teacher point to the various pulse types, while 
 the pupils sing them in monotone. The teacher should also 
 sing the various types while the pupils state which one of 
 the tables is being produced, and so the new music taken up 
 should be rapidly analyzed, at least the first few meas- 
 ures, into the pulse types employed, until the importance of 
 thinking by pulses is thoroughly reviewed and established. 
 
 The certainty of the pulse feeling itself can be easily 
 tested and developed by the practice of syncopation, start- 
 ing first in two-pulse measure and having the syncopation 
 last from the last half of the first through the second half of 
 the second pulse, when the pupil can feel the entrance of the 
 weak pulse against the tone that continues over it. The 
 syncopation can be changed to the last half of the second 
 pulse over the first half of the first pulse of the next meas- 
 ure. Here two forms of syncopation are given: the first 
 covering the entrance of the weak pulse, and the second, 
 that of the strong pulse. Such exercises may be effectively 
 introduced in scale passages, alternating with the regular 
 movement, such alternation of a few measures of synco- 
 pated and regular time making the work more effective 
 than where the syncopation is kept up too long. 
 
 With this practice of pulse types and pulse grouping the 
 various forms of the metrical signatures should be re- 
 viewed; especially those decided changes in appearance 
 that simple time so often takes from the mere fact of chang- 
 ing the pulse unit from a quarter to either an eighth or a 
 half note.
 
 154 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 Turning now to the work that centers about the key 
 signatures, it will be well to commence this review by sing- 
 ing the pitches of the staff as represented by the un- 
 modified letters. Excellent practice in singing whole and 
 half steps is brought about by singing scale passages, 
 starting on all the letters with the exception of C, when 
 the fixed condition of the half step between E and F, and 
 B and C is well established. The scales should be sung 
 and written, starting on each degree of the staff. For in- 
 stance, a scale calling C first doh, then soh, then mi, then 
 la, re, }a, and finally ti. This would require that between 
 C and C" the scales of C, F, A flat, E flat, B flat, G and D 
 flat be sung and written. The same thing should be done 
 by taking D and thinking of that as each of the seven tones 
 of a major scale. This gives an exhaustive review of the 
 scales and the exact function of sharps and flats, double 
 sharps and double flats with reference to the staff. In 
 writing these scales the modifying signs should be written 
 directly before the note, and the distance measured in 
 major and minor seconds; and afterwards, for practice in 
 writing signatures correctly, the resulting signatures should 
 be placed at the beginning. 
 
 The second most important practice in connection with 
 signatures is the ability to place rapidly upon the staff 
 when the key is given the repose tones of the scale doh, mi, 
 and soh, with the doh above and the soh below this group. 
 This can be made very intensive speed work by sending 
 all the pupils that can be accommodated to the board, 
 having them draw a short staff and place the clef mark;
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 155 
 
 then stand with the back towards the board and have the 
 keys assigned, and at a given signal have the students turn 
 about, place the five notes according to the key required 
 without stopping to write the signatures, and then turn back 
 again. The habit should be developed of not simply think- 
 ing where doh is when the key is given, but where the en- 
 tire seven tones would be placed. These are easily grouped 
 if they are thought of as the repose tones of doh, mi, and 
 soh, as the sensitive tones of ja and ti, one leading up to 
 doh and the other down to mi and the passing tones of re 
 and la. The essential thing of this work is, however, 
 grouping the five repose tones doh, mi, and soh with the 
 doh above and the soh below. 
 
 So much for review. The vexed question of part singing 
 raises a difficult problem. There is no doubt that singing 
 in harmony is one of the best musical practices that the 
 pupil can have, and that the result when well done gives 
 greater satisfaction to the officers and friends of the school. 
 On the other hand, the vocal condition in which seventh 
 and eighth grade pupils find themselves is the least favor- 
 able for such practice, and a great part of the harm which 
 singing teachers often attribute to school music is done 
 in injudicious part singing for immature voices. Unfortu- 
 nately the greatest damage is done to the best singers, who 
 are generally given the lower and constrained parts be- 
 cause they are more musical and can sing them, and from 
 this very fact are depended upon to lead the others, and 
 unconsciously force their voices. The question of part 
 singing might be looked at from two points of view. The
 
 156 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 first, that in which independence is developed by having 
 other parts moving differently from the one the pupil is 
 singing, and the second, the development of feeling for 
 harmonic progression. If these two are treated separately, 
 more effective work can be done with less harm to the 
 voices. The question of independence with reference to 
 the part one is singing is easily developed through the 
 round and canon. This does not oblige any voice to 
 remain low, and thus offers all the freedom of unison 
 work and at the same time develops independence of 
 part. 
 
 For developing harmonic feeling, simple songs should be 
 chosen, where the harmony moves in blocks, the low voice 
 taking the root, or a tone of the chord. Opportunity is 
 thus given to the embryo basses to take their tones with 
 a fair degree of certainty. This would throw out much 
 of the clever counterpoint that one sees written for ad- 
 vanced grades, but when the musical capacity of the pu- 
 pils is taken into consideration, the necessity of passing 
 from the simple to the complex would certainly justify 
 a much more elementary harmonic treatment for the first 
 attempts at part singing than is ordinarily offered to the 
 seventh and eighth grade pupils. If this work is sup- 
 plemented with the singing of canons, plenty of practice 
 is given in getting independence of parts. Such simple 
 treatment of harmonic movement is not only valuable for 
 the low part, but quite as much so for the soprano and 
 alto that move above it, for it is unfortunate to set pupils 
 to singing parts who have not yet developed the simple
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 157 
 
 tonic-dominant movement that lies at the base of the more 
 developed treatment. 
 
 second stage: awakening interest in instruments 
 
 The new work is to awaken interest in musical instru- 
 ments. How this is to be done will depend much on the op- 
 portunities at hand. An ordinary whistle is sufficient to in- 
 troduce the principle underlying wind instruments, the 
 flute, piccolo, pipe organ, and others. When the prin- 
 ciple of this group is established, i. e., that the sound is 
 produced by the blowing of the wind across an opening, 
 the second division of wind instruments can be introduced 
 by means of the cornet. Pupils notice here the cup-shaped 
 mouthpiece and discover that the lips of the player must 
 vibrate in this cup in order to produce the tone. Then the 
 whole family of brass instruments can be studied and the 
 fact brought out that the tuba, trombone, horn, and 
 trumpet all employ the same means. After this group the 
 third division of the same family can be introduced, that 
 of wood instruments such as the clarionet and oboe. The 
 children observe that here the wind is set in vibration by a 
 reed controlled by the lips of the player. Another class of 
 instruments which use the reed, but instead of control- 
 ling it by the lips, allow it to vibrate freely in an opening, 
 can be illustrated by the cabinet organ, accordion, or 
 mouth organ. 
 
 The second great family of instruments is the string 
 group. The violin can be used to illustrate the large divi- 
 sion played with bows, while the guitar, mandolin, and
 
 158 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 piano exemplify those where the string is plucked or ex- 
 cited by a plectrum or a hammer. Finally, there is the 
 third great family, such as drums, tambourines, and cym- 
 bals, where a vibrating surface is directly excited by blows.* 
 
 Since the object of this work is to awaken interest in 
 music through instruments, it is not pursued in a pro- 
 fessional or technical way. On the other hand, human 
 interest in the subject should be stimulated by including 
 as much of their history and their place in literature as 
 time will permit. Thus some of the pupils may prepare 
 papers on primitive music, showing how drums were used; 
 others fresh from their essays on Greek life will describe 
 the pipe of Pan and the lyre, showing their relationship to 
 modern instruments; others again, the shepherd's pipe, 
 the hunter's horn, the bugle and its calls, and the bagpipe 
 with its drone ; until the world-wide interest of the human 
 race in music is recognized. Much of this literary work 
 can be done in connection with the exercises in English 
 and composition as well as with history. 
 
 But this is not the only side. The seventh and eighth 
 years pay much attention to manual training. The making 
 of simple instruments and the invention of apparatus for 
 illustrating how the tones are produced will fascinate many 
 an ingenious boy whose interest in music hitherto has been 
 none too strong. In like manner drawing and art can be 
 made to contribute their quota in the reproduction of the 
 beautiful forms and decorations that musical instruments 
 present. 
 
 * The pupils, as far as possible, should hear and examine instruments.
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 1 59 
 
 Museums are rapidly increasing and children should be 
 directed to these as they are to libraries. Failing such aid, 
 general and musical encyclopedias supply more material 
 than can be used. The musical instrument catalogues of 
 a first class house that deals in orchestral and band in- 
 struments will supply fairly satisfactory pictures of the 
 instruments most commonly used; these could be cut out 
 and pasted on cardboard for permanent use. 
 
 For two months half the music time of the week could 
 well be devoted to this sort of work, in the course of which 
 practical hints could also be given for the care of the mu- 
 sical instruments generally found in our homes. 
 
