Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-04

the work has been soa@Svetailed into the
other branches of i4FHuction that the
whole effect is most delightful.
Miss Scanned has gone into every field
of music that exists aaekeollected the most
beautiful songs ever written, and has
utilized them to showIatf little ones what
music means and how to apply it in their
the trees they sing absaS trees, and when
their other lessons are on the animals and
the birds, their songs relate to the crea-
| mated. 1 shall leave IA Miss Scammell the
task Of telling you fow' this result has
been accomplished. and what she had to do
to get to this point, as l am not familiar
with the technical parts of the subject"
Miss ScammeIl, to whom the reporter was
| referred. is young woman of strong per-
SonaI1ty, charming presence, ard with great
force and tact in managing pupils. She
has succeeded in making the new music
very popular among the little ones, who
look forward with pleasure to the music
hour, whereas once many of them dreaded
the drudgery of the monotonous beating of
time and the singing of songs that were
far beyond their narrow ranges OF voice.
She is very enthusiastic, though exceeding
ly modest over the work she has done,
and hopes to do much more in the coming
years. One of the peculiar features OF
her success is that she went into this new
field blndly, as 1T were, without any tech
nical knowledge of the elemental principles
that underlie the correct methods of teach
ing vocal music. She soon found, however,
that she had hit upon the correct theories
ard had adopted the right methods of cor
recting the evils Scientific teachers have
since told her that her methods are the
best.
The Teacher and Her Work.
when took charge of a grade school,"
said Miss Scanned to the reporter, after
expressing the vain hope that her name
might be omitted from whatever might be
said on the subject, Il saw that the then
existing method of teaching music regard
ed volume of the first Importance, and
that no attention was paid to the quality
of the tones or the management of the
voices. 1 could see that the little ones
were having their threats strained and L
fear that a tremendous number of voices
must have been ruined, voices that were
even promising. The general mass of the
pupils had their taste to tone vitiated,
all being sacrificed to quantity of sound.
There was no culture in their work.
1.-The notion was that the child who sang
Justify must enjoy the music, and this was
pretty nearly the end of it all. Too much
attention was paid to the beating of time,
which had become most mechanical pro-
cess. l found that the majority of the chill
dren did not know how to read music, ana,
indeed, the whole subject was being taught
as it had been for fifty years. while it was
only too apparent that outside of the
schools the methods of music instruction
had advanced marvelously in that period.
| was reminded then of the remark OF
famous author, who said that she regarded
the growth of choral societies and the in
PRODUCTION of music in schools a detri-
ment rather than as an advantage. be.
cause the processes that were used ruined
voices while immature that might develop
into artistic organs - ~
II saw that there was a good deal OF
volume being produced, making satisfac-
tory effect as far'as quantity was con-
cerned. but 1 knew that the natural voice
of the child was small, and that TINS
rj,ct t,ntt harsl
was therefore, a strain somewhere, and
l knew that no singing is right or good that
Is not produced without strain. So L went
to work in my own school and for four
years l strove to reduce the quantity of
the sound, while trying to improve the
tone. st
System of Hand symbols.
1.-THE results were gratifying to myself
and attracted the notice oof Mr.. Powell
who kindly gave ME Charge of the work,
and has given me since every assistance
In his power in the development of the
present system. The first year that 1 be-
gan teaching music exclusively 1 had one
assistant, Miss Bentley, and our chief
labor was the softening down of all the
voices. We had the five lower grades, and
we started in to make them sing more
softly. 1t was difficult to show the child
that music does not mean noise, and that
the singing hour need not be marked by
building. trfirt r.l
Il reduced the tone 500 that the children
could sing much more than before, and SO
We used their strength; m other and more
vital directions. l beganoin that year TO
introduce the study of the intervals. which
had been practically neglected. That, of
course, was the chief reason why the child
could not read music. Reading involves
two elements, time and intervals, and these
had never been separated. l first took up
the intervals. and believing that they could
be taught effectively, just as numbers and
geography are taught, l adopted the syS-
tenn of hand symbols that had been in use
spasmodically in different parts of the
country at various times, but never here.
These hand signs have the double func-
ton of marking the various notes and CIV
ing to each distinct character. Thus the
closed hand. the clenched fist is
do. the first note, the dominant
means strong, firm tone. Then the open
ed palm, slightly raised, signifies re- the
second note, and means a rousing hope
full tone. Next is mi a middle, sustain
AMI is indicated by the open palm resting
horizontally. 'Fa' is a mournful note, and
SO marks the chord in which it dominates
So the symbol for it is dropping finger
which signifies a deselate or awe-inspiring
tone. SOL the great middle note, belonging
to both of the great chords, is an open
palm held vertically, and its character is
expressed by the phrase the grand or
full note, and is expressed by dropping
palm, and is called a sad weeping tone
being the basis of the minor keys. ST.,
being the next to the highest, is naturally
shriil and so is shown by the uplifted fin
ger. 1t is called the piercing or sensitive
tone.
MASTERING the Intervals.
Thus We gave to each note its own char
acter and had the children study them.
With the symbols we could teach intervals,
and We worked back and forth and drilled
and practiced until we had overcome some
of the old faults The children had been
taught chords until they We're in ruts, and
when called upon to jump with their voices
from do to 'si or from mi to la or TO
make any unusual intervals, they were
nonplussed 1 laid down the rule that
child is not taught an interval until It can
sing it when it has been preceded by any
other interval, and can sing any other after
it. Then, and only then. does the voice be-
come sufficiently flexible to follow the eye
when reading.
with an encouraging amount of success
the first year we followed up the interval
teaching the second season, and made an
arbitrary division of the intervals, so as to
insure perfect system of work in each
&c hOOI and not to allow any one teacher to