MUSICAL COURIER
May 10, 19 2 3
53
MUSIC AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
By GEORGE H. GARTLAN Director of Music in the Public Schools of New York City
SPECIAL MUSIC CLASSES IN SCHOOLS
The Question of the Practical Value of Lessons in Applied Music, and the Desirability of Giving Credit for This Study
automobile without a motor—even though the automobile be a Rolls-Royce.”
Delivering himself of these several aphorisms, Mr. Schofield suggested that we walk downstairs, as the elevator seemed averse to exerting itself. It was time. The invisible “voice culturist” was having quite a bit of trouble with Would I were Heaven, the altitudinous 'part of Roger’s Star.
The pity of it! And to think that a perverse law allows one to muzzle a dog, and not a voice !	D.
Alton Jones Gives Recital at Hughes Studio
Alton Jones gave an interesting piano recital at the studio of his teacher, Edwin Hughes, on Friday evening, April 20. He mastered a very taxing and difficult program in admirable manner. There was clarity of exposition, firmness of tone and. cleanness of execution in his opening number, the Bach chromatic fantasy and fugue. Other numbers were Haydn’s andante and variations in F minor, a Beethoven sonata (op. 101), a Brahms scherzo (op. 4), St. Francois de Paule marchant sur les Flots (Liszt), Schumann’s novelette in D major and the Chopin polonaise in A flat.
Mr. Jones is the possessor of a very fluent and adequate technic, and has plenty of reserve power. He plays with authority and with finish of style, and his interpretations, especially in the Beethoven and Brahms, were satisfying and musicianly. A powerful climax was reached in the Liszt number, and all through there was sonority of tone. The Chopin polonaise had excellent rhythm, dash and spirit. As an encore a number from MacDowell’s Marionettes was delightfully rendered. Mr. Jones’ hearers received him with appreciation, evidenced in enthusiastic applause.
Serious Programs Favored, Says Theo Karle
“Audiences are constantly favoring more serious programs,” says Theo Karle, “and an interesting point is that they would rather	have a big	song, either	an	operatic aria
or a long concert	composition	in English,	no	matter what
the original language of it. It seems to me that there is a field for our young	poets here.	Idiomatic, and	singable versions of the great	arias and songs would	be	of enormous
assistance not only to singers, many of whom avoid English for lack of suitable translations, but to the audiences, who like to know what it is that the music expresses.”
New Church Post for Lucy Van de Mark
Lucy Van de Mark, soprano, who has been singing at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brooklyn, has been engaged for the Mother Church, Boston. Miss Van de Mark is an artist-pupil of Yeatman Griffith, well known vocal teacher, of New York.
Althouse with Minneapolis Symphony
Paul Althouse will appear as soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra next season, during the fall, in St. Paul and Minneapolis, contributing Beethoven arias to be announced later.
NYIREGYHAZI
(Pronounced N EAR-EDGE-HARZI)
“A large audience wildly enthused over this poetic youth’s marvelous playing. —New York Telegraph.
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systems the instruments of the orchestra are now being taught, and full credit given' for work done both in and out of school. No criticism of this work has been made directly on the schools in regard to invading the field of the private teacher, but if the same intensive work were done in piano and violin the movement might easily be misunderstood because the great majority of music teachers in the United States today are teaching piano, violin, or voice. The other instruments are in the small minority.
However, the school systems are more than willing to meet the private teacher halfway, and have arranged a well defined system of credit for the outside study of music. The method of procedure varies with the locality, but the general principle is the same; that is, if the private teacher will certify first to his own training and experience, and second to the amount of work actually done by pupils, the school is then in a position to examine these candidates in their musical specialty, with the idea of allowing the talented pupils full credit for the pursuit of music as a cultural subject and as a vocation. Students, to qualify, must be serious minded and prepare themselves for this examination with the same degree of intensity that they would pursue in such subjects as mathematics and English. Statistics show that only a small percentage of high school pupils actually apply for this credit, probably because they do not get sufficient encouragement from the school itself.
Orthodoxy in education is a very good thing, but it should not^ be carried to an extreme in the matter of academic subjects and to the exclusion of the artistic side of education. For this reason it will probably take several years for the idea of music education to take hold as it should do. The music publishers are certainly preparing the way for a simplification of the problem and every encouragement should be given both to pupils and teachers to pursue music education along well regulated lines. There has been very little intention to handicap the private teacher by any unnecessary restriction, but movements of this kind are likely to be misunderstood, and motives misinterpreted. It will no doubt be some time before a satisfactory research can be made that will determine whether or not work of this character is really effective in general education, but in the meantime every possible opportunity should be offered to students to continue their music study while they are still high school or college pupils.
