Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-30
COLLEGE CHEERING BAD.
President Lowell Of Harvard Says
College Men Prefer Rag Time.

President A. Lawrence Lowell or
Harvard University delivered to the
Music Teachers National Association
| Wednesday morning an address which
was at once a drastic commentary on
| the. progressive degeneration" Of mu-
steal taste at the present day and
trumpet call to renewed and more en-
thusiastic effort by the teachers who
could, he said, exert an enormous
| influence on the civilization of the
| country. President Lowell unsparlng-
~ criticised organized cheering and the
| music which is prevalent at gatherings
| of college men. He declared that peo-
pie of the present day are totally de-
| hcient in the power of expressing the
finer emotions in common and warned
his hearers that those who express
shallow sentiments will gradually come
| to have only shallow sentiments. The
address was heard with absorbed at
| tention by the largest gathering Of the
| convention.
President Cole of the association in
| introducing President Lowell said that
| for q number of years it had been the
| custom Of the association to ask some
one outside the professional fold to adj
dress the meetings from the broader
vision which one outside the profess
sional atmosphere can bring. Pres-
dent Lowell said:
i 1T is little awkward for one who.
| though he enjoys music. makes no
] pretenco. to a knowledge of music to
| address 4 gathering of music teach
ers. Music. like I'LL other arts, may
| be looked upon from two points of
view, as an art and as q means of eX-
preston. On the first point OF view
! it would be foolish Of me to say any
| thing; on the second. q layman even
| may have an opinion"
! He referred to the theory that plas-
| tic art was the normal form of eX-
/ preston in the ancient world. pictures
in the renaissance and music in the
| modern world, and continued:
zone can hardly fail to be struck by
| the progressive degeneration Of the
popular taste in music. We have nlu-
| sic-gool music. Tho taste of Guilt
waited people in Boston has been I'M
nIensely helped by the Symphony Or
c!cstra. But what | refer TO is tho
popular taste in music. This means
| not only the great mass, but even edu-
| Gated people who make no protencc
| of knowing music.
lone of the saddest things is to q
| into a gathering Of college men or
| even alumni and note the kind Of mu-
sic they have at their dinners. 1t is
| ragtime and ragtime of very poor
| quality. They seem to care very little
| for good music. What they want is
a catchy song, something they can
| join in after exhausting their voices
| in organized cheering. OF all the
| means of expressing emotion. organ
| lied cheering is the worst from every
point of view. 1t is bad for the throat
| for one thing. It has less modula-
! ton, less means Of expressing degrees
| and varieties OF emotion Of any Kind
| than any other form Of expression OK
| ctpt Jog horn.
-Our people are totally deficient in
| the power OF expressing any of the
| finer qualities OF emotion in common.
Their effort takes 4 conventional form
which is barren. mcagre and poor.
| The most effective and natural form
| Of expressing emotion is music. The
place OF real expression of emotion
| at alumni dinners has been taken by
organized cheering. That shows that
men who have the highest education
We can give are wholly lacking in
| those moro delicate qualities Of OK
| pressing emotion.
T speak aGViSedly when | say Pro-
eressive degeneration. For thirty
ye"rs expression has become shallow
| er and feebler. There was practically
| no cheering when I was in college
| ii we are right in saying that music
| is the natural form of expressing emo
| ton ut the present day. this present
| condition OF music is a sign that cdu-
Gated people as 4 rule have no emo
tons that ere worth expressing or that
| they are signaIly deficient in the art
| of expressing emotion. The latter. [
| think, is true.
we are always trying to make arti-
| fetal emotions to simulate emotions
! We do not possess. 1t is one of the
| things that has grown with the growth
of democracy. The attempt to simu-
| late emotion means q hollow and mean
| inGlcss expression That is one OF
the things it is the work Of our gem
| Grafton to combat. If | am right.
what is the cOrrectivcH Is any cor
| receive better than music? 1t seems
to me that entirely apart from mUsic
as q fine art is the value Of music
as q means for the expression Of pop