 A second feature of this work consists in drawing at- 
 tention to those instruments, which, though less used, are 
 at the same time important for instrumental organizations. 
 A fraction of the time that is now spent in trying to get 
 the technique of such a difficult solo instrument as the 
 piano, would if applied to band and orchestra instruments, 
 give more musical results. Much of our musical activity 
 is dissipated because almost everybody tries to master the 
 piano, an instrument so complete that it does not readily 
 lend itself to organizations of players. If these streams 
 of individual effort could be united into clubs, small bands, 
 and orchestras, the musical life of our country would be 
 greatly developed and enriched. 
 
 The public school wields an unparalleled influence in 
 this respect; for the study of musical instruments gives the 
 opportunity to interest the pupil, not only in the instru- 
 ments themselves, but what is important for instruction, in
 
 160 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 organizations, to which these naturally lead, such as the 
 band and orchestra. The pupils learn that these are not 
 haphazard combinations, but thoroughly organized bodies, 
 each class of instruments having a specific place and duty 
 in the whole. They know what chords and melody mean 
 and they learn to see how the different instruments, ac- 
 cording to their nature, take up the parts; they learn the 
 bass, tenor, and alto groups and observe that certain in- 
 struments, owing to their flexibility and beauty of tone, 
 carry the lead, or melody. 
 
 There is hardly a town or mining camp in the country 
 that has not its band, or at least a group of instrument 
 players, who might be induced to give a concert for the 
 pupils, illustrating to both eye and ear this grouping of in- 
 struments. The modern school sends the child into the 
 park, the country, the factory, and the shop to gain knowl- 
 edge by first-hand observation, and the same principle 
 can be applied to music work. With the interest now de- 
 veloped in instruments and their organization the pupils 
 should be encouraged to go to good concerts or wher- 
 ever music can be heard, and to bring back definite ob- 
 servations of effects produced and means employed. 
 These comments should not be in the form of haphazard 
 criticism or rhapsody, but should show a scholarly in- 
 telligence, even though this is still limited and immature. 
 
 THIRD STAGE: BAND MUSIC 
 
 We have seen how the arousing of interest in instruments 
 led to the awakening of interest in musical organizations.
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 161 
 
 This naturally goes on to the present stage, the music 
 that such organizations perform. All over the country 
 bands are much more numerous than orchestras, and in 
 band music the dance forms predominate very largely. 
 Since these forms lend themselves to observation and 
 awaken a more immediate interest, they should be studied 
 first. The children have learned to listen by motif and 
 therefore have no difficulty in tracing the occurrence of 
 similar rhythms and the reintroduction of similar melodies 
 after contrasting ones. 
 
 After observations have been gathered concerning the 
 nature of what they have heard, the study of the dance 
 form will be systematically commenced with the aid of the 
 school piano. Often among the pupils themselves some 
 will be found who are capable of playing the illustrations. 
 It certainly would not be difficult to persuade musical 
 friends, or even piano teachers who are interested in being 
 known as players, to give illustrations. The modern at- 
 tachments for playing pianos make possible the giving of 
 excellent illustrations by those who do not themselves 
 play. If it happens that the school has no piano, a few 
 musicales can be planned at different homes. 
 
 Attention will be directed first to the way in which dance 
 music consists of parts related to each other. If a wide- 
 awake physical training teacher is connected with the 
 school, her services can be enlisted in showing how this 
 articulation of the music grows out of the dance. It will 
 be found that the means employed, or cadences, can be 
 grouped. Some seem to be final, others only partial. In 
 
 Music ii
 
 1 62 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 noting how this is accomplished by means of chords and 
 their arrangement, excellent opportunity is given for re- 
 viewing previous chord work and for learning how cadences 
 may be formed and infinitely varied. The development of 
 sensitiveness to the shades of difference which mark the 
 division between motifs, phrases, sections, and periods, 
 increases intelligent comprehension of music in the same 
 way that attention to punctuation promotes an under- 
 standing of language. 
 
 After the pupils have observed that dance music breaks 
 up into symmetrical parts, it is not difficult to go a step 
 further and show that these parts are dominated by cer- 
 tain rhythms producing forms like the polonaise and polka, 
 tarantella and galop, waltz o.nd march. The pupils now 
 discover that these forms are types of movement and soon 
 learn to recognize them. These types, as in the case of 
 the instruments, can be associated with their historic origin. 
 Here, again, literature and art enrich and widen the mu- 
 sical interest and awaken a deeper pleasure than the mere 
 sensuous reaction to a waltz or march could ever do. 
 
 This approach through the dance makes it possible to 
 induce interest in the form without having the study be- 
 come a lifeless intellectualism leading either to disgust or 
 priggishness, for seventh grade children readily respond 
 emotionally to the minuet or waltz. They enjoy it; it ex- 
 presses them : and the intelligence awakened in connection 
 with it purifies and strengthens their interest and prepares 
 at the same time a starting point toward more complex and 
 artistic forms. The Invitation to the Dance used as an
 
 THE SEVENTH YEAR 163 
 
 approach to the overture of Der Freischutz is a better ar- 
 rangement than the reverse order would be. 
 
 While the suggestion made here is to pass from in- 
 struments to music, it does not necessarily follow that 
 this is the best order in all cases. The fundamental idea 
 is to pass from experience to knowledge, to make knowl- 
 edge the organization of experience. That order which 
 will supply this experience in its most vivid and interest- 
 ing way for the conditions of the given locality is the best 
 one to follow, even if the logical development of the sub- 
 ject itself may not be so well served.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE EIGHTH YEAR 
 WORK: REPETITION IN ART 
 
 By the time the pupil has reached the eighth year, we 
 are ready to apply his already awakened interest in mu- 
 sical form to those examples in which the masterpieces of 
 music have been revealed, and also to arouse his sympathies 
 by an acquaintance with the composers themselves and the 
 times in which they lived. 
 
 Though this work naturally falls in the eighth year it 
 does not follow that it can be completed there. Only the 
 beginning of it can be attempted in one year. Not only 
 this, it must be borne in mind that approximately half the 
 time of the eighth year will be devoted to singing. The 
 closing exercises, as well as many other school occasions, 
 require special music and the duty of furnishing this 
 generally falls to the upper classes. These are excellent 
 opportunities for putting to practical use the pupil's mu- 
 sical ability. The teacher should take pains to have the 
 selections well chosen, and should approach their study 
 through the observation of structural and interpretative 
 ideas. Moreover, attention should be given to the cir- 
 cumstance under which the pieces were composed, as well 
 
 164
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO EIGHTH YEAR 165 
 
 as to the period and the composer. Thus the pupil can be 
 made acquainted with many beautiful gems from the litera- 
 ture of music in such a way that they become part of his 
 artistic preparation for life, enabling him to drink deep 
 of refreshment as invigorating and inexhaustible as the 
 springs in a mountain valley. 
 
 Since, as we have already said, the pupil's musical 
 experience after he leaves school will be largely in the 
 realm of hearing instrumental music, the preparation for 
 this, already begun in the seventh year, should be con- 
 tinued. Let us see what this preparation has been. First, 
 his musical interests have been broadened through an 
 acquaintance with the structure and history of instru- 
 ments. This has led to an interest in musical organizations, 
 and this in turn to the music performed. As this music 
 was chiefly limited to dance forms, the observations made 
 were largely connected with its rather rhythmical ideas. 
 Pupils have become aware of the symmetry of these mu- 
 sical designs growing out of their origin in the dance. 
 Their observation has been carefully directed to the 
 means of articulating the music. This has led to the 
 quickening of the feeling for cadences, which were ex- 
 plained descriptively rather than technically. These ob- 
 servations, together with the earlier practice of singing by 
 phrase give the basis for the new work about to be pre- 
 sented. Starting with that which not only awakens in- 
 terest most strongly, but also connects most closely with 
 experience, we have led the pupils to the technical means 
 employed to produce this experience, and we gradually
 
 166 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 reach those forms of music the comprehension of which 
 adds much to musical enjoyment. 
 
 The plan for the observation of pure design in music 
 has been developed in connection with work done by High 
 School students. But its commencement with the last 
 year of the grammar school is suggested for children whose 
 school life goes no further. Even eight periods during the 
 year devoted to the work proposed in the following para- 
 graphs would prove of immense practical value to such 
 children. A lesson once in two weeks would be much more 
 effective, while a lesson once a week would give all the time 
 necessary to accomplish what we intend in the work as 
 sketched. It is not expected that the pupil will be able to 
 comprehend the full meaning of large forms represented 
 by fugues and sonatas, since at this age he possesses neither 
 the intellectual nor the emotional capacity. But just as a 
 child learns much in his geography, which becomes fully 
 significant only after years of travel, so in music by drawing 
 attention to the effects of fugues and sonatas and the way 
 they are formed, by giving practice in intensive listening and 
 awakening human interest through the stories connected 
 with their origin, the times, and the composers that pro- 
 duced them, in all these ways are planted the seeds which 
 will bear fruit whenever favorable opportunity is given. 
 
 In teaching musical design, the pupils' experience of 
 design in manual training and art work may be made use 
 of. This helps in a measure their lack of a larger musical 
 experience. Since such a treatment is rather unusual, the 
 principles will first be presented by themselves.
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO EIGHTH YEAR 167 
 
 The tendency to repeat is strikingly noticeable in all 
 the arts that seek to express beauty. By this means unity 
 is given to a work; yet mere unity is not beautiful. Its 
 value consists in enabling us to organize the forms of art, 
 and consequently the impressions they produce, thus 
 making possible the accumulation of effects necessary for 
 the deep and lasting feeling of pleasure which the beautiful 
 awakens. 
 
