March 9, 1922
RUTH KLUG,
American pianist, who pave a recital at Leipsic on January 12 before an audience that was well impressed with her playing. A number of ladies on a visit from Vienna thought so well of Miss King’s concert that they extended an invitation to her to appear in that city on March 4, under the auspices of the American Women’s Association. Incidentally this afforded Miss Klug an opportunity to appear xoith an orchestra, for on that occasion she played with the famous Vienna Women’s Symphony Orchestra.
express herself through sound as well as through spoken language. Children frequently express themselves more effectively in the home than they do in school. The fact that so many of them are grouped together in class compels a restraint which is not noticeable in the home, and it is an unfortunate fact that we have built our school curriculums largely around that restraint, rather than the expression which can come as a result of freedom in the home.
With each succeeding year we believe that ■the course of study in music will be more and more simplified, until music shall have been developed along the lines of natural response, rather than technical proficiency.
More Engagements of Klibansky Pupils
Ruth Pearcy has been re-engaged as soloist at the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church, Brooklyn. Dorothy Hob-bie is engaged as substitute at the Washington Heights Baptist Church and at the Hillside Presbyterian Church, Orange, N. J. Katherine Rice made a successful concert appearance with the Ladies’ Music Club, Tacoma, Wash., January 24. Lottice Howell was secured for a concert at the Vanderbilt Theater, March 7, and Alveda Lof-gren for a concert in Fort Washington, February 28. Juliet Velty gave two musicales, on February 5 and 19, and also appeared at the Times Square Theater, February 19, when her singing of French chansons was much applauded. Hope Loder was engaged for a concert in Springfield, Mass., February 24; Sara Lee for a concert in Plainfield, N. J., February 21, and Elsie Duffield as substitute at the First Reformed Church, Brooklyn.
At the last of Mr. Klibansky’s studio musicales Sara Lee and Jane Rand sang. February 17, at a recital at the Y. M. C. A., Elsie Duffield, Dorothy Claassen, Dorothy Hobbie, Grace Marcella Liddane, Lottice Howell and Katherine Smith appeared.	.
Mr. Klibansky’s pupils gave the following recitals: February 24, at 212 West Fifty-ninth street; February 28, at the Y. M. C. A., the Bronx; March 3, at the auditorium, East Side Y. M. C. A., and March 6, at the Institute of Applied Music. March 9 they will give a recital at Port Washington, L. I.
Dilling Plays at the White House
Mildred Dilling, harpist; Povla Frijsh, soprano, and Frank Bibb, accompanist, were the artists at the musicale on Thursday evening, February 16, at the White House, Washington, following the dinner the President and Mrs. Harding gave to the Speaker of the House and Mrs. Gillett.
The Evening Star stated that the affair was^ second in elegance and beauty to no state function ever given in the mansion, and marked the first lady of the land as one of the most competent and artistic mistresses the White House has ever had.
Among the guests were: Speaker of the House and Mrs. Gillett, Senator Brandegee, Senator and Mrs. Poindexter, Senator James Wadsworth, Jr., Senator and Mrs. Freling-huysen, Representative and Mrs. Mann, Representative and Mrs. Nicholas Longworth, Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas Murray Butler, Mrs. Marshall Field, Under Secretary of State and Mrs. Fletcher, Lauran Harlan, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, General Pershing, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lansing, Mr. and Mrs. Harold I Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. John I. Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. Ogden M. Reid, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Ruth Twombly and Mrs. George Vanderbilt.
Morrill Artists Busy
Eugenie Besnier, artist pupil of Laura E. Morrill, includes among her recent concert engagements^ appearances in Tarrytown, Ossining, Poughkeepsie, Peekskill and Newburgh. Lillian Crosman, soprano, another Morrill artist, has been appearing in the Middle West for six weeks. March 20 will find her singing in Chicago. Ethel Franes met with success when she sang recently m Paris, ana Gladys Harfls scoring on tour in the South with the “Irene company. Florence Ganggle is soloist at the Broadway Tabernacle.
MUSICAL COURIER
32
MUSIC AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
By GEORGE H. GARTLAN Director of Music in the Public Schools of New York City
INDIVIDUALISM IN TEACHING
The Gradual Elimination of Stereotyped Method, and the Substitution of Personality in Presentation
development of a nation. It is the educator who tries to see what the result of training will be twenty-five years after the child leaves school who is a success.
' If every one could read music, would the world be any better off ? Music to many people is a sweet sedative, and they consider it the real function of music.
A survey of the effect of music teaching in the schools might prove that within a very short time, after pupils graduate they do practically no music whatsoever, depending largely upon the great field of entertainers to give them whatever they may know concerning music. We have no doubt that if such a condition were true it would be largely due to the stereotyped and uninteresting teaching which has gone on in our schools for many years, primarily to show what the final decision will be, whether music appreciation will take the place of the graded course of study, sor whether singing will be the dominant motive, and added to it as much of the technical work as is absolutely necessary for a clear understanding of the printed page. The majority of people learn to read music in a peculiar way.
It is largely through the ear, aided by a certain amount of eye training which makes it possible to judge distances on the staff, particularly when the ear is aided by an accompaniment. Some people are successful in this method. A great many are failures, but failures, strange to say, get as much enjoyment out of music as the successes, frequently a great deal more.
