THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Jk THOMAS TAPPER M GIFT OF . The Education of the Music Teacher BY THOMAS TAPPER, Litt. D. Lecturer in the Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York. Author of The Music Life, Efficiency, First Studies in Music Biography, Etc. W«»^ PHILADELPHIA THEODORE PRESSER CO. 1915 nri Copyright, 1914, by Thbo. Prbssbr Co. British Copyright Secured. I :x^ To Dr. PERCY GOETSCHIUS PREFACE The education of the music teacher, Uke that of any other worker in art, hterature, or science, is never completed. No education may be bounded by time, or Hmited to a period of study. It is a process that continues to move forward through dailv experience. This experience is the precious metal that must be worked over by the intellectual power and coined into con- sciousness. It may not remain m^erely intel- lectual, but it must precipitate its worth mto the subjectivity as impulse to all further action. Music teaching as community service in the highest sense, is frequently spoken of in the chapters of this book for the evident reason that, in such application, it exerts its best and most logical influence. It results in transforming a life of objectless, toilsome teaching into a posi- tively directed activity of more or less extensive influence. The humblest teacher may direct his work upon a wider territory through his pupils than rests with them alone. Each of them is a center of social life, and not merely the individual pupil alone but the environment 6 PREFACE into which he moves should be the objective point for art and educational uplift. The author begs to acknowledge his obliga- tion to the following publications for permission to use wholly, or in part, articles contributed by him to their pages : The Outlook (New York), The Etude (Philadel- phia), and the Evening Journal (New York). THOMAS TAPPER. New York, January 15, 1914. CONTENTS CH.\PTER P-^GE I Introduction 9 II The Fundamental Requisites 14 III Music Teaching as Service 22 IV Music Teaching as Profession 29 V Equipment and Success 37 VI Pedagogy 46 VII Musical Theory 57 VIII The Pupil 65 IX Music History and Biography 72 X Music in the Home 80 XI Mechanical Musical Instruments 89 XII Community Music 97 XIII A Type of Community Music in the United States 103 XIV Public School Music 113 XV Music in Social Settlement Work 122 XVI Efficiency 135 XVII Self-expression in Music 143 XVIII Musical Composition 152 XIX The Basis of Musical Memory 160 XX Teaching Material 168 XXI :Method and System 173 XXII The Music Cll^ 178 XXIII The Measl-re of Success 184 XXIV Recapitulation 193 XXV ExAiONATlONS IN jVIuSIC 202 7 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It has been well said that many things reach the intellect that never reach the consciousness.' Thus, one may read the injunction Love thy neighbor as thyself; may give intellectual as- sent to it as a wise and just line of conduct to pursue, and yet may never so thoroughly adopt it as to resolve it into a spontaneous impulse to action. Now the whole purpose of life clearly shows itself to be the up-building of the consciousness; the perception of facts by the intellect and their conscious acceptance by the inner self as working principles. Thus the individual is strengthened and his field of vision is enlarged. His purpose becomes specifically directed, and his work is more perfectly accomplished. The object of this book is to bring certain essential facts particularly before the teacher; 1 Sigurd Ibsen, Human Quintessence. 9 10 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER but, as well, before the student, in order that they may be given the requisite intellectual examina- tion and test before they are accepted as basic principles on which to construct a working plan. Aside from the excellent institutions in which music is taught with full appreciation of its worth as art and educational expression, and like- wise excepting the work of thoroughly pre- pared private teachers, there is much disor- ganized, unsystematized, and often incompetent teaching being carried on. Perhaps in no pro- fession are there as many instructors who work so independently of one another. While national and state music teachers' associations have long advocated more or less uniform courses of study, examinations for the certification of teachers and the like, the fact remains that these or- ganizations do not fully succeed in reaching those most in need of specific assistance. In every state there are scores of teachers who cannot regularly, or even occasionally, attend such association meetings. Hence, they do not as a body come into vital contact with the many admirable suggestions that are often most earn- estly worked out, and no less earnestly ad- vocated. We must conclude then that taken by and large, the music teaching profession in the United States is one of diversely trained in- structors, each one of whom, so to speak, sets his INTRODUCTION II own individual pace, and establishes his own standards. But anyone who has attended music teachers' meetings, who has met the indi\'idual teacher in all parts of the countr}-, cannot but be convinced that the vast majority of them are earnest and eager to do better work. Many labor in what seem to be the most unprofitable fields; and yet, so laboring, they accomplish, in many cases, results of momentous importance. One of tlie most persistently made comments of great virtuoso artists is of the constant in- crease (territorially) of the musical audience. Mr. Fritz Kreisler recently stated that his later tours have embraced many communities that formerly had no apparent interest in music. The Kneisel Quartet, in its career of over a quarter of a century, has constantly length- ened its line of travel; it has, in fact, in recent years, performed in towns that were not on the map twenty-five years ago. There is an earnest and persistent call for artists, organizations, lec- turers, and instructors from ever>^ quarter of the United States; all of which testifies to the in- herent musical desire and capacity of the Ameri- can people. This great awakening of a Sleeping Beauty comes from the magic touch of a Prince (or, more often, of a Princess) ; and that royal one is the music teacher who by quiet, persistent work, and by the application of the best efiFort, has 12 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER animated the latent musical capacity of the com- munity in which he labors. Now the intensification of this spirit of musical progress in America lies to-day, not less, but still more than ever, at the hand of the teacher. By better preparation, by adopting a standard of attainment for himself and for his pupils, he will prove for decades to come the one essential bit of leaven in the social measure. In order that the teacher may, with some degree of adequacy to the ever-expanding task, carry on this work, his intellectual training must be thorough; it must be pursued persistently (that is, the teacher must always be a student); the ideal of accom- plishment for the pupil must be definite and exacting; and, finally, the basic principle of all individual effort must be Service. This word Service is the one resonant note in all modern activity. As a working principle, the teacher must direct it not only upon the little flock of pupils that constitute the class, but upon the community itself, at least in some measure, to the end that its latent musical capacity may be led to give itself expression. Upon the work of the teacher, of the wander- ing artist who takes his art into great and Httle communities, of the encouraging spread of the Festival idea, and last, but not least, of the in- crease of popular interest in music through certain forms of instruments of mechanical re- INTRODUCTION 13 production— upon all of these there will follow as consequence, an enormous increase in our national musical expression. But the task and responsibility for instruction, inspiration, and development will always rest with the teacher. In view of this fact, it is essential for the teacher to consider seriously certain phases of educational work and, as well, certain evidences of our national activity in music, as suggestions for the establishment of what may always be necessary in music teaching, an indindual stand- ard; for the unattached, non-institutional music teacher will probably be for years to come the most numerous representatives of the profession. The accomplishment of the purpose that is clearly before the teacher is no mere intellec- tual feat. It will come gradually as the con- sciousness is enlarged; as the teacher perceives more and more clearly that he is not conducting a small, private business, but is performing a part in the great national movement that will ulti- mately express itself in music w4th no less force and practical results than it now manifests in invention, construction, and commercial life. CHAPTER II THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES Of the scores of thousands who take up the study of music, comparatively few do so with the distinct intention of becoming teachers. One of many causes may lead to the decision to do this later on, but in only too few instances are the fundamental requirements for the assumed position carefully considered and developed from the beginning. That one may be gifted musically is no earnest of capacity, much less of genius, for imparting knowledge. Nor is the mere selection of music teaching, as a means for getting a Hving, a sufi&- cient recommendation that one has fulfilled all preparatory demands necessary to become an essential and helpful member of this profession. Two conditions foster inefficient music instruc- tion: one is the entire absence of any require- ment stipulated either within the profession itself, or demanded by the State Boards of Education. The other is consequent upon the first — a like failure to perceive the full round of educational activity involved in music, and adequately to supply it. 14 THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES 15 These conditions are, however, giving way to a more enHghtened view of music, not only as individual training but as a distinct and valuable community asset. Thus music has come into the curriculum of the Public Schools, and has assumed a place equal in importance with other subjects. This official approval of music has wrought a remarkable effect in the art of Public School music teaching. The Supervisor, or Di- rector of Music, must nowadays be a well-pre- pared teacher; must be musically competent; must perceive and maintain music instruction correlatively with other subjects; must develop the child-voice without injury to its mechanism; and must make evident to the community that the singing of school children is a beautiful art that may be so taught as to produce a beautiful re- sult, valuable to the child as long as it lives, and a pleasure to the community of which it is a part. The essential point in the illustration is this: Having given music an important place in public instruction, the result is that teachers must measure up to this importance. Some of the most progressive music teaching that is being carried on to-day, is that which constitutes the curricu- lum required of music supervisors. While the details of requirement in this profession will be discussed later, it is valuable to bring the matter to the attention of the special teacher of music as a subject worthy of investigation. i6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER In the absence of a demand that shall hold the special teacher up to a high level of attainment, what can be done to prevent piano, voice, organ, and violin teaching from maintaining a lower standard than it should throughout the pro- fession? To answer this question brings before us the consideration of what constitute the funda- mental requirements of the music teacher. We will begin with the statement that the would- be teacher must be musical, an obvious, but not too seriously considered requirement. What does to be "musical" mean? It is difficult to answer this query in a few words, but, briefly stated, let us put it thus: An inherent ability in music; sensitiveness to tone; adaptabiUty to making music, without too evident effort; to some ex- tent, the thought process in tone; and again, to some extent, the faculty of memory that retains music. This is, of course, an incom- plete definition. It intends, however, to point out that success in music must be based pri- marily on musical gift, inborn and determined, and this gift must be thoroughly developed by adequate educational training. This faculty, if it may be so called, must be severely trained. Even if the future teacher be- gins the study of music itself no farther back than the beginning of the eighteenth century, there is a mass of material to be examined, a development THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES 17 to be traced, that are fundamental even to an ordinary comprehension of the works of various schools. When the student has become somewhat the master of the music to be taught, the whole art of teaching suddenly assumes an important place and purpose. It, too, is a subject in which one must be thoroughly prepared. To turn the pages of an elementary Psychology and Peda- gogy, one comes upon a number of subjects that require study, obser\'ation, and practice, just as music itself does. We meet with such words as Attention, Memory, Will, Conception, Induc- tion, Deduction, and so on— all of which may be mysterious to the young teacher, but should not long remain so. These are not mere words that may be enter- tained or dismissed. They are the names of streets and broad avenues, along which the teacher must travel to reach the intelligence of the pupil. Without such means he will, in fact, never do the best work. We find on investigat- ing the work of the best teachers that they are not only inherently musical, but that they are by nature, able psychologists, and no less able pedagogists. They have learned the practical aspects and application of these two subjects, not alone from books, but in the very laboratory of the studio. We have yet to have a thoroughly well-written literature on these subjects as ap- 2 l8 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER plied to music; and we shall possess it only when the teacher with actual genius for the art of im- parting musical instruction writes it from daily- experience. Thus far, we have required of the teacher the gift of music, a thorough knowledge of music, and at least, the elementary principles of psychol- ogy and pedagogy. What beyond this? Educa- tion in general. And by education, we mean not merely the informing art of the schools but a degree of mental livingness that is an earnest of cultural attainment. The uncultured music teacher is a paradox. Hence, education that makes for culture is basic. In presenting even thus simply the funda- mental requirements of the music teacher, we have estabhshed a plane for attainment that is manifestly higher than that on which most teachers pitch their tent. In order that the profession of music teaching may reach a worthy level — even of minimum attainment — requires only this: that each one of us make every effort to become individually well prepared; that no less a standard inspire all the teaching we do; and, lastly, that we find our greatest interest in life in our profession and not in something else. Just so long as music is used as a pin-money means of escape from a limited income, so long will it be taught without wholly right purpose, method, or cultural effect. If it appeal to us THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES 19 as a hard day's work, for which we are thankful when it is done, we have thrown our effort with the wrong cause. But if it be the first and absorbing interest in Ufe, if it appeal to the best effort of which we are capable, if the joy of accomplishment in its service give us joy in return, we may know that we have chosen our profession wisely. No teacher can impart more than the char- acter can inspire. No teacher, in fact, ever im- parts anything else than the dominant character. And perhaps no other word than character so well sums up the fundamental requisites. It is the glass, clear or otherwise, in which all else is reflected. Conditions and circumstances have thrown many into the profession of music teaching who have had insufficient opportunity to develop themselves as they should for the demands of their work. We find them everywhere, in middle life and beyond. What can they do, if youth be passed and student days are gone by? Shall they not get on the best they can with the little they have ? Schliemann, who conducted excavations in Greece, who unearthed Troy, was fifty-two years old before he knew a word of Greek. He made his reputation as a scholar and a discoverer after that age. Hence, so long as one is capable of mental alertness, of activity, of inquiry, education 20 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER may be carried on at any period in life. It is only those who are incapable of getting out of the little ring of daily affairs, who are prisoners in the jail of trifles and common things that cannot begin at any time in life, not only to make good but to make better, and yet better. Many a one in middle life sees the truth clearly enough to say: If I were young again I would do thus and so. The obvious thing to do is to put it this way: I am young again because I see this truth and because I am now fully determined to do what it demands. That attitude cracks many a hard nut, resolves many a difficult problem, renews youth and rekindles ambition. Any person in any profession who remains inefficient does so by personal choice. The fine art of fine living is to live for service. We live for service only when we are intent on securing by our daily effort, Hfe in greater and yet greater abundance. The teacher who is musical, educated, cultured; who is tactful, sympathetic, encouraging; whose natural and attained equipment makes for dis- tinct character, is a benefit to any community. Such a teacher is indispensable in the musical scheme of things. Many of us who beUeve in eternal life would be Hterally panic-stricken if we were convinced that everything we do every day is destined to become a part of our eternal THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES 21 record. And yet, in the very nature of eternity, it must be so. It is because of this truth that we see the sum- mation of the fundamental requisites of our art in the word Character. CHAPTER III MUSIC TEACHING AS SERVICE No human being can become adjusted to en- vironment without some educational training. It may be as Hmited as that which underHes the simple activity of the primitive savage or as complex as that which is demanded by the high- est status of civilization. In any case, education aims to establish the individual as a new center of activity that is capable of working upon environ- ment with benefit to himself and to all others. The average education of the schools, that is, without specialization, is directly concerned with environmental needs. Special education such as that in music, must be carried on in conjunction with the school system, and subsequently while purveying to a need it must also concern itself, at least to an extent, in creating that need. The music teacher, then, is a member of society who assumes to be capable of providing (through natural gifts that have been properly led out by education) certain social demands that are a part of our national expression of life. While two factors are apparently involved, there are really present, three : 22 MUSIC TEACHING AS SERVICE 23 A. The natural gift. B. The special training that develops that gift. C. The general education. In their practical working out, C may pre- cede A and B; or, all three may evolve simul- taneously. But, in any case, we can at once arrive at the basic qualifications of the music teacher, as follows: The music teacher is one who, besides possess- ing an adequate general education, is naturally gifted in music, and in whom that natural gift has been developed for efficient professional or social service, or for both. ' As the entire purpose of this text is to define these qualifications, we need not now specify the necessary items that constitute them. The essential point here is this: WTiat Service can the music teacher render to the community of which he i. a member? In this Service, two factors are concerned: A. He must be able to support himself. B. He must, while supporting himself, bene- fit the community by what he does. The first (A) involves earning money; the sec- ond (B) impUes earning money by such a method and manner that the activity results in a distinct improvement to the well-being of the society of which the teacher is a part. These benefits, to society and to the teacher 24 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER himself, come about when his interest in life is not entirely self-centered. It must not be his purpose to prey upon society for a living, but to hold society in mind as a complex that may be inspired by his influence upon such of its members as he can reach. From this point of view, the very familiar picture of the little pupil coming to take a lesson immediately assumes a new aspect, and is pregnant with far-reaching consequences. As we shall try to point out in Chapter VIII, there is far more involved in the training of the humblest pupil than an opportunity to add so much income per week to the teacher's credit. Of all people in the world, the teacher is most decidedly a dealer in futures. Every lesson is a stone wrought for the building of character and self-expression. To the pupil, the teacher is the center of a new world; he is a totally new environment; he provides an experience to the child that is unique in that it is not duplicated in any other relationship. Now, the teacher may accept the child on these terms, or he may disregard everything save the actual business involved in giving the lesson. In the former event, he is a vital factor in the social organization; in the latter, he is, to say the least, less vital than he could be. Which of the two positions he shall assume must be left to his own choice — and so, too, the results that naturally follow. MUSIC TEACHING AS SERVICE 25 The word vital brings the whole matter of individual work and worth prominently before us. Impelling, incisive, imposing vitality may be itself a gift. T wo people of substantially equal ability in a profession, will evince this quality in widely varying degrees. The one may seem never fully to approach the heart of his work; the other may carry it with convincing positiveness out among the people. In either case, the question is: To what extent does he enter the heart and mind of another as a force for developing a greater degree of Imngness? Or, reverting to a thought we have already expressed : To what extent is the teacher able to transform the necessary intellectual processes in music into a consciousness of musical experience and ex- pression ? If this presentation of the application of in- struction be new to the young teacher, he should patiently study it out until he grasps the funda- mental fact that the up-building of society through the vitality of an art, applied to the individual child, is the best Service one can render. And, further, the moment he begins thus to de- vote his art, in that moment he has become an indispensable factor in the life of the community where he practises it. ' To teach day after day, and year after year uses up life itself. 'The prime question then, at the beginning is, to put it bluntly: How can we "use up" life — that is, 26 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER how can we live year after year to the best ad- vantage of all concerned, to ourselves and to those whom we serve? The life of Service through music is a life of worthy object. Such a life is an ever-increasing incentive to livingness. An objectless profes- sional life is a direct path to monotony. The moment monotony enters the consciousness, when the day's lessons seem like the turning of the wheel by the caged squirrel, the teacher is no longer a valuable or useful member of the pro- fession. But no teacher who is truly interested in the marvel of a developing child-mind, ever grows old. He is as young as his youngest pupil; he can be supremely happy in the very youth of the pupil, and he can, best of all, be himself inspired by the future that is open to a Uttle child. Properly to fill this inspiring position, this rela- tionship of elder and younger workers in art, the teacher will forever remain a student, learning daily a little from every new experience, finding all experience rare and interesting. The joys and sorrows of childhood, no less than its opportuni- ties and possibilities, will make him "new every morning." It is in this attitude that the teacher will re- ceive and direct that essential, vital force of which we have spoken. Expressed in triter terms, he will avoid being half dead physically by being wholly alive spiritually. And in this spiritual MUSIC TEACHING AS SERVICE 27 realization of life he will find himself possessed of a magic wand that will reveal J:o yoimger eyes than his own the beauty of the art of which he announces himself to be a disciple. Therefore, let the young teacher work out for himself, adjusting it the best he can from day to day in his own life, this fundamental idea of Service. It is becoming the basic principle of commercial life. The merchant not only wants to serve the public, but he advertises that pur- pose even with his bargain sales. His method of doing business is to send his buyers to all parts of the earth in search of what his patrons want. When the goods have been transported over thousands of miles of land and water he submits them for approval. If they are not entirely satisfactory even after purchase, he is perfectly willing to return the money and accept again the goods that have cost him so much search and trouble. This is becoming the merchant's creed simply because he is alive to the vital fact that there is no such thing as business without Service. The more perfectly he can combine these two things— Business and Service— the better both become. He has learned long ago, and maybe by bitter experience, that to drop Service from his business creed is likewise to drop business itself. And this factor of Service is even a more natural consequence in what we may not improperly call 28 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER the business of art. When we rightly perceive its purpose we see that a lesson may be so given, even to a stupid child, as to brighten and magnify all its future. In the application of that fact lies Service. And in Service itself the teacher will find not more trouble, more hardship, more ex- acting work, but infinitely less trouble, better recognition, and a day's work that is always joy- ful. CHAPTER IV MUSIC TEACHING AS A PROFESSION Can the music teacher, wilUng to be of service, find, in the profession, an opportunity to live a satisfactory life and to earn a satisfactory liv- ing? It used to be said that the cheapest music instruction ever ofifered was that of an English teacher who advertised piano lessons at a penny apiece, with a glass of milk and a bun, included. At the other extreme we find a few well-known American teachers whose fee for instruction is Ten Dollars an hour, while a famous European pedagogue is said to receive even a larger sum than this. There is wide latitude between a penny and many dollars for the establishment of individual rates. On what shall they depend? By what standard may they be fixed? It is undeniable that location and competition play their parts. The best teacher in the world cannot expect ex- tremely large fees in a small community, and a poor teacher is not worthy of fees of any kind anywhere. While demand and supply exercise 30 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER their influence, there are always two factors that ultimately determine the value of a teacher's services : (i) Actual teaching ability. (2) Results. No testimonial in the world can exceed these as a practical asset. While one may sometimes wonder how it is that distinguished speciaHsts receive fees that are so large , one always dis- covers on inquiry that they possess an abundance of practical knowledge which they can prac- tically apply. They know exactly what to do with it; and they produce results. A well known surgeon who receives Five Hundred Dollars even for minor operations, is overwhelmed with work because of his record for skill and absolutely perfect service. Popular artists who receive One Thousand Dollars a week — and more — are always found to possess skill in their special lines, and the power to draw audiences. In professional life, no less than in business, the amount of money paid is rarely questioned if the actual service de- manded can be given. Hence, while the aver- age newspaper man is paid from Twenty to One Hundred Dollars per week, a certain dis- tinguished editor who can produce results, re- ceives upwards of Seventy-five Thousand Dol- lars a year. One must not fail to perceive that a Seventy-five Thousand Dollar newspaper editor can earn that amount of money only in a great MUSIC TEACHING AS A PROFESSION 31 city. He must have a geographical location that is as extensive and as important as his genius. So the young teacher of music must also reckon on this factor of location. To live and to teach in a small town has many benefits and some limitations. One should be conscious of both. Good service can be rendered in a small town just as well as anywhere else; hving expenses are likely to be less than in a city; one enjoys more leisure, and life is more moderate. As a com- paratively small population is involved, its spending capacity is limited; hence, the teacher's total possible income is more or less definitely restricted. Equally good service can be ren- dered in a large city. But, living expenses are higher, there is keen competition; influence is often necessary to establish acquaintance among people who want to study; and, invariably to the new-comer, the path is not smooth. But once established and giving thoroughly satis- factory service, one may earn more, but one must spend more than in the smaller community. Let the music teacher take up his abode where he may, he must be, so far as he goes, thoroughly well prepared to be assured of success. Given education and the ability to instruct, there are yet many other qualifications which he must possess before he can apply what he knows, to what he is required to do, with complete success. 32 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER We need mention only such qualifications as are implied in tact, culture, refinement of speech and of manner, interest in affairs, and the impulse to be an active and helpful factor in the life of the community, to realize that the music teacher can find through the avenues of the profession as great opportunity for the expression of a well- rounded individuality as is possible to any other member of society. To the young teacher who is striving so to establish himself that he may serve and live by his own efforts, these fundamentals of what we may call successful public life are recommended for very earnest consideration. A few lessons and a little advertising are not their equivalents. Nor can a capacity for self-advancement take one very far when impelled by pretense and the quality known as push. Properly to fill the position of music teacher, means that there is a constant demand to keep thoroughly prepared for the work. Individual refinement may be inherent, but it may still further be refined ; cul- ture may be natural, but it must be developed before it can become a potent influence ; interest in life may not remain unexpressed, but must daily exercise itself; and the art of music itself is so many sided that to pursue any one phase of it will keep the most ardent teacher as perpetually active as commercial life keeps the wide-awake merchant. MUSIC TEACHING AS A PROFESSION 33 Now to a teacher of this type — to one who is vital in all relations and interests — there is as great a field for service and as favorable an op- portunity to secure a livelihood as may be offered in any other profession. But there is no magic in music that spontaneously causes gifts to be showered upon its disciples. To the proper gen- eral and special education, to the fundamental natural capacity on which to build, there must be added that self-organization which has as much to do with real success as talent itself has. By self-organization we mean the process of adapting oneself to the times and the environ- ment, to the end that one does one's best habitually. A few fundamental qualities under- lie this. I. HEALTH MUST BE MAINTAINED. Hence, no habit of depleting nature may be formed. The teaching day is, strictly speaking, a business day which demands one hundred per cent of mental and physical ability. 