Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-12
VOCAL MUSIC BY A NEW METHOD.

To the Editor Of the Eagle.
RECOGNIZING the fact that the people are
looking largely to the leading paper OF the
county for information on most all sub
iects of interest to them, will you bear with
me while | give you some of the carefuliy
studied facts as / have noticed their Dear
ings upon music it's influence and power
in its relations in the home and IN all In
diyidual and organized work.
Like all other good agencies its efficiency
and power consists mainly in being famil-
lar with all that can be known as to what
is essential to make it familiar to all-the
humble as we'll as those in high life.
We find the Great Creator has endowed
almost the whole animate creation with
faculties that appreciate music, while TO
man, His highest creature he has gwen 10
understand and appreciate 1t with almost
equal ease as to understand his mother
tongue Now, in looking back over the
period of forty years we have seen many
ways and methods of acquiring knoWl-
edge of all we have to learn, as compared
with earlier ways, and well may we rejoice
in such successes. But have we
not neglected and left to take
care of itself this great
source and avenue of emotional aid while
the burdens, cares, as Vii as our joys are
calling for some way of relief from lie S
mopotopy, while music is crowded out
and down like a neglected orphan, with
simrle language a blank to a large per-
centage of the masses, who are made Ia
millar with other more difficult studies,
and have no available resource for such
information that to seek from others more
highly favored, the privilege OF reporting
| their echo, making them simply repeaters
and not readers 1t is true that through
all these years there have been efforts put
! forth by publishers and teachers to keep IL
abreast with the other sciences, but those
| greatest efforts stimulated the we'll IN
structed, while the masses have been
| cropping in darkness.
There have been chiefly two methods OF
presenting music to the learner-first
what is known by the round note, trans
position method, in which about nifty dlf-
| ferent scales are written, and all looking
! so nearly the same, and yet SO ClHerent III
some particular, that SO many fail to have
| a definite idea about it. The other method
has been composed of the various patent
notes, composed of several special featured
| notes, almost any of which have been
easily learned, and so far as
they could reach music In those
| forms much larger number OF singers
| have been the result. But as probably
| nine-tenths of all the music is published
in round notes, and there will probably
| never be suInclenC cause TO nave II
| otherwise. these have generally died out as
soon as their authors ceased to push them
! out, leaving us still with the question un-
answered, why are there comparatively sc
| few music readers? / have for many years
been advocating and demonstrating with
most satisfactory results scale for dem
onstrating the simplest teaching idea
composed of the numbers representing the
scale or voice tones which is composed OF
no new elements Of characters, and already
familiar to ALL which is easy to under
stand, leads the learner into and through
all those changes Of position without con
fusion, and being a scale by position ii
takes round notes or any others that may
be written on the staff, requiring nc
change by publishers TO accommodate Its
reading.
| Hoping to get this into our music books
so that all who wished TO find something
| they could understand, L drew up q
| formula with rules, etc, and the librarian
of congress has granted me reserved
copyright for the same, and l would be
glad to have all engaged in teaching vocal
music, especially. to examine Its scientific
merits, and it will afford me great pleas
ure to cooperate with them and all other:
interested in any way that will secure the
| best results in our social and Christian
work. 5. ". NOEL.