The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-10-13

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Balzac Until we learn to read French.
Is it not possible that to many per-
sons music is a foreign language? :?
81 don't live at home any more" a
promising young business man said
to me. Couldn't stand my sisters
piano practice! Pm putting up at the
Y. M. C. A." There was a lad to
whom music was untintelligible. His
sister played very well, and he GER
tainly did not have to listen to be-
ginner's scales. l wonder if any
one ever talked to him as l once heard
mother talk to a little boy in Wash
ington at one of the open air concerts
of the Marine Band.
Dick was very troublesome. He
wriggled and whined and disturbed
a number of people who were eager
to hear the music. His mother,
however, did not scold. She took him
on her lap and told him that the man
with the violin was going to make
magic presently, and that his violin
was full of little birds. Of course,
the unwilling child was interested in
spite of himself. "Wait," said his
mother mysteriously, "and listen, and
when he lets the birds out you can
hear them"
81 want to see them."
But that is the magic. Every lit
tie bird is invisible. You can't see
it but can hear it sing. Sit very
still and listen. If you talk you
might scare the little birds away" So
Dick sat very still and presently the
violin solo, which was a dainty ga
vote, full of chirruppy sounds, was
loosened on the air, for all the world
like a twittering flock Of sparrows.
After that Dick listened for other an
imals. He heard cows moo and
horses gallop, and at the finale of a
splendid overture he was certain that
whole circus had come to town. The
interpretations may have been pretty
wide of the mark, but something was
there for the child to comprehend, and
he was grasping the great truth that
music had message, and that 1t was
for him to discover and possess it.
Some months later | had a letter
from Dicks mother. 'He is really
beginning to understand music and
love it," she said. "Now he can hear
wind and wave sounds, and l must
play the storm from William Tell
over and over again. But it is
mistake to imagine that restless lit
tie child can stand the strain of sew
eral hours of continuous music. A
long concert is not wise for him. l
do not wish to let him get tired while
listening for fear of losing his inter
est"
In the instance of this particular
child the seeds of music-love were be-
ing sown absolutely in unpromising
soil He had no natural love for mu-
sic, and no inherited musical inclina-
tions. But wisdom and patience were
teaching him the lovely foreign Ian
guage and adding to his portion of eX-
periences that treasure which DR.. Eli
OF, Harvard's eX-president, says is
"more valuable and necessary than
anything, except the barest elements
of reading and writing"
How many teachers really awaken
an understanding of the meaning of
music in the mind of the child? How
many children know the names of the
great composers, or any facts about
their lives? How many teachers eX-
plain why the scale is necessary, and
what will be the rewards of the weary
finger-exercise? Little folks prac-
tice-or thrum, with one eye on the
clock, because they have to-but is it
- ,,occ;l,Io 70 baua tbap, do II hn-