61
MUSICAL COURIER
February 1, 1923
as usually practiced. The joy which the average child gets in realizing that he has had a part in the making of music will more than repay a teacher for the time spent in fostering a love for the beauty of music.
The Other Subjects
No reference has been made here to chorus singing or appreciation, but their importance is well established and their value long since proved. Both these phases of the average course will be treated fully in later articles. It is to stress the importance of creative work to all musical training that these points are made.
CHICAGO
(Continued from Page 45).
tenors; Paula Schluetter and Leola Turner, sopranos; W. O. Klingberg, baritone, and Emma Schoembs, contralto.
Carolyn Willard in Michigan.
Carolyn Willard, the well known Chicago pianist, spent the Christmas holidays in Michigan and combined business with pleasure, as besides visiting with her friends, she played at some informal affairs. She was heard in recital in Grand Rapids, and in Union City she played an informal program for the newly organized musical club, presenting some new numbers which proved most successful. Miss Willard has recently moved to Evanston, where she will have a residence studio to teach during some of the time she is not in her Fine Arts Building studio.
Speaking about Miss Willard, we might also mention that her pupil, Rose Hyman Mergentheim, played on January 10 for the radio; on January 16 she played two groups, illustrating a lecture on the New Russians in Wilmette. Emily Barrett, a talented eleven year old pupil of Miss Willard’s, will give a program on February 11 in Miss Willard’s studio.
Studio Notes of Louise St. John . Westervelt.
Irvine Shields, soprano, director of the choir at Mandell Methodist Church, has accepted the directorship of a mixed choir of thirty voices at the Halsted Street Institutional Church; as the Mandell Church was unwilling to let her go, Miss Shields is still conducting the choir and singing with them in their evening service. Lola Scofield, soprano, and Elizabeth Houston, contralto, were soloists at the Artists’ Association, January 16. Geraldine Rhoads, con-ralto, and Marion Capps, soprano, gave the program at a studio tea on January 27; all are students of Louise St. John Westervelt.
Musical News Items.
Lempi Simonson, soprano, artist-pupil of Karl Buren ' Stein, has been engaged for the annual opera production of the Detroit Finnish Society, February 1 to 8. After his she begins a concert tour of the larger cities of the Middle West. Irene. Augsten, soprano, another pupil, will give a recital of Indian songs in costume before the Michigan City Music Club. February 6.
Stephen Pepich, baritone, also a Buren Stein pupil, gave a recital at St. Frances Academy of Music, January 28.
Rene Devries.
MUSIC AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
By GEORGE H. GARTLAN Director of Music in the Public Schools of New York City
MAKING A COURSE OF STUDY
The Importance of Creative Work as an Aid to Sight Reading, and a General Understanding of Music
It is the fault of the meagre instruction of teachers who are expected to carry out this work. As far as the child is concerned it is perfectly simple for him to express himself through the medium of antecedent and consequent. This is a method which has been used by experienced teachers for a long time. It means that teachers must train children to express themselves in the language of music. To illustrate. The teacher sings the first line of a song, showing the type of melody, rhythm, etc., which is necessary, and then the children, as individuals, invent their own consequent. For the initial step this is found to be much more practical and enjoyable than to compel the child to do the whole thing.
Too many people have looked upon this creative work as superficial. Unfortunately these people have never been able to completely grasp the importance of self-expression. As far as the average teacher is concerned orthodoxy in instruction is a very good thing, because it insures a certain amount of stereotyped study which is absolutely necessary, but this instruction may never direct the child along the lines of self-expression. We frequently hear it said that the average classroom has a deadening effect rather than an inspirational influence upon the average child. After all, music should mean joyousness, and if we surround it with the atmosphere that the thing “must” be done, then it ceases to be what it was intended to be, and takes its place along with the other subjects which are largely mastered through drill.
This brings to us another point. How can the creative work assist in the sight reading of music? If a child feels that he has the power to express himself in sound he will not be handicapped by the apparent difficulty of reading notation. It is important in discussing this plan to remember that it is necessary in the early stages to teach tone groups (sometimes called interval groups), so that each child shall be familiar with the singing names of all scale tones. Such groups should not be abstract, but taken directly from the song material used. Later on the child should be asked to create tone groups of his own making. To refer back to the antecedent and consequent, let the teacher sing with syllables the initial phrase of the melody and have the individual pupils finish the melody by singing with the syllable names. The next stage should be to train the pupils to write notes on the staff. Such training of the ear and eye is invaluable in the reading of music. The whole is in reality a perfect course in melody writing and dictation, only it is more attractive than the formal study
It is generally agreed that the standardized course of study which was presented by the Education; 1 Council of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference will be largely accepted as the basis׳ for school organization and management- While all supervisors are not necessarily agreed as to the excellency of this document, it is sane and solid in the essential points of instruction. Moreover, it is more applicable to the smaller towns and rural communities than it essentially is to the larger cities where for many years courses of study were in use. One of the reasons for the musical retardation in the schools was the fact that in many communities the teaching of music was left entirely to the specialist, and the class teacher was not called on to do her share of the work. In cities where class teachers carried the burden of the work courses of study were necessary.
Teachers’ Training Schools If effective teaching in music is to be carried on, more emphasis must be placed upon the teaching of music in training schools. The average high school is not doing its share in the preparation of the study of music as far as prospective teachers are concerned. This places the burden of work on the training school, and too much attention must be given to the learning of material rather than methods of instruction. It is not far distant when some great university will establish a course for supervisors of music which will give to the prospective teacher every advantage of a university training, and at the same time make them specialists in music. It is not fair to the music teacher who desires a college education to compel him to spend so much time in the preparation and study of subjects which have no direct bearing upon his future work. He should be permitted to devote as much time as possible to the study of music not only as a subject, but also the study of music as related to his future work. This involves the analysis of all methods which go to make up a course of study.
The Interesting Side of Creative Work Psychologists assure us that the desire to create is strong in everyone. Creative work in music is particularly interesting because it means so much to the future education of the child who is taught from the very beginning to express himself in terms of music. Complaints frequently reach us to the effect that creative work in music is a huge time waster in the hands of the average teacher. In the present state of instruction we are forced to admit there is truth in this particular, but this is not the fault of creative work.
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