Jose. The woman has no intelligence. It was just such a person as herself whom old Seneca had in mind when he wrote, ‘If a man reaches the age of twenty-five, and does ^ not know enough to be his own physician, he is a fool.’ The same way with the student of singing. One has to study voice—‘taking lessons’ will not do the work. And to study means to use_ one’s intelligence. If one hasn’t the intelligence, then it is better to give up singing and devote one’s time and energy to bead-work, or interior decoration. A beautiful voice without brains is of as much use as an
During the past five years considerable energy has been placed ¡behind the movement to encourage a nation-wide interest in applied music as far as school pupils are concerned. Educators recognize the value of music teaching not only as a regular part of school work, but also as a larger cultural asset in general education. Still, the way has not been prepared easily for the student and the school to enter this work on the same basis as other subjects, and to equate properly the service of pupil and outside teacher.
Piano and Violin Classes.
The after-school violin class has been in operation in many school systems for several years. Some cities pay the teachers directly, and others permit the teacher to collect money from the pupils, allowing the teacher to use the school classroom for teaching purposes. These classes have been more popular in the small communities than in the larger cities, principally because local interest was stronger, parents more familiar with the movement and naturally more interested in the success of the venture. The teacher was largely a “local figure” and as such the benefits to both were greater. It has not yet been determined whether these violin classes are going to perform the mission for which they were organized, namely, to determine whether or not most school children possess native talent for instrument playing. We do know, however, that hundreds of classes are active today and ho doubt in a few years thousands.
Piano classes are not so flourishing. It is more difficult to work out this problem than the violin class. At least two pianos are necessary, although many advocates will insist that only one is needed. In our opinion the teacher should be seated at one piano all the time to show the musical problem by actual keyboard illustration. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the relative merits of the various practice keyboards at present on the market, but it is interesting to note that most of them possess great virtues and few of them faults. Wo believe heartily in both of these activities, and look forward hopefully to the time when such work will be a regular part of every grade school course, not merely an added activity. To accomplish this, credit must be given to pupils for school work and home practice.
Applied Music in High School.
Here the problem is slightly different. In many school
Too Much Vocalizing and Too Little Thinking in Studio, Says Schofield
We both happened to be waiting for the elevator in a certain building dedicated to the slippery Arts, Edgar Schofield and I. From a neighboring studio strange sounds were seeping—a woman’s voice, most of its area flat, and the rest tinged with a discouraged drab huskiness. She was singing, rather she was emitting, the opening bars of Kursteiner’s “I wish my song were like a star Hung in the purple depths afar.”
“She couldn’t wish it more fervently than I,” was my involuntary comment. “A voice like hers would never promote the cause of Prohibition, would it?”
“I should say not. It is a pity, though, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s a crime. There should be a censorship of voices, and any woman who produced sounds like those of that woman should be muzzled, and made to pay a fine if she ever raised her voice in public.”
“It’s very hard to discourage people who want to sing,” Schofield mused. “I have yet to meet, the man or woman who studies voice, who doesn’t, on the least provocation, jump at the chance to sing to you.”
“I think it is something on the same order as the sneeze,’׳ I hazarded. “You know there are some people who love the sensation of the sneeze, and no doubt one’s own singing creates the same pleasing sensation on the nasal resonators, or on whatever singing sensates. Today there isn’t a walk in life, from that of the plumber to that of the society bud, which isn’t crowded with people studying singing. And there are always a goodly number who are ‘taking lessons’ as they would take a dose of aspirin, with the idea that the lesson will take effect without any individual effort.”
“What a waste of misdirected energy!”
“It’s too bad one can’t plug a pupil’s head as one does a melon, and see whether it contains mush or music.” I pressed the elevator button with renewed vigor.
“Think of the fearful waste of plugged heads,” was Schofield’s illuminating comment. “The trouble is,” he continued, “there is too much vocalizing and too little thinking going on in the studios. Take a case in point. I heard a woman the other day with a vocal past as variegated as a set of Ma-Jong. She began as a dramatic soprano, and studied the role of Aida. Then she changed teachers, and the second one told her she was a contralto. So she discarded Aida for Amneris, but before the third act, some one told her she was a lyric soprano. Amneris joined Aida on the shelf, and the misguided woman started to learn the role of Mimi. From last reports she is still Mi chiamano-ing Mimi. But were the next teacher to tell her she was a tenor, she would buy Carmen, and learn the part of Don
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