2. SKILL MUST BE INCREASED. Hence, the teacher must forever remain a student and be keenly desirous to augment the intellectual equipment by study, education, travel, and the opportunity to hear music. 3 34 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 3. LEISURE MUST BE WISELY INVESTED. It has been said that all careers are made after six p. M. It is quite true that one's investment of leisure time is the determining factor in the dividends of life. 4. COOPERATIVE WORK IS ESSENTIAL. This means that in the variety of activities that make up the social complex of life, the teacher's art of music must be one of the essential forms of expression. The People's Choral Union of New York was founded and developed by Dr. Frank Damrosch, a man intensely engrossed in the affairs of his profession, and yet he found time to establish an institution that has become famous as a type, not alone of valuable but of indispensable community activity. Self-organization then comprehends the gov- ernance and direction of the self, physically and intellectually, to the end that one may perform the best work and render the greatest measure of service. It is opposed to the thoughtless, un- systematic scheme of life that is often — and wrongly — coupled with genius. No man in history ever lived a more sane and well-directed life to the immense benefit of generations than did Johann Sebastian Bach. A great prima donna, whose name is everyv\^here familiar, told the writer that her principal activities centred MUSIC TEACHING AS A PROFESSION 35 on improving the mind by study (even of roles which she has sung for many years) and on hold- ing herself to a regimen that maintains the body in the condition of as perfect an instrument as possible. The intellectual worker who intends to render service through fitness and incessant industry needs a definite amount of sleep, and requires certain nourishing food. No negative habit may be contracted without lowering the value of the individual. An adjustment between the work one plans to do, or has to do, and the mental and physical instruments with which to perform it, must not only be made but it must be main- tained. Many a pianist and vocalist know that practice is necessary for technical and interpreta- tive efficiency, but sometimes they seem to over- look the fact that this same efficiency rests no less forcibly upon what one eats and drinks, and upon how much one sleeps and exercises. Hence, in music teaching as a profession there is not only opportunity, but actual necessity for taking a dispassionate, sensible view of all the factors concerned. The average musician has little sympathy with what he calls the affairs of the business world; hence he disregards them, and to his personal loss. The business world con- ducts its affairs on system; it makes for prompti- tude, reliability, dependability, and a fair ex- change of values. It is forever seeking to aug- 36 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER ment its activity through the stimulation of its vital processes. These factors are, in truth, the symbols of its vitality, and the music teacher can introduce them into the loom for weaving to the immense improvement of the fabric he is produc- ing. And yet another factor is prominent in the affairs of the business world: The business man, true to his calling, is not only a dealer but he is a creator. He is ceaselessly producing that which is new, more serviceable, more worth while to purvey. Music teaching then, as a profession, must to its own best interests be founded upon what are very properly denominated creative and admin- istrative business principles. If this union, or coalescence, appear to the teacher to involve two things utterly opposed to one another, it is evi- dently necessary to become acquainted with the sterling reaHty known as the fine art of business, in order that he may realize that there is not opposition, but absolute unity between them. CHAPTER V EQUIPMENT AND SUCCESS The teacher's equipment, then, may be said to begin with a healthy mind in a healthy body; next, in a tacitly admitted and actually practised determination to make the most of mind and body by insisting on their obedience to certain Hues of action and conduct. It may interest the young teacher to think out what it is, that can direct both mind and body, for mind does not direct mind, nor does body direct body. But leaving this identity of the individuality within, to personal investigation, what equip- ment, of more or less material nature, does the teacher need? He inquires very anxiously whether he should have a "studio" or go from house to house giving lessons. This question may arise in the beginning, but a little business experience (and that is one phase of teaching) should speedily settle it. There is a man in New York State who makes chairs; not only is this his business, but he makes people come and get them. He refuses to take a chair to anybody. And people go to procure them because the man makes a kind of chair not to be found anywhere else. It is the chair and not the place in which it is made that attracts his patrons. 37 38 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER All teaching equipment, aside from knowledge and the individual traits of the instructor, is in the nature of implements or tools. But no great teacher has ever advertised the furnishings of his studio. Earnest students travel thousands of miles for the privilege of gaining admittance into the presence of an eminent teacher. The less they think of his studio equipment, the more they can pay heed to what he does and says. The best equipment the young teacher can begin with, is the determination to do the finest possible piece of work at every lesson he gives, irrespective of where he gives it. The photograph of his studio in a paper or magazine, and the announcement of delightful receptions may send faint echoes down the streets and ave- nues, but the one best and most to be desired agency that perpetually acts in his behalf, is the well-taught pupil. One of the most famous teachers that ever lived, was a man named Epictetus. He was lame, he was born a slave, and lived a slave for many years under a master so cruel that he broke the boy's leg one day when he was twisting it for fun. After Epictetus gained his freedom, he set him- self up as a teacher of philosophy. Now a phil- osopher might reasonably be expected to dress well, have an attractive abode, and, above all things, be the possessor of a fine library. The equipment of Epictetus was, however, simpler EQUIPMENT AND SUCCESS 39 and humbler than this: He owned a lamp, a bed, and a bowl, and nothing more. People, rich and poor, crowded to hear him, and there is no question about his having been a genuine philosopher, for his works are extant to-day in practically all languages, though his little classes met two thousand years ago. And yet Epictetus had a marvelous equipment. To begin with, he was all, and more, than he ad- vised others to be. He knew his subject not only intellectually, but consciously. He was not a poseur, but a man of character. The natural result was that when he was ready to speak there were plenty of people ready to listen and to cherish his words; one man, at least, wrote them down for our sakes' to-day, and, let us hope, for his own sake then.^ Now this instance may not help the young teacher to decide how to furnish the studio, or indeed whether to have one. It does not deter- mine what kind of stationery, pens, pencils, books, music, rugs, furnishings, and systems of hght and heat to install. Nobody can advise about these things. If he will persistently in- crease his skill, and remember that good work is the best advertising agent in the world, equip- ment will take care of itself; that is, it will come 1 The Discourses of Epictetus were written by his pupil, Flavius Arrianus, known as " one of the first of Roman 40 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER of itself, and he will be, no doubt, so SHCcessfnl that he may engage somebody to take care of it. In business and professional life, equipment comes after the biblical manner: we must first believe in the kingdom, and then these other things are added unto us. It is naturally best in the upbuilding of pro- fessional life to secure, as one can, those things which directly contribute to the activity of one's calling. Thus, a music teacher should begin to build up a reference library. This should be founded on a good dictionary of the English language, a dictionary of music, musicians and musical terms. As he can afford to do it, he should gather a small collection of books as a "lending library." Many a pupil's interest in music is directed and deepened by reading the biography (especially the child and youth portion of it) of a composer. Another adjunct that may attract children is a collection of music prints and pictures. They may be found in magazines, and with a little effort, made to form a really interesting gallery. The expense and care that provides these essentials come under the head of equipment; they are instances of spending for power and not merely for pleasure. They are intended, in the popular phrase, to indicate litde lines, faint at first probably, of success. And rightly applied, they are really success lines. Now this word EQUIPMENT AND SUCCESS 41 "success" brings us back again to the fundament of music teaching, which is the art of applying what one knows and of mastering this art, a Uttle more thoroughly, every day. It is simple enough to learn about anything, but what end shall it serve in daily Hving? This test, which the teacher should ceaselessly apply to himself, he must also apply to his own pupils. What shall they do, or what can they do to make practical application of what they learn from him? Un- less their investment in his system of train- ing results iu greater livingness, something is wrong. Of all the equipment a teacher ultimately possesses, the reputation for successful work is the one essential. Success is a possession into which everyone desires to enter at once. But it is not so to be obtained. It is, in fact, not a thing, but a developing result. The furnishing of a studio may well give way to the mental im- pulse and to the habits of life that underlie char- acter. Work, success, art and money may be made to weave in the loom just as perfectly as work, success, business and money. The distinguished painter, Corot, was once asked : How do you paint so beautifully? And he replied: First I dream my picture; then I paint my dream. 42 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER The discriminating reader will note that his reply may be expressed in these terms: First I make up my mind What to do, then I do it. All success is based upon the two terms of this statement. By natural gift and education we are enabled to determine what is best to do, and then, if we possess the requisite amount of energy, we can actually proceed to do it. Dreams of great achievement may be a pleasing diversion to the mind that originates them, but they can benefit neither the world at large, nor the dreamer himself until they have been made to come true by action. It is reasonable, then, to suppose that the process of winning success in music does not differ in any essential particular from the process of attaining it in any other calling. By natural endowment (talent or genius) which has been developed by education (and plenty of it), we are enabled to dream reasonable dreams and, as Corot said, to know how to go about painting them, for others to see. The young aspirant for success, even if his ambition be a modest one, may profitably ac- quaint himself with what significant men have said. Meyer Rothschild, Marshall Field, John McDonogh, and all others who have ever ex- pressed themselves as to the conditions on which success is achieved, have never given a single com- EQXnPMENT AND SUCCESS 43 plex rule. They are always simple, so amazingly simple, in fact, that we are at first impelled to believe that the speaker is revealing only a part of the truth. It sounds too obvious to be wholly true. And yet all the truth such men have to tell about the achievement of their own success, is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. First, they insist, there must be the so-called natural gift for doing what we have elected as the life work. This must be developed as fully as possible by training. Some men have found their education in schools, others in books and in the world of experience. But they have always secured it, one way or another. The next essen- tial is untiring industr^^ a capacity for work that is entirely reliable in any emergency. And next— and common to all rules for success ever given—- is the injunction to do ser\'ice; so to apply one's business or professional training that the com- munity, at large, in which we labor, is benefited. Thus far we have: (i) Talent, (2) Training, (3) Industry. Now, these essentials cannot be made to produce the best results, in the interest of Ser\4ce, unless they proceed from a healthy mind in a healthy body. Successful men have pointed out that health is not only necessary but that it is maintained, not by worrying about it, but by avoiding those habits which are directly detrimental to it. IMany a richly gifted man has ruined a brilliant career by 44 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER thinking more highly of a habit or two than he thought of his abiUty. Hence, to adopt a habit that is negative in its influence, is an exceedingly solemn affair. In the beginning it may be a very pleasant thing to entertain, but let it grow to be twenty years old and it is apt to cloud both vision and judgment in their application to Industry and to Service. Next, all successful men have insisted that Skill must be increased. By this, they mean that the education which fits us for the best work in life must go on continuously. The artist and the teacher never graduate but once, in the scho- lastic sense. Thereafter they must work more earnestly, think more deeply, accomplish more directly day after day, and accept the increase of skill and the ability to do better service, as their reward. It is evident that the busy professional man cannot find all the education he needs in the daily occupation itself. Hence, another essential quali- fication for success (that continues to grow natu- rally) is found in the use of Leisure. That is, in the margin of free time that we find at our dis- posal after the day's work is done, there lies the opportunity for further development that is in- dispensable to our normal growth. Now Leisure must not be solely employed in building castles in Spain. It must be systemat- ically devoted to whatever activity will advance EQUIPMENT AND SUCCESS 45 US from the point where we now stand. Hence, the systematic use of spare hours (not forgetting that the right pleasures of Hfe are as important as the right labor) means exactly what it says — employing them by system. And this intro- duces the word that no successful man omits from his Success-rules; the word System. It seems, at first, utterly opposed to everything that we commonly call "artistic." The ex- pression "a systematic genius" seems at first hearing, an anomaly. But the more the actual progressive and creative work of all men of genius is observed, the more systematic do we find it to be. In playtime the genius may play very hard, may find his amusement after the dic- tates of his particular temperament; but in work- ing hours, his plan, method, and purpose are as definite and systematic, as practical and direct as those of a banker or a merchant. Success, then, is based on comparatively simple conditions; that is, they are simple as we read them. But actual genius is required persistently to apply them ; and it is in the continuous applica- tion of these simple rules that we ultimately de- velop ourselves so as to give out the best there is in us. It is as true in art, as it is in business, that the extent to which we command ourselves to that extent we are capable of expressing our- selves. CHAPTER VI PEDAGOGY Pe;dagogy, in every application of its princi- ples, is becoming daily a more and more special- ized subject. The wide-spread interest in the work of Mme. Montessori show^^-Uiat teachers are eager to learn of any new means or method by which the attainment of knowledge on the part of children shall be accomplished in the most natural and direct manner. There are a few instructors in music who are, without doubt, great pedagogues. Whether by training or by intuition that is strengthened by years of experience, they proceed unfailingly to adopt the right way of conducting musical edu- cation. But this is by no means wholly a natural gift, hence the fact that many excellent, even greatly gifted musicians, possess little or no talent for instruction. The young teacher may profitably turn to this subject as one worthy of study. He need not think deeply on what is involved in giving a lesson to realize that much is concerned in it. The principal factors and conditions may be said to be these: 46 PEDAGOGY 47 (i) Every pupil is absolutely unlike every other. (2) Hence, the individuality of the learner becomes the starting point. (3) The pupil must be taught the ethics of the actual business obligations involved in re- ceiving instruction: promptness, dependability, faithful work, and the Hke. (4) The technic of procedure (mentioned in No. 3J once established, the teacher must him- self study the physiological problem in the pupil — for the body must be trained into perfect adjustment to the instrument. (5) Mental habits must be instilled. Pupils rarely know how to go about preparing the lesson that has been assigned. It is not difficult to make careful assignment of the work to be done for the next lesson, but the exact manner of doing it is even more essential. (6) While mind and body are learning their adjustments, mastering their independent prob- lems, the higher faculties must be trained to grasp the meaning of the art of music. What is it? What does it aim to say? Of what use is it? What may a boy or a girl full of life and the love of games and activity do with it? The consideration of these preliminary ques- tions w411 reveal to the teacher some of the practical bearings of Pedagogy as applied in music teaching. Every lesson is an opportunity 48 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER of the finest kind for laboratory study. Here, if he learns to observe, is the finest possible illus- tration of the effect of one mind working with another as its guide and giver of strength. As- suming that the teacher is aware that all pupils may not be run through the same hopper in the same way, he will learn another fundamental truth of great importance: Every pupil must be studied as a unique and individual center of future citizenship. The conditions that influence any individual pupil cannot, in any circum- stances, be duplicated. Home life as the back- ground out of which the pupil comes to the teacher is immensely important. He should know what this is and what influence it exerts upon the child, even so far as to determine what he (the teacher) should do to be assured that the lesson will have its required right of way in the family life. Equally important is the ad- justment of music lessons to school life. The teacher will work only to his own disadvantage if he is not thoroughly familiar with the pupil's regular schedule of home and school life, taking care to adjust what he is doing to them, so as to secure a practical working program. If the teacher is inclined to think of these preliminary adjustments as quite aside from his province, he may as well conclude before he be- gins that all the Pedagogy in the best books will not avail in the least. All modern business aims PEDAGOGY 49 to secure what is known as a basis of efficient operation, and the business man reads in this phrase no uncertain or impractical elements. If the music teacher desires to be efficient financially or pedagogically or in any other way, the business man's method must be his. The teacher may profitably study what the merchant does. He secures an efficient building — one that adapts itself to his line of activity and is favorably situated for communication with the business world. He arranges his goods, machines, doors, light, elevators, and floor space so that the best results from the least motion and expense are secured, for he knows that loss of motion is an increasing expense, and increasing expense cuts down profit and makes it harder for him to render service. All such business efficiency problems are the pedagogy of commercial life. They next move into the domain of the worker or operator. Every business man insists that his workmen sJtall know exactly what to do, when, and how to do it. That, in music teaching, is putting the pupil in working order as a collab- orator with the teacher and with the teacher's purposes. There are some practical ways for the teacher to proceed in order to increase his own pedagogic efficiency. (i) He can take up a course in Pedagogy under a teacher personally. 4 50 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER (2) Or, read sonie standard texts on the sub- ject. (3) Or, study the subject under the guidance of university teachers, by the correspondence method. To pursue any one of these plans will result in practical benefit only if he persistently apphes what he learns to the daily experience in giving lessons. An empirical knowledge of Pedagogy is of little use. Every lesson one gives is bristling with the vital activity of pedagogy in operation. It is worth while to learn to see this and to comprehend its relation to the child's mind in action. Text books on Pedagogy approach the subject in one, or both, of two ways: (i) Either the subject is treated historically and the principles of education brought before the reader in the order of their chronological development on the part of the race. (2) Or, the text is confined to the presentation of the principles alone. Almost any Science of Education or Manual of Pedagogy is a safe guide for the teacher. Com- mon to them all he will find such topics as these : (i) The Mental and Moral Faculties, their Nature and Development. (2) The Objective and Subjective Phases of Life. PEDAGOGY 51 (3) A discussion of Kindergarten Systems. (4) Perceptions and Concepts. (5) The Phenomena of Intellectual Develop- ment. (6) Inductive and Deductive Reasoning. (7) Mental Operations in Action: Memory, Concentration, Observ^ation. (8) The Physical Adjustment as basis for mental development. One need only read this list of subjects, com- mon to nearly all texts on Pedagogy, to realize their immediate ; application to the daily work of the humblest teacher of music. Once under- stood and applied, they become the "business efficiency" of the teacher's activity. No one is bom with a knowledge of these matters. But one can benefit by the experiences of others; learn them and apply them with incredible rapidity as compared 'vsith the time it has taken the race to acquire them. This is one of the marv^elous powers of books. They compress and concentrate great human experiences, and permit us to view more than we can otherwise see, un- aided, from where we stand. "Let no one suppose," says the author of a text on the History mtd Science of Education,^ "that the higher departments of the teacher's profession are attained without some effort, or that honorable distinction is the result of chance. 1 William J. Shoup, M.S. 52 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER There is no royal road to preferment here, any more than in other departments of professional life. Here, as elsewhere, 'The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.' "If you expect to rise above the rank of a non-professional teacher and become an educator in the higher and better sense of the term, you must make yourself familiar with the laws that govern the development of the human mind; and you must learn to adapt your teaching to those laws. Having made this advance you should learn to regard your calling as a profession rather than a trade, and should expect, too, the more desirable positions and the better salaries. "Let no one persuade you that to gain such honorable position in the higher departments of educational work at the present time is any trivial matter. There are those who will tell you that there is no science in teaching, and that for you to study the 'philosophy of teach- ing' is to waste your time. How can these peo- ple know, having themselves confessedly never 'wasted any time' in the study?" In ancient times the status of the pupil was defined with no doubt as to his value, in life, and with no less uncertainty as to his relation to PEDAGOGY 53 his teacher. It was a clearly expressed belief among the ancient Hebrews that "the world exists only by the breath of school children." In all Jewish education "great stress was laid upon the character, and especially the purity, of the teachers, and the demeanor of the children. Of the former (the teachers) the highest worth and dignity were demanded. Their work was regarded as divine work, atid themselves almost as divine agents/'^ The pupil as viewed by the Talmud, was sub- ject to perform for his teacher all kinds of work which a servant does for his master, "except the taking off and putting on of shoes. Pupils were grouped into four classes, corresponding respectively to a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, arid a sieve : the sponge imbibes all ; the funnel receives at one end and discharges at the other; the strainer suffers the wine to pass through, but retains the dregs ; and the sieve removes the bran, but retains the flour." The author quoted below, instances the remark of a rabbi, who said: "I have learned much from my teachers, more from my school -fellows, but most of all from my pupils." As no voyage is ever imdertaken with profit and pleasure to the traveler without an objective point, so no educational work performed, even by the lowliest teacher with the least gifted pupil, 1 The History of Education, by Thomas Davidson. 54 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER will result in mutual benefit unless the actions and purposes involved make for the one definite end toward which all right education must move. And that end is, How to Hve? If a child re- ceives no more than ten piano lessons, the teacher who gives them (and who probably discontinues them because of the pupil's hopeless incapacity) must in some measure make this question a Httle easier to answer. In "What Knowledge is of the Most Worth," Herbert Spencer sums up all the practical purposes and applications of education (or pedagogy, applied) in this one question : "How to live? — that is the essential question for us. Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest sense. The general problem which comprehends every special prob- lem is, the right ruling of conduct in all direc- tions under all circumstances. In what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the mind; in what way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utiHze all those sources of happiness which nature supplies — how to use our faculties to the greatest advantage of our- selves and others — how to live completely? And this being the great thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing which education has to teach. To prepare us for com- plete living is the function which education has PEDAGOGY 55 to discharge; and the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is, to judge in what degree it discharges such function. "This test, never used in its entirety, but rarely even partially used, and used then in a vague, half-conscious way, has to be applied consciously, methodically, and throughout all cases. It be- hooves us to set before ourselves, and ever to keep clearly in view, complete living as the end to be achieved; so that in bringing up our children we may choose subjects and methods of instruction with deliberate reference to this end."^ Perhaps it has not been summed up, for the modern teacher, better or more concisely than in the two paragraphs that follow. They show clearly that the co-ordination of .outer (physical) technical proficiency always (fepends upon the inner (or spiritual) perception : "When the mind becomes mechanical, it is de- parting radically from its essential source as a living organism. It depends, however, wholly upon the manner in which we treat the mind whether it retains its vital character or becomes a mere machine. We must have that type of edu- cation which will develop the mind as a living spirit and not allow it to deteriorate into the operations of a machine, however perfect the machine may be. "The period of education is peculiarly a time for ^ Herbert Spencer, On Education, Chapter I. 56 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER the awakening of the slumbering mind and stim- ulating the brain cells into vigorous activity, causing the brain itself to expand with its expand- ing powers. It is the function of the teacher to call forth the spirit of life within the child. What- ever lessons may be taught, the great central purpose of teaching must not be forgotten, or ignored, or regarded as secondary, namely, the solicitous care and training of the powers of reason. The brain, the eye, the hand must be nicely co- ordinated; but let no one deceive himself with the prevalent modern fallacy that the eye and hand can be trained, while the central factor of the combination, the brain itself, be left out of ac- count altogether."^ ^Dr. John G. Hibben, President of Princeton Uni- versity. CHAPTER VII MUSICAL THEORY It has been said that many a teacher has led his pupils through the foreign countries of chang- ing keys with Httle or no knowledge of location during the journey. This is probably an exag- geration, and yet there are not a few teachers who do a thri\dng business on very little knowledge of the laws of music. Formerly "a little harmony," while not a pre- cious thing to the average pupil, was often an unusual accomplishment. To-day, not only do schools most carefully and systematically provide a course in the theory of music, but they demand that the subject be pursued with equal vigor with the principal subject. And not schools alone, but many private teachers make musical theory as much a part of the regular piano, vioHn, or voice instruction as the lesson hour permits. At the Music School Settlement, in East Third Street, New York City, where children are taught music either for nothing or for very small fees, the musical theory classes are among the most intensive and important of any given in the school. 