 The importance of this principle of repetition is very 
 great in those arts that are free to develop their own forms; 
 as long as they can give the impression of the unity of the 
 whole, they can take any shape the fancy wishes. Among 
 these arts are music, architecture, and a large class of the 
 arts of design, such as deal with surface decoration. In 
 contrast stand the arts of painting and sculpture; these 
 have to develop the unity of their work largely through 
 choice and arrangement of forms already related by 
 nature. 
 
 In those arts where repetition is absolutely essential 
 for attaining unity, two classes result from the way it is 
 used. In the first of these, the unity attained resembles 
 that developed through continuity, the same motif or form 
 being present in more or less altered forms. This class, 
 involving more or less constant repetition, is one in which 
 much of the primitive art of the world is expressed. Stone- 
 henge with its rows of huge stones; the arts of Egypt 
 and Asia with their constant recurrence of such large 
 masses as pillars, gates, and sphinxes; decorations on gar- 
 ments and utensils where a simple figure appears over and
 
 1 68 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 over; and in music, the endless reiteration of some minor 
 phrase in which the Indians and Orientals seem to de- 
 light; all these indicate the symmetry of the whole is 
 little thought of, but that attention is given simply to the 
 accumulation of effects from moment to moment, suffi- 
 ciently gathered up by their resemblance to each other. 
 
 In the second class, the same continuity is present, but 
 through greater skill in the control of the material a higher 
 unity is made possible by consideration for both symmetry 
 and principality. The builder of the Parthenon was not 
 content with the simple continuity brought about by rep- 
 resentation of details, but he so planned his work that 
 the structure as a whole expressed a higher unity through 
 its symmetry. The capitol at Washington goes a step 
 further in organization, in that its large masses are con- 
 nected by means of the idea of principality; for the huge 
 dome at the center unites its wings in one whole. 
 
 The difference between these two classes is illustrated 
 in the way such buildings are approached. The architects 
 of Gothic cathedrals, Egyptian and Oriental temples, in 
 which the continuity idea was uppermost, laid little stress 
 upon the point of view from which the whole should be 
 seen. Houses of the city crowd about a Gothic cathedral, 
 walls and gardens hide the temples; they are not primarily 
 intended to be viewed as wholes. On the other hand, the 
 Parthenon, the capitol at Washington, and the Taj Mehal, 
 all are meant to be regarded in the large as well as in detail. 
 Their attainment of this higher unity implies a greater 
 skill and maturity of their builders.
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO EIGHTH YEAR 169 
 
 So in music these two classes of repetition are present; 
 that where continuity is uppermost took its rise in the 
 ecclesiastical music, while the feeling for symmetry con- 
 nected itself with the folk music and dance. Each had 
 its peculiar problem. The church musician could spin 
 tone webs indefinitely, but found difficulty in organizing his 
 material, so as to bring about that unity which results 
 from symmetry and principality. On the other hand, in 
 the spontaneous song and dance of the people, there were 
 perfect examples of symmetry, but there was no way of 
 massing these effects into larger wholes. These two classes, 
 however, developed side by side, each influencing the 
 other. The first, under the general term polyphonic music, 
 achieved its continuity of effect by the recurrence in the 
 various voices of similar motifs or phrases. The second, 
 sometimes called homophonic, aimed at repeating large 
 portions separated by contrasting parts, thus giving to 
 the whole an organic unity, a feeling of symmetry, as 
 far as this is possible in music. In many of the Handel 
 choruses we have in the polyphonic treatment with the 
 emphasized chords at the close what corresponds to the 
 Cologne cathedral with its mighty towers at its western end; 
 while in the movements of the sonatas of Haydn and the 
 simpler ones of Beethoven there is a more distinct feeling 
 of symmetry and proportion. Yet it is interesting to note 
 that in the culmination of both of these types, the more 
 formal symmetry of the earlier Beethoven sonatas disap- 
 pears in a deeper thought unity, and in the great fugues 
 of Bach the apparent principle of continuity is so deftly
 
 170 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 controlled that the work presents the large proportions 
 of beginning, middle, and end, characteristic of works 
 of symmetry. 
 
 To sum up and show the application of what has been 
 said with reference to design: attention has been drawn 
 to the importance of repetition, by showing its use in 
 other arts besides music; the observation of repetition has 
 brought out the distinction that enables us to divide art 
 products into two large classes. In the first of these, con- 
 tinuity is given by the repetition of a few simple motifs 
 with more or less variation constantly appearing. In the 
 second, a feeling for symmetry and principality results 
 in modifications for the sake of the whole, and in the repe- 
 tition of large portions varied by a contrasting element. 
 
 The reason for dwelling so largely on the expression 
 of these principles in arts other than music is that in the 
 space arts, the way repetition is employed is more easily 
 studied and can be made clearer to the mind, than in music, 
 where design must be heard instead of visualized. When 
 the universal value of this principle for all art is once felt, 
 its application to music greatly assists in comprehending 
 the various forms. It has the further advantage of show- 
 ing that music instead of making its object the attainment 
 of a formless feeling, really gains definite results by as 
 rigid an adherence to principles of structure as does ar- 
 chitecture. 
 
 In applying this work to students as young as those 
 of the eighth year, the use of design in the other arts, es- 
 pecially to illustrate the principle of repetition, is expected
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO EIGHTH YEAR 171 
 
 to accomplish nothing more than to start them listening 
 intensively to what they hear. It will be noticed that this 
 comprehensive view of form is presented before the work is 
 given for intensive listening to the musical sentence itself. 
 The purpose is to follow the principle so often emphasized 
 in this book, the passing from the larger, the more ob- 
 vious, the more superficial expression of the subject to a 
 closer, a more minute, and more vital study. For the 
 same reason, the study in relation to text precedes the 
 work given for the general observation of form. In no 
 case is this attention to form to be thought of as a study 
 of the subject itself, so often attempted in appreciation 
 classes. Such work would be inappropriate for pupils 
 at this age.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 
 
 first stage: review 
 
 The review work of the eighth year continues in the 
 same spirit as that of the seventh. The essentials of 
 the previous year should be gone over, the knowledge of 
 the thirty major and minor keys should be grouped into a 
 complete table. The pupils should observe that there are 
 but seven different degrees on the staff. Taking the series 
 from C to B inclusively, the letter F divides it squarely in 
 two. This is the only key starting on an unmodified letter 
 that has a flat in its signature. Below this, C, D, and E 
 stand for no sharps, two sharps, and four sharps. Above, 
 F, G, A, and B stand for one sharp, three sharps, and five 
 sharps. The letter F with one flat for its signature divides 
 the sharp keys into two groups, naught and even on one 
 side, odd on the other. From these we can get all the other 
 signatures by remembering that all that we need to do is 
 to subtract the signature given from seven and we will get 
 the one sought. For instance, the key of F, one flat, by 
 subtracting one from seven we get the key of six sharps 
 or the key of F sharp. If the four sharps of the key of E 
 are subtracted from seven, the remainder, three, will give 
 
 172
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 173 
 
 the signature of three flats for the same letter. Thus each 
 letter of the staff stands for two keys, one the letter by it- 
 self, the other modified by a flat or a sharp, and whichever 
 is given the opposite can be discovered by the simple rule 
 of subtracting this from seven. The letter C, however, as 
 it has no sharps or flats can have either seven sharps or 
 seven flats. That is, we can subtract the entire group of 
 sharps or flats and so get its opposite. 
 
 Thus the letter C gives us three keys and the remaining 
 six letters two each, resulting in fifteen key signatures. If 
 we now bear in mind that each signature has both a bright 
 and dark aspect, the dark taking its name from the color 
 which predominates it, this being la or the third below the 
 tonic of the major, we shall add fifteen minor keys to the 
 same signatures, resulting in a group of thirty. 
 
 Following this review of the key signatures, there should 
 come practice in recognizing the chromatic tones that 
 suggest the modulation into the five relative keys; sharping 
 four for the dominant, flatting seven for the subdominant, 
 sharping five for the relative minor of the tonic, sharping 
 the second for the relative minor of the dominant, sharping 
 one for the relative minor of the subdominant. It will be 
 seen that if these numbers are given from the basis of the 
 original tonic, the ordinary transitory modulation will thus 
 appear. Where the change is extensive, the chromatics 
 necessary for indicating the dominant and subdominant 
 signatures in connection with their relative minors will be 
 necessary, as will also the changes for producing the me- 
 lodic forms of the minor scale.
 
 174 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 With the work previously done in the introduction of 
 keys, this review can be easily covered. These chromatic 
 tones can be practiced as passing tones by prolonging the 
 diatonic tones. We thus have a chromatic scale introduced 
 with a definite key feeling. When this can be sung truly 
 instead of prolonging each of the diatonic tones, each oi 
 the tones of the tonic chord should be prolonged; that is, 
 doh, mi and soh, while the minor seconds between them 
 should be sung rapidly and lightly so that the key feeling 
 may be constantly present. Finally, when this is done 
 with certainty, the attempt of running the entire chromatic 
 scale smoothly and evenly from a note to its octave may be 
 attempted, but even then it should be thought of as in 
 some key. 
 
