The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-01-27
CATECHISM ON THE
CHILD AND MUSIC
(By Caroline KOhlsaat)

| CAlECdlOM UN THE
CHILD AND MUSIC
| (By Caroline Kohlsaat)
l. Why should children sing?
Because they love to sing; because
singing enriches their lives; because
its develops their natural sense of
beauty.
2. Is beauty ESSENTIAL to life?
3. What is the relation of beauty to
/ life?
As bread nourishes the physical
body so beauty is the food of the spirit.
4. How may we bring beauty into the
rlives of our children?
BY teaching them to extract it from
the experiences of every day. BY help
ing them to find it in nature and in
art.
5. What is art?
Art is the concrete expression of
mans feeling or capacity for beauty.
Art is only life in terms Of beauty
Thomas Whitney Surette.) cart is
an expression, satisfying and abiding,
of the zest for life" George Gissing.
6. Which Of all the arts is first ac-
cessible to the little child?.
Music.
7. How?
Long before a child can really APP
preciate any other form of art or ex-
press himself in it he can, in the sing
ing of a little song, not only come in
contact with a perfect work of art,
but can completely realize himself in
the expression of it.
8. Do all types-of song bring about
this desirable end, (self realization
in form of beauty or develop the
sense of beauty?
No. as soon expect a healthy, beau
tiful body to result from a diet of
overstimulating, undernourishing food,
as to expect perception of beauty
to develop from a diet of insincere or
tawdry music.
.. How can a musically uneducated
parent safely choose songs for his
child ?
Therse is one type of song that is
genuine, very simple, and truly beau
tiful, that was not composed for a
commercial market, but that has lived
for generations because it was the sin
cere, spontaneous expression Of fine
feelings; this is called "folk song."
1t is the best foundation on which to
build musical taste for it is the foun-
dation of the music Of all the great
masters.
TO- Are these folk songs available?
Yes. Realizing the suitability of
this type of music for little children,
publishers are offering folk song col
lections with the English translations
or adaptations, when original words
are unsuitable. Among these NAV be
mentioned: Our Old Nursery Rhymes,
.harmonized by Moffat. pub. by David
Mackay, Phila., Pa; Every Child's
Folk Songs and Games, collected by
Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, pub. by Mil,
ton Bradley, Springfield, Mass; Songs.
for the Little Child, by Clara Belle
Baker and Caroline Kohlsaat pub. by
the Abingdon Press, $50 Fifth Ave, q
New York; The Rote Sonk Book, by
Surette and Dawson, pub. by Amer
lean Society for Universal Teaching.
Phila., Pa.
II. How can these songs be used in
the home?
They are SO simple that they re-
quire very little musical training for
their reading and they are so melodi-
GUS that they are complete without
any accompaniment. Nothing so surely
establishes musical taste nor SO natu-
rally contributes to the happy soli-
darity of the home as family singing
of fine old songs.
II. How does early singing affect a
child's interest in learning to play
an instrument?
Singing is the best possible prepara-
ton for instrumental study. As no
sane parent attempts to have his child
taught reading and elocution before
he has learned to talk, SO no thought
full parent will plunge child into the
technical difficulties of instrumental
music before he has a love Of music
in his mind and heart and a repertoire
OF fine songs as a background or
foundation experience.
Active participation in fine music
is far better than passive enjoyment
Of it. The seeds Of beauty sown in a
home where the family habitually
sings, will yield incomparably finer
results than the presence there Of
the most expensive mechanical mus
ical instruments.
NTIICTN DTrDn OWN