NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE VOL. L AUGUST-SEPTEMBER NUMBER 1 In Explanation of this Number A QUIET, but very significant, revolution is un der way in the trend of American reading. The New England Magazine has never yielded to the We wish now to signalize our belief in the soundness We invite the earnest co-operation of all who believe We will not increase the subscription price, which re- 2 GOVERNMENT AID OF MUSIC IN EUROPE* A By WILDER DWIGHT QUINT GERMANY RE THE European nations more musical than our own? That is a question whose answer depends considerably upon its locale, and, further, upon the definition of the word musical. A citizen of Chicago, proud of the long-continued existence of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, might answer in the negative. So might a New Yorker, pointing to the enormous sums of money paid for that most expensive of playthings, grand opera. So might a Bostonian, rehearsing the history of the magnificent Boston Symphony Orchestra and its present popularity, and perhaps citing the Ancient Handel and Haydn Society as well as the city's various organizations for chamber music. Arguments based on these exhibits seem fair and strong to those who make them. But are they so in fact? I fear the Chicago man forgets that that intense local pride for which the city is noted has been mainly instrumental for the comparatively long life of the Thomas Orchestra; the New Yorker fails to take into account, or to admit if he does, the fact that opera in his huge and glittering town is for the most part a social function paid for by the dollars of the very rich, who are perfectly satisfied to meet all the expense for the sake of having a place for the flaunting of their chattering, over-bediamonded women. The Bostonian, even, sometimes neglects to give due credit to the devotion and pecuniary sacrifices of the one man whose life has made the Boston Symphony Orchestra possible today-Henry L. Higginson. In all three cases it is evident that something beside the impelling power of the musical instinct on the part of the people has been the prevailing factor for success. And yet, conceding the word to mean certain things, we Americans are musical to a remarkable degree. We purchase more pianos, parlor organs, and phonographs per capita than any other people on the globe. We give enthusiastic support to that degenerate sort of comic opera known as musical comedy. We turn out large audiences from Maine to California when a celebrated diva goes on tour. We make millionaires out of the writers and publishers of that specialized drivel known as the "popular song." And we are beginning-which is the one great sign of promise on the horizon to demand and to support in cities of the second and third size all over the country permanent symphony orchestras and organizations for the performance of chamber music. We are producing serious composers whose work is slowly but surely finding its way over the world. We are advancing, not retrograding. And that is much. seen. But as a nation we do not encourage the most inspiring art the world has ever None of our forms of Government, whether Federal, State or municipal, gives any real help to the teaching or the practice of music. The feeble smattering taught in our public schools or State universities need not be reckoned at all. The United States Government squanders money on the distribution of seeds to the constituents of By permission from Government. Congressmen, some of whom could not tell a carrot from a rutabaga, but it will not endow a national conservatory; the State pours out its funds for the killing of leafeating moths, but its purse-strings are tied against any possible demand from the apostles of good music; the city makes no protest at maintaining streets, but the "fathers" would stand aghast before a proposition to establish a municipal opera house. In a word, while we are beginning to like music more than moderately well, we are not willing, as a people, to encourage it. In order to find governmental support of music, then, we must cross the ocean into the lands where both art and time are longer than here. We find almost all of the European governments doing something for the financial well-being of musical instruction and pleasure. I say pleasure, because it is chiefly opera that basks in the sunlight of official favor, and everybody knows that opera may sometimes be a thing of enjoyment. At any rate, the fact remains that this particular form of activity gets the lion's share of the subsidies. Nor need this be considered at all remarkable, for grand opera, being essentially spectacular, appeals more strongly to kingly powers-that-be than do any of the other musical manifestations. We naturally turn first to Germany in any study of this sort. The land of the solid and substantial Teuton still remains, as it has long been, the most musical country in the world. Not that its people are bubbling over with natural melody like the Italians, or universally swayed by musical rhythm like the Spaniards, but that in their depth of love for serious and noble music, in their possession of many great orchestras, in their support of vast numbers of concerts of the highest type, in their widespread knowledge of the masterpieces of composition and in many minor essentials they are far beyond any other race of the earth. A German is the most crotchety