57 58 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER The expression Musical Theory is used here to include that group of subjects which, beginning with the Rudiments of Music, includes Melody- Writing, Harmony, Counterpoint, Musical Form Analysis, Fugue, and Composition. In one of the most prominent schools in the City of New York, this course of study extends over seven years. Every student in the school who is a candidate for graduation in the departments of piano, voice, organ and stringed instruments, is obliged to take at least four of the seven years of work. In the Department of Public School Music, the course in Theory continues for three years, and in- cludes: Musical Rudiments, Melody Writing, Harmony from the Given Bass and Given Soprano, Counterpoint in two and three parts, original two- and three-part writing. Musical Dictation, and Musical Form Analysis. The student of piano, voice, organ, and stringed in- struments receives even more than this — and it is the established conviction that such a course, wherever presented, is neither too long nor too exacting. There is no expression more familiar than the one which tells us that music is a language. In a sense, it is a language, and from this point of view it is particularly appropriate so to speak of what we are here including under musical theory, for it is the necessary source of expression for the language. Before a teacher may capably and MUSICAL THEORY 59 authoritatively interpret even simple music, he must be thoroughly familiar with the art that produced the music. Its construction and mes- sage should hold no secrets from him. Here we may more or less agree with the distinguished theorist who said that properly to perform a Fugue on the piano or organ, one should be able to write a Fugue. This may overstate the matter in a measure, but it is nearer the truth than many otherwise good musicians admit. Musical Construction as the basis of musical interpretation sets the matter of theory before us on the basis of its most logical and necessary claims. To the music teacher of whatever in- strument, some few fundamentals are of basic necessity. He should be able: (i) To think in tone (that is, to think melody and harmony constructively as he thinks out the composition of a letter in English). (2) To recognize a series of tones, in melodic or harmonic combination by the ear. (3) To grasp, on hearing a composition, a fairly definite conception of its formal structure. (4) To write music, at least of simple character, readily and freely, and, of course, correctly. The value of this is not a fanciful matter. The ability to do these things merely equips the teacher of music to do what the teacher of English must do. In fact, the relative equipment of these two teachers (of music and EngHsh) invariably 6o THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER shows the teacher of BngHsh to be far the better able to handle the language than is the teacher of music. This is but another instance of the con- dition we referred to in the first chapter: an ab- sence for all teachers alike of a standard of attain- ment that, did it exist, and could it be enforced, would enable all music teachers to become as familiar with these subjects as the English teacher is with the parallel subjects of his profession. If we examine a simple piece of music, we see at once that there is more in it for our consideration and appreciation than is generally brought out by the perfunctory manner of playing of the per- functorily taught pupil. The first few measures of the first Beethoven Sonata will illustrate this: In the opening measures (eight) there is a dis- tinct tone line (or melody line) which though sim- ple, is singularly beautiful. To comprehend its simplicity, one has only to note in the left hand the nature of the harmonic fundament, merely an alternation of tonic and dominant (save one chord). The form of the melody, its rhythmic structure, its adherence to a single motive, and the progress of the whole to a climax point on the dominant, these at once characterize the eight measures with an aristocracy of thought that can say much in little. There is a dignity of proced- ure here which makes us know instinctively, if we are at all sensitive to music, that simple as this brief musical statement is, we shall hear MUSICAL THEORY 6 1 more of it. We have only to glance through the movement to see that the composer never leaves this simple text until he has brought it before us in many and var\'ing lights, always with the result of more and more beauty being made manifest. This constructive principle pervades all good music. It does not reveal itself on the surface, nor can one be completely aware of it purely by intuition. The beauty of so-called classical music is not always self-evident. It is something akin to the flower of the trillium that has to be sought under the foliage. On the other hand, all popular music of the evanescent kind has no scheme of construction. Compared with good music, it is a box roughly knocked together, and not a masterly wrought bit of fine cabinet work of rare wood. For this reason, the popular music of the day never lasts. It is unworthy of close analysis; that is, it yields nothing on analysis except more and more of its per\'ading quality of common- ness. Even people who are entirely uneducated in music cannot long content themselves with the same popular music. Thus it must change from day to day, and some new catch phrase is con- stantly dethroning the one that has just engrossed the public mind. Now no music teacher should ever omit, or fail to point out to the pupil, the underlying structural scheme of the composer. That the teacher may be able to do this demands thorough 62 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER training in Musical Theory. One form of con- structive science underlies the works of Bach and Handel; another the works of the Classical School; still another is basic to the Romantic writers. The various subjects included under Musical Theory are not inventions for student days. They are the gateways by which one enters upon a full comprehension of what the composer says, and the manner of his saying it. A comparatively small amount of text-book work is essential, but a never ceasing application of the few fundamental principles is necessary to every piece of music one sees or hears. The teacher who has been obliged, by force of circumstances, to begin work as instructor before fully equipping himself in this subject, may be- lieve that he is only partly capable as a safe guide to the learner, and also — that it is never too late to learn. Its indispensability is without question. His capacity to do service is always augmented by the attainment of a better equipment. While the preliminary details of theory are to be learned by persistent study — just as we learned our Latin Grammar, their application in real music, the music we play and teach, is always possible and delightful. Facility in melody writing, in harmony, and counterpoint is comparatively soon attained, but there is no end to the variety of application to which the principles of these subjects may be put. They become the means, MUSICAL THEORY 63 once we have grasped them, of looking at the composer's work from his standpoint, out of his eyes, so to speak. The statement has been made that unapplied harmony and counterpoint are all too prevalent in music. For some reason, the fault either of teacher or pupil, the facts of theory are not al- ways made the facts of practice. Again, it is necessary at times, to combat, on the part of certain natures too complacent to be fully aware of their status and needs, an entirely erroneous opinion respecting the great composer and the study of musical theory. He has never avoided it, but has pursued it with vigor until his mastery of it — as means for liberating his thought — has become complete. The illustra- tion on page 64 is a familiar form of given bass — familiar to all students. If anyone suffers from being subjected to so elementary a course of training let him take courage from the name of the student at the bottom of the page. 64 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER CHAPTER VIII THE PUPIL Every pupil is an individual problem. The object of all instruction is to pro\4de the learner with a physical and mental technic so complete and so perfect that he can give himself expres- sion; or, as the word implies, can press himself out. As no two human beings were ever cast in the same mold, or ever will be, the responsibility of the teacher toward the pupil is invariably extensive. The duty involved is sacred, for its object is nothing less than the freedom of mind and spirit to manifest itself through a body so perfectly trained that it is an ever ready and efficient servant. The loftiest, and yet the most natural, view we may take of the mind is — as we have already im- plied — that it is always a center for di\ane opera- tion. If the teacher holds this elevated percep- tion of his own mind, he must by the law of human brotherhood hold it of the pupil. One great fault of all technically applied pedagogic law (and pro- cedm-e) is that it has so "averaged" humanity, that no real and vital type is within its scope of operation. Hence, it is essential for the teacher 5 65 66 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER to be not only a purveyor of information to the pupil, but a careful, watchful student of the in- dividuality that is locked up within the apparent personality. Inefficient teaching always follows if this attitude be renounced or ignored. The pupil may have little or no talent for music. That has to be discovered. And this discovery is only possible after the teacher has made it his business to question, observe, and sufficiently stimulate the human sphinx into expression that it shall reveal itself. We must recognize in the pupil primarily this stamp of quality, this soul potentiality. Often it is deeply hidden in the recesses of nature. Ways and means peculiar to itself must be found to awaken it to its ultimate potentiality. Many a boy and girl have remained dunces in childhood because they did not respond to "average" methods. Walter Scott was the dunce of his class. Elizabeth Carter, whom Dr. Samuel Johnson pronounced one of the few really great Greek scholars of the eighteenth century, was known all through her girlhood as "Stupid Elizabeth." The manner and method of teach- ing a subject is simple in comparison with the preliminary necessity of awakening the indi- vidual nature to be taught. Every human being is not only a unique crea- tion, but is conditioned. Conditions spring from more causes, possibly, than we shall ever dis- THE PUPIL 67 cover; but of these any instructor can readily investigate to a sufficient extent, those that spring from the physical and mental state, from home life, from other activities, from individual likes and dislikes, from association with others. It is amazing what a fund of valuable informa- tion about a pupil the teacher seems never to secure. Many a child is put before the piano and Uves unhappy hours for no fault of its own. It is evident that for some reason the child is not expressing itself fully, and only too often it is dubbed as Elizabeth Carter was. Albrechtsber- ger found nothing in Beethoven that was worth his trouble, and Kalkbrenner's best advice to Chopin was that he should place himself under his (Kalkbrenner's) instruction. These instances show that one judgment of a human being is not always sufficient to reveal the entire potentiality. It is evident, then, that music teaching, to be justly successful in each individual case, must start farther back than the five-key position at the piano. The unsuccessful pupil is often only a photograph of an unskilled teacher. In this connection, every music teacher may profitably assist himself by such remarkably suggestive books as Professor William James' Talks on Psychology with Teachers. Such a text is il- luminating in this, that it takes cognizance of the background of individuality. When we stop to consider that countless human beings have gone 68 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER through life with a hampered nature, incapable of giving expression to themselves, for lack of adequate technical means, we feel that we are authors of one of the greatest crimes in history. A well known teacher of voice tested a new pupil recently, a young man of eighteen. The voice was remarkable. In the first few lessons the boy had so little control of himself that he could scarcely sing a dozen measures without breaking down. The teacher made no comment, but quietly investigated the boy's history and condition. He had not far to seek, for he dis- covered that having little money, and a great ambition to learn, the boy was attempting to live on one meal a day. It would have been easy not to make the inquiry and equally easy to dis- miss the pupil as having "not sufficient sustain- ing power." But it was far better to procure the boy something actually capable of sustaining him. It has been pointed out in a preceding chapter that all rules for success, as given by eminently successful men, are so simple that no one takes them seriously. It is quite the same with failure. Countless instances of failure rest on causes so simple that it is amazing they were not discov- ered in time, and removed. The great teacher is never a mere technician, nor is he a potter whose mold casts only one pattern. He is always a builder of individuality. He augments the opera- THE PUPIL 69 tive power of the mind as a divine center. Work- ing with this inspiration, the mind becomes a willing and enthusiastic center, but if the mind be not awakened, learning has its stupid limits. The Education of the Music Teacher, in this particular, never ceases. The pupil who comes to-morrow for the first time, is a new problem. Never was there, and never will there be another of its kind. It is of little importance what par- ticular pianoforte method shall be applied in his case. We must first begin to liberate and strengthen what was implanted here by the creative fiat. If the boy were a loom with which we hoped to do our weaving, we would realize that the loom as a machine merits study, care, and attention. But a boy? And a boy such as never before approached us for instruction, why should we give him so little regard? The teacher who spends a portion of his time in acquainting himself with the educational prin- ciples of such authorities as Pestalozzi, Froebel, Horace Mann, and Dr. Montesorri, will find that they forever regard the liberation of the spiritual nature and the freedom of intellectual expression of far greater importance than the principles of a method. They have realized that all of the activities of life are worthy material to engage the attention once we comprehend the nature and strength of the individual. Hence, Pestalozzi says: 70 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER "The will cannot be stimulated by mere words. Its action must depend upon those feelings and powers which are the results of general culture. Words alone cannot give us a knowledge of things. They are only useful for giving ex- pression to what we have in our mind." Speaking of his early attempts with children at awakening the desire for knowledge, he says: "As soon as they found that they could learn, their zeal was indefatigable; and in a few weeks children who had never before opened a book, and could hardly repeat the Pater noster or an Ave, would study the whole day long with the keenest interest. After supper, when I used to say to them, 'Will you go to bed, or learn something?* they would generally answer : 'Learn something !' " Of his procedure, he tells us that: "I gave the children very few explanations. I taught them neither morality nor religion, but sometimes, when they were perfectly quiet, I used to say to them: 'Do you not think you are better and more reasonable when you are like this, than when you are making a noise?' "What encouraged them most was the thought of not always remaining poor, but at some day taking their place again among their fellows, with knowledge and talents that should make them useful, and win them the esteem of other people. They felt that, owing to my care, they made more progress in this respect than other children. THE PUPIL 71 They perfectly understood that all they did was but a preparation for their future activity, and they looked forw^ard to happiness as the certain result of their perseverance. That is why steady application soon became easy to them, its object being in perfect accordance with their wishes and their hopes." With all great teachers it will be found that what we have already referred to as the "libera- tion of the individuality" comes first. Not money precedes this; nor personal ambition, nor skilful advertising; but the one essential effort of becoming the faithful, capable, and willing serv^ant to the child-mind, which shall one day become the adult mind, doing its share to carry forward the real purposes of life. And these "real purposes" are ours to discover, and to estabUsh. CHAPTER IX MUSIC HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY The history of music is the story of how human thought has learned to express itself in tones: exactly the problem the teacher is solving with every pupil that he instructs. This identity of experience between the race as a whole, and the individual, establishes the necessity for in- cluding the subject of this chapter in the list of those that are indispensable to the education of the teacher. The facts of musical history fall into two classes. The first are those of lesser importance; facts of reference that may safely be entrusted to the keeping of a book in which w^e may find them when needed. The second class of facts are of prime importance. They consist in those deep undercurrents that show whence comes the stream into visibility in our day. These are invariably to be connected more or less directly with concurrent events of social and political life. Thus, music in any period of history is always found to be a true index of the mind of the people. 72 MUSIC HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 73 So far as we possess actually recorded music in our system of notation, just so far we know how it sounded to those who first uttered it. But farther back than that, all is conjecture. The music of the ancient nations is entirely beyond our conception. We cannot conceive, even re- motely, what sort of music was played upon the harp to the delight of King David. The songs of the minstrels whom we meet in the Odyssey are as mysterious as the personahty of Homer himself. But if the melodies that delighted the people of the elder nations are gone, the record is left to us in many forms of testimony that they loved music, practised it for pleasure, and made it an important part of all social and religious life. With the establishment of the Christian religion in Europe, music was actively practised in two widely separated social strata: in the monas- teries it received all the learned consideration that scholars could give it; among the people it was as spontaneous and as expressive of the daily life as it was when ]Miriam danced. The awakening of the mind to the great truths of life, the gradual surrender of mysticism and of magic before the discoveries of scientists and explorers, were as truly reflected in music as they were in life itself. The Crusades made men of many nations friends and companions in a common cause, and they learned the arts of one another. Finally the sa- 74 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER cred and secular streams united into a single great body of thought expression that has widened and deepened to our own day. No work of any old master is odd or old fash- ioned the moment we are familiar with the condi- tions out of which it came. Just as the literature of to-day is tinged with Greek culture, so music is a tapestry, the threads of which lead back many centuries. If the teacher be a close reader of history in general, the story of music will take on a new and surprisingly delightful aspect. And so will music itself, however old it may be. Emerson pointed out, over half a century ago, the essential fact of all history to the reader; namely, that it should enable him to turn the Past (the There and Then, as he expresses it) into the Present (or the Here and Now). Read in this light, all the figures of history become a part of the individual. To know the story of the life of Bach is to enter into his mode of life, of his thought and environment precisely as if he were existent for us Here and Now. To attain this identity with the Past comes more naturally from the preliminary study of Biography than of history in events, for the reason that events evolve from the impulses of men. Hence, a technic for reading biography is necessary. To begin with, every biography must be regarded as the center of an area, and not as a MUSIC HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 75 straight line. The following figure will illus- trate this: Of the man himself, we gradually construct a complex environmental portrait into which we put his ancestry, individual activity, family life, positions, personal characteristics, spoken words and the like. The space called Con- current Events informs us of the world's doings in his time.' His contemporaries, musical and otherwise, allow us to perceive him as one world's worker among many. Under Spirit of the Times we include the unity of thought expres- sion that remains to us now as the key to that 76 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER intellectual era. And, finally, under Individual Influence we read in what wise this particular individuality so impressed itself on the times that its influence reaches to this day. Even so slight suggestion as this prepares us to proceed in all biographical reading with a definite system that secures for us the picture, as we have said, oj an area oj influence, and not an unrelated point or line. All history and biog- raphy are essentially the presentation of widely extending influences. The preliminary facts may be, in general, referred to in these items. (This forms a Basis of procedure with each biography :) 1. Place of birth. 2. Boyhood and early training. 3. Determining influences. 4. Young manhood. 5. Places of residence and musical connections. 6. Works in sequence. 7. Works that have endured. 8. Works, a knowledge of which is indispen- sable to an appreciation of the man. 9. Temporary and subsequent influence of the man. 10. The personal factor in the biography. Consequent upon this, we find a Basis of more special study in these items : 1. What did the man accomplish that lifts him above the conventional? 2. What forms did he establish or perfect? MUSIC fflSTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 77 3 . Which of his works do you know intimately ? 4. Which are frequently performed? 5. Which are the most characteristic? 6. What general conditions of life were un- known at the time, e. g., of Bach? 7. What evidence is given of initiative? 8. The character of the man. Do his works reflect that character? 9. Methods of work. 10. Necessary bibliography. Similarly, all periods in history (that is, not necessarily biographical) may be so grouped and analyzed. From this the teacher will see that there is no rapid way of completing a course in the history of music. We are really painting a large canvas around ourselves as center, and to an extent, so establishing ourselves in the Past and Present that we can estimate the work of our own day in its Future influence. This is one element, active in the most direct way, that makes for Service which shall be more than a temporary exchange. The aim in teaching is to secure an expression in the present moment of the whole spirit of the art. Of this spirit, history and biography furnish us the key. The simplest Sonatine is as directly connected with the historic establishment of the Sonata form as a leaf is intimately connected with the roots of the tree on which it lives. Thus with the lesson so based, the whole spirit must flow as 78 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER naturally as the food found in the earth by the roots is ceaselessly making its way up to the leaf. The teacher will not fail to note that in this attainment there is involved no small amount of work. To secure this point of view of the spirit of the whole does not come all at once. So here again, the decision is easy to let it go; to avoid the work and the trouble, and let the spirit take care of itself. It always will. But it is a wise decision to let the spirit take care of us at the same time. We live and are rewarded strictly in accord with our perceptions. The less we are willing to perceive, the less we are. Involved in the attainment of any subject is the technic of reading that gives us admission to it. This technic may be summed up in a single sentence: An author's words are intended to convey meaning, and a reader's duty is to secure the whole of that meaning. Of all things un- familiar to the majority of us, words are among the first. A proper and thorough study of them rewards us in two ways. In the first, we actually learn to read understandingly; in the second, we learn so to express ourselves that the mental pic- ture which we are attempting to present becomes clear and vivid of outline to the Hstener. If, then, close and accurate reading does no more for us than to enable us to tell a child clearly, accurately, and vitally what we mean, it will still be a great investment. MUSIC HISTORY AND BIOGR.\PHY 79 Hence, readings in Music History and Bi- ography give us not only enlightening informa- tion, but they may be made to contribute to cultural attainment, at the same time. The history of an art or of a people is as a watch- tower, to ascend which gives one not only a broader field for observation, but makes clear the interrelation of all the apparently separate units. Strictly speaking there is no separation even in parts that seem widely divergent as his- toric subjects. They all coalesce to establish the unity of life as it was, and hence they preserve that unity in becoming the key to life as it is. CHAPTER X MUSIC IN THE HOME Every child is a . potential in two homes : that of its actual childhood, and of that other, yet to be, when it shall establish itself as maker and fomider of another family-unit in the national life. It was pointed out in a previous chapter that the music teacher is a dealer in futures. This point of view in regard to the child as home- maker is one instance. This the music teacher shares with all other teachers; in that he helps so to train and develop that the impulses and ex- pressions of early years, shall be the ampler im- pulses and expressions of later life. No child- hood experience so rich as music can be made should be a diminishing or disappearing influence. Writers without number have testified to the value of music as an inspiration in the home and in the individual life. Many a hardened sinner has come back repentant at the sound of a melody from the distant years of early life. Such instances are not sentimental, but they are full of true sentiment, at once virile, vigorous, and vital. 80 MUSIC IN THE HOME 8l If, in the teaching of children, we cannot exert an influence that carries itself forward with greater momentum as the years pass, we should once more look over our method and system, our purposes and intentions, and return to the broad highway where music is a human influence. There are very many musical homes in which the little ones who are "taking lessons," receive instruction in a manner that fails to distill a de- lightful essence into the home life. It is often true that the average practice hour, particularly in the beginning, is not one of joy. But why is it not? The more closely we investigate the work of distinctive teachers, the more we find that elementary as any step may be, it abounds in interest. A distinguished merchant has said that what most people do most of the time is wrong. It certainly needs no argument to con- vince us that what we do most of the time can be better done. The two distinct classes of pupils determine two distinct objectives. They are : (a) Those who are studying with the intention of making music a life work. (b) Those who, as amateurs (lovers) seek in it a means for cultural attainment and advance- ment. Every teacher, however, will at once recognize a third, and probably inevitable, class. (c) Those who study not because of any per- 82 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER sonal desire, but at the will, or behest, of some- one else. This last class is the taost difficult to deal with, and often the source of the least satisfaction to the teacher. But skill, tact, and many resources must enable the teacher to establish for the second and third classes of pupils, and for the home life of which they are members, some- thing of interest to all, and particularly worth while to the student. The pupil should inspire the teacher to under- take the upbuilding of musical taste and interest in the particular home of which the pupil himself is a member. There is, no doubt, far more trouble involved in this than in giving the lesson and leaving the family to take or leave the musical opportunity. But there is also a vast amount of satisfaction in it. A deepening of interest in music is always to the teacher's benefit, but it also results in a mutual benefit. The introduction of music into the home through the advent of the music teacher, should be regarded as a significant event. The child is to be taught to play, but the rest of the family may tactfully be taught to enjoy. The capacity for the enjoy- ment of music is inherent in practically all hu- man beings. There has probably never been a savage race discovered that had not its music. The establishment of music, in the curriculum of the public schools, is based on the wise decision MUSIC IN THE HOME 83 to awaken an interest in it, and to foster a love for it, that shall be carried into after life as a contribu- tion to the full round of citizenship. And yet we make too little out of the imme- diate benefits of music in the home. Where there is a piano, there we may look for rich possibilities for the children. If they do no more than to learn the familiar songs that have endured because they are true of sentiment, it will enrich the family life to-day, and the child's life when he becomes a home-founder. To sing and play and dance in childhood is a fair insurance that to sing and play and dance will add joyance to the length of life. It is in this sense that the cultural study of music becomes an investment of high order. No man who, now and then, hums the melodies of his boyhood, need be mistrusted. It has been well said that there can be nothing wrong in the heart of one who sings spontaneously. Hence, music should enter the home to its enrichment. The teacher is poorly equipped in the ethics of the profession who does not per- ceive this essential and elevated spirit of the art when presented to a little child. The mission of music is often humble, but it is no less genuine for that reason. A true story of the discovery of two settlement workers will illustrate this: Two young ladies who had been chums for four years at a well-known college, sat, one 84 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER afternoon, discussing their life work. They were wealthy, but they did not wish to be idle or use- less; hence they were seeking an outlet for an activity that would better the world, and occupy themselves. "Well, then," said one, in conclusion, "let us agree to devote ourselves to settlement work. And we begin to morrow." So, on the morrow, they proceeded to what was to them the vague land of the unknown, the East Side. They scrutinized the streets carefully as they went, and finally stopped. They had reached a thoroughfare which seemed to them to offer all the signs and symbols of a "real slum street." Now, there are facts about "a real slum street" that do not at once appeal to a wealthy college girl who sets out to do good in the world. These facts are: People live in such streets who work, and hope, and love one another ; these people are often very happy. They persist in living, though all the books on hygiene would seem to prove that they ought to die from the microbes of the neighborhood. But they do not die. They drink water from the kitchen tap. They breathe air that is not always free from offensive street odors. Yet one witnesses there, no less often than elsewhere, the clear eye, the cheery MUSIC IN THE HOME 85 voice, the hearty hand grasp when friend meets friend; in brief, life displays itself and is no less jealously guarded for its possibilities. Their plan of operation was this: Each should take one side of the street, visit every family, and report. The report, when the work was done, presented many interesting things, none of which seemed easy to change, save one. This was Mrs. Ryan's case. Now, the condition of affairs at Mrs. Ryan's gave the elder of the girls cause for great alarm. So great was it that she determined to "have it out with her." The case was this: Mrs. Ryan owed the butcher, and others, Thirty Dollars, and yet owned a piano. So she had it out with Mrs. Ryan. Mrs. Ryan was singularly quiet while she listened to the young woman. When it was pointed out to her that the piano would pay all her bills, if sold, she was not excited. Finally the young lady stopped. Her case was in. "Is that all. Miss Astoria?" asked Mrs. Ryan. "If it is, you Usten to me a minute." She listened quite a few minutes, in fact; and this is, in substance, what Mrs. Ryan said: "I have five children, three