 A new key relationship can be practiced by changing 
 from the tonic major to the tonic minor. This will be 
 best accomplished without the use of the sound names. 
 The practice of noticing that the same tonic will generate 
 a bright as well as a dark key feeling is an excellent ex- 
 pansion of a true appreciation of the full character of the 
 tonic. 
 
 The cadences practiced in connection with the chord 
 work in the sixth grade can now be practiced with the bass 
 voices taking a low part, observing the effect of complete 
 and partial cadences. With the preceding practice of the 
 tonic minor the cadences could be taken in minor as well 
 as major. What was said of part singing for the seventh 
 grade is even more applicable to the eighth grade as far 
 as condition of voice goes. On the other hand, those who
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 175 
 
 are able to sing have better command of their voices, and 
 by singing with greater freedom are less likely to strain 
 or contract the throat in an effort io produce the right 
 tone. Hence, part work introducing modulation, giving 
 opportunity for observing the characteristic key changes, 
 can be effectively practiced. Much will depend upon how 
 the voice is used whether injury is done or not. Light 
 voice practice for developing flexibility starting from the 
 upper tones and coming down is the only safe way for 
 unchanged voices. While for those whose voices have 
 changed, drawing attention to the gradual change in the 
 way the tones are produced in passing from the chest to 
 the head register between the pitches of A' and C ', will 
 help to protect the voices. 
 
 second stage: design in relation to text 
 
 The new work of the eighth year will commence with 
 that aspect of music so popular in modern times in which 
 the thought of the listener is guided by means other than 
 that of the music itself. A descriptive title, a bit of poetry, 
 running comments relative to the nature of what is in- 
 tended, act as suggestions to the listener. In Pieces for 
 Children, by Schumann, The Happy Farmer, The Poor 
 Orphan, The Hunting Song, St. Nick are all titles that aid 
 the imagination in forming the image which the music 
 seeks to present. The desire for such help is universal and 
 persistent. The tendency to name pieces, even where the 
 composer himself has not done so, as in some of Men- 
 delssohn's Songs Without Words, or Beethoven's Moon-
 
 176 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 light Sonata, is an instance of this. While to the lively 
 imagination such aids seem like impertinences, most of us 
 like the "boost" they give. The way in which the modern 
 composer, even in his symphonic works, ministers to this 
 tendency shows how keenly he appreciates its value. How- 
 ever this may be, it is certainly a great aid to the adolescent 
 in giving content to his music. 
 
 If the teacher cannot play she will have to call on her 
 musical friends or perhaps the students in the class; or, 
 better still, for the scope of her illustrations, will be the 
 assistance of a piano player. After telling something of 
 the Peer Gynt story or refreshing the children's minds 
 with the fairy scenes of the Midsummer Night's Dream, 
 she will have Grieg's Peer Gynt suite or Mendelssohn's 
 overture played. The zest which the human interest adds 
 to the music will be clearly felt. So, too, the Wagner 
 operas, especially The Ring, supply a rich mine for such 
 illustrations. For here the great myths which so effectively 
 portray the primal passions of mankind, and with which 
 the pupils are already somewhat familiar from their liter- 
 ary study, gain an added interest from the way in which 
 the great composer makes us feel anew their force and 
 beauty. 
 
 But our education will lack its discipline if we stop 
 with simply feeling, for such a limitation defeats itself. 
 The mind must be awakened to observe the means em- 
 ployed, and through this perception still deeper feeling 
 will be made possible. Let the teacher give as an exam- 
 ple the opening of the Rheingold opera; the dullest, when
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 177 
 
 the association is made, will feel the flow of the mighty 
 river. Now let her ask for the means used to produce 
 this effect and all the previous experience and knowledge 
 of the pupils will be immediately brought into play. They 
 will appreciate the tonic chord, the way the effect is pro- 
 duced by the figure employed, the gradual stimulating of 
 excitement through the increase in the number of tones 
 used in the pulse. They become conscious of the simplic- 
 ity of the means and the effectiveness of the result, and as 
 a consequence become better musical judges. This is 
 only one of many illustrative passages which that opera 
 alone supplies. This continual inquiry on the part of the 
 teacher (after the pupil has felt the force and beauty of 
 the passage) as to how the result has been obtained not 
 only raises such listening exercises to the level of the most 
 intensive intellectual work elsewhere done by the pupils, 
 but also leads to that observation of music necessary to 
 place the pupil in a frame of mind which will enable him 
 to take pleasure in the forms of pure music represented by 
 the fugue and the sonata. 
 
 THIRD STAGE: PURE DESIGN IN MUSIC 
 
 In beginning the study of compositions where symmetry 
 is uppermost, short and simple illustrations from Schu- 
 mann, similar to those already mentioned, should be used. 
 The children will listen to the Soldier's March, for in- 
 stance, and notice that while the same rhythmic figure runs 
 throughout the tune there is a passage in the center which 
 is so differently treated that the impression is giv.-n of a 
 Music 12
 
 178 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 beginning, a middle, and an end resembling the beginning. 
 They will find that in most music this principle prevails, 
 but with infinite variety. In some compositions the middle 
 may introduce an entirely new idea, while in the longer 
 pieces, like St. Nick, each of the three divisions may be 
 subdivided into three parts. Practice in the seventh grade 
 has trained pupils to appreciate the delicate way by which 
 is suggested the relation of these various divisions to one 
 another. 
 
 As suggested in the previous chapter, it will be found 
 a great advantage in grasping this idea of design if the 
 teacher can illustrate how it is worked out under similar 
 conditions in arts that appeal to the eye. Take the surface 
 decoration, for instance, such as book covers, rugs, and 
 many embroideries, where similar conditions that control 
 music are exemplified. First, the design is not a likeness 
 of any organic thing, as in the case of a picture or statue; 
 but an organic unity is secured by so grouping and ar- 
 ranging the parts as to give the impression of a single 
 whole. Second, the way this impression of organic unity 
 is obtained can be graphically illustrated by observing 
 a beautiful book cover, rug, or embroidery under the same 
 conditions that we have in music; that is, not as a whole 
 in either case, but in series, as we hear the tones of music 
 in succession. Let the reader cover such a design with 
 two pieces of paper, a narrow opening being left between 
 them. Let him begin to observe with this opening at one 
 side of the design and gradually move the papers until 
 the opening has slowly traversed the whole. By looking
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 179 
 
 through this narrow slit while the papers are being moved 
 he sees the whole design in succession exactly as he hears 
 music; first the portion at the outer edge, then those sec- 
 tions which lead to the center, and finally the return of 
 what was first seen. He will thus have observed a begin- 
 ning, a middle, and an end similar to the beginning. By 
 taking as examples a sufficient number of surface designs 
 we can show that however infinite the variety there is yet 
 a perfectly obvious principle underlying the grouping. 
 The center of a book cover may be perfectly plain, the 
 design being concerned merely with the edge, yet the unity 
 of the whole is due to the relationship of the two. Or the 
 arrangement may be just the reverse, the center having a 
 design and the edges being perfectly plain, but again in 
 this case the very plainness of the edge is necessary to 
 make the whole effective. 
 
 So in a piece of music the first part may be important 
 while the middle sinks almost to a transition passage: or, 
 on the contrary, the first and last parts may consist of a 
 few chords, seeming to serve merely as introduction and 
 conclusion, while the middle contains the main idea, thus 
 comprising the greater part of the piece. In Schumann's 
 Soldier's March, for example, there is but one main idea 
 coming in at first, but by a slight change of treatment in 
 the middle and by the recurrence of the first idea at the 
 end, the principle of succession necessary for unity is 
 illustrated. If now we compare this piece with St. Nick 
 we find that this middle part has changed from a mere 
 variation of the first to an important and distinct feature
 
 180 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 in itself. Thus the idea of repetition and the end it serves 
 in producing the feeling of organic unity can be made 
 clear both by graphic and musical examples. It must be 
 borne in mind that the pupils of these grades are constantly 
 employing this principle in much of their design work, 
 both in manual training and in art. 
 
 The teacher can now draw attention to a method for 
 bringing about unity in design, in which the aim is not so 
 much symmetry as relationship of parts to a whole, the 
 class described as polyphonic in the preceding chapter. 
 Illustrations will again be found in surface designs, 
 such as carpets and wall papers, in which a figure is 
 repeated over and over, the idea being to give a similarity 
 with variety to the whole, rather than to break the whole 
 into large proportionate parts. Though borders are sup- 
 plied they do not have the importance in reference to the 
 design as they have in the preceding class. The same 
 experiment of moving an opening over a part of a carpet 
 or wall paper design shows that a given figure with its 
 accessories keeps recurring. This figure may be extremely 
 simple or may be quite complex with many complementary 
 figures; but that feature which was most characteristic in 
 the other illustration, the formal division of masses into 
 beginning, middle and end, will be wanting. 
 
