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Elective Work in Music in the High School

SUPPOSE you remember General Grant's criticism on his musical education. He said that his musical education had been limited to two tunes, and that in all the realm of popular musical literature he had never been able to get beyond those two tunes,-one was "Yankee Doodle" and the other wasn't.

No pupil should be permitted to leave the high school "tone deaf". If pupils can't sing, let them listen. I do not believe in excusing pupils from singing just because they have reached the high school and do not care to sing. This leads me to say that I do not believe in an elective course in music. It's too much like saying, "This work doesn't amount to much, so take it or do something else, just as you please". If the work isn't worth the time and attention of all, it would better be dropped on reaching the high school.

Another objectionable feature of the elective course is, that it is favorable to the rich, because those who have had the advantage of home musical training, and are already pretty well along, are the ones who wish to go on with their music work; while those who feel their weakness will drop out, and they are the very ones who need the work. Anything in this system of free schools which tends to discourage the children of the poor, should not be tolerated. Something of this kind is responsible for the death of the old time singing school, the musical convention, the choral union, the chorus choir, etc.

As girls have had more special musical training than boys, the elective course in music is favorable to the girls, and any feature of our high school singing which tends to discourage the boys should be "sat down upon". If we supervisors do not begin to devise means for keeping our boys in our high school choruses, what shall we do in a short time for male voices? If we do not call a halt soon, the result is going to be a musical famine in the masculine gender. If we are going to have music in the high school at all, require

everybody to sing. Let them sing in unison. A good unison song, sung by everybody, is a fine musical exercise.

I do not believe in turning the boys loose when we reach the high school, unless we drop the music altogether. So many boys develop good voices after reaching the high school that I think we make a great mistake when we let them go. Keep them as long as possible. Once they're free, we may never be able to get hold of them again. Many of you remember John Tower's lecture on boy choirs. He said when parents put boys into his hands, he always tried to keep them in the choir (through the change of voice, I mean), and even though they could not then sing, the boys he kept in the choir always made better singers than those who left it. Some parents would ask to have their boys excused from singing and from the choir until their voices had changed, and he would have to excuse them, but he said it meant farewell to most of the boys. So I would say, let everybody sing. Even though a boy sings one line like a "seraphic soprano", and the next like a "subterranean bass", let them sing. We have no right to stop them. One of the best bass singers we have in Cambridge City to-day was the most unmusical fellow imaginable until he reached the high school.

A few years ago I heard Mr. Tinker, of Evansville, tell of his experience with a boy who could not sing. The teachers wanted Mr. Tinker to excuse him from trying, as he spoiled the music. "No, indeed", said Mr. Tinker, "the boy has as much right to sing as any one and I will not interfere, though his singing is bad. And to-day", said Mr. Tinker, "that very boy is the best bass singer in Evansville".

If music has a refining influence, girls and boys should be kept singing as long as they are in school.

Supervisor of Music,
Cambridge City, Ind.

J. T. REESE.

The report is not a long one, but the character of the work implied, its scope and aim, are ideal. Such work as the above is not rare in our public schools, but it is not so general as one wishes it were. In the first place, the music field which we may hope public school pupils will traverse is not yet plotted so definitely, for example, as the field of arithmetic. Approximately the same work in arithmetic is found in the same grade in all communities. The individual must meet the test expected from his grade in arithmetic, not only in his own town but in any town. In music, we have no such standard; that is to say, supervisors of music have a general understanding as to what may reasonably be expected from pupils of the different grades, but the public does not know.

As a result, the work in music differs widely in cities sometimes only a stone's throw apart. The teaching in small cities is frequently entrusted to local musicians, who spend their time in school because of the salary it guarantees, not because they are specially fitted for the work. The general public does not know how to measure the value of school music, or such teachers could not long retain their positions. The large city, on the other hand, is satisfied if a master in the profession is in charge, without attention to the avenues through which the ideals of the supervisor can be brought to influence the pupils. In both cases only indifferent re

sults ean be expected. Let music be taught in any community for one year, attention being given throughout all grades to the items enumerated above, and it will be as valuable as an educational factor and as a moral power as any subject in the course of study, and the public will so esteem it. Let it continue several years, and the music of each grade will be as definite a quantity as the arithmetic of each grade.

Granted, then, a general understanding as to the amount of music instruction which the public schools owe the pupils, the administration of the same becomes the serious problem. A strong director in charge, assistants enough to provide close supervision, departmental work rather than indifferent effort from ill-prepared teachers, and we shall find music worthy of its place in the curriculum. Nor is such supervision as the foregoing more than the supervision accorded other branches. There the superintendent of instruction provides an outline of work to be covered, the principals of schools see that the outline is followed, and teachers must be prepared to do the work assigned or they must allow others to do for them. Why not the same plan in music?

We know Germany as a musical nation-we envy the opportunities afforded the citizens for hearing good music, their familiarity with music literature, their thoroughness in the grasp of the subject, their creative genius. May it be due in part to the foundation in music laid in their public schools? I cannot speak for all the cities of Germany but I know one large city of that empire which employs one general director of music and enough assistants to provide every grade above third one hour of instruction weekly from one of these specialists. As the city grows the number of special teachers increases-one "Herr Director" always who supervises the work throughout, and special teachers to assist him, one for every twenty-five teachers of the fourth to the seventh grades inclusive.

These specialists instruct with authority. They are trained in the profession of teaching: they know the child; they know the child-voice; they know music-not theory only, but the art: its history, its literature. They are interpreters of music; they are worthy leaders and capable teach

ers.

In their work throughout all grades there is attention to

A fourth grade recitation under one of these German music supervisors is herewith reported. The visitor was informed that the class had spent a month each in serious study of the keys C and G and was ready for the key of F. The instructor placed upon the blackboard a staff with treble signature and discussed the pitches represented by the different lines and spaces. The steps and half-steps required to form a major scale were recalled and represented thus: "Beginning with F as I of the scale", the pupils stated, "from F to G is a whole step; from G to A is a whole step; from A to B flat is a half-step; from B flat to C is a whole step", etc.

Next a pupil was asked to strike on a "metalophone" the tones represented on the blackboard, while another pupil pointed to the notes on the board and the class recited in concert "From F to G is a whole step" etc.

The teacher now played the scale of F on the violin, a clear, carefully sustained tone at a time, the pupils singing each tone after careful listening, calling it F, G, A, etc. The scale was repeated on the violin, the pupils singing after each tone, 1, 2, 3, etc. The syllables-do, re, mi-were not used.

The principal chords in the key of F were discussed, placed on the staff by the teacher, inverted, sung with "ah" as arpeggios and in three parts, always with long sustaining of tones and careful listening to the effect of their own voices and with the frequent question from the teacher, "Hat's ihr gefreut?"

An eight-measure melody in the key of F was next written upon the board, pupils naming position of the notes and pitch represented-"In the first space is F""bar""bar". Pupils next announced the scale names, the teacher writing the same (in part only) above the melody.

The pupils then marked the measure, "beat the time", describing the beats-down, right, up, through the whole