ENGLAND'S LACK OF MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 138, 8 December 1921, Page 12

ENGLAND'S LACK OF MUSIC

RESOURCE TO INTELLECTUAL LIFE

LAMENT OF STUDIED NEGLEOT.

(MOM 008 OWN COnREBPONBBNI.)

LONDON, 20tih September.

Sir H. Hadow did not oonfin* himself to the letter of Ms presidential address on "The Hac© of Mmsdo in a liberal Education," at the Edinburgh session of the British Association, but he gave a free rendering, which hi 3 listeners found much more piquant, and he relieved lids mind of much pungent sarcasm touching "popular" music. Ninety per oent. of the stuff written on music paper, he said, could not claim to be considered as music at all. Beyondi that point they had to go through a good deal of second-rate music before tihey got) that which was high-clan*. He related how, on his way north, he stayed one night at am hotel, and, during dinner, four ''malefactor*" came in, and, with violins, 'cello, and piano, proceeded to give whs* was nothing but inarticulate gibberish, (Laughter.) It wa» as if four people from a home for mental defectives had sought to engage in conversation. (Laughter.) Another personal experience wae when he wa* at Durham University. A friend and h» undertook to arrange for a social evening. In looking after the -musical portion, he wrote to the conductor of a very good Newcastle band, which went About the country, and asked, him to send, if it was disengaged for that even. T ing, a suggested programme....When it came it was an insult to him—(laughter) —so he wrote back a very strong letter. The conductor replied that he did not I Blow that high-clan* music had been wanted. (Laughter.) Fancy, when strawberries were ordered, such a remark being made as "we dndi not know; you wanted good ones." (Laughter.) HOW MUSIC SHOULD BE READ.

Music, he said, should be recognised in the formal education of school and college; it should be given a place in the curriculum and full recognition in the examination system. The study of a great composer might be made of as much education value as that of a great poet. On the othei side, the qualities of abstract thinking and of mentals construction implied in the study, of musical form are closely analogous to those of our natural sciences, and might well be made of the same educational value. It should be quite possible to draw up a syllabus for music which would fit info the existing scheme of school, and college work; and which would neither encourage faddists, nor excuse idlers, nor produce that lamentable class of people, not yet quite extinct, who talk emotionally about music without any understanding. There should be a great improvement in the place of music in libraries. Every public library in the country and, if possible, every school and university library, should contain a musical depart ment which includes not only the standard classical compositions, but the firstrate books on musical aesthetics and criticism. There were a great many more of such books than' was commonly supposed. "At present an allusion to music in average society would tend to cut the conversation down to the roots; half the company would feel nervous and uncomfortable, half apprehensive of a dull or pontifical lecture. It ought to be just as possible for people to be well read in music and interested in communicating their ideas about it as they are at present in ordinary civilised society over questions of literature or the representative arts. The ordinary educated man ought to be trained to read music. The script, although it is not always very rational, is not unduly difficult, and its mastery unlocks the door of a new literature. A very great many of us have [ only rare and infrequent opportunities of hearing the best music. We have no means of refreshing our memories between recurrent performances,. and we therefore lose a great deal of the effect which they produce. If we learn to read (by which I do not mean to sing or play at^ sight, but to read silently as one reads a play or a novel) we have added another valuable resource to pur ■ intellectual life. , -'■ ' ' "And as a corollary to all these, we all of us need to simplify bur attitude towards music. One result which follow* from the uncertainty of its position is *hafc it has not yet found its proper bearings. People who have any musical gifts are a little inclined unduly to stress them, because they have a misgiving that their neighbours do not rate music sufficiently high. The outside world, which would be very glad to understand more about music, but regards it as a kind of hieroglyphic or sacerdotal secret, which the rrrofane may not penetrate, is equally reticent because it is afraid to put forward an opinion in the presence of the expert. We want really to pool our knowledge, to concentrate our interests, to develop on this side, as we have on so many others, a sense of comradeship and co-operation, and this can only be done if we are all made free of the company; if our musical education is such that we can meet each other as frankly and openly in this field as educated men are accustomed to do in the discussion of science or poetry. And this we can do if music is enfranchised in our education system, if it takes its assured place in the community and is invested with the full rights of inteP leotual citizenship."

NOT A RARE GIFT. It was generally thought that music was a rare gift, given only to a few, said Mr. Plunket Greene, hut that was not so. investigations and experiments had proved that every boy and girihad music in them, but that sense became atrophied from want of use. It was given more to some than to others, but they knew from experiment and investigation that every normal child had music in him and a voice to sing with. Music in this country had suffered from the inevitable aftermath of the Italian period, but in the last generation there had been a great change. Nowadays the educated singer had a working knowledge of other languages besides his own, and, above all things, he had a repertoire, and was able to make his programmes works of art to a certain degree. But we still allowed him to befoul and bedraggle our beautiful language_ with terrible and horrible foreign solecisms and mal-pronuncia-tions. Music gave an outlet for the most beautiful things in the world; and it was a divine healer. If shell-shock cases could be .got to sing they were halivway to recovery. He cited the case of a man who wuld make only two sounds, but who, when someone sang the first line of "Tipperary," went on with the song. He had taken many parties to sing in hospitals, where patients suffering from aphasy, men sunk in a dead stupor, men holding on. to life and reason only by a nurse's hand, oheered when they heard music, and sang choruses. If these men could sing, music, must be hidden in everybody. He j contended that there was a hunger for [ music everywhere in the country. Workmen's cottages had their gramophones, factories had their choruses and bands, and the best voices in the country camo from the Welsh miners. Music was no respecter of persons and swept away all social barriers. Music moved in great waves centuries long,, and we were now, he thought, on the crest of a wav«. Progwai, hoimw, h*d b»n m*d; ifl Wit*

out its own salvation in blood and tears. \ QUESTIONED ABOUT THE GRAMOPHONE. Mr. H. Dy ke Acland (Falmouth) said that music had an extraordinary effect on childreit. It greatly Improved their discipline. They became more tractable and easier to teach. MusicaJ competitions had an important effect in the cultivation of character. Lady Carlow Martin . asked if there was any plaos for the gramophone in education? Sir Henry Hadow replied that there was not only a place for it, but it was being used, many education authorities laying them in for that purpose. He said that although he had a personal dislike to the sound of the gramophone, no doubt they would be further improved until the sandpaper quality was erased. (Laughter.) But, impartially, he admitted it had a place, eßpecially in rural districts.

In reply to another lady, who asked how a teacher was to begin to correlate the eye and the ear, the President said that this could be done by the blackboard and ear exercises until very soon a child would be able to -write the notes as easily as a letter to his parents. Of course, there might be mistakes, but bo there were in a letter. He would like a child to ■write a tune every day. (Laughter.)