The herald., 1897-08-22
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Age Is reprinted from the New York
Sun an article on the outlook in the field
of music as profession, which, though
it inclines to be pessmistic in tore. is
worthy of thought as we'll as perusal.
The vast army, which is constantly and
rapidly augmenting, of performers as
well as teachers of music, threatens to
overcrowd the field in America as well
as abroad, with an article that Is lux
ury rather than a necessity; to increase
the supply out of all proportion to the
demand, until 1t Is only a question of
| time until the law of comper satior shall
enforce itself and the survival of the fit
| test press the unfit to the wall.
AS an accomplishment, music offers
unlimited resources for pleasure to un-
limited numbers. AS profession it
should be undertaken only by those who
by nature and training can be proved
| worthy; else the result is disastrous, not
orly to the scholar who studies urder
an incompetent teacher, but to the suf-
fering public who are ensnared by one
means or another into listening to medi-
ocrity in performers Let all who wish
and have the means to crafty it, study
music in any form, or upon any ir stru-
meEt that nature or inclinat ton may die
tate to them, but let it be as a pastime
only. When it is to be taken seriously,
as a life work, profession, in the name
of all that is just and merciful, for the
sake of the country as well as the indi-
vidual, let there be high standard and
rigid examir alton, which must be at
tanned and passed, that irresponsible
mediocrity may be barred out.
| Hare 10 tbe ortirIa houa- tioped.
'In the National Review for July
| there is a report upon. an occupation in
great distress from paucity of wages and
from difficulty in placing its members
with the prospect darker even than the
present. The industry of the people in
this particular line of la Dor is proverbial
They are rot lacking in thrift, either.
Even the most mendacious demagogue
would not venture to charge their trou-
bles to the oppression of capital or the
avarice of employers. There is no trust
in the business. All the profits go to the
laborers. They are the musicians.
Musicians are poor and growing poor
er, as the National Review says, because
the profession of music has overfiown to
an extent unparalleled in any of the
other professiors.' In regard to music,
what is true in England is probably true
| of all European countries, and is also
true of the United States. The increase
| OF English music teachers during the
last twenty-five years has been i'm
mense. Beteween 1871 and 1891 In Eng
| land and Wales they have just doubled.
AS these are the figures Of the govern
mert boards great number of teach
ers, women particularly, who live at
home and do other things than teach,
| have probably escaped the official CEN
SuS.
Schools ard colleges Of music have
grown in every direction, the scholars
keeping pace with them. There has been
an immense increase also in the
number Of irresponsible and semi
| private colleges and schools for
music, many of them purely specula
tive, which provide an education that is
cheap. They offer scholarships ard
| guarantee appearances at concerts ano
confer degrees.
Thousands are pouring into the ranks
of music under the infiuenc ce of their own
aspirations and the unlimited encour-
| agements showered upon them by kind
| ~ disposed people, who are Indifferent
| to the grinding competition that awaits
! the objects of their rejoicing. The only
prospect for the great body of young
musicians is to take the bread of poverty
out of some ore eses mouth
ITO earn living as music teacher
| nowadays man in the ordinary ranks
must teach all day and every day from
early morning until late at night The
mass of people will pay but little for ir-
| struction in music, and at best, there
| fore, the professor in the ranks earns
| but enough to enable him to dress re-
| specially and eat three meals a day.
| He provides for old age no more than
does the ordinary day laborer. and gen.
orally less.
deep ir the same crush also Is the
player. The Orchestral Association Ga
| zette tells us that nowadays a player
must be in everything ard attend re-
hearsal after rehearsal, be at concert
after concert until he is worn out at an
| age when other men are in their prime.
| Then, of course, he is cast off,
Singers are turned out with similar
! speed. They are 80 crowded and the
struggle to get into public notice Is so
hard that young singers gladly pay, If
| they have the money, to be allowed to
who add handsomely to their incomes by
exacting heavy fees from aspiring vo-
calists for the privilege Of singing at
| their at homes
"All singers, except the few
| favored ones, make precarious
| living A few concert tours, casual en-
gagements, civic dinners, charity con-
| certs, and that most lamentable of all
expedients, an annual concert are the
resources of even the more successful.
| For the rest, the singing world offers a
| painful spectacle of vanished Illusions
and struggling poverty
Here is labor of the highest skill toll
ing amid the surroundings which in
other trades the social agitators de-
nounce as the work of capitals heart
| lessness or the capitalists greed. AS
| in other trades, though, the reasons are
deeper than the rawlings of the agitat"
ors." E. M. c.
Stray Chords
Rernard Stavenhapen has been an