If the highest types of professional music teachers were required to do this teaching, it would seem an impossibility either to secure a sufficient number of such teachers, or to compensate them pecuniarily if they could be secured; and in either case the children would remain uninstructed.

There is, then, but the alternative-to accomplish the work through the medium of the regular school teacher. "But," it will be said, "most of these know nothing of music teaching, and very little of music, while many cannot sing at all. How, then, can they be trained to do effective work in teaching music?"

It may be put down as a universal fact that those who cannot sing are in that condition because they have never tried sufficiently under proper conditions; it is understood, of course, that cases of organic defect in the vocal, auditory, or neuro-central apparatus are excluded thereby. This general capacity has been proved by thousands of persons, who could not distinguish a difference even in pitch of tones, becoming afterwards fair singers and passable teachers. It is said, "Teachers must grow up and become such persons themselves as music is intended to make them, before they are fit for teachers." This is true as to the highest condition of things that is reached; but a start must be made, the best that can be done under the circumstances should be done, and the educated judgment of teachers will comprehend that this thing is a fact, even when they do not appreciate it as a possession. Hence the average school teacher can, under certain circumstances, be fitted to begin the work.

It is true there must be on the part of the teacher an approximate comprehension of the functions of music. He must understand the elements of musical science and of the method of obtaining proficiency in the art. How can the regular school teacher obtain this knowledge? How can he be instructed and trained to do this work?

The first step in the education of teachers is to make music one of the school studies; the second, to require all the pupils to study and sing music; the third, to require the regular teachers to teach music, and hold them as responsible for the progress of pupils in this branch as in any other; the fourth, to employ a supervisor or superintendent of music who possesses the requisite musical knowledge and ability and the right appreciation of the uses of music, who shall have undergone a thorough normal training and shall have shown aptness in teaching, who shall have had a good general education, and whose manners and morals shall be such as to commend him to educated and refined people. The duties of this supervisor shall be to map out the work to be done by the teachers, and to show them how to do it. This may be done in teachers' meetings appointed for this purpose, and by frequent visits to the several schools, when the pupils are not only tested in what has been done by the regular teachers, but new subjects are introduced by the supervisor and the pupils are drilled so as to show the regular teacher how to do it. The teachers also should meet regularly for instruction

in learning to sing and to read music themselves. With the thought before them that "they must understand this subject and learn to sing, or they will lose their positions," it is astonishing to observe how soon such ideas as "natural gift," "cannot do it," "beneath the teacher's dignity," "ability to sing is evidence of shallowness," etc., will disappear, and real progress manifest itself.

As previously stated, it is simply a question of ordinary good sense, of commencing work with a purpose of doing it, of correctly understanding what is to be done, and of a vigorous prosecution of the study. Nature will take care of the rest, and in due time intelligence, feeling, spirit, and voice will grow into knowledge, appreciation, and ability.

It is evident that the quality of the work depends very largely upon the supervisors. If these have a correct apprehension of what is to be done, and of how to do it; if they are skillful and wise in instructing, directing, and overseeing teachers, there is but little doubt that the results will be most satisfactory.

How to educate correctly these supervisors or directing music-teachers, then, becomes an essential consideration. Of course a sound musical education, a knowledge of the vocal organs and of how to use them correctly, is the base. Hence all instruction in this direction is an agent in preparing the musical director and teacher, whether it comes through the medium of the living teacher or the printed book. But teaching in class so that each individual shall learn is, in a sense, so different from private teaching, that preparation to do this kind of work requires a special, not to say a different training.

For this purpose the most ample preparation must be made, or the best musician who undertakes class music-teaching in school will be "groping in the dark," and is most likely to fail. He must have the best light of theory, experience, and precedent in this special field. Even then the science and art of correct class teaching are so recent that the director must make many original experiments, and must do much original thinking and investigating. Normal music schools, whose faculties embrace most successful and experienced teachers in this kind of work have done much, and will do more, in training teachers; colleges, theological schools, and all schools that have for their object the highest in education, or fitting persons for special professional life, should demand of and for their pupils the best musical training and the best music. This in turn would create a demand for the best music teaching in their own schools and in the schools lower down. Similar demand should also be made by churches, and by educated and refined society. It may be repeated: if the demand for teachers of a high standard of excellence is made, the best knowledge and the greatest skill will soon be employed in training such teachers, who in turn will be qualified to train, to direct, and to supervise the regular school teachers. Improvements will be made in methods and means, as in other things, as experience and earnest purpose seek to supply a demand which is made necessary by the highest ideals in human development.

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE SPECIAL TEACHERS OF MUSIC

NECESSARY?

BY HOSEA E. HOLT, Esq.,
Boston, Mass.

The answer to this question will depend largely upon the methods of teaching employed. So long as our methods of teaching music make it necessary for the teacher to be a singer or player in order that he may sing for the children to imitate or lead the children in their singing, just so long will the teaching of this subject in the public schools be a failure so far as real education in music is concerned. Knowledge in music is in the thinking and not in memorizing. All imitation work in the way of rote singing in teaching music is memory, and not knowledge. It is only necessary to establish the major scale as a whole by imitation or rote; when this is accomplished pupils should be so directed in their practice as to enable them to sing all intervals without assistance. The major scale is the unit upon which all music is constructed; and by practice with this series of sounds all difficulties in the study of intervals can be solved by the regular teacher.