boys and two giris. They all love entertainment. Across the street 86 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER live two girls, who have been in trouble by being out on the streets late at night. Two boys of a family east of here, have been arrested. I could tell you lots of other families whose children have been in one scrape or another. But none of mine has been in any scrape. Do you know why? "When I was a girl, I learned to play the piano a little. I play for the children and their friends every night. I've scraped together enough to let the two girls learn a Httle music them- selves. The boys learn to sing in school, and I let all five bring their friends here every night and Sundays and have a good time with the piano. "Sometimes Benny Soloski brings his fiddle, and you ought to see them dance. They are noisy perhaps. Miss Astoria, but they are noisy in the house. I don't have any bad dreams about my children, or their friends, going to the Island. "Casey, the poHceman, never comes here to ask what the boys have been up to. But I've often seen him stand outside beating time with his stick on the railing, while he listened to the music." Then she looked Miss Astoria in the eye, and said very quietly: "Shall I be selling the piano, do you think?" No answer. MUSIC IN THE HOME 87 "Shall I be selling it?" repeated Mrs. Ryan. Miss Astoria was seeing light. "I'll tell you what we will do, Mrs. Ryan. Let me pay the Thirty Dollars." "No, bless you," said Mrs. Ryan. "The two boys have just gone to work, and with what I earn myself, we'll make up that thirty dollars. Good-by, Miss Astoria, you'll be coming again, I hope." There is a wonderful lot of good done by the settlement workers. And there is a wonderful lot of real life Uved in the tenements. The good intent of the one, and the reality of the other must always join hands; otherwise, we do not read Mrs. Ryan with an understanding heart. The great work of redemption rarely comes from giving. It comes from awakening knowl- edge and understanding in the other person. That is what Mrs. Ryan did for Miss Astoria. Do not mistake this conclusion: Mrs. Ryan was the settlement worker. There is a far-reaching suggestion in the fact that music is practically the only art that per- mits many to participate in it at once. A schoolroom of singing children is one of the most wonderful sights of our day. Music is the only thing taken from school to home that allows ever>^ one to take part in it. It is the one art that a girl and boy can practise, if they love it, in chorus. It is the one art that every com- SS THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER munity, even the small town, can take up and develop. Many such towns all over the United States have done this, and from the excellence of their singing they have become enthusiastic lovers of music. A hundred may sit at a lecture, and ninety may sleep while the lecture goes on; but if a chorus of a hundred sing, no one of them can sleep. They must keep awake and do each his part, for without each and every part the whole is not perfect. CHAPTER XI MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Many years ago when machinery was intro- duced to perform work that had hitherto been done by hand, there was dissatisfaction that even went so far as to express itself in bloodshed. People saw themselves thrown out of employ- ment and left to want and misery. But, as a matter of fact, with increased means for produc- ing goods, there was created an increased demand, and a spread of manufactured articles to an ever- increasing public. Thus, machinery has sim- plified the production of goods, augmented the supply and demand, produced them at less cost, popularized them, and has tended to increase and not to decrease the amount of labor and the number of laborers. In like manner, the advent of the mechanisms capable of reproducing music with some degree of merit, immediately raised the question: Will they decrease the study of music? We have had these various mechanisms with us long enough now to know (i) that they have come to stay; (2) that some of them are capable of artistic repro- duction of music; (3) that they are carrying the 89 90 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER message of music to thousands of homes that be- fore were entirely without it; (4) that the music propaganda being accomphshed by this means is actually increasing our national interest in music, and is, therefore, to affect music study favorably; that is, to increase it. The millions of dollars invested in the mechan- ical music-reproducing business are not expended by manufacturing companies merely in the com- mercial exploitation of their product for profit. Many companies maintain expensive laboratories in which nothing else is attempted save the im- provement of the product. When a trifling de- vice, or one that results in an improvement scarcely perceptible to the public, is found, it is adopted, and though it may have cost thousands of dollars, it can secure for the promoter nothing beyond improved goods and greater public satisfaction. These mechanisms are not enemies or serious rivals of the music teacher. They are allies in many ways. To begin with, they are by no means to be despised. As permanently recorded interpretations they have, at once, historic value of prime importance. The great soloists of the past, Hke Liszt, Jennie Lind, Malibran, and Mario, are only a memory to a few, and not even that to the younger generation. Had we the recorded interpretation of these artists and of their own works by the great composers of the MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 91 past, we should possess a treasure beyond ade- quate valuation. No child of coming generations will be without fairly definite evidence of the reproductive art of Bonci, Caruso, Ysaye, Kreisler, Hofmann, Sembrich, and all the great company of present day artists. No one can deny the inestimable value of this. To some extent, at least, the future reader of the biography of Mr. Paderewski can determine for himself, in another department of his library, the nature of the art of this remark- able man. Recently a musician familiar with the older school of violin playing stated that no soloist of to-day approached those of his own youth, a statement that is absolutely incapable of demonstrable proof. But the artists of to-day may be, as performers, compared with those of all generations to come, and with certain allowances for mechanical imperfection, be permitted to state their own claims to greatness. One mechan- ical piano mechanism not only reproduces the music performed upon it, but faithfully records all the individual characteristics of the per- former. Its ofi&ce is not merely to record sound, but it photographs, so to speak, without losing the sHghtest, most delicate nuance, the actual individualization of the artist. The service that every artistically recorded performance is to render for future generations will be great ; and so, too, is its value to us. There 92 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER are in the United States fifteen millions of homes, approximately. In order that music might be an integral factor of domestic life, there would need to be not only fifteen millions of music students, but fifteen millions with talent above the average. In families in which there are no children, or to which a music teacher is not available, the mechanical instrument is a de- cided pleasure and benefit. Unfortunately, little has been done by the manufacturers of these instruments beyond es- tablishing commercial means for producing the goods. Their wide-reaching cultural value, once they are in the home, has only been remotely sug- gested. But when this is an accomplished fact, we may confidently look for a vast amount of real culture to evolve from these inventions. Hence, these various mechanisms are with us to stay, and it is just as well to reckon with them now. We have said they are an ally to the teacher. In what particulars? The teacher who complained about a new pupil that he had been in the habit of "picking out tunes by ear with one finger," overlooked the fortune in hand. The boy who will do that is a veritable prize, and should be welcomed with open arms. He has been seeking the very things that are not aroused in the majority of boys without threats, plead- ings, and punishments. In the same light we may regard the advent of almost any kind of MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 93 mechanical music in the home. It is a good sign to begin with. Once it is thus accepted, the serious study of music may be expected to follow with less necessary argument than were it not there. One teacher, of piano, anxious to increase her class, made it a point to help those who had a mechanical instrument, of any kind, to secure the most artistic results from it. She had, herself, an instrument upon which she played various kinds of music that are not naturally adapted to the piano; she gave talks about the music itself, and about the artists whose music she was reproduc- ing. But these "machines" are not to be regarded merely as another means for "prying open a little business," as someone expressed it. They often have great value as models of perform- ance. The day will come when the teacher will say: "Let us see how great artists have interpreted this phrase." And thereupon he will turn to the recorded music and reproduce it, just exactly as he would turn to his dictionary for enlighten- ment about a word; or to an encyclopedia for information by a great authority on a special subject. The advent of music mechanisms in schools is already proving of practical utility. They are being used for Listening Lessons, Studies in 94 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Appreciation and Interpretation, for Marching, and for Folk Dancing. A recent news dispatch from a city in the Middle West states that to the public library there have been added five hundred music selections for player piano. The librarian announces that: "The music is circulated under the rules governing the taking out of books." And he adds: "The pieces (music) are mostly classical. Ragtime is barred. We have no rag- time books, so why should we circulate ragtime music?" Interviews with owners of mechanical musical instruments have revealed the fact that many of them, the majority in fact, made their first pur- chases of music of the popular, or semi-popular kind, but that they gradually eliminated this class and turned to the better compositions. If this be generally true, we can only conclude that this particular phase of home music is valuable in the extreme. What is still wanting, however, is some helpful means, simply written, that wiU permit the non-technical music lover to under- stand a little more, and yet a little more, the music he enjoys. This has never been adequately done in printed matter — probably it has never even been attempted. It is a form of service well within the province of the teacher, and he by no means demeans himself in explaining to the uninitiated the beauty of music, even if it be pro- duced by a series of wheels and springs. MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 95 In connection with the report on the Ubrary above mentioned, it is worthy of record that another hbrary has a music room, a player piano, and a collection of rolls that may be performed by visitors. Far from meriting the scorn and un- concern of musicians, these devices are worthy of their careful consideration. Often they prove remarkably helpful, as is instanced by the young pianist who had worked up a program at home, and being unable to go to her teacher in a distant city to play the selections for criticism and sug- gestion, she simply availed herself of the expe- dient of performing them into a recording appa- ratus and sending the records themselves to her teacher. Simply by reproducing them the in- structor was able to give her valuable assistance as to the performance of the various compositions she was to play in public. If the teacher will investigate this popular means of providing music in the home, will con- sider it solely on the basis of its potentiality and of its best possible results, and not its worst, he will, as we have said, find in it an ally not un- worthy of attention. It will never take the teacher's place. These instruments cannot teach. But they can, and do, stimulate interest in music. They purv^ey to the love of it, and some of them can do what very few human beings are capable of doing. One fact should be noted before we leave this 96 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER subject: Practically no great artist has ever re- fused to allow one or another of these instruments to perpetuate his art. We have pointed out the great historical value of this to future generations. To the present generation it is a testimony of the comparative excellence of the means. CHAPTER XII COMMUNITY MUSIC It has been pointed out in the preceding chapter that mechanical musical instruments are, when employed to their best effect and pur- poses, of distinct value. They create a musical interest in the home that often results in making the householder and the family participators in music to a degree they had not before attempted. But the best influence of this medium does not eventuate until the music lover makes that serious use of his tone-reproducing machine which transforms passive listening into active music appreciation. When this takes place, there is a centralization of interest that is, as a family investment, potent in its effect. Just as family music must be centralized to yield its best results and influence, so too must community music. In the cities and towns of the United States, where community music has risen to its most significant level, there will always be found some one person who takes the matter in hand and works it up to a successful issue. In the largest cities the so-called community inter- est may seem to be absent, and yet they possess 7 97 98 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER many organizations that are in all respects just as local as the chorus or orchestra of a country town or small city. Even a casual inquiry into the musical activity of cities like New York, London, Berlin, and Vienna will reveal the fact that while these localities are the gathering places for the world's artists, they yet present a vast amount of music by local organizations. It has been demonstrated over and over again that the American (small) community is musical. The rapid increase in the number of smaller cities and towns that give an annual musical festival, proves that once the effort is made to organize the community, or that part of it which is musical, a surprisingly good result follows. But despite the rapid increase in such local musical work, there are numberless places still unorganized in this respect. In every such community, the music teacher, alive to the situation and anxious to perform a real service, has a splendid opportunity before him. His first experience on attempting this may be to find a general conviction among his people that they are incapable of carrying out such a project. But this is easily overcome, and the new con- ductor, for so he becomes, can aid his cause and lend encouragement to the untrained by form- ing his chorus, at least in part, from the High School pupils, who receive, very generally now, instruction in part singing. It is not the purpose COMMUNITY MUSIC 99 of this book to specify ways and means of carry- ing out the details of this matter, but rather to encourage the undertaking as the best means for bringing the people of a community to its musical senses. Under skillful (and hardworking) man- agement, it does not take long to move from simple beginnings to more thorough and artistic performances. Several conductors have in recent years given programs that permit the participa- tion of school children of the lower grades. In this way the musical impulse is made to move through the whole social range. The present professor of music at Cornell University has developed an unusually excellent chorus, which annually, in April, gives a Festival performance extending over several days.^ Larger cities, like Cincinnati, Louisville, Ky., Wor- cester, Mass., have for years been famous for their Festival chorus music. Not only are such communities as these just mentioned doing most remarkable work, but many smaller places have established choruses that perform either inde- pendently of, or in conjunction with, an or- chestra and soloists engaged for the occasion. The public schools have been a remarkable influence in this particular. They have produced amateur orchestras that, in such an instance as that of Richmond, Indiana, under the recent direction of Mr. Will Earhart, have become ^See Chapter XIII. 100 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER known far and wide for their excellent perform- ances. The musician who can unify the musical activities of a community and bring to the fore people of latent musical capacity who are not developed, finds himself suddenly surrounded by a richness of heritage that is astonishing. The benefits following upon this local musical training result in opposite directions. On the one hand, they typify the community itself, give it expression, and occasionally some degree of renown; on the other hand, its influence is almost certain to emphasize music in the home (the Hausmusik of the Germans). People contribute to and support only those activities in which they are interested. It is often necessary to prove to the people of a town that they have capability to do a thing, even though it has been hitherto un- tried. In one comparatively small community, where the festival idea has taken firm root, and where most excellent work is being done, a Con- servatory has come into existence that trains several hundreds of pupils annually. With an excellent school system in which music plays an important part, the town is musically active and interested from bottom to top. It has few families that are not in some degree interested in this art — which is, above all others, the true art of the people. If the private teacher cannot originate so momentous a work as the musical organization COMMUNITY MUSIC loi of the community, he can, at least, contribute to it. Every child he teaches is a community unit and factor. Without push or self-advertising on the part of the teacher, the work of the class may be made as much of a factor in the local musical life as church music is, to say the least. Even simple programs may be so well prepared that they offer true music pleasure to everyone. And it is a form of pleasure that should not be denied the community in which it originates. The teacher who attempts this public benefit work may be accused of "pushing himself for- ward." But this is no stigma. Where no selfish motive is the inspiration, carping critics will be few. And even if there were a common purpose on the part of all teachers thus "to push them- selves forward," the community would benefit. This art of the teacher of turning back to the community some results of his work, in the form of pleasure and educational entertainment, brings out the fact that there is a vast amount of unde- veloped music activity all about us. Teachers, churches, schools, and music clubs could readily organize their music work on a basis of providing enjoyment of the best kind to all the people. Such organization always requires an organizer, some one w^ho perceives the latent possibility and makes it available to the greatest number. It is, in short, social betterment work of the best type. 102 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER The gregarious instinct that crowds the streets with unoccupied young men and women, that profitably fills saloons and cheap theaters, often turns aside to the better inducement. In this respect, the teacher finds a means for performing social service that may be as humble as the widow's mite, but it can never be too humble to count as an influence. A remarkable movement in Philadelphia merits record here.^ An organiza- tion of musicians makes it its single purpose to send its members singly or in groups to the various hospitals, homes, and similar institutions to provide entertainment to the inmates. The reception of this has been hearty and appreciative. The "shut-ins" are found everywhere, and by means of the basic truth that we have received freely and so should give freely, even the humblest teacher may discover some way to bring light and cheer into the presence of loneliness and despair. Some of the busiest men in New York are willing speakers at such places as the Bowery Mission. No philanthropy is more practical than this. It establishes between man and man, however far apart their stations and fortunes, a bond of fellow- ship that is helpful and inspiring.* ^ This movement has been practically directed by Mr. James Francis Cooke, of Philadelphia. 2 For other instances of community work, through music, see Appendix. CHAPTER XIII A TYPE OF COMMUNITY MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES We are not accustomed so to express it, but the fact is that, when Joseph departed from his brethren to go into the land of Egypt, he became business-manager to Pharaoh, bringing system, eflSciency, and wise counsel into the conduct of that ruler's affairs. He became, in fact, indis- pensable in the performance of tasks that ranged from those of apparently little moment to the interpretation of dreams. And in them all the magic of his mind inspired the words of his lips and the work of his hands, and he \vTOUght well. It is proposed in this chapter to show that com- munity music in the United States is not only possible in every one of our cities and towns, but that there is a way of securing it. Let us Umit ourselves to a single illustration of this effort. It will prove that the American people are musical. They may not believe it, but the fact remains that they are, and they admit it whenever a man leaves his brothers and goes into their land; a man capable, on the one hand, of doing things well; and, on the other, of interpret- ing dreams. 103 104 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Some years ago, in conversation with Anton Lang, Christus in the Passion Play at Oberam- mergau, I said to him: "Mr. Lang, the surprising feature of this per- formance to me is that the people of this little community can attain such perfect mastery over their parts, individually and in ensemble, and yet not perform publicly more frequently than every tenth year." "That," he replied, "is not the way we pro- ceed. While we produce the Passion Play but once in ten years, we perform plays in our little theater here every Sunday. In that way we are always in practice. Our knowledge of his- trionic art is constantly increasing. As our children become old enough to participate, even to a slight extent, in the Sunday performance, we bring them forward. Whenever we discover talent, we encourage it, and the boy or girl whom we find gifted is destined to participate in one of our decennial celebrations. In this way we pass the art on from generation to generation, much, I suppose, as the Homeric poem was car- ried forward from lip to lip until it became fixed in type." The town we propose to take as a type of the possibilities of community music is Ithaca, New York, seat of Tompkins County. The population is approximately fifteen thousand, aug- mented in the college year by about five thousand A TYPE OF COMMUNITY MUSIC 105 University students, and in summer by about one thousand students who attend the Summer School. For miles in every direction highly developed farms abound. Here agriculture at its best may be seen. In the town itself there are a number of industries that employ day laborers. While the dwelling houses about the campus and in other parts of the town are exceptionally at- tractive, there is evidence on every hand of a pre- vailing middle class life that makes the town typical of hundreds of communities in the United States. The school system provides a Kindergarten, admirable elementary schools, a high school famed for its splendid college preparatory work, and, crowning the splendid system, is the university, that owes so much to the memory of Ezra Cornell and to the efforts of Dr. Andrew D. White, its first president. Some years ago there wandered into this land, from Bradford County, Pennsylvania, a youth who was engaged to teach penmanship and general commercial subjects in the high school. A student of music from his childhood, he found the most natural play of his talent in this art, and, in the course of time, he abandoned the teaching of commercial branches and became Supervisor of Music. Always firmly convinced that the American community abounds in latent music possibilities, he began gradually to develop lo6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER its resources. Adherence to a few simple truths which, with enlarging experience, he gradually de- veloped, proved not only to him but to others that his belief in musical America was correct. To-day this man, Dr. HoUis Blsworth Dann, is Professor of Music in Cornell University, and the Director of a Festival Chorus that is at once the proof of his original belief and the pride of his community. The Festival Chorus performs annually in April, for one week, programs no less ambitious than we are accustomed to hear in our larger cities. A chorus of two hundred and seventy- five voices, made up of school children, university students, and townspeople, represents in minia- ture the community as a whole. Business men and university students, house-wives and school children come together to perform such works as Alda, The Children's Crusade, Samson and Delilah, The Elijah, and all the rest of the classical repertoire that has been made familiar to our people by the best choral organizations. Festival week brings together people from far and near in such numbers as to occupy every inch of available room. The event is not second in importance to Commencement week itself. A symphony orchestra with soloists of highest excellence assists the chorus, and between them all they offer striking proof of the fact that the American community is musical to a remarkable A TYPE OF COMMUNITY MUSIC 107 degree. Rehearsals for the festival begin in Decem- ber, and continue regularly until April. Let us see how this continuous music activity goes on, for what is done here can be done in any other town, provided a man is present who has the ability not only to dream dreams about the people, but the skill withal to make them come true. The child enters the kindergarten, begins its musical education there, and, remaining in school to the age of fourteen or beyond, is turned over to the community as a singer capable of participat- ing in an artistic festival performance ; thus prov- ing that the cost of music education is actually paid back to the tax payers, in developed capacity, as an earnest of a good investment. At the end of the kindergarten year the children are able to sing from memory, of course, from twenty to thirty simple songs. The songs are made the basis of pleasing object study, and with this attainment the children are taught to sing the scale with syllables as a song. This kindergarten music is carried on to the first (primary-) year, and when the child is ready to enter the second grade, he takes with him these factors of power; factors that have been attained as naturally and as easily as the words of his daily vocabulary: He can sing from twelve to twenty rote songs, with good tone, and without falling from the pitch. lo8 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER He can recognize and sing by syllable, groups of tones sung by the teacher, or played on the piano, or sung by other children. He can write them on the blackboard in correct music notation. He can read at sight simple melodies in simple meters. In brief, he can, at the end of the first school year, think music, read music, and write music — having learned all this in concerted and individual recitations of twenty minutes per day, these reci- tations being conducted by the grade teacher, who is regularly directed in her work by the Supervisor of Music. On completion of second year music, the tone remains pure and the class sing up to pitch. Ten to fifteen additional rote songs have been learned which are somewhat longer than the first year songs. The class recognize, sing, and write, in- dividually, longer tone groups, including simple skips, in two, three, and four part meter. They have read at sight one or two little music primers, in addition to the regular text-books The results of the third year music include three or four rote songs of special character, usually patriotic, the pupils now being able to read at sight from the book the songs which they sing. Two-part singing has been introduced, but not practised to any extent. The study of simple chromatic tones is begun. A TYPE OF COMMUNITY MUSIC 109 Individual tone and rhythm work includes the writing of tone groups with simple skips, recognition of two and three part meter, marking the accent, and placing the bars and meter sig- natures. The individual singing and reading at sight has included the use of material in the regular text-book, and one or two supplementary readers containing music with simple melodic skips, two sounds to the beat, in two, three, four, and six part measure. In the upper grades the (written) Tone and Rhythm study is partly creative, taking the form of melody writing. Words gradually take the place of syllables in the sight reading, which consists more and more of song material in each succeeding grade. When two and three part singing is intro- duced, all normal children sing all parts and are never allowed, much less required, to sing con- tinually on one part. When the boys' voices begin to change, they are carefully classified, and assigned permanently to the proper part. The music of the grades is continued system- atically in the high school, which has an ex- cellent Boys' Glee Club, a selected chorus of one hundred girls, a large orchestra, excellent chorus work by the entire school, and elective classes in Melody Writing and Dictation. The glee club and orchestra are heard in no THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER school assembly and in concert. The Girls* Chorus gives a Cantata annually, and the High School Chorus gives a Cantata or miscellaneous program at Commencement. Two forty-five-minute periods per week are devoted to music in the High school. Through- out the grades and in the High school the interest in music is genuine and equally strong with teachers, pupils, and town's people. The results of the study of music upon the boys and girls of this community are significant. They have learned a new language. By con- stant individual work they have learned to think in the language, to read, write, and appreciate it. They have learned concentration, quickness, and accuracy of thought and action. They possess the ability to read and enjoy much of the rich and fascinating literature of music. They have a love and appreciation of music which will increase as they grow into manhood and womanhood. So much for the music in the grades and in the High school. It is, as I have endeavored to impress, not regarded as a school study, pure and simple, but as a community asset. As in Oberammergau, so here, every Sunday of the col- lege year is celebrated with a significant musical program, which attracts not only the people in and about the campus, but from the town, often to the extent that many are unable to get into the chapel. This intense community interest in A TYPE OF COMMUNITY MUSIC III music is shown in another way, how it has, in fact, been practically developed: Fifteen years ago the receipts of an orchestral concert in this same community, conducted by distinguished orchestral leaders, were not al- ways sufficient to pay the local expenses. Famous singers, in recital, attracted fewer than one hundred people. Now such concerts are assured of full houses, and of an appreciative and intelligent audience. Pursuing the effect of this remarkable musical awakening beyond the point of its application in public performances, it may be shown that there rests within it a yet more wonderful influence. The saloon and its associated places of amusement may never be abolished by law, but they can be eliminated from the consciousness of our people. To do that, it is necessary- to awaken in them not alone response to enjoyment, but the power of creating the enjoyment itself. Once this springs into activity and begins to expand, a new type of citizen emerges. He has cultural power and cultural possibilities. These may find expres- sion in one of many worthy and beautiful ways, but music is peculiarly a valuable outlet, for this reason : It is the only art that can be participated in by many with an equal opportunity to all for self-expression. This is why the Festival Chorus, or even the most humble chorus, is so potent a means of community culture. One may be 112 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER tempted into passivity at a lecture or at an art exhibit, for there can be no power of control over the degree of attention that the observer must direct to the words of a speaker or to an art object. But in a chorus, where all the influences of art are actively present, the watchful eye of the conductor, his enthusiasm and encourage- ment inspire every tongue to speak — and in that speaking the latent capacity is made manifest. Furthermore, in the participation of every per- former there is a well-spring of individual attain- ment, a stimulation and development of personal power, and, as I have said above, wherever this is true, a new type of citizen emerges to enrich the land wherein he dwells. And there is yet much land to be possessed. CHAPTER XIV PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC Two aspects of public school music may in- terest the teacher. Either he may investigate it for the purpose of working with it cooperatively, or he may prepare to learn it as a profession. It is not necessary- to our purpose to relate the history of this remarkable phase of public educa- tion. From humble and experimental beginnings about 1830, it has developed to so remarkable a degree that children from the "grades" (that is, below the High School) have sung in public, with unusual effect, such works as Peter Benoit's Into the World, and Gabrielle Pieme's Children s Crusade,^ the music being learned as a part of the work of the daily music period. To attain such a result, with children who begin at the age of six to learn the major scale by rote, impHes a systematic order of procedure that should interest every private teacher of music. 