of all music lovers, most intolerant in his tastes and views, but he is sincere. He would no more trifle with the quality of his music than with that of his beer. The faddish pretence of some English and Americans is to him abhorrent. The great body of influential German citizenry having such characteristics, it has inevitably come about that government has aided the cause of music. To be sure, much remains to be done, even in Germany, but the things already accomplished may well serve as an example to other nations. In particular may this be said of the sound and sensible rule that the more prosperous an institution, the more aid it receives, instead of the conventional vice versa. There is good Biblical precedent for this in the parable of the ten talents, although few of our own municipal or national enterprises are carried on under that theory. Germany begins early to instill the love of good music into the hearts of its childrenor rather to cultivate that which has already been instilled by heredity. Even in the most elementary of the public schools, the Volksschule, music is taught, and taught well. The half-hearted attempts at instruction and the namby-pamby stuff dealt out to our American youngsters are in Germany unknown. There is one very definite reason for the existence of worthy music in the Volksschule and that is that all teachers of these primary institutions must come from the government training colleges or seminaries where music is taught as an obligatory branch of the education of the future instructors. They are not permitted to go forth with a smattering of musical phrases and a feeble ability to read at sight a little easy writing; they must not only sing, and sing intelligently, but must play the pianoforte, the organ or the violin-often all three. To add to this practice they must have theory. They must have a knowledge of instrumentation, of simple counterpoint and of the elements of composition. The consequence of all this is that in the humblest village schools you will hear songs for two voices beautifully sung at any time you may visit them, while excellent performances of three and four-part lieder are not at all uncommon. Thus Germany takes its doubtless splendid raw material and works it into stuff of the highest value for the coming years. A step higher and we find the same careful attention paid to music in the gymnasia. Perhaps the best exemplar of the system is the Gymnasium zum grauen Kloster at Berlin. In that fine institution music is studied as a vital part of life, not as the little frippery "accomplishment" it is all too often considered in the United States. One ultimate object of vocal instruction is kept constantly in view, and that is to arouse an appreciation for good and serious music and to develop the pupils' understanding of the idiomatic, rhythmic and harmonic relations of the best vocal compositions. These are high aims, and it is only just to say that the results are in keeping with them. It should be of interest to American teachers of music in the public schools to know how they do these things in Germany. Briefly it may be said that in the lowest grade of the gymnasium, the Sexta, the rudiments of harmonic and rhythmic proportions are taught together with musical notation, while scales, solfeggios, chorals and simple songs like the Volkslieder are practised in unison and their structure explained. In the next form, the Unter Quinta, the pupils are divided into sopranos and altos. They are given chorals, songs and motets by such composers as Palestrina, Graun and Marcello, practised "unisono" in each division separately. In the two second singing classes proper, easy two-part songs, chorals and motets are introduced, while in the first, or choral class, compositions for four, five, six and eight voices by the masters of the sixteenth and following centuries are sung a capella and even the sonorous choruses of mighty old Handel are mastered. In the Gymnasium zum grauen Kloster seventeen hours a week are devoted to the study of music. At Torgau, a city of less than twenty thousand inhabitants, there is another fine choir of public school pupils, and you will find good ones scattered over the empire. It requires no argument to prove how highly stimulating musically is all this activity among the youthful citizens of the fatherland. In the work, too, the government exercises close control over such singing, for in the School Council (Schulrath) one member at least always has a sound musical education. Imagine that as a required qualification for a school committeeman in one of our villages or smaller cities! Another strong influence that makes German musical education and taste what they are may be found in the Institut fur Kirschenmusik founded in 1822 as a branch of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. This school has for its object the giving of such additional instruction to organists, cantors and other professional musicians as will enable them to take positions at the higher educational institutions of the country, special preference being given to pupils at the seminaries who have shown manifest talent for the art. The governmental subsidy is not large, but the professors give their services free and the instruction is admirable. About a score of organists and cantors are graduated every year, and they carry a good gospel into widely scattered sections of the |