The most favorable time in the whole school life for acquiring a knowledge of these sounds and thus laying a solid foundation for intelligent singing by note, is the lowest class in the primary school.

little children should have a limited number of rote songs for recreation (if tastefully sung), rote singing should not form the basis of instruction in music with young pupils. Children who are always led in their singing by voice or instrument never acquire the ability to sing well, independent of such aids. When teachers learn that sounds can be taught to the youngest pupils much more easily than numbers, and that all difficulties in the study of intervals can be overcome by practice with the sounds of the major scale, thousands of teachers who at present regard the difficulties as insurmountable will teach music succesfully.

Our greatest service to the cause of music in public schools is to improve and simplify our methods of teaching in such a way as to make available the teaching power of the regular teachers. When sounds are taught as numbers are taught, then the teacher's ability in teaching numbers is made just as available in teaching sounds. Success in teaching music is sure to follow if it is properly taught in the lower grades,

If children in the lower grades are taught from the beginning to think in sounds, they will soon become independent and self-supporting in their work; but if they are taught to imitate the teacher or instrument, they are always dependent upon others. A short daily lesson in music will accomplish wonders when the subject is properly presented and children are taught to exercise their musical powers. This elementary work in music can be more effectually accomplished by the regular teachers, who know the children individually and can give them daily practice, than by a special teacher who can see the children only occasionally. Skillful instruction and supervision is necessary until the regular teacher learns the process; when this is done we have as good a teacher of music as of any other study constantly in the school-room. The impression is very general that special teachers, or experts, in singing or playing must be employed to teach this subject. This false impression is the result of wrong methods of teaching, which require the teaching of a vocabulary of exercises and songs with which to teach the notation. Skillful instruction and supervision for the regular teachers are fast becoming appreciated in all branches of study; such instruction and supervision will always be in demand, and music will be no exception.

There is no subject taught in our public schools to which true educational principles can be so easily and successfully applied as to that of music. And yet there is no subject taught in which these principles, so important in teaching all subjects, are so utterly ignored and disregarded. In applying the principles of object-teaching music has the advantage over all other studies. We are never obliged to substitute anything for the real objects of thought; we have always at hand the real things (sounds) for constant study and investigation; no pictures or drawings, or signs of any kind, can give us any idea of the real, but invisible and intangible, things in music. The elements of music are in themselves very simple, and can be successfully taught by any teacher when they are presented in their simplicity, and the mind is trained to one thing at a time. Simple as these elements are, we shall never teach them successfully until we learn to separate them from the notation, and train the mind in these simple things before the notation is given. We believe that the value of music as an educational factor has never been realized, because the teaching of it has never been put upon the same educational basis as other studies. The full possibilities in music with the masses of little children are unknown, because we have yet to make the best presentation of the subject from the pedagogical standpoint. When the same intelligence and skill have been gained in teaching music that have been developed and applied in the teaching of other subjects, music will take its proper place in our public schools, and be as generally and successfully taught by the regular teachers as any other branch of knowledge.

SIGHT-READING; WHAT IT IS, AND HOW ATTAINABLE.

BY CHARLES W. LANDON,

Director of Music in Claverack College.

It is often remarked that in our schools the time is fully occupied. How, then, can the study of music be added?

Teachers universally testify that fifteen or twenty minutes daily given to singing the music lesson is not so much time lost, because the pupils will do more and better work from the life and enthusiasm awakened in them by the singing.

There is no more inherent difficulty in learning to read music at sight than there is in learning to read common print at sight. But what is singing at sight? It is to sing correctly without the aid of an instrument a piece of vocal music never seen before. Its advantages to a singer are great, either in private practice, in society, in choir singing, or in festival chorus singing. He can at once render the piece, and, with a limited practice, he can perform it with an artistic finish.

The rote singer is one who learns a piece by hearing it sung repeatedly. He must go to the trouble or expense of a teacher, and must spend much time in learning each piece before he arrives at the commencing place of the sight singer. The result is that when home and business cares come upon him he gives up his musical acquirements for want of time to learn new music, for both the singer and his friends soon tire of the old pieces. But it is not so with the sight singer; he would no more give up singing than reading the newspaper or books; fresh fields are ever open to him, and, as he gains in experience, higher and better music is at his command. This may be illustrated by supposing that two persons recite equally well a poem in German. The one has merely learned this one piece, and even may be ignorant of its meaning; the other is a German scholar, and has at his command all the treasures of knowledge stored in the vast literature of the German language.

As our country gains wealth and grows in culture, our churches will demand more and better music, and church choirs will take many of our best singers, where they will do their part for the good of the cause, or, if the church has the income, they will be paid for their services. The sight singer will take part in the musical festivals that are springing up in every part of our country. These festivals are doing an important work in teaching the people the mighty power of vocal music, 4470-No. 1—3

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