1 This work had its first performance in America under the direction of Dr. Frank Damrosch, with a chorus aug- mented by two hundred voices from the public schools of New York City. It has been given twice by the Cmcin- nati May Festival Association, with children from the city's schools; and at Louisville, Ithaca, and elsewhere. 8 113 114 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Generally, three periods of public school music are recognized: (a) That pertaining to the Prim- ary Grades, (b) That of the Grammar Grades, (c) That of the High School. Sometimes the Primary Grade work is introduced through music for the Kindergarten, and in a few localities the music of the High School leads directly to special work in College classes. Three problems underlie music in the schools: 1. Its technic as a language. Hence, training to read, to think, to listen, and to write. 2. Its proper interpretation. 3. Its appreciation. This program shows that "sight reading" is distinctly not the aim of music in schools, but sight reading is an humble means for attaining the other ends we have instanced. In the earlier grades the initial instruction is by rote, but even in the first year of school children learn to read in several major keys. When printed notation has become familiar (exactly as the printed notation of EngHsh has in the Primer) the child's progress is natural and rapid. Thenceforth, reading seldom offers any difficulty, and the child's attention is brought to bear upon the development of powers that are often uncultivated in the professional musician. In their totaUty, the powers to be developed are: 1. Music memory. 2. The reading of music. PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC US 3. The accurate writing of music from Dicta- tion. 4. The composition of melodies, with and without words. 6. The abihty to participate in part music (particularly for two and for three voices). 7. Along with this natural approach to the subject, the child learns gradually the various terms and signs used in music, the major and mi- nor keys and their signatures. During the eight or twelve years of this school course the child sings hundreds of compositions of good writers, and becomes as familiar — through his own capacity to read their works — with the names of famous musicians as he is with the names of famous authors in literature. Ordinarily the process of conducting public school music is to place the responsibility for the subject in the care of a special teacher (the music supervisor or director). This instructor per- sonally prepares the grade teacher to give the actual instruction, while it remains the province of the supervisor to visit every room, test the work, and give such instruction as may not be regarded as within the province of the grade teacher. The work, properly organized on this basis, provides a specialist who plans and executes the broader movements of the subject and pro- vides (in the grade teacher) a corps of assistants who give daily attention to it. Il6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER While public school music has been in existence, with us, for several decades, it is only within recent years that supervisors have been especially and thoroughly trained for the office. At the present time there are several special schools for the training of teachers in this profession; while a considerable number secure their education either under private instructors, or by attending a "Summer School" for one, two, or three years. The requirements for this profession are not simple, and though the office has frequently been filled by people with comparatively little training, the specialization which the subject has received in recent years has resulted in a curriculum that is adequate. A teacher's fitness for this work begins with natural endowment. One should, necessarily, be musical; possess a pleasing per- sonality; have the ability to attract children, and the tact to direct them. It is required at all times not only to work with children, but with the entire corps of teachers, principals, and the superintendent. One must be methodical in the work, and absolutely adaptable in all the de- mands it makes. The musical training to be erected upon this material foundation demands, first, a voice of pleasing quality, the true percep- tion of pitch, clear enunciation of English, and what is known as the inherent musical sense. The technical training demands the complete mastery of the problems involved in sight reading ; PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC II7 hence, the fundamental musical knowledge should be extensive. One must know enough about musical theory to perceive all the constructive purposes of the composer. This involves some knowledge of Harmony, Melody, Musical Form, and all that is included under Rudiments of Music. Musical dictation is required to the extent that one writes (at least, to the limit of the subject's demands) readily and accurately. The supervisor must be able to step to the black- board and illustrate in melodic figure whatever problem the class is studying. If the supervisor is to rise above mediocrity in the profession, he must be skillful in the adap- tation of what he knows to its broadest purposes. All that is involved in the history and appre- ciation of the music he teaches should be at his ever-ready command. And, further, he must be a willing student as long as he teaches, must have a capacity for organization, and, most important of all, cultural attainment must be worthy of the educational position. The supervisor who teaches music by means of bad English is not a profitable municipal investment. Salaries paid for music supervision in the public schools vary from a few dollars a month to four thousand dollars per annum. There are very few of the latter amount, and an amazing number of the former. But of salaries it may be said— as it may be of private teaching— the Il8 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER full round of equipment of the teacher, his skill, adaptability, and the results he produces are the determining factors. Many supervisors have begun with a very uncertain condition of music in schools, have built it up into a concretely organized subject, and have determined their own salaries as they have improved the situa- tion. The salient requirements, aside from the details already given, are: 1. A substantial cultural education. 2. Capacity for team work in the educational organization. 3. A sound musical training. 4. A thorough special training in the subject itself. From the little here outlined, the reader will correctly infer that public school music has be- come a highly specialized subject. Few commu- nities, however, realize upon it, in proportion to the expense involved. Its natural florescence as an educational asset is in the organization of a body of community singers composed of adults, and of selected singers from the upper public school classes. Nothing else in the educational curriculum lends itself so naturally to com- munity interest as music does. This has been referred to in the chapter on Music in the Com- munity. The private music teacher should not neglect PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC 119 the opportunity of acquainting himself fully with the practice of music in the schools. Just as public school music is frequently an unde- veloped asset in the community, so it remains an equally undeveloped asset with the private teacher. The schoolboy or girl who is taking private music lessons should be led into per- ceiving the unity of this effort with that of the daily school song period. And this can be done without calling the child's attention to the matter. The identity of effort is easily made evident. In some High Schools music is dropped from the curriculum. In others, it is given its rightful place, progressively from the grades. Here, works in larger forms are studied. The changed voice on the part of the boys provides a few tenors and more basses; hence, four-part music can be taken up for study. Again, in the High School, some attention is paid to music theory (in one or more of its branches), to music history, and, in very frequent instances, to music ap- preciation. One Normal school^ devotes some time daily to the study and analysis of a musical work — appreciatively. Pianoforte and vocal programs are given by students and visiting artists. The piano player and sound-reproducing machine ^ At Winona, Minnesota, Miss Caroline V. Smith, Mu- sical Director. 120 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER open the entire range of music to the students. The director says in her instruction to teachers: In order to make Hstening to a musical selec- tion effective strive to create a sympathetic atmosphere, and so establish a right relation between performer and listener. The music often tells a story, or there is a story about the music. Awaken a sympathetic attitude by telling the story as given. Frequently ask pupils to give their impression of the music. Sometimes in the upper grades, let them give an analysis of a composition. A definite plan of analytical study is pre- sented, which is worked out with all necessary means (including a very valuable and practical school library of books on music). The method and extent of the work of this Normal school are unique, but at the same time a thoroughly practical system of procedure underlies it all, that makes like attainment possible wherever there is a teacher who can organize the study of the art in an equally efficient way. In a few localities high school students are given credit for music work done with the private teacher (outside of school). The music appre- ciation period is particularly adapted for turning this (private) music attainment to account, and in many schools every student who can sing or play is given an opportunity to participate in the school programs. PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC I2l The private teacher who investigates this subject will find it to abound in interest. There is much in it that will prove of direct benefit, and by cooperating with the public school educational effort he can help twofold: his own teaching will readily correlate with it, and he contributes a valuable musical unit to the schools in the pupils he is training. As a concrete illustration of work required in Public School music courses the reader is referred to the concluding chapter of this book, in which examination tests are presented. CHAPTER XV MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK In the effort to give music its logical place in the social order, to avail of it where its art and education impulse may produce the best results, it is natural that it should be found an aid to the purposes of Settlement work. While there are to-day several so-called Music School Settle- ments, they have come into being within a few years, and all have found more or less inspiration in the well-known institution in East Third Street, New York City. [The description of this school as given in the following paragraphs is from an article^ written when the first definitely planned activities for the growth of the school were being made. Since that time the work has increased not only in scope, but in value. From a small faculty, teach- ing a comparatively small number of students, the school has grown until to-day the faculty numbers over one hundred, and the registered pupils are about eight hundred. This unique ' " Music and East Side Children. The Story of a Novel Social Settlement," by Thomas Tapper. From the Out- look, New York. 122 MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 123 plan to take music to the people of the great East Side of New York is one of the most sig- nificant educational demonstrations of the times. It constitutes, in the highest sense, the Com- munity Music plan raised to its most practical purposes. Efforts have been made elsewhere to inaugurate a similar movement, the inherent force of which is attested to by the fact that (so far as it is known to the writer) no such efifort has ever met with failure.] It is three o'clock, and the children are hurry- ing through the basement door to the desk where, for a few cents, they procure the ticket in exchange for which they receive a lesson. The attendant inquires of a young girl: "When do you have your lesson, Lena?" "Quarter past five, please." Lena receives her ticket, deposits it in a safe place, and proceeds to make her plans. She is two hours and fifteen minutes ahead of her schedule. This is not required of her, but it is an asset on which she has reckoned. If it be cold and stormy without, she knows that she is at hberty to spend the time in the School, where it is warm, homeHke, and attractive. No rules re- strict her actions, save the one that demands quiet in order that no disturbance may reach the teaching rooms. If it be summer time, Lena makes her way to the back yard (not quite 124 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 20 X 50), which possesses a brilliant red swing, and a patch of blue sky overhead. Here Lena's liberty is unrestricted, and neither she nor her brothers have ever abused it even so far as to disturb the fringe of plants that struggle for life between the concrete and the fence. At a quarter past five Lena reports to her teacher and performs her lesson. The time is spent earnestly, and the work accomplished is genuine in every sense. It is at once businesslike and artistic. How the lesson has been studied, wherein it gives evidence of insufficient thought, what must be done to assure better results for the coming week, and how more systematic habits may be cultivated to attain a finer artistic conception, all this gives her an abundance of suggestion, which, whether she ever becomes a musician or not, has lasting value. But Lena's responsibility does not end with the lesson. Should you visit the School on the following Sunday morning, you will see her hastening, violin-case in hand, to report at ten o'clock. Forty others of her kind are assembled there. The usual confusion incident to the gath- ering of an orchestra and its preparation for per- formance greets you as you enter. But in a moment quiet reigns and all are in place ready to begin. You sit with the group of visitors, along the wall, or on the stairs, or in the little hallway. MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 125 Under the guidance of Mr. David Mannes, the Conductor of the orchestra, you hear, in order, a Handel Concerto, a Mozart, and a Beethoven Quartet. The program amazes you, but not less than the performance of it. The children are playing classic music well, and in a reverent spirit. It is particularly with the spirit that the Conductor impresses both you and them. Under his quietly given direction, tone, phrasing, and interpretation are building a new and a fairer creation. The beauty of the music comes forth from the instruments (many of which cost as little as three dollars) as Aphrodite rose from the mystic sea. The Conductor reminds you of the line in Uhland's poem, "Der Berg, der ist mein Eigenthum," whereon he, standing, calls up to him these little ones of many tribes, who, down in the city of the plain, may be so easily and so dreadfully scattered. And they learn to climb, a step or two gained now and then, until one day we hope they may in turn dictate to the confusion of life below them as the Knabe' vom Berge did, saying, "Lasst meines Vaters Haus in Ruh!" Now it is noon, the rehearsal is over, and the children surround the Conductor and direct to him a happy word or a serious inquiry. Mean- while you begin your tour of observation to the teaching-rooms, the violin "store," the library, the front parlor office; and in the progress of your 126 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER journey upstairs, downstairs, and in the little chambers you hear this story: There are in regular attendance at the Music School Settlement about three hundred and seventy-five children, from six to seventeen years of age. In the past school year they received collectively thirty thousand lessons. The faculty numbers thirty-two members, and the courses of study include stringed instruments, piano, har- mony, voice, and ensemble music. ^ One who has never visited the School may ask, "Is it necessary to provide music instruction to the children of the East Side?" The most convincing reply to this question is found in the support the School receives from the people for whom it exists. They not only tax it to its capacity, but there is always a waiting list. The people want music in the home, and here for a very few cents they may procure it. The neighborhood participates in the school life to an uncommon degree. One evening per week is devoted to a public concert when the children or visiting artists play. In a room that seats an orchestra of forty comfortably, a hundred or more people crowd in to listen. Our pupils naturally fall into three classes: (i) Those who love music and study it as far as their time and circumstances permit. This type is illustrated by one of the boys in the orchestra , ^ All these figures have considerably increased of late. MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 127 who was advised, against his own deske, not to take up music professionally; he became a civil engineer, but he studies music in his spare hours, and he never fails to be at his desk on Sunday. We conclude that he employs his margin of time wisely. (2) Those who have found themselves, and, having proved by talent, industry, and char- acter that they may safely be encouraged to follow music as a calling, have become orchestral players. One of this class who has received all his training in the School has just passed an examination under Mr. Walter Damrosch, and has been ad- mitted to the violin section of the New York Symphony Orchestra. (3) Those who have the musical and intellectual equipment necessary to become teachers. This class is exemplified by many who are teaching privately, as well as by eighteen advanced pupils who are members of the School faculty, and who, by earning a living in the School, are enabled to support themselves and to continue their education. Of the total enrollment, a certain percentage become wage-earners in music, and, compared with the work of almost any other school, this percentage is high. The rest contribute to their families the fruits of their activity in our classes, and open for themselves another pathway into the world's treasure-house of thought and beauty. Recently, in conducting a competitive examina- tion for the assignment of a scholarship, an 128 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER anaemic little Miss played for me, from memory, the Beethoven Sonatine in F major. Every note was correct, but the performance was so delicate as to be shadowy. "Why do you not play with more tone?" I asked her. "Oh, you know," she replied, "I can practice so little on the piano that I am almost afraid of it." Investigation disclosed the fact that, having no piano at home, she comes to school an hour before her lesson time and practises, if she finds an un- occupied room. My belief, in her case, is that she has opened a pathway that she will ever love to follow. Now and then a critic arises who, having in- vestigated the School only in the domain of his imagination, declares that we are trying to make musicians out of the children of barbers, tailors, and tinkers. I do not quite recognize the crime in this effort, but it does not fairly state the case. Among the large number of children who come to us we find, as the instances already cited show, some who are especially gifted. We make every effort to aid them so that they may develop and be enabled to help themselves. No attempt is made to fill the world with ill-prepared music teachers and players. That unfortunate supply takes care of itself. But our aim, even with the very least of those who come to us, is to instill MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 129 good habits of study, strict attention to the re- sponsibiHty involved in becoming a student, love for music, and reverence for the better things of life. "But," the critic adds, "you take them out of their station in life, give them ideals difficult if not impossible to attain, and make them dissatis- fied with their condition." This is true to an extent ; would that it were true to a far greater extent ! When institutions devote themselves to providing us with an ideal difficult to attain, and to making us dissatisfied with our condition, we may then begin to understand what it means to say "Thy kingdom come," for the coming of the kingdom lies in pursuing the ideal, in gaining the perception and the strength of will to forge the soul by swinging the hammer of effort. In opportunities for stimulating individual and social betterment the School is abundantly pro- vided; in its resources for meeting the problems that lie close at hand and for developing its work it is handicapped. I have referred above to the few cents required in payment for lessons. This small pa}Tiient instills promptness, integrity, and thrift, and is consequently a splendid asset in character training. We find, however, that many a family has not even these few cents to spare. Hence we have established scholarships which provide those who are worthy with all necessary 9 I30 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER instruction until the time arrives when they can help themselves. The present financial depres- sion has increased the demand for full and partial scholarships beyond our capacity to provide them. All instruction in harmony, in ensemble music, in orchestra and choral practice is free. It is our intention to provide the new courses in EngUsh and all the technical instruction free of expense to the pupils. Many of our children receive not only free instruction, but all the necessary music and supplies. The School library of books and music is free to the children of the School and to the neighborhood. The school year extends from September 15th to June 15th. But the summer is no idle time. In July and August a constant stream of children came in from the Bast Side streets to play in the back yard. Here to the games of the streets were added the benefits of organized play; and every day the resident in charge of this work gathered about her the boys of the neighbor- hood, the good and the less good, to hear about their favorite heroes, generally the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table. In the same period nearly one hundred children were provided with a two weeks' visit to the country, and two hundred others spent a day in the country. During the school year there are evening classes for those wage-earners who are unable to come to MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 131 US before six o'clock; there are also a concert one evening per week, and a regular rehearsal of the Junior Orchestra on Saturday morning and of the Senior Orchestra on Sunday morning. Many clubs have been formed in the School and neigh- borhood which meet regularly in the School building. After the rehearsal on Sunday morn- ing there is frequently present some one who speaks to the children on education, books, read- ing, music, or citizenship. The audience is in- tensely attentive. If I may be pardoned, I will refer to my own first visit to the School in April, 1906. I spoke to the children a few minutes on Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies." Afterwards the bad boy of the School (he was a sort of pugilistic mayor of the neighborhood) invited me out into the front hall to discuss the advisability of estab- lishing a Ruskin Club. Busy as the School is in its immediate work of music, it finds time and opportunity to take up many collateral activities. Every year makes us better acquainted with the people of the neigh- borhood and their needs. Medical care is pro- vided for the children when necessary. We wel- come all to the public performances given in the School, and they heartily respond to the invita- tion. Hence the Music School Settlement is at once a music school and a settlement. I am often asked this question: With whom is the School doing its most important work? 132 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER I reply, with no hesitation, "With the Httle children." If little Lerva comes to us early enough, we can give her a concrete idea how, through music, seeds of joy may be planted, how she may add to her early life-experience happy hours won by faithful devotion to duty. So im- portant is this that not a day must pass without its rich contribution having been made. And unless Lena comes to us in the first years, this is done, if at all, with difficulty. If we can add this influence to life's group of remembrances from childhood days, we feel that the community has gained through our efforts a better citizen, and that the little citizen himself has gained somewhat of the inheritance of which Socrates taught when, in the streets of Athens, he gathered the youth about him while he dis- coursed on the text, ' 'The gods for labor sell us all good things." Now this Settlement School, under the wise direction of its present officers and directors, is not attempting to make musicians. It may do so in the future, as it has in the past, but its main effort is to work toward that abundance of life of which we have biblical promise. The School is primarily a center of influence, an enrichment of the mind, a source at which the young people who attend it may gain a broader outlook upon the possibilities of life. There is no more potent influence in the life of the active boy and girl MUSIC IN SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK 133 than music, but it must be brought before them so that they are aroused by its vitality. To do that is the everlasting quest of the teacher. To instill that interest is decidedly an investment in citizenship. Boys and girls see the sidewalks and the street- corners because they are the only available club houses usually at their disposal. These gathering places appeal fundamentally to the negative side of their activity. And yet, as it has been pointed out by a writer: "Every boy on every comer is not necessarily a bad boy, nor is every gang a bad gang."^ The fact that he is not a bad boy is the promise of another fact, namely, he need not become one. Hence, the Music School Settlement is doing, as we have said, a distinct work in citizen-building, and it is doing it in the one logical manner, by directing the energy of children upon something that appeals to the full round of inner impulse. It does not merely gather children together. Nor does it attempt merely to entertain them. But it sets them to work uncovering and developing whatever talent they may have, be it much or very little, and in this urgency to self-expression is its great civic and individual value discovered. Wherever schools of this kind spring up in the congested quarters of our large cities they imme- diately begin to mold character if they are 1 Arthur I. Peckham, in the Boston Herald. 134 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER rightly conducted. Teachers who attempt this work must study the social, neighborhood, and civic problem equally with the music. "The reason," says the writer quoted above, "why the boy (and girl) is on the street is not hard to discover. He is on the street because he is not wanted in the house. In the cramped quarters where many are gathered in a few rooms there is no place for the restless activity of the boy." One of the most remarkable evidences of the work accomplished by the Music School Settle- ment is found in its influence upon the home. It has brought the home members to the school, and the school sends its influence into the home every time the boy and girl return with their next lesson.