Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25

observation the potential ability of those
who have dropped their music. FOR
the moment, therefore, let us concede
that the world has lost nothing by the
silence of this large group who once
began to study music and afterward
gave it up.
am not willing to concede, however,
that the dropping OF their music did
not create in many of these people an
antagonism to it. The sense of futility,
which is all they have got out OF long
hours of practice, sets up a protective
attitude against the whole art. In any
high school you will find, over agsinst
the fortunate youngsters who can play
and sing, considerable number who
can do neither, and who take Phili-
slime attitude toward the performance
of others. You will find that these
Philistines are almost invariably those
who began music study and dropped 1t.
Two General Results.
But If we shut our eyes to all the
high school students except those who
can play or sing we can prophesy for
them, on the basis of what is now
happening through the country, two
general results. If they don't go OH to
college they have fair chance OF
keeping up their music. In all sections
of the land are springing up what are
usually called junior orcheStras, re-
cruited chiefly from young people who
enjoyed playing during their high
school courses and who would like to
keep on after graduation. Since they
continue more or less in the same
community, since they usually or in
many cases own their own instruments
it is not hard to bring them together
to play for fun. Some energetic person
calls them and they respond.
On the other hand, if they go to
college they are almost certain to drop
their music. There may be a student
orchestra at their college, but it is not
likely to play so well as the best high
school orchestra because it can find
less time to practice and usually no
time at all for private study. Unless
the student orchestra at college is
temporarily galvanized into efficiency
by a few extraordinary talents of pro-
fessional grade, it represents, unsteady
speaking, only the dwindling out of the
good work accomplished in high schools
Here and there in the dornitories you
can discover a boy or girl valiantly
continuing piano or violin practice for
a year or so, or month or so, but in
the end the college curriculum will get
them. Their musical activity is of no
concern to the educators who have
them in charge. The college provides
no leisure for this art and gives no
credit for the acquisition of this culture.
Departments of Music.
Most colleges, think, would prefer
a different description of the place of
music in their curriculum. They would
point to the fact that they have a
music department, that quite large
Of AiV,te
graduation can be earned in music
courses. that a point or perhaps two
points of credit can be earned by play
ing in the college orchestra, provided
that this playing goes hand in hand
with courses in the history or the
theory of music
On paper our colleges are doing
pretty we'll for music. AS a matter of
fact, however, what they are doing does
not touch the practical problem I have
been outlining here. We offer courses
in musical appreciation, in music his
tory or in music theory. In all of
these academic credit can be obtained
No doubt much good of a kind may
come from the appreciation courses.
No doubt it is an advantage to know
when Beethoven and Bach lived and in
what order they composed their works.
No doubt at all that the study of
counterpart and harmony ought to
add to ones musical equipment.
But obviously something is wrong K
a large number of our students are
Withdrawing from music, abandoning
ability already acquired. during the
very years when the courses in APP
probation are being applied to their
fellows. 1t seems easy to convince
educational theorists that it is better
fOr 70
Beethoven than to be able to play
Beethoven himself. But you'll never
convert a musician to that paradox.
A number of colleges, particularly
colleges for women, are making efforts
to cure this condition, chiefly by
organizing what are practically con-
servatories associated with the colleges.
From the point of view of the musical
educator this is a questionable move.
A conservatory ought to be first rate,
or it ought not to exist, and it can't
be first rate unless it aims at pro-
fessional standards. The moment a
college sets up conservatory of music
in association with its college course
almost certainly be better done else
where, and in the end it exposes itself
to comparisons which are unfortunate
and unnecessary.
Opportunities as Need.
If we are interested in the average
student, in the young person who no
more intends to be a professional
musician than to be a professional
chemist or physicist, it would seem
wiser to provide in the curriculum
whatever music studies he has begun,
to continue the study and practice of
the piano or of the violin and to re-
ceive academic credit for this work on
an exact equality with history or math-
ematicS or any other subject. The
purpose of such provision would be
not to train professional musicians, but
to conserve and to carry on normally
whatever musical ability the students
bring to college with them.
If there were time, I should like to
argue TO a finish with any educator
who doubts the disciplinary and Gull
tural value of practical music study,
properly directed The amount Of prac-
tice necessary for a weekly or fort
nightly lesson in music involves two or
three times the moral and intellectual
effort which the average student eX-
ponds on any other course. Two hours
a day of practice demand absolute con-
centration in order to produce results,
and they can be crammed into nothing
short of 100 minutes. Music practice
cannot be surreptitiously worked up,
as many a history lesson is, during
morning chapel or the Sunday sermon.
Musical performance differs from any
other recitation now encouraged in our
class rooms, in that it must be good as
a whole as well as in detail, and the
student can expect no lucky break in
the question he draws from the in
StrUctor.
To install music in the curriculum
mathematics or history or chemistry,
an adequate equipment would be needed
to practice on, places to
practice, instructors. If a conservatory