Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04
Music in America.

nirable purpose In keeping music before
people, It was the radio which actually
brought 1t to them in an inexpensive
and easily controlled fem, Mr.. Clark
declares. Yet the very facility in ha9-
ing music thus performed In the home
tended greatly to increase the evils Of
the Let George do it, attitude. AS
long as that attitude prevailed it was
hardly to be expected that people would
be very much concerned with making
music themselves.
Since musicians may be either mat
ural" or made" in Mr.. Clark's opinion,
1t became the function OF certain or
CARNATIONS, he pointed out, to foster
the interest in music in this country
some Of them devoted to making" more
musicians, others to help the education
and careers Of the natural" musicians,
the students. Those who have concen-
trated upon instilling in the public con-
seriousness an appreciation of music
have resorted to what Mr. Clark calls
various pedagogic devices in order to
accustom people to the presence of
music, the enjoyment of music, and,
| finally. the participation in music. AS
one example, he gives the system Of
group teaching in piano study.
I'm the past" as he puts it, Nellie
might have objected strenuously to hav-
| ing to leave her friends to take a piano
lesson, and it has been the unhappy
experience Of many a small boy to be
called from his games by the despotio
| requirements of his scales and exercises
The situation has been changed, how
ever, In some quarters at least. Now
Nellie may take her lessons In company
with her friends. When all the small
boys foregather at the keyboard there
is no more game outside. The element
q ri { e int ftae
art: the element of competition enters.
too. and makes the practice more ex-
citing"
Many old bugbears associated with
music-one, for example, being that it
was an effeminate occupation, ill-be-
fitting the masculine dignity-have been
overcome. That such a false concep-
ton does not hold today is clearly EVIL
denced, Mr.. Clark asserts, by the num-
Der Of men engaged in playing in or
chestraS or as soloists. and by the great
number Of male singing groups superior
in most instances, he confides, to the
feminine groups.
1t has been found necessary, Mr.. Clark
notes, to keep people provided with the
opportunity of creating music in COM
pany with others, and to apprise them
constantly of such opportunities. A
student at college, for instance. has
ooNh OPPOA OuAAIIACo 40 q IIlC1llDCI VI bIl6
glee club or the mandolin and guitar
club, but often finds himself lack
ing in such associations when he leaves
the university. Community organiza-
ton work then assumes Importance.
Singing groups, not only from UNIVERSE
| ties but from factories and towns as
well, have been provided cohesion and
community Of interest in the Associ-
ated Glee Clubs of America, for ex-
ample, which now numbers 1000 per-
sons. Throughout the country there
are many thousands of bands, small
orchestras and singing societies which
are maintaining local interest in music,
Mr.. Clark observes.
Such groups as these are tremen-
dously helpful, he continues, In the
transition in musical interest from the
school period to the adult. The public
schools, with facilities for training the
impreSsionable child such as are not
exceeded in any other country, and
which have never been as great in the
United States as they are now, are
doing splendid work. Combining these
early influences with the increasingly
widened scope for musical expression
in succeeding years must result Mr..
Clark believes. in the establishment of
a musical tradition in America which
we have long considered to be the pecu-
liar property of European countries.
Two things-impulse and opportunity
being present, progress cannot fail.