^ * See Appendix, page 208, CHAPTER XVI EFFICIENCY No word is more popularly used than "Effi- ciency." We meet it in conversation and in literature, finding it applied to all forms of activity. The underlying principles of efficiency, once put into working order, produce more work from the manual laborer with more direct ap- plication of his skill and strength. Efficiency is the spirit of the application of education to life. In this connection, it is not a method of action to be applied always in the same way, but rather a means by which larger self- expression is secured. Inquiry as to the particulars in which the teacher may study and apply the lessons of efficiency reveals many opportunities for the simplification and improvement of processes. For his purposes, efficiency may be considered as : I. Mental. II. Physical. III. Environmental. I. Mental Efficiency is that systematic order- ing of thought that allows us to proceed in the most direct line from the thought itself to the 135 136 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER thing for which the thought stands. It concerns itself with organizing work, time, and the conduct of affairs, resulting in a systematic arrangement that is the outer manifestation of a definitely- ordered plan of procedure. II. Physical Efficiency results from the mental control of the body that makes it the willing and obedient servant of the thinking faculty. In this it will consider training for fitness, endurance, power, and adaptability. III. Environmental Efficiency is the technic that permits us to use our surroundings intelli- gently, as against our being used by the environ- ment passively. The establishment of these three forms of Efficiency is possible only when the Reason (or the Master Faculty of Epictetus) assumes rightful control in individual life, and produces a mind and body that can work with and employ environment and its resources creatively and after its own manner. Efficiency is impossible except it be established at a center. This center must be an occupation of some kind. In this occupation there must be enough involved to produce individual training of high order. The work of the music teacher touches Ufe at so many points that he can realize but little on his total of power unless by organiza- tion he acquires a direct and forceful method of employing his resources. Such a method is pos- EFFICIENCY 137 sible only when one is alive to the fearful conse- quences of becoming the victim of fixed habits that make for the minimum of activity. Effi- ciency, therefore, constantly calls upon us to ex- pend energy in new and better accomplishment, in an improved way of thinking and doing that is discovered and applied irrespective of the per- sonal trouble involved in it. Seekers after com- fort are invariably inefficient in their work because in this case the object of all action is ease. Attainment, however, must, first of all, dismiss comfort as an end in itself, and must seek to find liberty in a definite fulfillment of the law of direct action. Let us take, by way of illustration, Speech efficiency. By his more or less exact knowledge of words the teacher conveys his ideas to his pupil, and he receives ideas from others either in person or through books. Music teaching re- quires the use of two classes of words: (a) those that are technically peculiar to the art; (b) those that are not. There are comparatively few of the former, and some hundreds of thousands of the latter. Manifestly, he should know thoroughly the technical terms, and possess a general vocabu- lary of other words that is sufficient for his pur- poses. Now, all words have exact meanings, and the first step in the efficient mastery of technical terms is to discover the root meaning of each and to watch its efect in action; that is, to observe 138 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER how it plays its part in our effort to express thought with it. This involves mastering each technical term separately by tracing its meaning and watching the play of that meaning in all sorts of contrast. A single line from an essay, by Charles Lamb, will illustrate this: "(There were) swans more than sang in Cayster." The words here italicized are intended to convey an absolutely exact picture; it is not a hazy reference, but a clear cut image. This image can, in no instance, result as it should unless we establish a definite relation between "swans" and "Cayster." This can only be done when the reader is willing to get up from his chair and find the information in the book or books that contain it. Thus, speech efficiency requires not only much mental ordering, but a ceaseless amount of mental and physical activity; and with it the spoken use of words that brings them into the vital relationship of life. Just as the effort to attain speech efficiency leads to the cultivation of exact habits in the mental organization, some find like power of organization to evolve in the effort to establish Time efficiency. Time efficiency results from the mental grasp of the hours at our disposal that makes them bear most directly upon the work we have to perform. Thus, business men lay out the day, so to speak, EFFICIENCY 139 by arranging work in such order and sequence that the most can be accomplished in the least time, consistent with excellence. Every motion is a time consumer. Hence a careful considera- tion of motions is the first step. Into every day certain activities fall that must, by their very nature, become automatic. Creative work can never become automatic; in a sense, it seeks its favorable time. But the amazingly logical and persistent use of time as evidenced by Beethoven shows that genius need not wait two hours for the sake of ten minutes of fancied inspiration. Readers of Mr. Arnold Bennett's charming book, entitled How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day, will recall the sane suggestions he makes for an efficient organization of a day's time. But failure is inevitable unless we see one supreme fact clearly, and that fact is this: The individual, the real self, stands above the mind, the body, and the environment, and is not merely merged in them. This elevated position, which is noth- ing less than our divinely rightful place, imme- diately throws mental, physical, and environmen- tal life out from us into objectivity. Once we attain that position, organization becomes simple. So long, however, as the higher or inner self is immersed in the lower or outer planes, we lose their objectivity and fail to control them. We have already quoted the statement that "what most people do most of the time is wrong." I40 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER This statement is significant in this : it draws our attention to the fact that the common habit of action is a habit that is common; whereas the teUing, convincing type of action is always that which is uncommon. The young lady who de- cided to join a chorus "because the other girls were joining" exhibited a fair type of mental action prompted by a cause outside of the intel- lectually inquiring self. And the young lady discovered this fact, for, having no voice, the chorus director found no place for her. It is almost proverbial that the busiest men have plenty of time. The reason is, of course, that with them all time is made to count. The late Mr. Keppel has written that, calling upon the artist Whistler one day when the latter was busier than usual, he was met with the gruff statement, "I can give you just five minutes." Mr. Keppel stated the purpose of his visit, and it resulted in Whistler spending the entire day with him. This was not whim or fancy, but consequent of control over circumstances that found time where there seemed to be none. A traveling salesman who was desirous of increasing his education, and having no time at home to devote to that end, planned a course of study to be pur- sued as he journeyed on business by train from one city to another. In every business house the person who can simplify a single action or series of actions so that as much or more work is EFFICIENCY 141 accomplished more rapidly, easily, and directly is an efficient helper. Now, to the music teacher, all phases of effi- ciency that we have mentioned, and many more, are means of attainment, but no less im- portant is his capacity to produce an efficient pupil. To this end, he will actually study out for every pupil he has (not dream about it, but actually work out) a plan of action. It may involve report cards, practice schedule, and the like, but primarily it will aim to teach the pupil to put his music lesson on a business basis. It will specify so much daily practice distributed in a definite manner. He will make it clear to the pupil that his appointments with the teacher are important, that they demand preparation, prompt attendance, and exactly as good team work from him as he is willing to give when he plays short stop. The teacher must not casually mention these facts, but he must drive them home by reason and insistence. This will result in a work- ing organism that attends to business, an asset that will be forever valuable, whether the pupil has talent in music or not. We have too long been accustomed to regard the great artist as a creature of vagaries that are to be overlooked because they spring from genius. No one, however, overlooks the actions of a gentleman who purloins other people's goods and chattels on the same plea. The irregularities 142 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER of the artistic life, in the comparatively few in- stances where we find them, simply rob that life of so much potentiality. They are signs of weak- ness and lack of control that are as far from efficiency as human nature can go. If the teacher will say to himself: "I am a business organization, and I am going to put myself on a working basis that makes the most of my power, time, and increasing knowledge," he will have taken the first decisive step toward becoming an efficient member of his profession. CHAPTER XVII SELF-EXPRESSION IN MUSIC Speech efficiency is only possible through a vast amount of speech experience. This in- volves the thinking, speaking, writing, and reading of words, all combined with an intensive study of words as conveyors of the most delicate shades of meaning, in the best literature. This speech experience is common, to an extent, to nearly all people, and yet the efficient use and appreciation of words in speech and in literature is comparatively uncommon. But to whatever degree we are capable in this, to that degree and no more are we appreciative of our mother tongue in its various forms of expression. When we compare this extremely active speech experience with the music experience of the aver- age teacher and pupil, we are at once struck with the paucity of expression, in the music language, common to most of us. By our process of edu- cation music, as a language, too frequently appeals only objectively to the intellect; and in too few cases does it penetrate into the consciousness and become a working principle. And yet, until it does this, its spirit must necessarily elude us; we 143 144 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER fail to express ourselves in the language, and to no less a degree do we fail to grasp those shades of meaning that constitute its finer manifesta- tions in the works of distinguished composers. While the best systems of musical instruction provide for the full round of experience, as instanced above in the case of English, the pupil (and the teacher into which the pupil develops) is inclined to persist in regarding music as en- tirely an objective experience, and by limiting the forms of practice necessary to master it as thought activity, to store up comparatively little subjective experience that manifests as habit or impulse. It may be said, without unfairness, that the usual result of a long course of music study familiarizes the student with it to no greater ex- tent than takes place in the serious study of a foreign language. Here we gain, ordinarily: 1. The ability to read the language (with the eye), often haltingly. 2. Some knowledge of its grammatical struc- ture. 3. A more or less faulty pronunciation. 4. The ability to repeat certain phrases, or even memorized selections. But our limitations are these: 5. We do not think spontaneously in the lan- guage. SELF-EXPRESSION IN MUSIC 145 6. Our knowledge of its grammatical structure remains objective, instead of becoming subjective (or "second nature," as the subjective is often called). 7. In consequence of No. 5, we do not speak the language freely enough to make it a ready- medium of self-expression. 8. We fail, then, to wTite it. 9. And there is always present the experience of failing to grasp the words of the language when they are spoken by a native. That is, the ear is not trained to delicacy and rapidity of reception of sound. This series of foreign language experiences is almost literally true of the experience in music on the part of the pupil who is not fully devel- oped. Translated into terms of music: 1. We do not read the music (either at the key- board or away from it) with perfect freedom. 2. Our knowledge of its grammatical structure (based on the study of the subjects given under musical theory, Chapter V'll) is as practical as we apply our theoretical knowledge, and no more so. 3. There is evident, both in the vocal and keyboard efifort to express ourselves in music, a faulty pronunciation; that is, an absence of natural ease with tone and mastery of it. 4. We can in music, as in the foreign language, play (repeat) the works of others, but none of our own. 10 146 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 5. Very few ever fully master, even to an ele- mentary degree, the art of thinking in tone. 6. The evidences of musical structure on the printed page are not immediately (frequently not at all) observed. 7. Again, in consequence of No. 5, music is not a medium for actual je//-expression. 8. We do not habitually (and with pleasure) write the language. 9. And, finally, when we hear music, just as when we hear the foreign language, we fail to a greater or less degree to take it in. Generally we can neither repeat what we hear, nor can we write it. From these parallel statements of experiences that are not far from being identical, one can readily see wherein the mastery of the language consists. It is in this: To practise persistently all the vital processes of music until they become perfect impulses for self-expression. Then the question arises: Why did not our teachers perfect us in the active practices of these principles so that we are now fully capable of using them? The answer is interesting: Everyone must take up his own cross. It is absolutely impossible for the in- structor to grow for the pupil. The instructor can supply everything necessary to stimulate growth, and there his power ceases. We find this to be true in our own experience with our SELF-EXPRESSION IN MUSIC 147 pupils. To the extent that they accept and apply they become capable of self-expression. And exactly this condition was true in our student days. We have all been taught vastly more than we have assimilated. The young man and woman may betray in conversation a com- paratively small intellectual curve. If they have been educated only through the High School they have pursued these subjects (and perhaps this list is not complete) : Reading f European Physiology Writing 1 History Latin Spelling Arithmetic French Enghsh Grammar Algebra German and Literature Geometry Botany Geography Music Chemistry American History Civics Physics Had even a small portion of this passed beyond the portal of the intellect and reached the con- sciousness, the individual would be a surprisingly interesting conversationalist. The inability to reveal such a consciousness is always explained in the statement that this list of subjects has been pursued, for the most part, as mental training. Assuming this is a fair explanation, the music teacher has received a vast amount of mental training that should make him capable of supplying his own deficiencies at any time in life. These de- ficiencies are stmmied up in his inability to ex- 148 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER press himself readily, interestingly, and ade- quately in music. Unless he is content to remain outside the pale of the art by which he sustains himself, he will begin a system of self-training that will enable him to do all the things we have listed above as representing what, as a rule, he cannot do. Four lines of activity pursued daily will eventually liberate him. He must think, read, write, and listen to music. In music thinking, the systematic study of melody composition will uncover the spring, if there be one within him, and it will serve at the same time for practice in music writing. The composition of a half-dozen melodies now and then will not liberate him. He must think them out by scores and hundreds and thousands, write them properly, study any literature he can secure, and go on thinking and writing more and more of them. If the printed page does not reveal the tonal message to him clearly, he should begin to read the very simplest music he can find, a single melody Hne at a time. It may be necessary for him to begin with the four-measure phrases of a school music reader. If so, let him begin that way. Such exercises are about as complex as the English sentence: See the red apple. He reads that and can see the apple. He does not need to turn to a book of colors first to find SELF-EXPRESSION IN MUSIC 149 what red is, so that the mental picture shall be accurate. To secure an actually vivid mental impres- sion of this next sentence, he should need no more outside assistance than the pitch of the first tone to read a phrase that is not more complex than that about the apple: $ 4-4- 1-4. S m'£^^- m i^ i;*^ All his music student life has afforded him no end of suggestions for the centralizing of tone. He may be able, by keeping strict account of the figuration, to add the upper parts to a bass; and little good it does unless one can hear the entire result of the four interrelated parts. An inter- esting test with such an exercise as follows is to sing the required soprano, then alto, then tenor, without playing or writing them. 3 6 9 8 6 4 7 4 3 6 6 4 3 "7 •i9- ■/•>'0 "" Vj.tt^ P , . 1 1 /T} f^ ^~. 1 t^J'J, ^ \- V-^o r> 1 \ \ 1 1 '/^ ^ ; i (^ 1 A\ «* t ■ ' i- 1 . 1 1 ' r^ Then, further, all the reverse of the reading and thinking process should be persistently practised; that is, the ability should be cultivated, until it 150 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER is letter perfect, to write music from dictation. Then the language begins to live on a vital basis. Several excellent text-books on Musical Dicta- tion have recently appeared. Their common purpose is to provide a plan of action. (Action is the essential word.) If the student of the subject does not possess the gift of absolute pitch he cannot definitely locate a single tone, but he can learn to establish two or more tones in their interval or scale relation. This is the basis of Dictation Study in the public schools. There, it is true, some one dictates to someone else; a process impossible to the person who is working alone. But still, there is an abundance of possible practice even in this case. The music we remem- ber, especially song melodies, the music we hear daily should be translated into its scale relation. Even children, pursuing tone-study independently, often report peculiarly interesting observations. An experiment made with a class of children (many of them blind) ranging from seven to thir- teen years of age will illustrate this. They were requested to listen and to record the sounds they heard in a given half -hour; and to specify the sounds that were musical and non- musical. A blind girl wrote this: 1. I heard the rising bell (musical). 2. I heard a horse neigh (noise). 3. I heard a boy clapping his hands (noise). 4. I heard the breakfast bell (musical). SELF-EXPRESSION IN MUSIC 151 Here, however, is more definite evidence of in- herent tone-sense: 1. Heard a boy whistling in the key of D. 2. A door squeaked in the key of C. 3. I heard my teacher say "Hello" (musical). 4. Bell (one line E». 5. Pedler's cry (chord of E major). 6. Water boiling (A major). Is such observation of tone, on the part of children, of any practical value? In reply I would recall to the reader the in- stance of the boy who began his investigation of the mysteries of the piano by picking out tunes with one finger. He gave evidence of good pre- liminary material with which to inaugurate a training in art. CHAPTER XVIII MUSICAL COMPOSITION We have seen, in the previous chapter, that the simplest effort at self-expression in music has for the ultimate purpose the establishing of tonal consciousness. Tone must become the material for thought process or its messages may never be deeply read. It has also been pointed out that general school training is far more extensive as a process of intellectual awakening than it is as a direct means for establishing even a slight degree of intercommunicability between the mind of the learner and the mental processes involved in his books. Likewise, the well-prepared music student receives far more training than he ever transforms into power. And he fails to see that music theory is not a series of interrelated facts alone, but a line of vital processes. The vitality in these processes must be translated by him, through action, into personal power. Now the attainment of personal power in the handling of tone material means nothing less than that the teacher must employ it creatively. He may not possess the slightest genius for 152 MUSICAL COMPOSITION 153 composition, and yet he cannot afford to be less than thoroughly familiar with the processes of composition, nor can he afford not to practise them. Shall he become a composer? To this query, the frequent reply of Epictetus may not be amiss : God forbid. He may assume to have no skill as a writer of English speech, and yet he writes. In Hke manner, let him compose to the end that the simpler ways of spinning tone material may become familiar to him. A funda- mentally wrong perception of music may come to the student who labors over a harmony ex- ercise as varied in chords as this (from a text- book on Harmony): 154 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER He may look through page after page of the music of the writers of the Classic School and fail to find eight measures so diversified har- monically as these. The composer learns the art of spinning his chords into melody lines; and, in consequence, his chord- variety is slight, but his forms of presentation are manifold. The teacher has only to compare the above harmonic suc- cession with the following to be convinced of the difference. If the student days (under an instructor) are passed, one may, nevertheless, learn music by persistently writing simple pieces. The easy teaching pieces of GurUtt, Volkmann, Kullak, MUSICAL COMPOSITION 15$ Heller, and many others are desirable models. The first step is Analysis. This involves: 1. How many different chords are used? 2. In what order do they appear? 3. What is the balance of Phrases? Then with this information, let imitative writ- ing follow — in which the chord sequence is re- tained, while variations of rh>i:hm and meter give the problem some little play for originality. Such imitative work is parallel with the High School and College work of constructing an essay on Reading assignments. It does not call for origination, but for adaptation of given means for the purpose of establishing a mental technic. Comparatively few "imitations" of this kind will be necessary before the writer will find that a technical skill for handling tone material is actually forming. It is to be hoped, however, that the "composi- tions" resulting from these simple laboratory experiments will not prove embarrassing property to the writer. What we are aiming to attain is Skill, and not Opus numbers. A vast proportion of such writing is literally useless as music. Of what good, then, is it to spend time in pro- ducing music that is useless? The good lies in the information, insight, and the appreciation of how even simple music is written. And the further good, the more important fact, is this: Music writing stimulates the faculty of musical IS6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER analysis, which is the most essential process within the domain of musical pedagogy. Much of the study of musical theory is useless to the majority of students because it is unapplied. And yet this study rarely includes that one de- partment which is of constant practical use to the music teacher, namely. Musical Form Anal- ysis. For some hidden and mysterious reason this subject is supposed to be practical only to the student of composition. As a matter of fact, it is the basis of all piano teaching especially, and in it lies the secret of musical memory. Let us suppose the teacher is working with a pupil on the first movement of the Beethoven F minor Sonata (Op. 2, No. i). This movement is to be learned technically and memorized for recital performance. The process may be one of two: 1 . A vigorous cutting of one's way through the jungle of the five pages, and remembering the steps by sheer force of severe intellection. Or, 2. A systematic arrangement of the five pages of music into its components, and the study of each component as a separate (and yet intimately associated) unity. Even a few hours' reading of a Musical Form text will enable the teacher to render the pupil intelligent assistance in this matter. What is the topography of this new country, called a Sonata movement? MUSICAL COMPOSITION 157 It begins, proceeds to a double bar, and repeats. Then it moves on over a larger stretch of measures and arrives at a double bar which does not call for a repeat, thus: 48 measures || 104 measures Why is the second part so much longer than the first? Examination of the 104 measures shows that they embody a repeat of all the first part, and that the movement is not twofold, as the double bars indicate, but threefold, as the inner structure indicates. Hence: (A) 48 measures' 1 1 (B) 52 measures | (A) 52 measures | 48 4-4 This plan reveals to the pupil that instead of having to grasp one hundred and fifty-two measures of music, without interrelation, his task is the comparatively simple one of memor- izing three portions of 48, 52, and 52 measures respectively. If, however, the teacher will spend the neces- sary few minutes to show that this is by no means all the simplification that can be made, he will still further lighten (or, at least, make comprehensible) the memory task. The first forty-eight measures are clearly not one piece of 158 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER music, but four. Let it suffice here to show that the normal structure of music creates balance and contrast that make memorizing far simpler than could otherwise be the case. A Measures B Measures c Measures 1-48. 49-100. 101-152, Sm. First Subject in F minor. I. 8m. First Subject in F minor. 12m. Episode. 2im. Second Sub- ject in A flat. 52 measures Made up largely ot thematic material used in measures 1-48. 2. iim. Episode. 3. 2im. Second Sub- ject in F minor. 7m. Closing Group. 4. 12m. Closing Group and Coda. Hence, we discover that what at first sight appears to be a long and involved composition, is really as carefully laid out as an architect's plan for the room-division of a floor area. This same plan of analysis applied to the easier teach- ing pieces reveals just as logical a subdivision, and so offers a way for simplification of memor- izing the music. And not only is it easier to memorize the music with this knowledge of it, but the mind works by plan and not by sheer force. We see, therefore, aside from its content and meaning, that good music is distinguished from poor in the structural sense also — just as a well-conceived architectural plan produces a building that is far more practical and artistic than a mere shack could be. Furthermore, the MUSICAL COMPOSITION 159 working out of a plan such as the above teaches us some interesting facts about the composer's method of doing. 1. He is systematic in the presentation of his ideas. 2. The same thematic material is used over and over again. 3. Part answers (corresponds to) part. Hence, there is much both of similarity and identity. 4. The structural plan is progressive ; it unfolds by the Law of Growth. It is suggested in another chapter that the teacher make a hbrary of the Teaching Material he finds worthy of constant use. Every one of these compositions should be carefully "planned" out, as we have illustrated with the Beethoven Sonata, and the underljdng plan should be sketched out for the pupil, to be committed to memory before he attempts to memorize the music. If his memory be naturally absorptive and retentive, the structural plan of music will assist him. If his memory be poor, the structural plan will strengthen and develop it. In the following chapter the memorizing (by analysis and comparison) of a very simple teach- ing piece is considered. CHAPTER XIX THE BASIS OF MUSIC MEMORY Many people memorize music with ease. They seem to possess a faculty for retaining the symbols of the printed page without effort and without subsequent loss. Many such cases, carefully examined, reveal, however, other facul- ties than mere absorption, if one may so express it. Mr. Kipling has pictured the training of his very capable hero, Kim, in a manner to prove that accurate observation of details and the retention of them is more than natural ability. It is this plus exact training. The ability to remember the music one studies and to play it "without the notes" is susceptible to training, and this training is based on several lines of activity. Applying this to the piano, there are to be reckoned with the note picture, the mental tone impression, the grouping of tones into chords, the melody, and the Form in which the composer's meaning is expressed. With these the average student (if there is any such student) becomes familiar in a measure by repeated playing, carried on to the extent that the hands seem to be gifted with the power to 160 THE BASIS OF MUSIC MEMORY i6i reproduce the music of themselves. Many a student is famihar with this condition, and many another, alas! with the other condition which arises when, playing without music before others, the hands suddenly lose their cunning and the mind is powerless to suggest or assist. What causes this? In a word, inexact study. It is a common experience to hear people quote authors. When this is attempted, with accuracy, it is from verse rather than from prose that such quotation proceeds. The ex- planation is simple. Besides the beauty of its thought, the form of verse, its rhythm and rhyme, and the grouping of lines into stanzas are a help, a suggestion that center the mind upon the effort. We seldom hear people quote prose exactly; and for the reason that prose is a more severe test upon the memory for ac- curacy because its form offers little or no sug- gestion. Public school teachers tell us that children learn to read music with greater facility than they learn to master the symbols of the mother tongue. They also tell us, and anyone may make the observation for himself, that they memorize readily the music they study. This is possible because music, like verse, has its rhythm, its rhyme, and its repetition — and be- cause, when arranged by the skillful composer, 11 1 62 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER these are so set off, one against the other, that they are mutually suggestive. It is surprising to the student, who has never given thought to the matter, how little com- paratively need be memorized of a composition to make one master of the whole. But even this reduction to what may be called "new measures," or "independent measures," is not an ultimate safety device; it is only a help spring- ing from a remoter reason or condition. Be- fore we can safely trust to the suggestiveness of music to impress itself on the mind we must carefully study the structure which the com- poser is building; that is, the form and sequence in which the composer expresses himself. Tech- nically, this is known as the study of Music Form; in practical application, it is the pres- ence of a ground plan on which the composi- tion is erected; and it is the mastery of this ground plan which makes playing "without the notes" a secure and insured adventure. Let us apply this phase of our subject to a specific type: A very simple type is selected in order to make it clear that easy teaching material is no more complex of structure than is Little Boy Blue or Old King Cole; that just as meter, rhyme, rh3^hm (the "swing") keep these old favorites in the mind, so there is something in music that will aid us to do the same thing, and quite as easily. THE BASIS OF MUSIC MEMORY 163 Children's March. AUegro. J = 126. G. Merkel, Op. 30, No. i. (4) :|=J=^ (12) l64 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Children's March.— Concluded. (20) 4 1 The total number of printed measures is thirty-two. But measures nine to sixteen are a literal repeat of measures one to eight. This repeat of eight measures was never so written out by the composer; he wrote it out once, and indicated its repetition in the usual way, by dots :1|. But when the music engraver began THE BASIS OF MUSIC MEMORY 165 to adjust the music to the plate on which he was engraving it, he found it too short to fill a page; hence, he decided to present measures one to eight twice. So far, then, as the actual music of the composer is concerned, we have only to con- sider : 1. Measures one to eight. 