Harmony and Ear Training to time required (two peri

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Departmental Points of View

FIRST GRADE SONGS

HE careful selection of first-grade songs is of the utmost importance. The child-voice lies high and is of very limited range. Songs having a range of an octave and not running below E flat on the first line of the staff, are really the most suitable for pupils in this grade. Simplicity in the matter of word selection is also essential, as songs beyond the range of the child's knowledge always result in confused, not to say comical, attempts at word production. The tendency towards too many motion songs is an unfortunate one, as the child can not concentrate its mind on melody, rhythm, words, interpretation, and gymnastics all at the same time. Songs should be sung in repose to ensure the best results. After a song is well and properly learned, light and graceful gestures, and sometimes simple motions, not too violent, are admissible. Let the music lesson be a music lesson, and let the physical culture lesson take care of the athletic side of the child's education, but do not mix the two. Too many voices are injured by attempting, in early childhood, to sing motion songs with the necessary accompanying harshness.

MEASURING TIME

The subject of beating time on the part of the individual pupil has attracted some attention of late, chiefly on account of the articles written by Mr. Hayden of the School Music Monthly, who would develop time through a series of rhythmic forms, so called, instead of by a mechanical measuring of the various measure units. The necessity for a director to indicate the time has been admitted for centuries, particularly in large choral and orchestral organizations. What the individual singers or players might do without proper direction can only be conjectured, and yet players and singers trained to measure time individually by some definite and well ordered system, must necessarily obtain better results than would be possible if the emotional tendencies of individuals were given unlimited and undisciplined freedom. The de

sirability, therefore, of some plan or method by which public school pupils can be taught to sing uniformly well, and in perfect time, without too much dependence upon a leader who may or may not have correct ideas of measure, must be admitted. This can best be illustrated by the experiences of the well known leaders of large classes in the early part of the last century, Lowell Mason and Thos. Hastings. It is a well known fact that Lowell Mason required his pupils to beat time individually with the broad arm movement, so called, angular though it was. The result was that his classes could sing difficult oratorio choruses without breaking down. Some of our readers will recall Prof. Stowell of the Newberry School, himself a member of the old Boston Handel and Haydn Society, who directed his own eighth grade classes, using the same style of beating time that was prevalent in the east during his youth. The results he obtained were always creditable, musically and rhythmically. It is said of Thos. Hastings, however, that he did not require individual beating of time in his classes, and that he was never able to produce the difficult choruses attempted by Lowell Mason, for the sole reason that there had not been sufficient training in the various measurements of time by the individual. For the past fifty years there have been many devices utilized to enable pupils to sing in time. The broad arm movement, angular and rigid, of Mason and Carl Zerrahn, while excellent when used by a conductor or by adults, is likely to be exaggerated by young children, and is usually soon abandoned. Another method used is the wave of the hand, which, while it appears graceful enough for the moment, soon lapses in accuracy and too often produces confusing results. Tapping the under side of the book with one finger, while it no doubt measures the time, lacks in proper accentuation and can not be seen by the teacher in charge. Some teachers would have no beating time at all, but it must be remembered that no two pupils feel rhythm alike, and nothing like accuracy can be obtained by such a method.

As to the utilization of certain rhythmic forms sufficiently well practiced to be of general application, the writer is of the opinion that in the hands of a very musical teacher fairly good results might be obtained. The simple, unostentatious