Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-21
MISS BENTLEY'S RECITAL
longs for Illustration Purposes Be-
fore Baltimore School
DIRECTOR MAKES STATEMENT
nfiuence of Rag Time Songs and
Comic Opera to Be Com
batted.


the musical interests of the public school
teachers and pupils. the courses of music
instruction as now carried on throughout
the system are attracting wide attention.
Recently Superintendent Van Sickle OF
Baltimore invited Miss Alys E. Bentley,
director of music of the local system of
public schools. TO assist in an examination
of teachers for the musical corps of the
Baltimore teachers.
Friday night last Miss Bentley gave a
recital at the Western High School for
girls in Baltimore, singing fifty or more
songs by way of illustrating the kind of
music taught in Washington Miss Bent
ley grouped her selections under various
headings as mother songs" kindergarten
songs" ballads for boys" and ballads
for girls songs of action and of thought
and sentiment.
The character of the music in the local
schools may be cleaned from the annual
report of Miss Bentley which is said to
nave been highly commended by the SUI
perintendent.
Regret has been expressed that the effort
TO secure the services of William l.. Tom
Inns of Chicago failed. 1t was proposed to
bring Mr.. Tomlins from Chicago TO give two
lessons month If a sufficient number of
teachers could be gotten together. OF the
100 subscribers necessary only 100 were
reported, and the work had to be given up,
notwithstanding Mr.. Tomlins' lessons
among the teachers in Chicago have been
called a new force in education. .
The concerts by Miss Won Unschuld, au-
thorized by the board of education and
given in the various high schools, are also
reported to have ceased. Miss Bentley
says of these concerts that they have
proven an important factor in the problem
of widening the pupils musical expert
ence. There was, however, not a suffi-
cient response, it is said from the high
school nnp{lS although the admission fee
was only 10 cents
Statement by Director.
In spite of these two disappointments
the directors report states that:
1T is not too much to hope that in few
years we may have at the capital city of
the nation series of song festivals which
shall be recognized as the logical end Of
all of our musical training
Such a concert as that delightful one
given by the high school chorus under
the direction of Mr.. Sidney Lloyd Wright
son, while an artistic success in itself,
cannot be considered as the representation
of our routine work in the music depart
ment. Such festival as the concerts I'M
der the management of the Teachers An
nuity and Aid Association, while rejecting
great credit upon the painstaking instruc-
ton of the assistants in the music depart
ment and splendid generalship on the part
of the business management of the festi-
VAL is no adequate expression of the sing
ing of our thousands of children.
., TT is my conviction that We shall pro-
gresS very little beyond our present musi-
cal development, until such a time as an
annual musical festival, authorized by the
board of education, is Incorporated a
fundamental part of the scheme of work
laid down for this department Only where
il is in the course--the objective point of
our instruction the vitaliZing influence in
the work of every boy and girl who sees
in this great choral plan the influence of
l, t., llyfy nf thn -IanIn nnd
who is stimulated by the powerful though
subtle influence of participation in a great
chorus-only under such conditions Will
. our public school music be raised from the
plane of artisan to the plane of art Only
then can we hope to correlate 1t with the
art-life-the musical life-of the com
munity, and have 1t contribute, as 1t
should to the establishing of standards
of musical taste and quickening of mu-
steal appreciation.
Urges Library of Music.
Looking to the annual musical festival
as the logical end of our music instruction.
1 would urge the building up of a library
of music, chosen from the greatest musical
literature of the ages. In music, as in
every developed art, there are certain well
defined standards on which the world is
agreed, and which will stand the test of
decades. even generations, of music study
If we can incorporate into the lives of our
upper grade CnllOre0 tle experience of the
study of these great works. the master
compositions, We shall have given them an
undeniable inheritance in the highest must
cal enjoyment. The influence of the comic
opera, Of rag time, of the popular song,
are today dominating influences in the mu-
steal life OF our children. They must be
controverted by the steadying power of the
truly great masters of song to bring back
the balance and give them their legitimate
place in music experience. In the develop
ment of musical appreciation the hearing
of music is second only in Importance to
participation. We have done much to sup
ply this need, bringing TO the children in
their own environment of the school room
concerts and recitals of high artistic merit
often with normal exposition as feature
OF the recital. In this important work we
have met with uniform courtesy and CO.
operation from local musicians. and II is a
pleasure at this time to express the obi
CATION OF the music department for their
unvarying aid and interest.
The Mechanical Players.
The various mechanical players. per-
fected to the point of sheer wizardism,
make IL possible to bring within the every
day experience of our children the whole
world-inheritance OF music Given a fairly
intelligent manipulation, and a circulating
library of rolls. with one of these piano
yIayers in a school, who can estimate the
influence upon the children from hearing,
rehearing to seventy times seven, until
the melodies are very part of his being,
the compositions of the world-great COM
posers. Beethoven should not be for the
few. He is essentially the simplest and
purest of the acknowledged greatest ruu-
sicians. Why not give him a fair chance
with the street piano and the latest pop
ular song? My plea, then. is for wider op-
portunity to hear the best music, for a
sufficient musical library, to admit OF the
thorough and systematic study in the upper
grades of at least one great oratorio each
year, and finally. for the focusing of all our
music work an annual and great expo
sition OF 1t on a scale commensurate with
its deserving.
ITO this end therefore heartily and ur-
gently recommend that In this year of the
centennial OF the establishing of public
schools in Washington city the board OF
education consider at early date such a
plan as has been outlined This is pre-
eminentay the city in which such an art
expression would have widest educational
influence and value. ! believe we are none
OF US, wise enough to even guess the tire.
mendous influence for community of inter-
est elevation of ideals, moderation OF
greed and simplicity of living which would
go out from the capital city through such
u movement as this