 Now if, as an illustration, a Bach invention or a Handel 
 fugue is played a similar impression will be gained. The 
 opening figure or subject, with others worked out from it, 
 will be constantly appearing, but the formal limitation 
 that requires the last part to be a repetition of the first is
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 181 
 
 not apparent. Although in Bach's fine works a subtle 
 relationship of large masses is distinctly felt by the average 
 listener, the piece moves on harmoniously with the con- 
 trasts that can be worked out from the main subject. It 
 makes little difference whether the piece consists of twenty 
 measures or two hundred, or whether the design covers 
 yards and yards of surface or only a few feet; the prin- 
 ciple is the same. The design has no formal limitation as 
 when a border, center, and then border again were ex- 
 pected, as in the book cover, rug, or embroidery; of a first 
 subject, second subject, and first subject again as in 
 symmetrical music. Pupils will realize that repetition is 
 the principle underlying both modes of attaining unity, 
 but that in one case it is secured through symmetry and 
 balancing of parts; and in the other, through continuity 
 or the constant resemblance of the material to what has 
 preceded it. 
 
 With this distinction clearly in mind a more systematic 
 observation of polyphonic music can be begun. The 
 children sing rounds and notice how the unity is developed 
 through this style of repetition; canons and fugues are 
 also played to them. Through all this they realize the 
 necessity for grasping the initial subject. Their motif 
 work has given them excellent training toward this end 
 and they take a delight in seeing how Bach plays with his 
 subject in an invention or develops it in a fugue. It is 
 not necessary at present to take up the subject and counter- 
 subject, stretto, and episode; it is the principle of knowing 
 how to follow and the practice in following, which are the
 
 182 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 aims of the work. We wish the pupils to be interested in 
 listening; the ability to give technical names is not nec- 
 essary. With this introduction to polyphonic music, 
 pupils become familiar with Bach and Handel, learn 
 something of their lives and the times in which they lived, 
 and are able to connect a few characteristic compositions 
 with the composers' names. 
 
 The pupils are now ready to observe the sonata form. 
 The necessary introduction has already been made by 
 developing the idea of repetition in connection with de- 
 sign. By starting with the polyphonic school the connec- 
 tion is made with the historical development of music. 
 Examples can be played from the Bach suites, where, in 
 spite of the polyphonic style, the principle of symmetry 
 is present; for a double bar near the center indicates the 
 second part as balancing the first, and the change of keys 
 at the end of the first part and the working back at the 
 commencement of the second part suggest, though rather 
 vaguely, what the pupils have already observed as fun- 
 damental to those forms of music controlled by the idea 
 of symmetry. 
 
 Passing from these to the simplest illustrations of 
 Mozart's and Haydn's sonatas, the contrast between the 
 old idea of continuity and the new idea of proportion 
 and symmetry that these examples illustrate is strikingly 
 brought out. It is now necessary to ask the same old 
 question, how is this done ? The pupils observe that there 
 are certain important subjects, and that grouped around 
 these are lesser ones, the latter being easily distinguished
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 183 
 
 from the others by their very apparent transitional nature. 
 They seem to serve as connection between the more im- 
 portant subjects. The first part as far as the double 
 bar of a number of sonatas should now be played until 
 the pupils can observe that though the treatment varies 
 there is a similarity in principle, a tendency to have main 
 subjects with transitional passages, in some cases growing 
 into importance so that they rival the main subjects both 
 in length and in the attention they receive. This should be 
 followed by playing the middle passage, or the fantasia 
 part, of the same illustrations, the pupils observing how 
 much freer is the employment of material here, resembling 
 in some cases the polyphonic treatment. While in the first 
 division there was a certain similarity in key treatment, 
 the greater freedom in this part will be noted. Finally, in 
 the last part of the same sonata movements, often called 
 the recapitulation, the resemblance to the first part or ex- 
 position will be observed, as also the change of key to bring 
 about symmetry, and the tendency to develop the final 
 figure, so as to form a tailpiece, or Coda. 
 
 Such a comparison of movements is sufficient to establish 
 the following ideas in connection with the sonata form: 
 that the first part is an exposition of the material and re- 
 quires close concentration if the rest of the work is to be 
 intelligible; that this is followed by a second part which 
 serves as a contrast to the first and last, and exhibits the 
 greatest amount of freedom and variety; and finally, that 
 the last part is a recapitulation of the first, but varies from 
 it because it ends the work instead of leading into it. The
 
 1 84 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 pupils realize as never before that a work taking ten or 
 fifteen minutes to perform may, without the use of words 
 or any other external aid to tell what it is about, still with 
 all its variety give the impression of one complete whole. 
 They see that this is brought about by a careful adjust- 
 ment of parts to one another, and they feel the necessity 
 for attentive listening to catch the composer's thought. A 
 sonata of Beethoven demands as much attention as does 
 a play of Shakespeare. 
 
 The great advantage of this attitude of mind will be 
 apparent when one remembers that the ordinary listener 
 thinks of music only as sensuous excitement and for this 
 very reason fails to make the effort necessary for the enjoy- 
 ment of its higher forms. Besides this advantage of mental 
 attitude, there is another in the fact that the sonata form has 
 dominated all great instrumental compositions, and that the 
 ability to follow its structure is an aid in comprehending 
 even the freer forms of modern composers. Therefore, the 
 study of the sonata form is not an end in itself, but a means 
 by the aid of which the pupil may learn to listen to music 
 more intelligently. 
 
 THIRD STAGE: THE MUSICAL SENTENCE 
 
 The knowledge that the sonata contains expositions, 
 fantasia, and recapitulation is of no value to the pupil 
 if, when he hears a sonata, he is unable to distinguish the 
 musical sentences that make up these parts. A student 
 familiar with the theory that a drama should consist of five 
 acts with the climax in the third will read one of Shake-
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 185 
 
 speare's plays with more intelligence than a person who 
 knows nothing about the structural differences between 
 a novel and a play; yet, after all, a play is appreciated 
 through the grasping of each successive sentence, and no 
 amount of theoretical knowledge with reference to the 
 structure as a whole can compensate the person who does 
 not feel the significance of the material as it is presented. 
 Hence in music the primary aim is the recognition of the 
 musical thought units, the sentences, if you please, of the 
 story. It is not at all essential that the nupil be able to tell 
 whether a given passage is the second subject in a Beetho- 
 ven symphony or is a well-developed phrase in a transi- 
 tional passage. It is well worth while, however, for him 
 to hear the passage so that he recognizes its difference 
 from, and likeness to, what precedes and follows. In this 
 stage, therefore, after the pupils have some notion of the 
 larger groupings and their relationship to one another in 
 the sonata form, the rest of the time set aside for such 
 work may well be devoted, not to an attempt at analyzing 
 what they hear with reference to such formal groupings, 
 but simply to hearing the subject-matter itself. 
 
 To illustrate the method which is used, let the reader 
 hum the tune Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot as 
 far as the words given, and with pencil in hand draw a 
 horizontal line slowly while he sings, commencing with 
 the second syllable. Then let him sing the next phrase 
 in the same way, making a line under the first, and so on 
 through the tune. Now by humming it through a second 
 time and grouping these, it will be found that the eight
 
 1 86 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 unite into groups of two, the second of each answering 
 the first, and these pairs also group into two, thus divid- 
 ing the tune into two halves the latter parts of which are 
 similar; by noticing how they are alike or unlike, it is 
 possible to name the parts for discussion and study. 
 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
 
 And never brought to min' ) 
 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
 
 And days o' auld lang syne ) 
 
 For auld lang syne my dear 
 
 For auld lang syne ) 
 
 We'll take a cup o' kindness now 
 
 For auld lang syne. \ 
 
 The pupils are first given practice in this work through 
 the use of folk songs; afterwards they take the simpler 
 pieces of Schumann and Schubert until they can easily 
 draw a line the whole length of each passage, the ends 
 of the lines marking the important cadences, or points 
 of division. Dance music is another symmetrical form in 
 which the sentences can be traced with comparative ease. 
 
 After the power of listening to the thought has been 
 established, comes the utilization of more complex material 
 taken from the simpler forms of modern romantic music 
 and sonatas, where the musical thought does not break 
 up into similar rhythmic units. These may be main sub- 
 jects, transitional passages, developed episodes, or the 
 Coda. The passage should be played over a number of 
 times until the pupils have mentally decided which they 
 consider distinct passages or sentences.
 
 THE EIGHTH YEAR 187 
 
 After they have drawn the lines, they should compare 
 or criticise one another's work. It will be found that 
 hardly any two judgments agree, but this does not affect 
 the value of the exercise. One student in listening to a 
 large complex subject breaks it up into two or three parts, 
 that is, he notices the differences; another who hears the 
 same passage groups it all as one whole, his mind being 
 attracted by the likenesses. Both are basing their judg- 
 ments on real experience, and one is just as valuable as 
 the other for developing ability for listening to music. 
 From the point of view of the exercise it is not the aim that 
 the passage should be named correctly as a whole, but 
 that both the unity and the variety should be recognized. 
 Drawing a line to mark a passage aids the memory in 
 locating it and thus makes it possible to describe what 
 one has heard. 
 