2. Measures seventeen to twenty-four. 3. Measures twenty-five to thirty-two. The first eight measures naturally divide in two phrases, each of four measures. The second four measures begin the same and keep the rhythm, but pass into D major in measure eight. As measures nine to sixteen repeat one to eight, and are merely equivalent to the repeat dots, we pass them and consider the seven- teenth (printed) measure. Measures seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty are a phrase concluding in E minor: I (19) :|^ r (20) * eto. 1 66 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER Measures twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four are a rhythmically similar phrase in B minor. Thus: (24) ^ m ^ Measures twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty- seven, and twenty-eight are identical with measures one, two, three, and four. And, finally, measures twenty-nine and thirty are identical with measures five and six; while measures thirty-one and thirty-two are the same cadence measures, but now in G major. The total plan, then, is: D major Meas. 1-4 Meas. 5-8 Meas. 17-20 E minor Meas. 21-24 B minor Meas. 25-28 Meas. 29-32 (Like 1-4) to end in G major In this plan the eight measures marked A (first line) and the eight marked A (third line) THE BASIS OF MUSIC MEMORY 167 are apparently alike. The middle line, B, presents matter that is melodically, and in key, unlike that of A. This structure, of First and Third parts alike and a contrasting middle part, is known as the Ternary (Tripartite) or Three-part form. This is one of the commonest types of Form balance. It consists of six Phrases, of which Nos. I, 2, 5, and 6 are always identical or simi- lar, and of which Nos. 3 and 4 are in contrast. Every teaching piece worthy of the teacher's repertoire is clearly constructed, in one Form or another, as this one is, and is invariably as clear. Practically all impediments to what is commonly called "bad memorizing" (which is not memorizing at all) are removed when the pupil is accustomed to grasp: 1. The Ground Plan. 2. The Balance of Periods. (In this case A + B + A.) 3. The Identity of Phrases. (In this case No. 1 + 2 = 5 + 6.) 4. The Cadences concluding each Phrase. The extent to which the Ternary Form is applied may be seen by comparing the identity of Parts A and A and the difference between them and Part B, with the corresponding por- tions of the Sonata movement given in Chapter XVIII. CHAPTER XX TEACHING MATERIAL There has recently been issued an edition, but not in facsimile, of Johann Sebastian Bach's Noten Biichlein fiir Anna Magdalena Bach (1725).^ This is a collection of pieces that Bach wrote out with his own hand for his second wife, a woman apparently of great musical refinement. This little group of pieces was undoubtedly studied in love and intimacy. They were copied by Bach for the reason that printed music was scarce in his day, and no less so was the money with which to buy it. At the end of the volume the great composer added the rules for General Bass, or, as we should say. Thorough Bass or Harmony. They fill scarcely two pages; com- prising fifteen brief statements. At the con- clusion the author remarks: "Fully to grasp the application of the rules comes rather from oral instruction {miindlichen Unterricht) than from written directions." This evidence of the composer's desire to lay before his wife, as student, material for the mastery of the instrument, to an extent, and of the art of writing for it — and all in brief space — makes one wonder what he would have thought ^Published by George D. W. Callwey, Munich. 168 TEACHING MATERIAL 169 of the opportunity students have in these days to secure books and music in well-nigh endless variety, and at little cost. It seems at times that the very simplicity of it all makes us care- less of what we procure and of how we use it. It brings back to us the old refrain: "A Httle ground well tilled." The young teacher may stand in astonish- ment before the vast amount of really valuable teaching material. The unsolved problem of how to examine so much music sometimes leaves the teacher with a poverty of selec- tions. But the matter requires only a little system and patient investigation to be robbed of its embarrassment of riches. To begin with, the best music dealers take infinite pains to catalogue their teaching material so that even a novice can get at it intelligently. There is always someone in these publishing houses who is an authority on the catalogue, and who not only can, but is always glad to, assist a teacher in finding just what he needs. But the teacher must ultimately establish his own list of material. This can be done only by making the most of all experience. The moment a piece is foimd that is musical and serviceable for any definite pur- pose, it should be put on the teacher's personal list, and he should keep a copy of it. He may look over hundreds of pieces before he finds a half dozen that are thoroughly practical for his 170 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER particular work. But dealers are willing to send any quantity of music on examination for this very purpose. If the teacher works with pupils of all grades, he will find it profitable to make up an actual curriculum of pieces and studies for each grade. Every selection should be a definite unit to him, useful with certain pupils for a certain specific purpose. This requires the systematic catalog- ing and filing of music — a simple habit that sur- prisingly few teachers ever contract. Such lists should constantly be expanded, weeded out, and refreshed by careful examination and test of new pieces. Hence, they will never, and they should never, become fixed. There are many avenues of approach even to a simple piano piece. If it have a title, it should be a reasonable one. The title is the "program." No one ever better entitled short piano pieces than Robert Schumann did. The title of any one of his Op. 15 or Op. 68 offers many a sug- gestion for a lesson. When the title is thoroughly understood, the next step is to have the pupil see the structural plan. For example, Schumann's very popular Happy Farmer (Op. 68, No. 10) is constructed of ten measures — in this order: A 4 m. (repeated) and ending in C major. B 2 m. C (A) 4 m. (like 1-4), but ending in F major. TEACHING MATERIAL 171 The moment the pupil sees that these three lines accm-ately picture the form of the piece, he will never have trouble memorizing the music, be- cause that process \vill be based on the sequence of parts. We need not tell him about "sequence of parts" for he would not, or might not, under- stand it. But he will never fail to grasp the pic- ture of these three short lines. These prehminaries, the explanation of the title and the form outline, at once place the child on an interested basis toward what is to come; namely, the music itself. If he finds the music attractive, in conjunction with what he already knows about other compositions, the teacher may feel assured that he has added a work to his teaching repertoire that has stood the preliminary^ test successfully. Every composition added to the teacher's list should possess some one quality (if not more than one) that makes it serv'iceable. It should teach something worth while. Hence, the test of Purpose is fundamental. Even with children, every sort of musical taste must be considered. The demand that seems natural with young people for tuneful music is sane and healthy. Such music is the natural heritage of the child. This desire springs from the same cause as leads children to want stories. They may be led gradually into what the earnest teacher may regard as "better things." Comparatively few 172 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER children are born with a highly developed classic taste. They do, now and then, come into the world with the gift of wonderful insight, but with the vast majority the teacher's pedagogy must be so directed as to lead them up. Teaching material plays many parts. Some- times we may need types of it that are not, as Charles Lamb says of Valentine verses, "over- abundant in sense." But no one pupil needs this class of music very long. The common ex- perience of families into which music has been introduced through a mechanical player of any kind, is that popular music is the first choice; this is soon set aside for better selections, and when a little technic of listening and of under- standing music has been secured, the best selec- tions are demanded. Some eminent pedagogues have compiled lists of teaching material that are distinctly service- able. They offer many avenues of investigation to the teacher that he might not himself discover. Such a printed list is really a miniature music store. But, in addition, the teacher should keep abreast of all the new material that is coming out, and, as we have already indicated, make up ultimately a teaching book of his own. CHAPTER XXI METHOD AND SYSTEM The word "method" has long been used in the profession of music teaching in a Hmited sense. It generally is intended to specify a particular way or manner of instruction. Thus, we have the Leschetizky method as applied to the piano, the Sevcik method as applied to the violin, and similar specializations or applications to voice and the organ. Back of these terms there is generally something that indi\ndualizes the process of instruction, but not infrequently the very men whose names are thus used, and used freely, are the last to lay any claim to a "method." A truly great teacher of potent indi\4duality so impresses himself that his way of doing becomes unique, but he rarely, if ever, stops deliberately to christen his work with his own name. His disciples do that for him; and, once it is done, it permits of no undoing. One will find in talking with a significant teacher that his interests in life do not center in anything he calls his method. It centers in his art. Being individual and rarely gifted, he pur- sues his art in an uncommon way; but it is for- 173 174 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER ever true that the one particular thing that enlists his thought and devotion is not the means by which he reaches his art. It is always the art itself. Being a genius, he has worked out in his way a plan of procedure, by the application of which one may learn to perform and interpret music with the least physical resistance. The single question before every great teacher is this: How can one so train the body that it becomes, with the instrument, a perfect mechanism? What can be done to train the body — fingers, wrist, arms, shoulders, lungs, and chest — so that the message of music resident in mind and spirit may be expressed (that is, "pressed out") with- out friction? No great teacher ever thinks further of the physical mechanism, or technic, than to make it perfect in its purpose. Then it is forgotten as a technical machine to do service as a means of interpreting the thought of the composer. The young teacher should be very clear on this point. The one thing to aim for is the interpretation of music. Technical training is a means to that end precisely as the skill of color mixing and wielding of brushes is a means to painting a pic- ture. Nor must the young teacher underrate technic. Without it interpretation is impos- sible; but, on the other hand, the most brilliant technic imaginable is useless unless it be the servant of an intelUgence that is capable of con- METHOD AND SYSTEM 175 ceiving the intimate message of the music it performs. If there is one striking fact in the playing of Paderewski and in the singing of Caruso, it is that we get true enjoyment from them without any thought whatever of the technical proficiency that produces the result we hear. Mr. Glad- stone had a technic of speech, but no one ever thought of it, for the reason that the chief interest lay in what he said with it. Method, then, is the handmaid. But the princess in whose service she is enlisted is a rarer being. A pupil may have been trained to a certain point and may have remarkable tech- nical facility. The very first thing we want to know about it is: What can he do with his technic? What does it permit him to say? If his technic is a natural, logical adaptation of his body to the keyboard, if directly and without loss of motion he can make the instrument con- vey his message, and if his message be true, we may with pride point not to the technic but to the result he produces with it. Hence, far and beyond technical mastery is interpretative ability. The one distinct purpose that may logically lie back of the performance of every worthy piece of music is the expression of its meaning. Had it not some message to con- vey it had never been written. The grasp of that message is the province of consciousness and 176 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER intellect. The warmth of its beauty is in the responsive heart. Upon these technic waits, as a servant, to do a bidding it is of itself incap- able of expressing. Like Efi&ciency, Method and System are great words; but they are apt to impose unreaHties upon us. Rightly employed they mean precisely what they say and no more. Hence, while spe- cific ways of securing the desired result may differ between skilled teachers, they all aim to one end. "What," asks the teacher, "are the in- tellectual and physical developments required by this pupil that he may become an efficient ex- ponent of music?'' (Not of "my method," take note; no great teacher ever thinks of that.) Then he proceeds to question, investigate, ob- serve, and finally he discovers exactly what line to pursue. We often overestimate the Royal Road poten- tialities of a given method, forgetting that all educational processes are in fact best likened to an instrument or implement. And an instrument can never do work unless back of the hand that applies it there is an inquiring, observing, skil- ful intelHgence aware of the work to be done. The teacher may have been trained by a method, but it soon becomes evident that unless it be so elastic that its appHcation is manifold it is an impediment rather than a help. There are in every art and science fundamental principles METHOD AND SYSTEM 177 that are amenable to being systematized, but they never lend themselves to being stereotyped. The teacher may adhere to method; it may ab- sorb the mind, but at the other end of the thought- line stands the living pupil, an organization of conditions that has no duplicate. Shall we pro- ceed with him to discover the possible "divine spark," or shall we cast him into the machine to be run through its mechanism and stamped "made by "? It is worth any expenditure of time and money to study with a famed "method" teacher, for thereby the eyes are opened, and the ears too. We never hear him refer to method or claim it. What he is desirous of passing on through us, as students, is Purpose; how Purpose, in art, has to do with Message, Meaning, Beauty, and how to interpret them. When we discover a method with this as its end-point we may safely adopt it. 12 CHAPTER XXII THE MUSIC CLUB Music clubs in the United States have become so numerous and so active that they have been united to form a Federation. Aside from the clubs thus organized, there are many, unattached, that exert a local influence. Having discussed to a sUght degree the possibilities of Community music, through one and another means, we are led, naturally, to inquire what specific purpose the music club may serve to the best interests of music in the United States. The music club is, potentially, a great civic asset. It may be not only a center of music activity, but the actual centralization of the music of a community. As purveying to the entertainment of a town, or locality, it may readily work through such channels as the schools, the church, the library, and the private teacher. The club that exists for the delectation of its own members exclusively is missing its civic applica- tion. Such an organization should make, pri- marily, for the best musical expression the com- munity affords. Its object may well be so to de- velop its resources that its activity is an enrich- ment of the life of the people. 178 THE MUSIC CLUB 179 A certain music club not only sustains an ad- mirable series of concerts during the winter, but reports to its members on plays and other enter- tainments, indicating through a capable com- mittee which are good and which are not. An- other club continues its work into the summer, and has organized a series of pageants in which the historical development of the town is shown. In this, all the town's people have been invited to assist, and, a result, a distinct local spirit has been created. Whether a music club may become the general clearing-house for local betterment work in music depends upon conditions and upon the tact of its officers; but its potentialities in this particular are numerous and of far-reaching consequences. A club that proposes to reach the people, in its influence, may have some discouraging expe- riences to meet, but they are worth while. It has already been pointed out in these pages that the musical potentiaHty of even small neighborhoods is often considerable. The im- mediate question is: Can it be organized for the benefit of all? And the reply is the same as we found in the case of the Town Festival. It can be done once there is discovered the person (or persons) who is capable and willing to undertake it. An instance is known to the writer of a whole neighborhood finding enjoyment of the best kind — and at regular interv^als — from a sound-repro- l8o THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER ducing machine erected on the dining-room table in the home of a family that is instinctively com- munistic in its service. The leaven in so modest a case as this is not without power to quicken a neighborhood into music responsiveness. Any music club, then, that is desirous of en- listing itself in Service can become a potent factor in American life. We may not have much American music, comparatively, but we have a distinct American hunger for music to satisfy. The one essential necessity, however, in every American community is to make music. We often smile at the old singing school and parody its efforts, but it played its part to our everlasting benefit, and we have by no means exhausted its resources. Perhaps we can refine them and give them more aesthetic names, but we can never do better than to organize our people into music-makers, as their capacity permits. The little village of Oberammergau, in Austria, would be unknown to the world at large if its people had restricted its histrionic activity to writing papers on the art of the stage and limit- ing its membership. The Oberammergau people do things. They produce. Everybody, practi- cally, participates; and the participation is based on developed capacity in the individual. The visitor to the Passion Play observes a cheering absence of red-tape. There are no presidents, secretaries, or boards of directors in evidence. THE MUSIC CLUB i8l The people of the village turn out about four A. M. ; prepare to entertain three or four thousand visitors, cook their food, make their beds, and then, exchanging the domestic costume for that of the stage, they proceed to the open-air theater and amaze people of all countries by the fideUty of their art. It is all done as naturally as a wood- carver cuts a figure, or as a potter turns his wheel. Whether the music clubs will ever be able to stimulate a community in such a manner is yet to be seen, but the question is worthy of con- sideration. As we have already instanced, pa- geantry has aroused unusual public interest and cooperation wherever it has been attempted. Similar results have followed upon the artistic preparation and presentation of Folk-dances. Whenever the community is shown that it can express itself beautifully it is invariably willing to cooperate in the proposition. Keeping community betterment, in the intel- lectual sense, before us, we must not fail to note that active participation always makes for fuller expression. Essays, papers, and lectures, all valuable in their places, only too often make for slumber. Herein is the vital principle in the town chorus. Ever>^body must be active. The more intense life of the community never comes from one entertainer doing all the work. Ways and means must be devised for permitting as l82 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER many people as possible to find some opportunity for individual self-expression. It is true not only of individuals, but of bodies of people, that they live in their perceptions. Now the whole purpose of active educational effort is to raise the plane of perception. We all need, individually and collectively, to be urged to some new and hitherto untried impulse that results in the abundance of life we seem to be- lieve in, hesitatingly, at times. This more intense, more individually pronounced com- munity expression in music and its allied activi- ties is preeminently the one best object toward which the music club may work. The com- munity at large hears scarcely the echoes of the club-meeting on Russian Songs. Worthy as such a subject is, in its place, it only reaches the people to be welcomed after much other work has been done in their behalf. There is still another phase of music club life that we have not touched upon. It is that which centers around the more or less private gathering that takes place between teacher, pupils, and intimate friends. Even this is cap- able of expansion into a useful public or semi- public influence. There is no secret way and no secret purpose. The way is found in tact and skill, and the purpose is found in Service. The private teacher may, without inviting unkind critical comment, expand his activity THE MUSIC CLUB 183 into all that the Romans expressed in the phrase pro bono publico. To this end it is to his benefit to keep informed of what is going on in his pro- fession. He needs to know not only music "news," but the full educational expression as it is practised by the leading schools and educa- tors. He should familiarize himself wnth the curriculum of every good school, both here and abroad. As a rule, it is easy to procure courses of study, and even the details of all phases of the curriculum. Again, the teacher should also keep thoroughly informed about community work in music; that is, what are cities and towns (and particularly the smaller communities) doing with music? He should acquaint himself to what extent music is practised in the schools; what recognition of its literature is given by public libraries; what local musical organizations are successfully founded and carried on. All such information as this, and much more, is readily procurable, and is essentially valuable to the teacher as suggesting ways and means for securing, in his own community, a music life that will adequately express the latent capac- ity of the people. Whether he organizes a Festival, or a club, or limits himself to the range of activity within his own class of pupils, he can, if he will, reach the public and interest it to its benefit. CHAPTER XXIII run MEASURE OF SUCCESS Every one of the thousands of people who turn to music as a profession wants to succeed. They all may be said to be investors in success. They buy stock, so to speak, in the firm of Great Expectations, dream rosy dreams, and wait. Often the waiting is the crudest part of it, for the attendant heartaches are never recorded in the news of the day. Is this expectation of success in music a vain and foolish thing? Decidedly it is not. It is the one logical ex- pectation with which to begin; anything else would be a crime. If, then, it is right to enter- tain the success-idea and, despite this, countless numbers fail, where are we to look for a justifica- tion of the thing we do? Why should the new- comer into the musical profession be encouraged by fair words and assured there is success for him or her as there was for Mr. Paderewski and Mme. Sembrich, not in degree, maybe, but surely in kind? The encouragement should be given for this reason: If talent — which is indispensable — be supported by the proper care and attention, failure is impossible. Now to succeed with a 184 THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS 185 talent involves a study of the talent and a study of success, if the latter word is to include all that should come to one whose activities are well rounded and carefully thought out. We have before us, then, two subjects for con- sideration: (i) The study of music. (2) The study of success. Neither is the accidental con- sequence of the other. Let us take up the sub- ject of success first. We may puzzle over the matter as much as we please, but once we focus properly upon it we see that no man who has ever given rules for attaining success has ever been incoherent. They have in every instance been so simple that they have attracted no attention. Every man who has expressed himself on this subject, from Socrates to John D. Rockefeller, has couched his dictum on success in terms so plain that even children might read. And children may read; but adults look wise and announce that "he is a wise old man, but he does not tell the whole story." So they throw the true and simple gospel of success aside and go out to look for it in a complex situation. And there being none, they never find it. Well, what are these simple rules for success? If they are true, why do we at the same time mistrust them? No one can tell why they are mistrusted, unless it be that human nature mis- trusts simple statements. We would urge upon 1 86 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER every seeker of success who prosecutes his search in the musical profession first to define to him- self exactly what kind of success he is desirous of attaining. There are many varieties. Get this fixed first. Do not be hazy about it. Think it over honestly and decide as well as you can, and decide honestly. This done, how must suc- cess be founded? ^==^The consensus of opinion for two thousand years or more runs about like this: 1. Do not dream about working, for dreams that remain dreams never entertain anyone but the dreamer. 2. The "artistic" appearance is of itself no guarantee of true and reliable musicianship. 3. Life is not long enough to learn all there is to know about music; hence "graduation" is not the end of the line, but the first station at which the success-train stops. 4. Music is not an exclusive art. Its vitality makes it pulsate through the whole social mass. The more we draw aside the skirts to avoid the crowd, the less vitally shall we touch the abound- ing and amazing life of our times. 5. We must work for service as well as for profit — and of the two, service is the greater. Just so far as we can make music the magic key that unlocks the heart of the world about us, to that extent do we render our talent unto others. 6. We must never picture the music life as a THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS 187 hope that begins big and suddenly comes to an end like a diminuendo mark. All life is a cres- cendo sign. It begins at a point and becomes, as the great Teacher has assured us, more and more abundant. Of all success-signs to be worn over the heart, this is the greatest of all. The reason why success-books rarely put us on the^right road is because no two roads are the same^Tn any characteristic. We must deter- mine the direction and the end point. We must decide whether we are to be an exponent worthy of a beautiful art, or merely a merchant in its wares who counts profits every evening. But in any case we must begin with — and continue with — these things: Faith in ourselves. Faith in hard work. Faith in the world about us. Then, and thus fortified, we shall be able to find in the annals of music itself all the gospel of success that we crave. We need turn neither to Athenian philosophers nor to the great oil mag- nates. The art of music itself will inspire us if we will run, not too fast, and read as we go. You will note in all the instances that follow that there are these evidences: (i) Talent, (2) Industry, (3) Success. Add the first to the second and we shall always get the third; but we cannot combine them in any other way. l88 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER The Russian composer, C^sar Cui, once showed me his musical library. It was the equivalent of the five-foot shelf of the best books. But there was more than five feet of it. All the works of the great masters were there, and they had been pored over and thought over and studied until they had yielded their essence. In another case were Cesar Cui's original works, the compositions of many years, uniformly bound and certainly impressive in their number. "One would think that even the mechanical work of writing these out would have occupied you continuously." "Oh, no," he said, "I am not by profession a musician. I give my time principally to my work in the Military Academy. This is merely the fruit of my leisure." There are two principal words in this story, "work" and "leisure." The late S. Coleridge Taylor, son of a Liberian negro, though he lived but a comparatively brief life, won a reputation the world over for his work. I sat with him one day at his desk filled with work upon which he was then engaged. He pointed to it and said: "If I could only leave it all for a while and be a student again. There are so many things in music that I want to study in order that I may do better work and express myself better." It had been his life-long desire to study with Dvorak, but the work involved in THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS 189 the very success his talent had brought him had all along prevented the fulfillment of this w-ish. Perhaps you can imagine him, one of the most incessantly busy musicians in London, traveling to distant points frequently, and always engaged when at home as busily as a banker in the city, yet carr>dng within himself all the while that clearly objectified ambition to drop it all for a season and get away to learn more. And yet, had he been content with the applause of a world- wide reputation, his favorite piece of furniture might have been an easy chair instead of a desk. And Dvorak himself was no mere gazer in the mirror of his own greatness. He showed me in his study in Prague, his "work in hand," work, which, by the way, he was not destined to complete. There were the beginnings of two or three operas on his piano to which he was just then giving his exclusive attention. He had determined, he said, to write no more small works, but to concen- trate himself upon large forms. But not only had he laid out for himself an extensive amount of original work for his last years, but he gave the closest study to all new works of the day. Char- pentier's Louise and two or three scores of Richard Strauss were on the piano, about which he talked, playing passages from memory, express- ing critical or appreciative comment that showed his wide and intimate knowledge of what others 190 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER were doing in music. His music room was no artist's boudoir; it was a workshop, a business man's place of affairs like a counting-room. Things were happening there, not to an untried novice, but to a man who had by Talent and Industry brought himself to the attention of all the world. There are countless young men and women who feel and exhibit more greatness on the occa- sion of their first pubHc appearance than Beet- hoven ever felt from 1770 to 1827. All these men, and all others of their kind, judge their work as a contribution to the world's advance- ment. The young men and women who carry their little bouquets off the stage amid the applause of family and friends judge their work in relation to themselves. The difference lies between doing for Service and doing for Self -appreciation . Readers of music biography may go as far back as they please, and still they find that Success has always been the summation of Talent and Industry. Handel discovered prac- tising on a harpsichord smuggled into the garret is thought to be a perfectly lovely picture of a little boy. Well, it is; but it is also the picture of a determination that made it possible for him to write the Messiah in a few days. This is a point that should not be missed, for while the little boy Handel passed into manhood, the THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS 191 quality of determination remained to the end in all its fruitful enthusiasm. Sebastian Bach copying music in the moon- light has touched the sentimentalists very deeply indeed. But it was by copying other people's music that Sebastian Bach secured his educa- tion. As a little boy he sang in the streets of Eisenach, asking alms for the school. Both occupations were evidences that he could do things when the necessity arose. And this is no small factor in the success quest. And so one might go on discovering in the stories of distinguished men the three simple factors which stand out so clearly in all cases. Always there are Talent and Industry, and al- ways Success sums them up. And always there is Service. No one contributes more freely to the world at large than the man of success. There is something in the very open-handedness of giv- ing freely that proves to us how much better it is to give than to receive; a statement which has high authority, and yet which puzzles the timid and the cautious as much now as it ever did. But it may be said, the great are a law unto