THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1927, Page 11

THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC

ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION PROPOSED SCHEME OF TRAINING. VIEWS OF EMINENT AUTHORITY. Great interest was taken yesterday afternoon in the first lecture delivered at the teachers’ refresher course being held' in New Plymouth this week. The subject of the address was music, its influence for good and its place in the education of the young. The lecturer was Mr. E. Douglas Tayler, F.R.C.0., A.R.C.M., who was brought out from England last year to act as Supervisor of Musical Education. Music might appear as an extra burden added to those which the teacher already carried, said Mr. Tayler, but the encouraging way in which the movement for improving school music had everywhere been received, showed that teachers really felt the great truth —that music actually helped us to bear our burdens. This was witnessed by human history. David encouraged himself with psalms; Drake had music on his ship; thf soldiers sang in the Great War; sailors built the Empire to the sound of sea-shanties; the negro slaves sang in captivity; Scott took a gramaphone and a banjo to the Antarctic; even Christ joined in the singing of a hymn before going to his passion. People made music spontaneously when happy. The girl sang; the boy whistled; the picnic party and the convivial gathering turned to music. The bulk of British folk-music was happy. Happy music re-created happiness. A brfef survey of the countless occasions upon which people made music showed a deep-rooted feeling that it satisfied a spiritual need. Musical mass movements, festivals, etc., were of great significance. PROFOUND PHYSICAL EFFECT. Music had a profound physical effect upon us through its direct action upon the nerves and might be used for good or ill. Through tins physical influence it affected us emotionally. By stimulating common feelings it united the corporate life as well as having a distinct therapeutic value. Making music collectively required subordination of the individual. Things which had a spiritual value, like music, could be shared by all equally without any loss to the individual. Beautiful music represented the sharing of beautiful experiences, which was the bond of happiest friendships. Music stimulated the imagination, as witnessed by the song, wherein tune helped words. Hence the use of music at the picture theatre, etc. Abstract music set the imagination free in the realms of the infinite. Man’s greatest experiences were indefinable in words or pictures, so the greatest music was not pictorial or limited to definite ideas. The imagination of the child of to-day created the world of to-morrow. Let 'is see to it that the imagination was liberated through art and music in beautiful ways. The prevailing unrest and discontent in the industrial world was probably largely due to the ugliness of industrial surroundings and the starving of the desire for beauty in life and environment. Emotions were the driving power of the human machine, and music dealt directly with the emotions, liberating them in beautiful ways.

INFLUENCE FOR GOOD OR EVIL. Music touched life at every point. It sprang from life, it illustrated life faithfully, depicted human history and temperament and aided in the moulding and guidance of life and character. Music might be either bad or good. It might contain an excess of ugly sound harmful to the nerves, excess of excitement, and the suggestion of what was ungraceful in movement. By the association of ideas it might even suggest evil. Good music arose from the vision and expression of the good and the beautiful.

Music might also transform the dark side of life and re-issue it in the form of beauty, as tho Creator could turn A rubbish heap into beautiful flowers or wholesome vegetables. Man’s place in life was to carry on the work of the Creator by bringing new forms of order and beauty into life thiough art and music in their widest sense. Recognition of such ideas as these would tend to give music its proper place in education, and to infuse a new spirit into its teaching and create S new viewpoint. A sound scheme of musical training should be based on some such plan ns 1 the following, the different branches to be developed simultaneously:— (1) Acquisition by the child of musical experiences by (a) hearing sounds, (b) making sounds, (c) responding to sounds by imitation, movement, etc. (2) Training of the attention by (a) observation of sounds, (b) recollection of sounds, (c) discrimination between sounds.

(3) The making of the performer by (a) voice training, (b) sight-singing and theory, (c) interpretation. (4) The making of the listener by (a) awareness of detail in music heard, first conscious and later automatic, (b) associated ideas concerning the music heard, e.g., country, period, purpose, etc., (c) relation of music to life in other ways.

(5) The making of the composer by (a) extemporization with voice or instruments, (b) composition of music to fit words, (c) composition of music without words.