722 president's address — section j. 



translating into pleasing sound the cabalistic-looking score that 

 is put before him, and, conversely, of writing down in notes the 

 melodies which he himself is encouraged to compose. Honestly, 

 I know no other subject which trains at once so many of the 

 faculties of the child and in such an interesting way. 



It is gratifying to recognise that in the State Schools, which 

 are independent of the whims of foolish parents and the cast-iron 

 requirements of University-prescribed examinations, the subject 

 of music is rapidly gaining the position and importance that it 

 deserves. The following extract from the last number of the 

 " Musical Times " is full of significance and hope : — 



" The Education Department of the London County Council recently 

 issued a list of the music which it offers for requisition for use in the Elementary 

 Schools. This Requisition List, as it is called, is in many respects a notable 

 document. It bears eloquent testimony to the great change that has taken 

 place in the ideas of educational authorities as to what music is good for use 

 in schools. The new list classifies separately-published unison songs, two- 

 part songs, three-part-songs and collections of songs, and, besides, it specifies 

 class sight-readers, music for inarching, dancing, drilling and singing games, 

 and books for the teachers' use. Amongst the unison songs, intended of 

 course for the senior classes, we find fi\e songs by Brahms, two by Beethoven, 

 eight b}^ Handel, five by Mendelssohn, eighteen by Schubert, three by Haydn, 

 seven by Schumann, and four by Tchaikovsky. The two-part song list is 

 similarly adorned by well-known names. English composers are not for- 

 gotten : Arne, Sterndale Bennett, Henry Purcell, C. Hubert Parry, Sullivan, 

 C. V. Stanford, Cowen, H. Smart, Madame V. White and Charles Wood are 

 represented, and a large number of folk and national songs are mentioned. 

 Two collections of classical songs (one with thirty-five and another with 

 thirty-six songs) and all of Mendelssohn's two-part songs are on the list. 



" It may be wondered how it is possible to teach such high-class musio 

 in ' elementary ' schools, and whether the children have the capacity to 

 assimilate it and derive benefit from the study. This will depend greatly 

 on circumstances, the teacher's competence, and his skill to gauge the 

 receptivity of the children. Those who are familiar with the musical achieve- 

 ments of the teachers and children in the best elementary schools know 

 that the class of music we are discussing is quite within the powers of all 

 concerned. The education of the taste of the children thus fed may have 

 remarkable consequences, which certainly could never be looked for when 

 the music used was of a poor character." 



How far the programme here suggested is actually carried out 

 in the London schools I am not in a position to say ; but I should 

 like to confirm from some little experience in teaching singing to 

 the Sunday School children of a working-class suburb the opinion 

 expressed in this extract that this class of music is well within the 

 powers of ordinary State School scholars. In passing, may I be 

 permitted to urge upon the authorities of Sunday Schools, in which 

 a good deal of attention is given to training the children to sing for 

 the anniversaries, the importance of choosing good music for these 

 occasions instead of the banal stuff which nine times out of ten does 

 duty at their annual functions. I have found no difficulty in train- 

 ing the children to sing such things as Brahms' Wiegenlied, Bach's 

 " My Heart ever Faithful," Schubert's and Schumann's songs, and 

 even Wagner's " Hail, Hall of Song " and Handel's " Hallelujah 

 Chorus." Children will learn good music just as easily as bad, and 

 by teaching them the noble melodies of the great masters, instead of 