 It is true that such intensive intellectual effort in- 
 terferes with the delicious reverie with which one likes to 
 accompany music heard for enjoyment alone. It must be 
 borne in mind, however, that the purpose of this work is 
 to develop the power to grasp the content of the music 
 and to appreciate the means employed in giving it effect. 
 In this respect it differs from the ordinary process of listen- 
 ing, in the same way that the reading of poetry for the 
 study of the thought and form differs from reading it for 
 its rhythmical swing and sonorous tone quality. The first 
 method is subsidiary and is justified by the fact that it 
 increases one's power of complete aesthetic enjoyment. 
 
 The study of the sonata will naturally awaken, as in
 
 i88 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the case of the polyphonic music, an interest in the com- 
 posers and their times. The teacher may stimulate this 
 interest by having the pupils prepare papers on the lives 
 and important works of great masters, connecting this 
 exercise as far as possible with their literary and historical 
 studies. This work also will be aided by having the ex- 
 amples played, if not by individuals, by instruments, 
 as was suggested for the previous study. 
 
 The extent of the ground to be covered should be de- 
 cided not by the subject, but by the capacity and oppor- 
 tunity of the class. As far as the material is concerned, 
 this work could be effectively carried on throughout the 
 high school course. What is here attempted is merely to 
 give the pupil an introduction to instrumental music so 
 that he can take the fullest advantage of such musical 
 opportunities as ordinarily fall to the lot of the average 
 person.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 
 
 A plan for teaching a topic may have many divisions, 
 but four essential processes will always be present. The 
 first step is when the teacher thinks over the subject so as 
 to have more clearly in mind just what she is going to 
 teach. The second step is to think of the topics in the 
 light of the probable experience that the pupils have had 
 with reference to the subject. The interest with which 
 they take it up, what they get out of it, will be pretty surely 
 in proportion to what they already know concerning it. 
 
 In the first step, the teacher makes clear in her own mind 
 what she wants to teach; she defines her aim, which grows 
 largely out of the subject itself. In the second step, she 
 defines the probable attitude of the pupils. This attitude 
 will be the pupils' aim with reference to the subject re- 
 sulting from their particular experience in relation to it. 
 
 The third step is a union of the first two. The problem 
 is, how to realize the teacher's aim, given the pupils' ex- 
 perience. This step will require the thinking through of 
 the lesson, bearing in mind the particular conditions under 
 which it will have to be given. The new knowledge is 
 welded with the experience of the pupil so that it becomes 
 a part of him, his own experience, capable of serving as 
 
 189
 
 190 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 the starting point for still further knowledge. As in all 
 welding, this step requires that the edges shall be pre- 
 pared for each other, free in this application from all 
 thought obstructions, such as ambiguity or confusion. 
 
 The fourth step consists in testing the new knowledge; 
 the teacher hardens, if you please, her weld, by plunging 
 it into water. Is the union solid ? Can the pupil employ, 
 explain, and defend what he knows ? 
 
 The fourth step may be very short in academic subjects 
 if simply grasping the idea is all that is required ; but in art 
 study, especially in music, where a technical application 
 of the idea is essential to give it value, this step may occupy 
 many lesson periods in which the ideas presented are ap- 
 plied over and over until skill is gained in their use. 
 
 Thus the lesson plan principle here suggested must 
 not be thought of under the limitations of a twenty-minute 
 period; yet the ideas must be so closely presented that the 
 relation of the various stages to each other is not lost. 
 Lesson plans presenting a new principle will not be fre- 
 quent in music. There is not a large mass of material 
 to be presented to the students, as in geography or history. 
 There is, on the other hand, an infinite application of a 
 few important musical principles. These are presented 
 in the stages and steps of the work of the grades. 
 
 After the idea of one of these principles has been care- 
 fully presented, covering in some cases a number of twenty- 
 minute periods in succession, there may follow weeks 
 when the work is simply the development of skill in the 
 application of the principle.
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 191 
 
 Let us take the first steps in rhythmic notation as a 
 topic to illustrate our point. This is described under the 
 third stage of the second year work (Chapter VII). The 
 teacher will begin with the first step of the lesson scheme: 
 What ideas are implied in the commencement of rhythmic 
 notation? These are, first, various tone lengths. She 
 must select a number of these, sufficient to illustrate the 
 principle, and yet not so many as to make the subject 
 complex. Let us say that she decides to use the half, 
 quarter, and eighth notes for her illustrations. But half, 
 quarter, and eighth mean nothing unless they are realized 
 in connection with time values expressed in pulses, e. g., 
 a pint, quart, or gallon of milk means nothing unless there 
 is some idea as to what the relative capacities of these 
 measures are in relation to the person's own experience. 
 Hence a second idea must be added, the relation of 
 halves, quarters, and eighths to each other, i. e., the pulse 
 idea. It is the union of these two, duration and pulsation, 
 which produces the idea that notation represents. The 
 teacher thinks out how the entrance, grouping, and accents 
 of tones make the pulse evident, at the same time that 
 the pulse makes evident the nature of their relative dura- 
 tion. 
 
 She now takes up the second step in the lesson scheme 
 and asks herself, "What experiences have these second 
 year children had with reference to tone duration and 
 pulsation that will enable me to combine them so as to 
 reach a new principle?" The children in the first year 
 have enjoyed walking, marching, and swaying, in con-
 
 192 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 nection with music. They have done this at first for the 
 pleasure of it. What a strong, lasting pleasure this is, we 
 realize when we think that it commences with the gentle 
 rocking of the mother's arm, the "Trot, trot to Boston," 
 of the father's knee, and that it is still present when the 
 gray head keeps time by swaying to the music of band or 
 orchestra. 
 
 This first enjoyment of moving to music has been guided 
 according to the second and third principles given in 
 Chapter I, i. e., the pulse experience has been organ- 
 ized so that the unmusical child has become conscious 
 of it, and actions like marking time with the foot and 
 swinging circles with the hand have made it possible for 
 the child of average musical ability to conceive of the 
 rhythmic feature of music in the total musical impression. 
 Similarly these same principles have been applied in the 
 previous work to the idea of duration. The children have 
 enjoyed the fun of telling what they were thinking of by 
 clapping the tones; Yankee Doodle goes so differently from 
 America. They have gone one step further. They have 
 differentiated between those two modes of action, not only 
 by making the motion for the pulsation idea different from 
 that for duration, but also by picturing one with circles 
 and vertical lines and the other with dashes of various 
 lengths. That is, the children have ideas with reference 
 to pulsation and duration as separate phenomena; they 
 have experienced them in their music so that they can 
 pick them out from simple songs, and they can act and 
 picture them separately. This completes the teacher's re-
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 
 
 J 93 
 
 view of the children's experience, which constitutes her 
 second step. 
 
 The teacher is now ready to think through her third 
 step, which will be to unite what her pupils have in their ex- 
 perience what they know with what she wishes to teach 
 them; in this case, the ability to form ideas from halves, 
 quarters, and eighth notes written on the board. In think- 
 ing out this step, she will imagine herself before her class 
 actually giving the work. We will therefore describe it 
 as taking place. 
 
 Her first act will be to draw on the board a group of 
 five lines resembling the staff. This the children are fa- 
 miliar with, for they have put diagonal dashes on it to 
 represent the tones. Instead of such dashes the teacher 
 might write a little motif consisting of a quarter, two 
 eighths, and a half tone on the same line. She will precede 
 the half notes by a vertical bar, and follow it by two bars 
 side by side and place at the beginning the time signature 
 two-four. The children's curiosity is awakened by the new 
 signs. The teacher tells them that these show how music 
 goes and that she is to teach them to-day just how this is 
 done. Since the children are familiar with pitch movement 
 as well as with rhythmic movement, she will have to devise 
 some way to make them realize which kind of musical 
 "go" these signs represent. She hums two measures of 
 Star Spangled Banner, and asks the children to describe the 
 two ways in which it goes. She tells them that the notes 
 she has written represent that form of movement which 
 they act by swinging and clapping, and picture by circles 
 Music 13
 
 194 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 and dashes. In order to show them how the signs repre 
 sent this, she starts by asking them to sing and picture 
 some familiar songs, such as Hot Cross Buns and Ding 
 Dong Bell. The children make two pictures for each 
 song: one with circles to mark the pulse, the other with 
 dashes to mark the duration. 
 
 The teacher now thinks over how she shall unite these 
 two ideas in order to show the relationship between them. 
 She takes up the duration problem first, and gets them to 
 realize how the tones in the two songs vary in length : they 
 notice that there is a medium length, a longer and a shorter 
 one, making three durations in all. 
 