The Orthodox Legion.
In spite of a more rational interpretation of teaching and a more careful study of the actual needs of children, there is still a vast army of unbending legionaries who cannot break away from a stupid formalism, not only in teaching, but also in everything that they do. They are so unreasonable that their whole mental attitude becomes tainted by their insistence, and frequently they cannot even recognize the truth. They are blinded by the antiquated notion that to teach such exercises as the following
12 2 112 12
12 12 112
1 2 2 1 2 2 1
insures the fact that music is being taught. This is not the case. It teaches nothing more than a vocal response to numbers, which never was and never will be teaching music to children. An insistence on this doctrine is educational viciousness and pedagogic perversion. There is a time in all school work when drill on such items as intervals, rhythmic form, and tonal problems is absolutely necessary, but it must never be made the basis of instruction. It is added to^ instruction when necessary. There is no virtue in complaining^ but we feel it a stern duty to raise our voices in protest against this rigid compulsion which has as false an end as it had a false beginning.
How the Teacher May Develop Individualism.
Material and method are frequently confused. Any method is a good method if it works—that is, if the result is obtained. But all material is not good material. Melody and literature are hand maidens, and music, as far as_ the child is concerned, is vitalized through the use of his singing voice. Instrumental music is an entirely different consideration, and a study of instrumental music is largely important to the child who desires to become proficient on some instrument. Any well organized courses in appreciation of music can bring to the child’s attention anything and everything that is necessary for him to know regarding the general character and structure of instrumental music. He need not be concerned with the full technic of the subject.
To develop individualism it is necessary for the class teacher to become proficient not only in sight reading, but also in any branch of music which has to do with real listening. To teach a song properly^ it is fair to assume that the teacher should know how to sing—at least she must know the fundamentals of tone production. In addition it is necessary that she become thoroughly familiar with the song itself. If these two factors are present there is no reason why vocal mediocrity cannot be as successful, or even more so, than the highly trained soloist. Class teachers are trained to develop individualism in themselves as well as in the children, and if this is true regarding other school subjects, it is equally true regarding music. Every effort is being made in normal schools throughout the country to try to make teachers feel the importance of doing the right thing by themselves as well as the children, and the first step in the proper direction was the introduction of melody writing into the course. Melody writing is not necessarily a technical branch of music. It is merely to give the teacher the power to
When groups of educators meet in conference the general topic for discussion seems to be: “What change has taken place in teaching since we last met.” This may appear to some a vacillating policy, but it is quite the contrary. There is every effort being made to improve the teaching of all subjects, and perhaps this reaction is as strongly marked in music as it is in any other subject in the curriculum.
We have frequently referred to the history of school music, indicating that many epochs during which certain definite changes of policy took place. Perhaps the most important epoch in school music is the present. During the past five years there has been a very strong inclination, on the part of educators to discredit that formalism in teaching which brought elementary school music almost to the point of collegiate requirement. Enthusiastic leaders, perhaps, went too far in their effort to bring into the lives of children all that they felt childhood should know. Their faults were the result of over-zealousness, not of ignorance.
The Impending Changes.
A transition period in method frequently precipitates violent controversy. There are those on one hand who do not like to give up ancient standards. They claim that their results were so satisfactory under the old scheme that there is no real necessity for change. The leaders of the revolutionary movement are quite as insistent that the results obtained under the old system by no means justify its being retained. And so the argument “pendulums” itself first one way and then the other. The most radical suggestion made in recent years is toward the practical elimination of all theoretical work in music. The educator who thinks only in terms of the present day, contributes very little to the
DAI BUELL
“One of the most individual and interesting of American
D* •	99 Henry T. Finck, in N. Y. Even-
» IcXlllSlS. ing post} Nov. 9, 1921.
THINGS SHE HAS DONE
(Others follow.)
First complete Piano Recital in history—by Radiophone
Season of 192223־ Now Booking
Address SMALLEY CONCERT BUREAU 80 Boylston Street,	Boston, Mass.
TWO PRACTICAL BOOKS
that every teacher of music should have:
APPLIED HARMONY
Price $2.25
TONE THINKING AND EAR TESTING
Price $2.00
by Carolyn Alden Alehin
Order from MISS ALCHIN,
1227 S. Hoover St., Los Angeles, Cal. Summer Classes, University of California, Berkeley
Leo Berdichevsky
SOLE ACCOMPANIST
CHALIAPINE’S AMERICAN TOUR
PRESS COMMENTS :
Leo Berdichevsky raised his lowly role of accompanist to a dignity which has not been achieved here this season by any other, except Gabrilowitsch, who played accompaniments for Clara Clemens a month or so ago. He made the piano’s tones a complement of the singer’s voice, as should be done but so seldom is.—The Detroit News, Dec. 21, 1921.
Leo Berdichevsky again accompanied with musicianly skill.—New York Globe, Jan. 18, 1922.
Finely sensitive accompanist, Berdichevsky.—Philadelphia Public Ledger, Feb. 2, 1922.
ACCOMPANIST AND COACH
STUDIO: 620 West 115 Street, New York	Phone, 3800 Morningside