themselves. How about me? I Uve in a small town of about five thousand people and the troubles of Sebastian Bach were no worse than mine. Well, be thankful for that. The fact is, you 192 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER will not be a second Bach, for the simple reason that the Creator makes no use of repeat workers, your task is to be yourself. For that purpose you came into the world. You are not to copy another's degree of success, but you may copy and adopt his method. So there are before you as there are before the greater ones of the earth precisely the same factors. You have a certain Talent and a certain capacity for industry. Add these and the sum is your measure. But neither of the first two factors is fixed. Increase them all you will. Do not think to retire at forty with a poultry-farm and a small income. Come into the music world for servdce and with a capacity for labor. Always remember that the sum of a column of figures is present whether it be actually written at the foot or not. So the degree of success is always present, and in true summation of all the /factors you bring into the column. Do not dream about this. The world denies you nothing you can get by labor. But it pays small wages for appearances and pretense. The banker of the world says to your youth of the far-away, dreamy look and long hair: "Sorry, but that is play-money and it is not current here." Many pessimists call this a world of struggle for existence. Let us not believe it. It is an opulent world, willing to meet us more than half- way if we will only smile, labor, and do service. CHAPTER XXIV RECAPITULATION It will be found by all who observe and inquire about the methods of various teachers and pupils that in those cases where there is mutual labor to a definite end, there always eventuates not only a good result in general, but, as well, a pronounced enthusiasm for the work itself. Another element that will be obser\^ed is this: In cases where people work week after week, tending nowhere in particular, following the subject more from the reason that something compels it than be- cause of a distinct love for it, apathy, discon- tent, and unsatisfactory results will generally be found. This latter case may be generated by the pupil alone or it may be, in part, stimulated by the teacher, whose fault may be that of being unenthusiastic, of not encouraging ideals and cultivating ambition. In respect of the teacher, it may be said that his business is music pure and simple, and that to deal in ideals and ambitions is quite apart from his province. This may be, in a sense, true. It is the purpose of this chapter to discover in just how far a teacher can afford to let this be true. 13 193 194 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER The testimony is given by all successful men of business and of learning that, quite apart from the talent they possessed in the beginning, the development of power was possible only through a willingness to labor for years, generally beyond the pay they received; to take infinite pains with the work itself; and to be unmindful of the number of hours spent on the task. No eight- hour worker has ever won a name for himself by his labor. On the other hand, the willingness to persist until the desired result comes forth is really the first character-test that a talent-worker experiences. A man, successful far beyond the run of business men, said, in advising a young man who was about to enter business for himself: "A failure is comparatively rare where an honest man labors persistently and with sincerity at what he wants." Note the great words of his sentence : "Honest — persistently — sincerity — wants. ' ' Let us keep these words, which really ex- press a business law, in mind; and let us see, in conclusion, what conditions may be said naturally to enter the business of teaching, and, further, let us inquire which of the conditions found will insure the largest amount of success. The most favorable circumstances for success would seem to come forth from that union of con- ditions which is represented by a highly skillful teacher who works enthusiastically to a definite point with a talented pupil who pursues a lofty RECAPITULATION 195 ambition with equal enthusiasm. Such a Uto- pian state is not possible in every music lesson. That, undoubtedly, is the first deduction. But a second thought will at once permit of another deduction, namely, if this condition is not fully possible, it is yet an admirable ideal toward which to work. The condition here assumed may not only serve as an ideal, but may immediately sug- gest that we seek in it for these elements which should enter more modest cases. To repeat the attributes of the teacher. They are: I. A high degree of skill. II. Enthusiasm. III. The faculty of working to a definite end. And on the part of the pupil : I. Talent. II. A lofty ambition. III. Enthusiasm. When we examine these conditions we find that they must be based for successful issue upon the cultivation of that power fundamental to all others — judgment. Its office, both with the teacher and with the pupil, is so apparent that no detail of it is needed. Now let us examine them and see what there is in the teacher's attainments that all of us may aspire to in the hope of adding something unto ourselves. We will consider each point in turn. I. On what is a teacher's degree of skill de- 196 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER pendent? On two things: (i) Natural ability, and (2) the development it has received. There being much truth in the statement that genius is the art of taking pains, it must follow that a teacher's place and a teacher's success are largely dependent upon the amount of self- discipline he has demanded of himself; and what he will accomplish with others is intimately related to what he has been able to accomplish with himself. In other words, the first victory of teacher over pupil is won when the teacher gets command of himself. Hence, the first quality in his attainment is power over self. II. Out of this training it will result, if the training be kept up long enough, that one v/ill begin to love work because it is doing so much for one individually. When by doing we find that we are gaining power over the self, we are led to love the labor for its own sake. This is the first intimation of the truth, that it is not enough to love art for the passing gratification that comes from it. That is akin to the wine- merchant passing his day in wine tasting. Why is art loved by artists? Because it reveals them to themselves; and one who is brave will not be afraid of what he sees. Now, when it is plain that labor is adding unto the laborer, there comes from it a pure love and a strong enthusiasm. But let it be noted that the love is not sickly and the enthusiasm is not noisy. Hence, it is RECAPITULATION 197 plain that enthusiasm, hke skill, comes as a result of putting interest in one's work. III. The faculty of working to a definite end need scarcely be dwelt upon now, for it must be evident that when one has labored uncom- plainingly for the acquirement of skill, enthu- siasm comes largely because good results are seen to grow out of centralized labor. This centralization of effort in the teacher's life, ac- quired as he practically works out his own case, is that which later on in the developed career he employs as "a definite aim" in teaching others. The essential powers, then, of a teacher evolve during the development of his talent. In other words, the development of all the necessary factors has come because he has been from the first faithful unto that which was bestowed upon him in the mystery of life. It would seem logical now to take up the points of favor placed against the pupil in our original supposition, and to discuss them both indi\ddually and as to their interrelation, as in the case of the teacher. But we must not overlook this: that while we have been following the teacher in his self- development we have, in reality, been following the pupil; that is, the teacher displays powers which are ripened in the years of professional life; but they are powers which were first developed in student years. We have already mentioned the 198 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER quality which is most potent in this ripening process — j udgmen t . It is trite to say that the largest amount of work is habitually accomplished by those who follow ejHicient methods discriminatingly. And what that discrimination accomplishes is this: It reduces friction; there is little waste effort; talent finds its best play along lines most properly suited for it, and even a little talent, like a small investment, is put out to the best advantage, assuring one of a return proportionate to the capital. Now, in the investment of personal power, it is rarely the case that an unusual return is enjoyed by the investor. But, further than this, judgment steps in as the seeker after truth, and the whole truth at that. It is soon recognized by one who is studying the art of teaching that, as applied to music, one must not fail to observe, as we have pointed out, that two distinct arts are present: the art of teaching and the art of music. And each must be studied after its own peculiar nature. Besides this, it will be seen that as the diversified rami- fications of the sociological order create condi- tions which govern business in general, so in large measure they have their influence in the business activity of the musician. The strength of their unity in business life must be respected in any special application. And it will be found that music and its activities are quite the same RECAPITULATION 199 in their interrelations as are life and its activities — one is the other in miniature. All the depend- ent conditions of life are likewise dependent con- ditions in music. Hence, such an apparently unaesthetic yet necessary fact as the following is for the serious consideration of the music teacher, to give a good article in fair exchange, heeding its usefulness and practicability, improving the stock in trade as it is demanded by the legitimate development of the profession, never falling into that state of apathy which regards anything as good enough to give for money. In short, when one regards all the conditions fairly, it will be admitted it is highly necessary to conduct the teaching of music on the common business law that a superior article creates a demand; that under no circumstances can one expect long to survive in the general competition who does not keep wide awake, have a superior quality of goods for exchange, and who is willing to expect more business only in proportion to the actual success of business done. This final statement leads to the consideration of a very natural and a very common question. When it is remembered that a lighted candle is not supposed to be placed under a bushel, we may ask how much right the owner of the candle has to thrust it into the face of every one who comes near. The business man, having some- thing with which to supply a demand, seeks to 200 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER stimulate the demand, first being sure, if he is wise, that the demand itself is a proper one. Now, in music teaching, there can be but a single way of calling attention to one's work; that is, as already pointed out, of showing highly superior results; of showing that the results are secured in the proper way, with no pretense to accomplish the impossible — a year's work in a month and the like — and, above all, of showing that it is as one will sacrifice that one will gain. Whoever seeks to cover up this fundamental fact of all instruction is evading the common law. Again, to refer to the elements of power set against the teacher, it should be clear that, for good results, skill (knowledge), enthusiasm (force), and an objective point (force directed) are not merely necessary, but fundamentally necessary. Thus, when the teacher sets out with a new pupil the first step will be taken, Socratic-wise, to discover everything about the pupil's motive for study, endeavoring to supply a motive if there be not one ; keeping the ambition constantly present, connecting it to an ideal, and gradually, im- perceptibly perhaps, raising that ideal so that the pupil's path shall always lead upward. When this is done with skill, the pupil will develop just the three qualities placed against him in the beginning, namely: (i) Talent (personal force); (2) a lofty ambition (personal force directed); (3) enthusiasm (the quality of personal force). RECAPITULATION 201 We are now in a position to draw this positive conclusion : The teacher who will take trouble, who is enthusiastic, who continually increases his skill, evolves ideals, pursues a definite direction, can reach an objective point; in other words, he is capable in the three essential elements of his profession. CHAPTER XXV EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC Whether the teacher shall introduce into his own system of instruction regular and specific forms of examination tests is to be decided only by individual conditions. The purpose of this chapter is neither to recommend nor suggest such a procedure. But the purpose is to draw the teacher's attention to what certain institu- tions and examining bodies are doing (and have been doing) in establishing standards. There follow examination tests that have been set in various musical subjects. If the teacher will read these, it will become clear to him to what extent scholarship is required in certain subjects and grades. If he will recall the suggestion made in an earlier chapter of this book relative to the necessity for the individual teacher establishing his own standard and maintaining it, he will realize the practical applicability of the following papers : Elementary Harmony The Incorporated Society of Musicians (Eng- land). I. Give the roots of the following chords, and EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 203 say in each case whether the inversion is that of a major or a minor triad. Figure the bass: i 2b: fir #c IfF r ua d i M. >=-»- ^ Roots. i 2. Write the last inversion of the chord of the minor seventh on the dominant in the keys of B minor, Ctr minor, Ab major, and Eb major. Give its resolution in each case. Do not write the signatures, but figure the bass. 3. Add parts for treble, alto, and tenor above the following bass : -+-J 1^ U- I ^55^^ ^3 i=^ 5C^ ^ 6 4 5 3 6 6 5 6 Mi 6 6 4 4. Add parts for alto, tenor, and bass below the following melody: $ ft^ t:^r^ ife^ 4^^=^ m 204 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 5. The Candidate may write the Optional Counterpoint given below instead of the follow- ing Question. i m- r^f F ^ g=*: (a) Write the above melody in the key of F major and in the alto stave. Add one part in quavers below the same. Score of two parts. (b) Write the above melody in the key of A major and in the tenor stave. Add one part in semiquavers above the same. Score of two parts. Optional Counterpoint — which may be written instead of Question 5. « i •gr U 5 s: 2Z (a) The above subject to be transposed into the key of D minor and written in the tenor stave. Add counterpoint for treble in the fourth species. Score of two parts. (b) The above subject to be transposed into the key of C minor and written in the alto stave. Add counterpoint for bass in the third species. Score of two parts. EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 20$ Music History Set by the Regents of the New York State Education Department. Note. — Acoustics is included as a part of this paper. Write at top of first page of answer paper (a) name of school where you have studied, (b) number of weeks and periods a week in history of music and acoustics. The minimum time requirement is four periods a week for a school year. Answer ten questions, incltiding eight from Group I and two front Group II. GROUP I Answer Eight Questions From This Group 1. Write briefly on the contrapuntal, classic, and romantic schools of music, stating the char- acteristics of each and naming its most dis- tinguished representatives. 2. Write briefly on the music of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. State what, in your opinion, individualizes the work of each. Name at least three of the representative com- positions of each. 3. Answer both a and b: (a) Name four European composers specially esteemed for their songs, state where and when 2o6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER each one lived, and name two well-known songs of each. (b) Name three eminent American song com- posers and mention two songs of each. 4. Name at least two distinguished musical contemporaries of (a) Louis XIV, (b) Napoleon, (c) Queen Victoria. 5. Describe briefly the classical symphony. Name six symphonic writers. Give a list of symphonies that you have heard or studied. 6. Answer a, b, c, and d: (a) When was the pianoforte invented? What did it supersede? (b) When did Clemen ti live? What influence had he and his followers on the growth of piano composition and technic? (c) Name some of the piano compositions of Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt. Write briefly of the style of each. (d) Name six famous pianists now living. 7. Give the prevailing characteristics of music in the period between (a) 1 400-1 600, (b) 1600- 1700, (c) 1 700-1 800, (d) 1 800-1 900. 8. Distinguish between the forms in each of the following groups: (a) Cantata and oratorio; (b) grand opera, romantic opera, and opera comique; (c) symphony and symphonic poem. Name one composition of each class, with its composer. 9. Write briefly on the general characteristics EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 207 of (a) classical music, (b) romantic music, (c) program music. Name three representative com- posers of each style, with one work of each. GROUP II Acoustics Answer Two Questions From This Group 10. Define (a) segments, (b) wave points. Illustrate with a diagram. 11. What is (a) the pure scale? (b) the tem- pered scale? What instruments can produce the former and what the latter? 12. Write the first five overtones of G, first line, bass clef. 13. What is the purpose of the resonator? Describe the phenomenon of echo. Public School Music Methods Test. Set by Cornell University (Summer School Session). 1. Do you approve or disapprove of 4-part music in grammar grades? Give reasons. 2. Illustrate and name the clefs and staves in common use in vocal and orchestral scores. 3. Of what advantages are the Latin syllables in Sight Reading? Would you use these sylla- bles most of the time in advanced sight reading? Give reasons. 2o8 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 4. Outline a plan to get efficient teaching of music in the eight grades of a system of schools where the teachers do not know the subject matter, but where the superintendent is in sympathy with music and the Board willing to supply suitable material. 5. Write out a plan for the introduction and mastery of the chromatic tones. The outline should include typical material. 6. What material would you use in the upper grades of a system of schools when introducing music? Give reasons. (a) When and how should part singing be in- troduced? (b) Write a few typical exercises to be used in preparation for 2 -part sight singing, and state briefly the reasons for using this and similar material. 7. Compare and contrast the problems of the teacher of music in the Normal School with the problems of the Supervisor of Music in a city system. 8. Of what should the conductor's preparation and equipment consist in beginning the study of the cantata, Anderton's Wreck of the Hesperus, for example? 9. How are choruses from the Oratorio and Opera usually "arranged" for use in the high school? 10. What agencies are, in your opinion, most EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 209 effective in promoting community music, and in correlating music in the schools with music in the home? High and Normal School Music 1. (a) Name the parts (instrumental) in a i6-part orchestration. (b) What parts are included in a lo-part orches- tration ? 2. If the violin is playing in E-flat major, what clarinet and comet would be used and in what key would they play? 3. What classes of voices would you expect to find in the high school 4. Show the headings suitable for the per- manent page record for classification of voices in the High School, and record your classification of the several voices which will be tried in the presence of the class. 5. A quarter note has one beat. Give the metronome mark for the three excerpts which the examiner will play. 6. (a) Give the title and composer of two cantatas suitable for mixed chorus in High School. (b) Give title and composer of two cantatas suitable for girls' chorus in High School. 7. Compare and contrast the problems of the teacher of music in the Normal School with the 14 2IO THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER problems of the Supervisor of Music in a city system. 8. Of what should the conductor's preparation and equipment consist in beginning the study of the cantata, Anderton's Wreck o] the Hesperus, for example? 9. (a) How are choruses from the Oratorio and Opera usually arranged for use in the High School? (b) What is to be said in favor of, or against, these arrangements? 10. What agencies are, in your opinion, most effective in promoting community music, and in correlating music in the schools with music in the home? Dictation Set by the Regents of the New York State Education Department: The candidate shoidd he provided with ruled music paper, and answers written thereon should he fastened firmly to other sheets. (for the examiner only) Before giving out the non-metric exercises the examiner shall name the clef and the key, direct that only whole notes are to be used, and sound the key tone on the piano. Repeat each exer- EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 211 cise not more than three times. No further assistance or information shall be given. m dt3 $ i^^^^E ^tl^^g^^ $ ^ Iig^-^g- ^ ^+^5?-'5'- *2 ^9^7^^- f ^^^=^^^^ -^ — -$< :g ^ g^ ^ . 1^^^^ Passps^^ '*t^^ SE^^-=5 sr ^ -«5'-^S^ S^ fe r^ ^' ^ g :s: Before giving out the metric exercises the ex- aminer shall name the clef and the key, the kind of note that has one beat (not giving the number of beats in a measure), sound the key tone, and indicate clearly the tempo (speed) by tapping or counting. In so doing carefully avoid giving the 212 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER number of beats in a measure or locating the accent. Play the entire melody clearly and dis- tinctly, then repeat each section not more than three times. No further assistance or information shall be given. g 1 — fTTTn ^ — V ■A— i- i t ^ SScs w^ i— n- ^^ i^ p^=^ ^Ll 1 * ^ — I — P ^ y X S i--^» — •- «=^ -•-*-^- ±=t »: 6. I iTT-r s s ^3 m-^-ft^. 2 ^si : A ^ 1— ^- Pkdagogy and Psychology A specially prepared paper for this book : I. Distinguish between Subjective and Ob- jective mental states. Is sight-reading objective or subjective? Similarly classify (a) playing from memory, (b) improvisation. EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 213 2. Why does the subconsciousness increase as we become older? Are we fully conscious at any one time of our entire subjectivity? 3. What mental faculties are active in the child who attempts to play from notes for the first time? 4. Define the word attention {ad + teneo). What takes place in the mind when attention relaxes? How would you overcome a lack of attention on the part of a pupil? 5. Why — in piano pla>'ing — is the so-called "memory of the fingers" unreliable? 6. State all the mental and physical factors in- volved in sight-reading. 7. What mental images are involved in memor- izing music? 8. What justifies the pedagogic law that teaches us to proceed from the known to the unknowTi? 9. What mental process underlies establishing scale-relation of tones in musical dictation? 10. What appHcation in music study can we make of the law which says: "Everything tends to weaken by disuse"? Technic of Study First Term Examination; set by the Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York: I. Define (root-meaning): Technic, Leisure, Efi&ciency, Education, Information. 214 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 2. Distinguish between: Objective and Sub- jective; Conscious and Subconscious; Inductive and Deductive. 3. Of the various studies you have pursued since childhood, which are of maximum utility? Which are the most cultural? 4. By what practices may the (relative) mas- tery of English be attained? What is your own practice in this matter? 5. State the essential factors in the technic of book-reading. 6. The economy of a daily programme: Do you attempt this? If so, outline your schedule. 7. Write briefly on the Technic of Leisure. 8. Write, similarly, on mental, physical, and environmental efficiency. 9- Distinguish as fully as you can between Knowledge and Wisdom. 10. Cite any instance you may know of the application of efficient ways and means in the conduct of a business. Music Appreciation I Papers in Music Appreciation, High School, Springfield, Mass. Miss Mary Regal, Instructor. Written test occupying forty minutes, given after six weeks of classroom work (eleven meet- ings) : I. Tell whether the chords played are major or minor (ten chords). EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 215 2. Name the three essentials of music and ex- plain what is meant by each. 3. What is the first degree of a key called? The fifth? The seventh!^ 4. Listen to and write about the composition played (Minuet from piano sonata Op. 31, No. 3, Beethoven, heard for the first time), telling, e. g., (a) Its character. (b) WTiether in a major or minor key. (c) Its time (meter), peculiarities of rhythm. (d) Its form. Additional remarks. 5. Write in the form of a program the names of three or more compositions heard in class, with the names of their composers. 6. What is a theme? By what means does a composer extend it so as to make a larger work? Test occupying forty minutes, given after a month's study of Lohengrin. Music Apprecl\tion II Second Semester. 1. From what kind of subjects did Wagner draw the stories of his operas? 2. Give the story of Loliengrtn, mentioning the most important points and not dwelling upon subordinate details. 3. Wliat is meant by "leading motives"? 2l6 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 4. Name the motive played and tell some of the uses made of it in the opera. 5. Describe the Prelude briefly. 6. Name the extract played (King's Prayer) and tell in what situation it occurs. 7. Name the extract played (Introduction to Act III). Music Appreciation Test Winona State Normal School. Miss Caroline V. Smith, Instructor. 1 . What effect did the old dance forms and folk songs have upon symphonic music? 2. What do you mean by symphonic music? 3. Name and describe as many of the old dance forms as you can remember. 4. Describe the origin of the Suite. 5. Describe the origin of the Sonata. 6. What is the difference between a two-step and an idealized dance form? 7. (a) What is a folk song? (b) Describe the folk song form. 8. What effect did the choral have upon the music of Germany? 9. What effect did the Gregorian chant have upon the music of France? EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC 217 Advanced Harmony and Counterpoint Set by the Regents of the New York State Education Department: Write at top of first page of answer paper (a) name of school where you have studied, (b) num- ber of weeks and periods a week in advanced harmony and counterpoint. The minimum time requirement is four periods a week for a school year. The candidate should be prcmded with ruled music paper, and answers written thereon should be fastened firmly to oilier sheets. Answer ten questions. Answer All Questions In This Group I . Figure and name each of the following chords ; resolve each in two ways: I ^=^ sr --¥- L^sr ^ 32: i^H 22: fe^ 2. Write, for jour voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), a modulation from C major to F# 2i8 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER major, using as few chords as possible, but show- ing smooth, clear progression. 3. Harmonize the following for Jour voices, open position: ^^^ ^san 3i«t m giili JTJ.^^f^ ■•-— 4. Harmonize the following bass for Jour voices, close position: 5- tt6 4-7- 4 6 6 6 3 2- 43 6 3 435 5 6 5 6 3 § (^ 1 -6> .(Z- ^m t=t "^ ■^ ^ tzX l=t 5. Answer both a and b: (a) Harmonize an original subject for three voices, either close or open score. (b) What is meant by transitional dominants? Illustrate above the following bass: ^S :^z=± EXAMINATIONS IN JMUSIC 219 6. Harmonize the following bass for four voices, using inversions or root positions at dis- cretion; at the notes marked Fr. 6, It. 6, Ger. 6 introduce the various forms of the chord of the augmented sixth: 6 m^r^ ^ ^ ^t^ f I 'i T ' li 11.6. Ger. 6. Fr.6. Fr.6. 6 ^* u 2 [J5 W^TTT ^- is: t=t ±tt=t=t r-TT-H p.n. Fr. 6. Ger. 6. COUNTERPOINT Answer All Questions In This Group 7. Add a strict counterpoint in first species above this cantus firmus: ■^h^ — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 — g)'^^<"^ 1 — I^UUI^I^I'^ i fe ST. -Z7- 2 20 THE EDUCATION OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 8. Add an alto in florid style to this cantus, in strict counterpoint: ^^j; i jj|iJ | j-4J ^ :t^ I :d=d ^ -zy- 9. Write an original cantus firmus as a tenor and add an alto in four notes. 10. Add a part in the fourth species above this cantus : te^.l-|-hT^^t=^^ ^ APPENDIX The reader cannot fail to note the remark- able development in all subjects of community interest. A writer in the Journal of Education contributes this definition of the term: "There is some confusion about the real sig- nificance of the term 'community civics.' The significance of the term does not lie in its geo- graphical implications, but in its implication of community relations, of a community of inter- ests, of community co-operation through govern- ment. One may study his own town without a touch of the spirit of community civics, while that spirit may be made thoroughly to infuse the study of our nation or state. "Participation by children in real civic activi- ties is a valuable means of civic training, but its employment requires the best of judgment on the part of those who direct it. A child that is learning to walk must walk in order to learn ; but he should not be expected to walk far nor to carry heavy burdens. Experiments in chil- dren's participation in civic affairs that thrust children unduly into the public view, or that impose upon them responsibilities that properly 221 222 APPENDIX belong elsewhere, are questionable. The busi- ness of the school is to educate the child and not to exploit him for a reformation of the com- munity which the proper agencies have failed to bring about." Mr. R. O. Small,* writing in the same maga- zine on the subject of Industrial Training, gives some advice that is of the utmost value to teachers of music. He points out that all edu- cation must have for its aim a practical partici- pation in life; that is, education must enable us to do something to the common benefit. In this respect music has not fulfilled its mission, but it will doubtless do so in the future. It is dis- tinctly a community asset, and its civic use should be kept in view from the beginning. Thus Mr. Small's tabulation is valuable to the music teacher: "i. Discover and develop the dominant inter- ests and power of [the pupil]. "2. Direct these interests and powers to service of the individual and society to the end that "(a) He shall be able to participate in the more refined pleasures of life. "(5) He shall be able to participate in the human affairs — the activities in which he joins with his fellow men. * Deputy Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts Board of Education. APPENDIX 223 "(c) He may be able to gain self- support, or, if that is unnecessary, be equipped to render service to others." Let music training proceed to this end, and its uncertainty as an educational subject will give place to a fixed purpose of great value. 30 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED MUSIC LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subjea to immediate recall. Due end of qua^e Subject to recall after - ■ APR 2 n 1977 LD21A-I0m-10,'74(S1945L) General Library University of California Berkeley ^c>^ /^^ DATE DUE 4 Music Library University of California at Berkeley