that is good and wholesome may be brought into their lives and the lives of their children by cultivating the musical faculty with which they are endowed, we shall have carried out the legitimate function of university extension.

If our colleges, besides teaching harmony and counterpoint to a few students, would have courses in analysis in which the form and structure of music is explained, and the pieces performed so that an intelligent understanding of them were possible, the amount of real education to be derived from the music courses would be incalculably increased. As they now stand, they occupy no vital relation to the college life and work.

If we can convince the people that there is more in music than mere pleasure; if we can make them see that their children may all have something of its blessings in their lives; if we can substitute for or join with the conventional music lesson a study of musical form, an understanding of the way musical ideas are presented, we shall be in a fair way to make music a factor in education.

Music having been raised to the highest degree of perfection by the Germans, it would seem proper to inquire into the methods of teaching employed in the schools of that country. This inquiry will naturally first turn to the history of musical education. The best statement on this point is found to have been published by Dr. Johannes Plew, professor in the lyceum in Strasburg, Alsace, Germany. Some results of his profound historical researches, as well as those of Prof. J. Helm, of Schwabach, are translated here in introducing a sketch of matter and method of musical instruction.

HISTORY OF SINGING IN GERMAN SCHOOLS.

In the school of the Middle Ages singing was, next to Latin, the most important branch. The reason of this is found in the fact that teachers and scholars were servants of the church. The church demanded of its servant, the school, that it prepare its pupils for singing during religious services. How generally this was regarded one of the chief objects of the entire instruction may be seen from the fact that Pope Gregory I, who is considered the founder of church music, is also revered as the patron saint of the school in Catholic countries. But since the services of teachers and pupils were required several times a day, and also occasionally in civil life, it was not always possible to let the whole school participate; and since not all voices were suited for figurate counterpoint, differentiation and selection took place, which resulted in the establishment of permanent choirs, variously called "chancery currende" or "symphoniaci." These choirs were recruited chiefly from indigent but highly talented students. In payment of their services as choristers they received free tuition and board. A source of private income was offered to singers by performing at all kinds of festive occasions in private houses. Instrumental music was not known. People even danced to the accompaniment of songs.

The importance given to the instruction in singing in school had, however, another reason-one that is often overlooked nowadays. It is that music belonged to the liberal arts, and that no student could acquire the degree Artium Magister (A. M.) unless he had mastered the

art of vocal music. It was the general opinion that no one could be a good theologian or a teacher without being a trained musician. Hence musical knowledge and skill became a "conditio sine qua non" for appointment. All through the sixteenth century this opinion prevailed. The great division in the church during that century affected music least of all the liberal arts, and if it be remembered that two of the greatest musical compositions known, namely, Bach's High Mass and Grell's Mass in sixteen part music,' that is, two masses for Catholic church service, were composed by Protestants during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it may be claimed that the great schism never actually affected the musical domain. Luther, as is well known, desired that Catholic church music be retained in the Protestant churches, and hence we see that the compositions of the old masters kept their prominent place in school till far into the nineteenth century. According to school regulations in force in 1559, the pupils sang in church "The 'Magnificat,' a hymn corresponding to the pure divine scriptures, a 'responsorium;' on Sundays and minor festivals a 'kyrie eleison,' and on high festivals a Christian 'sequence' (sic) or gradual.""

Luther also utilized school singing as an essential agency in introducing chorus singing of church congregations. School singing was not only intended to prepare for participation in congregational singing, but also to prepare the choirs for figurate counterpoint, and for leading the chorus, for the organ as an accompanying instrument came into use much later.

Music was not only required for Protestant church service, but for the religious instruction of children it was found indispensable, since hymus and other church music awakened veneration of God in the hearts of the young. Luther, making the school the most important place, next to the church, for the teaching of the Gospel, considered school-singing the highest and most elevating expression of filial piety. "School," he said, "shall be the means to promote the art of music and through it the true recognition of God, the Creator and Saviour." Hence, because music had an effect similar to that of theology, as he thought, he gave to musical exercises a place next to religious instruction. If thus it would appear that Luther valued music only for its religious effect, we have evidence of his valuing it as important for education in general, and in this he was quite in harmony with the views of former times. Numerous expressions of his in confirmation of this might be quoted. Two will suffice:

To keep music in school is a necessity and youth should be kept practicing this art, for it makes skillful, genteel people of them. A schoolmaster must be able to sing, or I would not recognize him.

Music is a disciplining mistress that makes people gentle, tender-hearted, sweetmannered, and rational.

A composition in which soprano, alto, tenor, and bass are each subdivided into four-part music.

The methods of teaching thus far had tended more toward stunting than developing the mind. Not a trace in the schools of that time can be found where instruction conformed to the laws of growth. During the century marked by the thirty years' war all promising germs of popular education and good tendencies toward the cultivation of the people declined. With the close of the war (1648) the desire to live and to attend to education and culture returned. According to the school regulations of this period, the teaching of singing was compulsory. The most important pedagogical theorist of the seventeenth century, Johann Amos Comenius, includes singing in his course of study. In the eighteenth century, the P'ietists made school instruction in music successful. Their laying stress upon individual feeling led to individualism in all teaching. They had a singular abhorrence to wholesale or class instruction, and hence studied and influenced each individual pupil. This had its effect upon music in their schools; songs adapted for individual feeling, arias, and melodies received the most attention.

