The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-11-13

for more complete culture in music. and
We can congratulate ourselves in this
city as having taken the initiatory step,
by securing a music teacher, whose duty
it is to visit each school and instruct the
young in this important art. Thanks to
our School Commissioners and their in
defatigable president At the last session
of the State Musical Association. one of
the resolutions adopted read as follows
That it is the opinion of this body, that
every Superintendent of Public Schools,
throughout the State, should be empow-
cred to cancel the certificates of district
aud high school teachers who are not
qualified to teach the fundamental prin
ciples of music.
We believe all children can learn to
sing, if the proper effort is made in the
right direction. Those that can and
wont. should be made to sing. Then
the study would he useful feature of
intellectual training-the unmusical
would be drawn into the art, and duty
would at once become pleasure. From
| the moral enjoyment derived from this
study the mind would insensibly be led
from the emotional to the intellectual
perception of music, which is its ultimate
! and highest attainment.
TIME DEVOTED TO THE ART.
AS people, We are too apt to consider
as loss the time devoted to the art
divine, and TO compute that loss by dol
lars and cents 1t should rather be re-
garded as gain, forming grand part in
the scheme of life. And We are too apt
to think that the whole design Of educa.
ton should be utiltarian. and that nc
scheme Of instruction should receive
much favor unless its tendencies are OF
! some tangible value-made available rs
one of the means of conducting the bust
ness of life. and have distinctive refer.
ence to worldly acquisition.
To the end that We may have thorough.
ly com petent teachers of music through
out our country. that true ar. only nay
be taught, we should inquire into the
merits of our Normal Colleges of Music.
One of these. under the charge of the
Mendelssohn Quintette Club of Boston
whose choice performances are pleasingly
remembered by many lovers in this city
in their circular say, {" 1t shall! be an in.
stitution where only those studies and
!
tives for the comprehension and per
Torrance of master-works shall b.
taught; where the pupils who graduate
will be real musicians, who will scatter
the good art-seed over the land-whe
shall be capable of showing that their ar
is worthy of high respect-that it has 9
mission beyond that of mere entertain
ment, and has elevating. refining ant
humanizing influences wherever it il
practiced.
These are the acknowledged benefit,
to be derived from the study of arr
music. Any musical center which shall
give out this artistic lite blood. is worthy
the aid which every music-lover car
give, without which, we shall continue t.
go on in the same desultory manner, de
pending, as in years gone by, on Europ,
for our best musicians.
We are firmly convinced that the you'll
of America. from national temperament
are peculiarly receptive of musical in
pressions. for they have that quick in
tie ligence which is so noticeable in tn,
United States; and, where the oppor
tunity exists. they will il most cases be
come excellent musicians.
GOOD MUsIC-TEACHERs.
At present, every section Of our coun
try, remote from the musical centers
needs the service of good music teachers
men and women Who can teach some
thing beyond mere psalmody and the
simpler forms of music, which compared
to art-creations are as dime novels Il
the best English classics.
1t is false doctrine to preach that love
Of good music comes through. and by ,
graduated cou~e of poor music. for Chi,
dren who are reared in the families o
mu.iciabs, where only music OF art char.
acter is heard. imbibe a taste for the besl
works with an unmistakable distaste fol
all of the inferior kind. For them, music
is rot simply az accomplishment-it i,
the air they breathe
Many teachers who make it profes.
sion, have had no proper preparation fol-
their work. The fault lies not so much
in the morale of-the teacher as in the low
demand from the general public. with
its uneducated estimate of what music
really is, or rather what it can be.
EDUCATION OF TEACHERS.
The first step upwards is to educate
the teachers. By them alone can the
leaven be used which is to raise in the
masses a taste for music as an art, foI
n ,toriously. at present, the taste is not
on a level with the general intelligence
Of the American mind or other subjects.
Their study should not be with view to
Individual performance, but should EN-.
brace the whole ground. The richest
mines of musical wealth lie in concerted
form-in its sonatas, duos. trios, quar-.
tettes, and so on. up to the great piano
and violin coucertos, symphonies and
! IN