The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-06-28
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
(By Helen Noah, Director of Instru-
mental MuSic.)


mental Music.)
Each child in our public schools
should be given the chance to the
greatest joy in life-the art of music.
It will influence their whole careers.
I believe that musical ability is in
herent in the average individual, that
is part of his inheritance too valua-
BILE to be neglected and too vital to be
overlooked; therefore that regular
classes in instrumental music should
be added to the public school curri-
culum 1t is something of paradox
that music, the most universal of all
the arts, should, for so long, have been
enjoyed by the classes while it has
been denied the masses. A luxury for
the few, when it should have been a
comfort for the many. Music is a
moral law. 1t gives tone to the uni
verse, wings to the wind, flight to i'm
agination, charm to sadness, gayety
and life to everything"
In our strenuous, industrial age,
music is needed more than ever be-
fore as a recreation force, and to sap
the surplus vitality of the growing
youth. If it be true that rhythmic
motion is the fundamental law of the
accord with it's law when we are max
ing music. According to Otto Mess
ner of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in his
address on Modern Pedagogy" deliv-
cred at the State Music Supervisors
Conference, ''the records of the Penal
Institutions show that from the pro-
LESSONS there are the feweSt school
teacher inmates, and next to them,
49, l~,,f i,acf
He also stated that not one member
of the six hundred piece boys band
in Springfield has ever been called IN
to the Juvenile Court. The pubic
school records show that the students
studying music while attending school
average higher grades than those vino
do not.
In my judgment, the ideal arrange
ment to be hoped for it: That the
Board of Education not only secure IN
Strumental instructors, but also that
they provide rotating fund adequate
to purchase perfectly tuned, COM
plete set Oh instruments, and sell them
on the. payment plan to the students.
This may be handled by apportioning
the payments according to the re-
naming months of their public school
career. On being graduated, the
students receive with their diploma re-
ceiptS for their instruments paid in
full. There are many advantages TO
such a system, namely, the students
are owners and players of a grade OF
instruments that probably would have
been beyond their reach financially
Too, they have means of self ex-
preston, pleasure, and oftimeS a
source of remunerative aid. Also,
this places the money back in the
treasury ready for further use, and
leaves no infected, dilapidated inStru-
mentS in the school.
My past eleven years in public
school instrumental teaching has been
that when the opportunity to learn 70
play any musical instrument without
the costly expense of private lessons
was offered, the patrons were glad to
purchase the best instruments that
they could afford. This ranged from
$3.50 to $4,000, and have always
been able to develop bands and or
chestras including the rare instru-
mentS making possible perfectly bal
anced Instrumentation. In most of
my work have been obliged to in
Struct after school hours. This is not
so bad for ensemble training, but
usually eliminates the more careful
class instruction. I maintain that
most of this work should be carried on
during school hours and that habits
should be correctly formed from the
beginning. Breathing the same as in
public speaking or singing, and that
the tones should be pitched on all
brass instruments by the development
and use of the muscles of expression,
and not by pressure or blowing. This
means playing and not working.
Music of all the liberal arts has the
greatest influence over the passions,
and is that to which legislators should
give the greatest encouragement