New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-27
In the Realms Of Music and Art

who taught everything In the curricu-
| lum, invited as many boys as wished to
learn to read music to spend fifteen
4 minutes Of the MONDAY recess with
Il hinn Ten or more of the boys re-
manned In their seats when the others
i went to their homes. He drew staff
on the blackboard and named the lines
and spaces E. G, B, D, F and F A c E.
Every great big dog fights will
help you remember the lines" said he,
sand the spaces spell face" We had
the names in five minutes, and after
. few days Of practice on the intervals
we read at sight q common meter tune
to Bishop Heber's hymn, by Cool
Siloam's Shady Rill," remember the
words and the melody, but am not sure
that the latter is in any hymn book.
There was nothing frightful about that
instruction; on the contrary, the quar-
ter of an hour was restful and de-
light.
Twas reminded Of this incident while
reading Mrs. Salts N. Coleman's de-
lightfully written book, "Creative Music
for Children" with the qualification
| that the voices of children must be
guarded against vicious manners. What
Mrs. Coleman says about the advantages
I-of singing and dancing exercises may
| be warmly commended. Perhaps, since
writer in The Tribune reviewing her
book has spoken in loud appreciation
of the notion that education in music
ought to pursue the lines of develop
ment disclosed by the instruments of
! primitive man, ! ought to be humbly
silent on that point. But after spend
ing two or tleee hours in Mrs. Cole
mans studio, looking at her collection
| OF instruments and discussing her
methods, l went away with the convic-
ton that after her pupils had spent five
years pounding on homemade drums
like little sayages, blowing on syrinxes
and twanging on Tyres Of theft own
manufacture, even after they had
learned to make fpple flute with two
or more finger holes and blow tunes of
five tones on it or tune the musical
glasses-after all this they would have
| arrived at the stage where the printed
| symbols of music and their relation
ship with the pianoforte keyboard
would have to be learned Also the
proper manipulation of the keys.
Singularly enough have been making
use of primitive instruments for fif-
teen years or more in my lectures on
the appreciation of music at the In
stitute of Musical Art But have ex-
hibited them only to illustrate the
principles of tone production; to show
the origin of all stringed instruments
in the hunting bow of the savages, the
first resonating bodies in the ground
which the African negro still attaches
to his bow. the beginnings of the flute
in the pipes of Pan, and the big bones
Of animals. And these lectures were
designed for adult students, budding
artists, intended to make them think
about the instruments in their hands.
1t never occurred to me to suggest that
they might replace the products of a
high civilization, nor to attach impor-.
lance to their varying shapes and the
! different materials used in their in
struction. Their types are the same
the world over, and all that they illlu-
strate beyond fundamental principles
has chronological or archaeological sigri-
ficance only. 1t is only by comparison
with the instruments of modern
civilization that they are useful educa-
tional value. Alone they only teach
the fact that the musical art and mu-
steal instruments which we practice are
Occidental in their Development, for the
music and the instruments Of the
cultured Orient are thecmusie and the
instruments of primitive people. No
doubt a child with sufficient mechani-
cal ingenuity to construct something
like violin out of a cigar box may
derive pleasure from playing upon its
creation; but if it is to be trained in
music the sooner the cigar box fiddle
is replaced by violin the better for
its education and the ears of the neigh
borhood.