 The teacher's next problem is to awaken in the children 
 the need of some standard by which to measure these. She 
 may do this by placing three books before them. The 
 children realize that there are differences in sizes as there 
 are in tone lengths. With the books they can tell what the 
 exact difference is by using a ruler. One book is, say, 
 eight inches in length, the second, four. The essential 
 thing in the measuring process is that there be a recurring 
 unit by means of which the various objects can be com- 
 pared in terms of which their differences can be stated, 
 such as inches in the case of the ruler and books. The 
 teacher's aim is to make the children realize that in order 
 to measure the differences in tones, they need something 
 like a ruler, except that the things marked off must be 
 equal lengths in time and not in distance. Turning to the 
 board she has the children sing and act what is pictured. 
 They readily discover that in each tune the pulses and the
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 195 
 
 circles recur regularly. Then by means of these they can 
 measure. How shall it be applied ? In the same way as 
 the size of the book was discovered by bringing the book 
 and the ruler together. They try applying their pulse 
 ruler vocally. She will sing the first three words of Hot 
 Cross Buns and ask children to measure with the circles 
 and see whether the word "buns" is like "hot cross" in 
 length. She will also reverse this process and ask the chil- 
 dren to sing Ding Dong Bell while she swings the circles. 
 The children discover that not only is the third tone in 
 both songs just as long as the two preceding, but by con- 
 tinuing these songs they come to passages where two tones 
 instead of one come on a circle. Thus they find that they 
 can measure three kinds of lengths: one going with the 
 pulse, one requiring two pulses, and a short kind of which 
 it takes two even tones to fill up a pulse. What has been 
 united in tone and action will also be united in tone and 
 picture. This picture consists of circles with vertical 
 lines just before, and extending above, each large circle. 
 The resulting even space above the circles is filled with the 
 dashes representing the tones, the length of the dash repre- 
 senting one pulse tone being made the width of the circle, 
 that of the two pulse tone being two circles; thus the re- 
 lation of duration to pulse is visualized in such a close 
 way that the interrelation of the tones represented is not 
 lost. 
 
 The teacher now plans to make direct connection be- 
 tween the signs she placed on the board at the beginning 
 of the lesson and the means for tone measurement that
 
 196 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 she has developed. She places the quarter note on the 
 dash that represents a single circle, the half note on that 
 representing two circles, and the eighth notes where two 
 dashes come to a circle. She tells the children that mu- 
 sicians use these signs instead of pictures, much as they 
 themselves use the word dog to save drawing a picture of 
 the animal. So the musician draws a vertical line where 
 each strong pulse should come. Each line drawn across 
 the staff on the blackboard means that the strong pulse 
 directly follows it. 
 
 She will now have to bring out the idea that putting 
 in the vertical line is not sufficient to give the complete 
 pulse idea, since the number of weak pulses which fall be- 
 tween two strong pulses varies with different tunes: some 
 have only one weak pulse, some have several. The circles 
 represent the total number of pulses, but the vertical lines 
 represent only the strong pulses. In order to indicate both 
 the strong and the weak pulses between two vertical lines, 
 the upper figure is placed at the beginning : in this case the 
 two shows that there are two pulses between the vertical 
 lines. 
 
 She will next state that musicians do not always use 
 the same length of note to represent a pulse. While gener- 
 ally it is a quarter note, often they use an eighth note, 
 and sometimes a half note. To show which note they wish 
 to represent the circle, they put another number under the 
 first: in the motif on the board the figure four represents 
 the circle and means that each pulse is represented by a 
 quarter note.
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 197 
 
 The teacher has now thought out the specific things 
 she wishes to teach, and she has planned to combine these 
 with what the children already know, in such a way that 
 they will have a clearly defined new principle : in this case 
 that tones may be definitely measured, and a specific form 
 of measurement has been connected with the specific 
 signs written on the board, as quarter, half, and eighth 
 notes with the vertical lines and fractional figures for 
 defining the pulses. She is now ready for the fourth step, 
 in which she will test both the accuracy of the idea and the 
 strength of its association with its symbols. She will plan 
 to sing several short phrases in which occur the durations 
 being studied. These the children name with the aid of 
 singing and clapping where necessary. A second plan is 
 to sing extremely simple combinations and have the chil- 
 dren write them down in musical notations. When the 
 teacher has convinced herself that the idea and the asso- 
 ciation are well established, she may present a third group 
 of exercises. For this she may write the same durations 
 in short motifs of a few tones, first on the same pitch, 
 and then in the simplest varying tones, and have the chil- 
 dren sing them as complete units without hesitation. Ob- 
 viously, the fourth step is one that will cover a good many 
 lessons; in fact, the principles implied will be in constant 
 use every time the pupils read from notation. However, 
 each new step in the learning of rhythm notation from now 
 on, instead of being, as is very frequently the case, a new 
 and unrelated fact to be mastered and remembered, is 
 simply a further application of principles already familiar.
 
 198 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 What is there more deadening than to repeat the same 
 explanations year after year, when, if a principle were 
 once understood, it would so germinate in the pupil's 
 mind that he would be more than ready to meet the teacher 
 halfway? Too often in the search for quick results, the 
 development of principle is forgotten. The teacher puts 
 the four notes on the board, says whole, half, quarter, and 
 eighth, and illustrates by drawing a circle. In order to 
 give it vivid interest, she may call it a pie. She divides 
 it vertically in two. The whole pie has become two half 
 pies, and, as if the children were fools, she asks how many 
 half pies in a whole one, and they respond in joyous unison, 
 two. Then she divides it again horizontally; the familiar 
 four quartered pie is before their eyes. The teacher asks 
 the perfectly obvious question, how many quarters in a 
 whole? How many in a half? The united shout of the 
 children shows more enthusiasm than thought. Now by 
 diagonal lines the pie is cut into eighths. These fractions 
 are connected with the notation, and we have apparently 
 all the requirements of a good lesson, a great deal of 
 interest, concrete illustration, close application, and yet the 
 vital thing to be taught has not been touched. Arrange 
 in a musical passage these notes of which the children tell 
 the names so glibly, and the children might go through it 
 if the teacher sang with them, beating the pulses strongly 
 on the table; but let there be a variation in the passage, 
 and let the children be asked to do it individually, or even 
 collectively, without the aid of the teacher, and they would 
 look at her in surprise, showing that she was asking from
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 199 
 
 them something of which they had not the slightest con- 
 ception. 
 
 The topic chosen for illustrating how a teacher should 
 prepare for her lesson was purposely selected from the 
 structural elements in music; for on the structural side 
 comes the greatest difficulty in teaching. Pitch relations 
 and duration values can be presented with their notation 
 in such a formal way that they cease to be real things and 
 amount only to verbal distinctions, lacking the vitalizing 
 influence of experience. While the danger of losing connec- 
 tion with experience is present in all subjects, it is espe- 
 cially present in teaching the structure of music. Children 
 readily produce pitch, duration, and pulse relationships 
 in their songs, but since they are not conscious of these 
 relationships as such, when we begin to talk about them, 
 it is absolutely essential that the experience for which the 
 words stand be also clear in their consciousness. Hence 
 the stress laid upon the development of the necessary ex- 
 perience, not only in the plan of the lesson by topic above 
 suggested, but also throughout the entire book. 
 
 While, in planning the lesson, the structural element 
 is the most difficult to manage, the same principle will 
 be applied to the interpretative ideas. These can be taught 
 with comparative ease, for when a child changes the qual- 
 ity of his voice or the quantity of the tone that he employs, 
 the rate of movement or articulation, he is distinctly con- 
 scious of how these particular changes affect the expres- 
 sion of the song. In other words, the constitutive ideas 
 of interpretation are more readily connected with the
 
 200 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 experience that brings them into consciousness than are 
 structural ideas. 
 
 A brief illustration will show how the same planning 
 by topic can be applied to interpretative work. Let us say, 
 for instance, that Nevin's Wind Song is taken. The trip- 
 ping movement of the first part and the imitative refrain 
 of the wind at the end, these the teacher decides she will 
 use for drill in clear articulation, the production of a good 
 quality of tone, and practice in making a good, even cres- 
 cendo and diminuendo. This is her first step. She next 
 thinks over what probable experience the children have 
 had both with wind and with songs in which the wind ideas 
 have been expressed. She then passes to the third step, 
 and thinks through the way she will bring out the clear 
 articulation of the first part, and the imitation of the wind 
 sound in the last part, due attention being given to posi- 
 tion, good breath, and flexible jaw, the leading of the chil- 
 dren to recall how the wind grows louder and softer as 
 they have heard it, the forward placing of the tone to 
 make it soft and at the same time resonant: in short, all 
 the material will be passed over in review in this third 
 step. She will then probably select some songs the pupils 
 already know, and will see whether they can apply the 
 newly acquired observation and skill to a better rendering 
 of their old favorites, thus completing her fourth step. 
 
 If the importance and fundamental nature of what is 
 accomplished by the longer method be borne in mind, the 
 time and work required to think out what such a planning 
 needs will not be considered too much. The experienced
 
 PLAN OF INSTRUCTION BY TOPICS 201 
 
 teacher will go through these four steps in the preparation 
 of her plan almost simultaneously. Long practice has de- 
 veloped the technique of her art. But to establish such 
 a technique it is essential to break up what is done into the 
 parts that constitute it, and practice these simplified parts 
 until they can be accomplished readily and with ease. In 
 the complicated processes that go on in a lesson, the in- 
 experienced teacher who attempts to do everything at once, 
 will form habits involving confusion of thought and false 
 relationship which will make it more and more impossible 
 to gain the necessary technique. 
 
