MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 28, 1 August 1929, Page 17

MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

KINDERGARTEN LESSONS

A highly instructive lecture upon the subject of "The Musical Education of Children" was given by Mr.. Ernest .Tenner at the recent refresher course held by the Wellington Free Kindergar-

"The kindergarten," said Mr. Jenner, 'should aim at supplying musical experiences, stimulating musical feeling, providing suitable expression for tljat feeling, and laying the foundations of understanding and appreciation of music by means of very careful selection. The finest and most complete definition of music was 'Music is a language.' It had its sounds, its sentences, and, as with other languages, besides possessing its grammar, it expressed its meaning. If mus i c was v i ewG( j as a language rather than as an isolated subject to bo taught as a pleasurable extra it would help them to see what influence to bring to bear on the children, to see what part they themselves must play, and to realise what they might expect from the children. The importance of giving children a worthy early musical vocabulary was stressed. Many people failed to appreciate true beauty in music because they had been trained almost exclusively oh rough, noisy music. This required no effort of attention to listen to, so the habit of deliberately attending to sounds that could be appreciated by no other means was never acquired. The first essential in the training of tiny children was to let them hear sounds that were extrenVely beautiful. Music was too often degraded nowadays into being an accompaniment to eating and drinking, and even to conversation. He made several suggestions as to work that could be done with children. The children, he said, were to be encouraged to imitate the sounds heard, although he warned teachers not to be disappointed if the children were unable to make their voices find tho notes they wished to copy, as they probably had not explored the full possibilities of their voices. The importance of the teacher's influeuce and the need of the teacher possessing an extremely high taste—highbrow taste—was discussed. The value of individual work and the development of the rhythmic sense were treated next, .the swing and the see-saw were mentioned as giving rhythmic experiences that were not of the child's own making. This was an important need to be borne in mind.

In concluding, Mr. Je'nner stated: All the work done with children should be for the purpose of making the child sensitive to beauty of sound and nobility of thought expressed, and this must be supported by the adult musical influences which surround the child. Tho music of the homo is too often deplorably bad; therefore, we should supply some adult music—judiciously chosen—the best of all periods (not forgetting the period to which- the child belongs) so that we can refer to it as the kind of music to which the grown-ups like to listen."