Books › Musical Courier 1907-12-04: Vol 55 Iss 23, 1907 › scan 16
Scan 16
Musical Courier 1907-12-04: Vol 55 Iss 23, 1907
30 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 17. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSICAL EDUCATION.
3This eternal whine of the "artist" music teachers (and others): "People don't," "People won't," "People don't want," "People want," "They can't," "They can," "They do," "They don't," "Here they," "There they" and so on and so on and so on; excuse, and scolding, blame and whine; forever condemning those dreadful hopeless, kill all prevent-everything "theys."
5And we? Oh we. Nothing the matter with us. "We are," "We have," "We know," "We have studied," "We have sung," "We could do this," "We could do that." "It is those 'theys,' those awful 'theys!'"
7The "theys" seem to be passive, inert, immovable, unteachable, unchangeable, unappreciative, unwilling to pay, unwilling to hear, unwilling to go—oh those insufferable "theys."
9Yet the fact stands out that all the "theys" do not always remain inert. All audiences do not remain unstrirred. All children do not remain untaught. All parents do not continue to prevent and restrict. All people are not always anything. Upon whom then the responsibility?
11One factor stands out ever on the brink of appeal, one potent creating factor, and that is "attraction." Attract, appeal, reach, touch, get at, people, in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and they melt like wax in fire. Ah, but that is it, to attract, appeal, reach, touch, get at. How are you to do it with "them"?
13If children are lost in the woods one way to act is to stand outside and shout: "Come out of there, or stay there you." The other is to go into (not necessarily "down" into) the woods, take hold of the hands of the lost, and pushing aside the brambles with stronger hand, guiding the way with more experienced feet, seeing the path with clearer eyes, lead them out into the clearing. All children earth over, whether of Israel or of Tinville, are susceptible of being "led out."
15Here is a man with musical understanding, who has trained and equipped himself with artistic values, and settled in a place. He gets his tail self out of his chair, looks out, raises the corner of eyebrow and nose, gets him back into his chair, pulls up the blanket of Routine about him, and goes to sleep.
17More than two-thirds of the teachers of music, who are performers, are asleep as to what they might do for their communities through music. They remain huddled in the blanket of Routine. You push and poke them, arouse them, pat them, and with lethargic motion, heavy lids, stiffened muscles and frowsy tones, they invariably come to life with the stereotyped "whine" about the "theys."
19Upon whom is the responsibility in this matter? The teacher or the pupil, the apostle or the following, the weak or the strong, the grown or the infant, the equipped or the ignorant? What is the artist for anyway? Why has he musical ear, voice, sense? Just to whine with? What good are his "exceptional talents," his training, his acquisition, wrapped in the blanket of Routine, asleep! If all were acute what need of a sharpener? When audiences remain unstirred, whose business was it to stir them? If a pupil remain untaught, whose affair was the teaching? If parents see wrong, what is Mr. Artist doing to set them right? What good to a man is a shelf full of concertos, sonatas and masterpieces? Of what value to a woman is her thirteen opera roles? He never plays, she never sings. They just whine and "give lessons." This incessant, monotonous, drudging, giving of lessons with the whine all through. Is there no way to "teach" but this chair and this stool and this "was in the beginning now and ever shall be" giving of lessons?
21Why, or how can anyone drudge and drag, worry and whine, with such material of fire and flame and beauty and appeal as music, to work with? Why or how can they keep music work so arid and sterile, stupid and stuflifying, having such material as music with which to juggle? Juggle? Yes, but in no cheap sense; to originate, devise, invent, attract, inspire! There is nothing that cannot be done with music as inspiration. There is no place that cannot be appealed to through music. There is no sort of appeal that cannot be made by means of music. Every sort of person (with exception of the deformed) may be drawn into the net of harmony in art form. It need not be poor art nor bad music, but it must be attractive. Either the music itself or the means of presenting it must have appeal, attraction. There are thousands of ways of pointing this appeal besides the eternal chair and stool with the whine all through. And the appeal should be pointed at parents and friends the "people," the "theys," as well as at the children.
23(This does not refer to conventional music performance of fashion or management. It refers only to the province of the artist teacher.)
25What is the matter? The chief matter is that the artist teacher, the source, huddles himself into his blanket of Routine and remains there, whining about the "theys" instead of creating attractive propagation of his glorious art. He creates instead, a barrier between the people he was sent to teach and his possessions. He (sub rosa) treats people as his enemies, scoffs at, scolds and blames them.
27Think of the possession of thirteen or twenty operatic roles with all their entrancing solos, duos, trios, choruses, everyone carrying powerful attraction, unknown to the majority of people, seemingly unknown indeed to the possessor. Think of all the memorable gems of musical literature that are forceful, stirring, strongly, influencing. Yet she, and he, continue to give those sodden lessons as a drudgery, day after day without change, and to get up those deadly "recitals," one exactly like the other only more so, offering over and over "To a door step," "To a kettle on a hearth," "To a man in a field," "On going up a road," "On hearing a cock crow," or, this type of crippled melody like meaningless thought, wearying and stuflifying pupils and hearers; as might be such sentences as: "When might one there, yes." "I will, no, two there," "What, ever, morning," to the intelligence of which the "artist" alone holds the secret! And then they whine because of the lack of interest in the pupil, and that an audience refuses to be enthused! Same with instrumental material. The wonder is that music love is not quite killed instead of being only maimed. But watch the face of an audience of "theys," the intensity of feeling created, the unit of enthusiasm shown, under the influence of the really beautiful, the indeed stirring in music. With whom the responsibility?
29The piano teacher whines that parents do not know the difference between a Leschetizky and a barn door. What has that teacher ever done to tell this to anybody even his pupils? What is there to prevent his bringing together a group of parents and friends of his pupils and showing to them the difference, telling the why and wherefore of his convictions, the value of legato, the ways of getting a good chord, the necessity for clean playing, flexible finger, thought in touch. But, to illustrate, he does not need to play five long, dull, heavy movements of an unfamiliar or unattractive sonata! What is to prevent that woman from injecting a bit of life into her "deadly recitals" by giving a solo, duo, chorus or other bit from her opera stock, in costume, without costume, without pretension, sincerely, enthusiastically, to awaken and arouse the sleeping imaginations not privileged as her own. How much better this than to sign and whine over her buried talents and acquisitions! Who buries them? What is to prevent the ballad singer from just once for a change, getting himself in rapport with his pupils and friends—hearers? Why always and ever exactly that same far off way, the silence and haughty condescending glance during the unlistened-to prelude, the swing of the elbows, the scoop up of the audience with his music sheet. Why not just for once leave his music in the green room, and sing as conversing with delight in his subject and evident desire to extend it to others. "What would happen suppose he should once in a while tell what a song was intended to say, something of thought as set to music!" What if he should recite his poem first just as though it were "real thought" and then sing it! Suppose he should have the accompaniment played without the song and vice versa! What would happen if he should sing songs that were shapely melodious and held an idea or two, to a group of people unfamiliar with literature. It certainly need not be "ragtime" any more than the opera woman's number need be "Die Meistersinger" or "Lohengrin." They would find appreciation, teachers who
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.