Methods of teaching greatly improved in the eighteenth century. The dull, mechanical singing by rote was set aside in a regular system of instruction. Normal schools, though inefficient and imperfect as they were at the time, included singing among their studies, and endeavored to make excellent singing masters of their students. In the appointment of teachers musical ability was taken into consideration. The relatively best standard was attained by the institute of August Hermann Francke (1633 to 1727). Boys and girls received two hours' instruction a week in vocal music. That for the girls was limited to the practice of common hymns, while the principles of figurate counterpoint were taught in the boys' schools. Instruction in counterpoint began with the singing of the diatonic scale represented by letters on the lines, and followed by the chromatic scale and exercises in intervals. The technical exercises were connected with the singing of familiar melodies from notes which were followed by such new melodies as required similar notes for their expression in writing. Pupils were also taught pauses, tempo, and the different values of notes. The more advanced classes rendered religious airs of two parts in 2 and 3 time.

Increased attention was given to singing also in other parts of Germany during the eighteenth century. The school regulations of HesseDarmstadt (1733), Brunswick (1753), and Prussia (1794) are explicit on this subject. Singing was also advocated by Rochow (1734–1805), who urged special attention to church music. Rousseau makes his "Emile" cultivate a "pure, even, flexible, pleasing voice," and an ear for harmony and time. A systematic course of musical instruction was likewise pursued in the schools of the Philanthropinists, followers and apostles of Rousseau in Germany, as in the schools of the Austrian reformer, Ignatius von Felbiger (1724-1788). That these well-intended attempts toward improving instruction in singing brought about few results (for

it must be candidly admitted that at the close of the eighteenth century vocal music generally was below par) only proves how difficult it is to carry thought and honest efforts into effect, even when they are accredited true and just.

The most important epoch in the history of the development of instruction in singing dates from the time of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). Pestalozzi maintained that elementary education "should develop and perfect the inborn talents and powers of the human beingthat is to say, the talents and powers of the mind, the heart, and the hand." For elementary education to attain this end, "observation (Anschauung) must be considered the absolute foundation of knowledge." By "Anschauung" Pestalozzi understands "the cognizance of external objects directly by means of the senses, and the consequent action of consciousness through the impressions received." As a matter of course, instances of the visible occur oftenest. Still the "simple presentation of sounds to the ear and the action of consciousness resulting from the impression received through the sense of hearing is just as much perception for the child as the perception of objects through the eyes."

Likewise, in advancing and originating the proposition, "from perception to idea," Pestalozzi maintained induction to be the only method conformable to the natural laws of development of a child's mind, and turned the course of instruction into exactly the opposite direction from that hitherto pursued. With the inductive method a new and broad field was opened to the teaching of singing. The increased interest awakened by Pestalozzi for enabling and educating the young in Germany benefited instruction in vocal music, too. School authorities paid greater attention to singing and how it was taught, and provided for a better musical education of elementary teachers. The best and most prominent men of the nation commended the art of singing as one of the most effective means for cultivation and education. That precious pearl of German life, the "folks' song," which had been forced into the background by church music, gained in importance and was looked upon as a valuable object of study. School authorities devoted more minute attention to vocal music in their plans of organization; the most important, however, was the development of a literature on the art of singing and its methods of instruction, which in a comparatively short time made such progress as to promise a rational system of instruction for even the most insignificant village school.

The earliest production of this literature is the Art of Teaching Singing, by Pfeiffer and Naegeli. Pestalozzi himself thus commented on this work: "There is promise in this work of excellent and welcome results for the educator and musician alike." These expectations were not realized, principally because Pfeiffer and Naegeli, as well as Pestalozzi, saw in music only an accomplishment easily acquired, if one had learned a little arithmetic and to measure. This narrow view ED 96-7

of the essence of music led to an overvaluation of rhythm and a depreciation of melody and harmony.

The Art of Teaching Singing, by Naegeli, is synthetic throughout. The first part, "Elementary work," is in two divisions, general and special theory of music. The first division treats of the duration, pitch, and strength of tones, the combination of these three elements, and the written characters for tones. Each new chapter is preceded by a thorough review of the preceding one. The second division, the special theory, treats of the methodical combination of text and melody. Single vowels, then syllables, words, and finally connected sentences, are set to tones and combinations of tones. Meter, breathing, analysis of text, etc., are taught in connection with the foregoing exercises.

Written especially for people's schools, it was just in these schools that it could not be used. As excellent as are its details-the chapter in notation, for instance, is valuable for all times-as a whole it is too comprehensive. Its methodic arrangement, moreover, contradicts Pestalozzi's "principle of sense-perception," particularly in that the beautiful in art in its perfection is withheld from the pupil until he has learned all its forms. Rhythm, dynamics, and melodics are, as the words betray, not objects perceived directly through the senses, but results of thought; in other words, abstracts derived from the production of music. A sufficient number of examples of melody and harmony should be presented for direct sense-perception before the discussion of scales, keys, strength, pitch, and the like is admissible.

Thus the merits of Naegeli narrowed down to the deep reflections which he aroused on the methods to be employed in teaching.

The demand for a method of instruction in singing which retained what had been approved in the works of Naegeli, and which covered their deficiencies by better and more practical suggestions, was met by B. C. L. Natorp in his instructions for the teaching of singing. Natorp also presents his exercises in rhythm, melody, and dynamics separately; and his exercises in rhythm and dynamics are, on the whole, similar to Naegeli's; in everything else he and Naegeli differ essentially. The latter begins at once with theoretical instruction, whereas Natorp prefaces every lesson with introductory exercises, confined wholly to singing by ear. Beginning with single vowels, and proceeding to syllables and words, these preparatory exercises were always to be used with accompanying text, so as to insure a pure, distinct enunciation, and a natural and easy intonation. Texts and combinations of tones should be taken from what comes within the compass of a child's life. Children, in this way, acquire an amount of musical material by experience that forms the foundation for a later knowledge of the elements of music. They have sung and heard many "thirds," before they are required to form the idea of a "third;" and often perceived two and three part music through the senses, before they are expected to distinguish the difference clearly and distinctly.