 In this chapter on the lesson plan we have attempted, 
 first, to illustrate the steps in the development of a thought 
 with reference to actual lessons given; and second, to in- 
 dicate how this thought is related to the larger principles 
 in accordance with which the material has been arranged 
 and work suggested in this book.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE BROAD AND THE NARROW VIEW OF EDU- 
 CATION IN RELATION TO MUSIC 
 
 The narrow view of music teaching produces two dis- 
 tinct types of work. The first emphasizes the intellectual 
 element, and makes sight singing its goal. It has two 
 advantages. The work lends itself to definite measure- 
 ment; written exercises and singing tests show what it 
 accomplishes; the world's coarse thumb and finger can 
 easily plumb its results. It gets these results by utilizing 
 the formal methods, and so is dear to the hearts of many 
 teachers in systematized schools. It places its emphasis 
 upon the eye rather than upon the ear; hence a larger 
 number of the teachers of general subjects are able by its 
 means to get results. This in itself would be of greatest 
 importance if the results attained could be proved to have 
 musical value in after life. 
 
 The second type, which emphasizes the emotional ele- 
 ment, though diametrically opposed to that just de- 
 scribed, is classified under the narrow view because it also 
 is impatient to get results. It asks, "Why all this harrow- 
 ing and preparation for work? The pupils are already 
 overstimulated to think. We want them to feel. Let us
 
 EDUCATION IN RELATION TO MUSIC 203 
 
 gather all the honey of feeling from the flowers of song, 
 and trust to Nature for providing the blossoms." Sup- 
 porters of this view are not merely those temperamentally 
 emotional, but also philosophers and leaders of educational 
 thought, who, feeling the significance and value of music 
 and realizing how much it means to society, naturally 
 think that the time spent in schools on music should be 
 taken up with songs that will inculcate friendship, love of 
 home, love of nature, of one's country, and of God. When 
 the advocates of this type see the entire time of the singing 
 period taken up with the practicing of scales and the other 
 machinery of sight singing, and observe that the song 
 material used is vapid, both musically and poetically, 
 written down to the children in order to enable them to 
 read the music, the song being treated as an exercise made 
 interesting, they are naturally disgusted with the whole 
 American effort at sight singing, and say, "Away with it 
 all. Let us do as they do very largely in Germany. Let 
 the teacher with violin in hand, lead the children, thus 
 reducing the mental effort on their part to simple imitation 
 and placing the whole emphasis on the emotional side." 
 
 They make the mistake, however, of valuing music only 
 as a means. They fail to recognize that, being an art, it 
 has beauty for its goal, and that beauty, like truth, must 
 be sought primarily for its own sake. One who seeks 
 beauty because it is good for his health or his morals has 
 not the attitude towards it that will enable him to grasp it. 
 For, however highly we may regard the by-products of 
 artistic activity, art that is pursued for the by-products
 
 204 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 fails, because it ceases to be art. It is like the picture or 
 the poem that, masquerading under the lion's skin of art, 
 attempts to inculcate morals, love of country, or religion; 
 sooner or later the unfortunate voice betrays the imposture. 
 There are those who feel that as long as the imposition is 
 not recognized the end justifies the means; but they fail to 
 realize that the means become abortive because the true 
 nature of art has been violated, so that it cannot exercise 
 its forceful influence. Hence we fail, both of our ethical 
 and artistic results. 
 
 Not only this, but this type of the narrow view, by seeing 
 in art only its emotional worth, fails to recognize the neces- 
 sity for the intellectual discipline that its genuine apprecia- 
 tion demands. Hence, those who hold it are impatient 
 with any musical work that is not constantly bubbling with 
 emotional fervor. They see no use in the concentrated 
 effort, resembling that required in mathematics, which is 
 so often demanded in a complete realization of a work of 
 art. 
 
 A third objection to this type is that in emphasizing the 
 social and collective aspect requiring expression, the field 
 is narrowed and the motive weakened. With reference to 
 the former, while collective singing has value through its 
 intensity, there is much less opportunity for its exercise 
 than through those forms of musical expression that we 
 utilize simply by hearing, very largely in the field of in- 
 strumental music. While the ear training that results 
 develops further ability for the same kind of activity, it 
 does not necessarily prepare one for instrumental forms of
 
 EDUCATION IN RELATION TO MUSIC 205 
 
 expression. There are those who enjoy singing in choruses, 
 but to whom instrumental music is meaningless a good 
 example of the modern psychological view that preparation 
 in one form of activity does not necessarily lead to the ap- 
 preciation of an allied form, even though it be closely 
 related. 
 
 Perhaps the most serious drawback is that it weakens 
 the motive for musical activity through the disregard of 
 the individual point of view. The individual sings patri- 
 otic or religious songs, not because he values the social 
 worth of the emotions they awaken, but primarily because 
 he loves to sing. When man is stirred with patriotic fervor, 
 either in time of war or by some eloquent address, or under 
 any stimulating social feeling, the social song comes to 
 the front and is sung with vigor and enjoyment; but the 
 average prosaic life does not offer sufficient opportunities 
 for such expression. In an ordinary state of mind, a per- 
 son will sing a patriotic or religious song for the attract- 
 iveness there is in the song; in other words, for what he 
 feels is its beauty. The emotional type of narrow view, 
 by disregarding the training in musicianship that will pre- 
 pare the individual to see the beauty in music independ- 
 ently of all extraneous influences, destroys the strongest 
 motive for musical expression and, as we have already 
 said, defeats its own end. 
 
 Both forms of the narrow view emphasize important ele- 
 ments in music teaching. They stand in the way of a more 
 comprehensive plan because of the truth they contain. It 
 is right that early and definite results should be sought.
 
 206 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 The reputation both of the teacher and of the school system 
 are largely judged by what they immediately accomplish. 
 It requires self-restraint and discipline for the farmer to 
 leave his field fallow when he might be getting crops. It 
 takes a broad view to plow deep and fertilize well when 
 the immediate harvest can be got with less effort. With 
 the pressure for results upon her the teacher needs moral 
 courage to allow time for preparing the pupils' minds, 
 when by appealing directly to memory she can have not 
 only the forms of knowledge repeated to her, but the proc- 
 esses as well, and so cleverly that only the most careful 
 observer can detect the lack of genuine understanding. 
 These quick responses are the product not of thought but 
 of imitation. It is because we are deceived as to the results 
 of the narrow view that it is often considered more effective 
 than the broad, comprehensive treatment. 
 
 It is not only the intellectual and the emotional aspects 
 of the narrow view that are obstacles to the successful 
 carrying out of more comprehensive schemes of music 
 teaching. There are practical objections. The broader 
 view demands special training on the part of the teacher 
 and the exercise of the mind in discrimination through the 
 use of the ear, an organ almost never used for discrimina- 
 tive work outside of music and the incidental phonics work 
 in English. When we consider how little training in either 
 of these the average teacher gets, it is not surprising that 
 when she tries to deal with tonal ideas she should feel 
 entirely unable to cope with the problem, like the proverbial 
 hen with her brood of ducklings. Lessening this demand
 
 EDUCATION IN RELATION TO MUSIC 207 
 
 for special training is the fact that when music is taught 
 in a truly educational way, it can easily be related to other 
 forms of educational work carried on in a similar spirit. 
 The teacher who for nature study and English, requires 
 individual observation and the formulation and expression 
 of what is observed in cogent and effective manner, who 
 makes all the geography, arithmetic, and writing grow out 
 of the experiences of a pupil's daily life and knows how 
 to make her work significant, will have little trouble in 
 teaching music along the broad view, even though her 
 musical training may not be extensive. It is certainly the 
 experience of all supervisors that the teacher working along 
 true educational lines will get better results in music than 
 the merely musical teacher who, unable to analyze her own 
 processes, gets only thoughtless and imitative results by 
 leading the pupils with her voice. 
 
 Another objection besides the training required, is that 
 the carrying out of the broad view does demand time. 
 Music in many schools at present fails to get the time it 
 needs, because, under the control of the narrow view it 
 aims only at immediate results, and so does not exercise 
 that lasting influence upon life which would justify those 
 who arrange school programmes in giving it more time. If 
 society and school authorities realized how much more 
 the broad view would make possible of accomplishment, 
 there would be no difficulty in getting either the training 
 or the time essential for the work. 
 
 The broad view not only attains all that the narrow view 
 aims to accomplish, but adds two distinctive features: in-
 
 2 o8 EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC 
 
 dividual initiative and the communication of feeling. The 
 development of individual initiative renders it possible 
 not only for the act of producing music, but for the far 
 more frequent act of hearing music, to involve an active 
 cooperation of both the thought and the imagination of 
 the pupil. By demanding thought and imagination, music 
 causes the self to take such a real part in what is heard 
 that throughout life a continual development ever widens 
 and deepens the power for joyous experience. 
 
 The communication of feeling is brought about through 
 the development of musical ideas which charge the sen- 
 suous beauty of music with the expressive qualities of 
 language, not duplicating language where it is effective, 
 but conveying the expression where language fails. When 
 the reader considers how vital is language in differentiating 
 man from the brute, he will feel the importance of this 
 subtler language, which has the power of carrying man far 
 beyond the limitations of speech. In terms of the aim of 
 artistic education stated in the first chapter : the broad view 
 represents an education through music that quickens per- 
 ception, clarifies feeling, and stimulates initiative for the 
 beautiful.
 
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