546 



MUSIC. 



culture is centered in the comparatively few in 

 each community who are endowed with special 

 musical gifts. 



On the other hand, it is claimed that music 

 has its natural side, which is represented by 

 the Tonic Sol-fa system; that when the sub- 

 ject is approached from this natural side its 

 supposed mysteries are no more difficult of un- 

 derstanding than the principles of arithmetic 

 or the construction of a language; that, con- 

 sequently, it can be learned as easily as other 

 subjects, and should be taught in all schools as 

 one of the regular studies. It is also found 

 (and this fact is of supreme importance) that 

 approaching the subject from its natural side 

 leads, by easy gradations, and in the most logi- 

 cal way, to a knowledge of the deepest scientific 

 principles of the art. 



Tonic Sol-fa was a growth. Its germ origi- 

 nated with a philanthropic lady of Norwich, 

 England, Miss Sarah Glover. In her efforts 

 to simplify music for the charity children in 

 whom she was interested, she was led to the 

 device of using, as signs of tones, the initials 

 of the syllables do, re, mi, etc. Finding the 

 results far beyond her expectations, she de- 

 voted considerable time and thought to the 

 subject, and in 1835 published a book entitled 

 " Scheme for rendering Psalmody Congrega- 

 tional." It is not probable that the innovation 

 would have extended beyond her personal in- 

 fluence but for circumstances that followed. 

 In 1840 a conference of Sunday-school teach- 

 ers met at Hull, England. Among the sub- 

 jects discussed, the low state of church and 

 Sunday-school music received earnest atten- 

 tion, and a young Congregational clergyman, 

 named John Curwen, was appointed to inves- 

 tigate the matter, and, if possible, to devise 

 some method of teaching music that the com- 

 mon people could understand. This proved to 

 be the initial step of a great educational re- 

 form. Many attempts had previously been 

 made to simplify the study of music, but they 

 were chiefly based on theory, and hence have 

 never accomplished the reform at which they 

 aimed. Moreover, they have always been un- 

 dertaken by persons who were familiar with 

 the existing system, and their plans were apt 

 to be simply modifications of that system. The 

 work could only be accomplished by some 

 one who combined these qualifications : intel- 

 ligence, teachableness, and such an unfamiliar- 

 ity with music and musical methods as would 

 lead to his following the subject through the 

 natural channels of his own mind. This com- 

 bination Mr. Cnrwen proved to possess. lie 

 had an intense love of music and an exalted 

 idea of its power in humanizing and refining 

 the people. Yet his own musical talent was 

 very small, and his ear singularly defective. 

 It is related that, while he was at college, two 

 of the students laid a wager as to whether he 

 could be taught to sing the scale correctly in 

 a given number of weeks. He entered into 

 the affair with spirit, went patiently through a 



course of daily training, and -just succeeded in 

 accomplishing the task, but with nothing to 

 spare. In an address made in his later years, 

 Mr. Curwen thus describes his experience: 



For myself, all this while, I could neither pitch a 

 well-known tune properly, nor by any means " make 

 out" from the notes the plainest psalm-tune which I 

 had not heard before. To obtain that moderate ability 

 was the height of my musical ambition. I therefore 

 sought a private teacher, who, with the help of a piano, 

 drummed much practice into me, but no independent 

 power. I could run in the "go-cart," but could not 

 take a step alone. I remember being often told that 

 I did not mark correctly the semitones (between the 

 third and fourth, and seventh and eighth of the scale), 

 and I thought if those same semitones were but marked 

 plainly on the music before me, how gladly and ear- 

 nestly I would strive to mark them with my voice ; but 

 as it was. I was continually afraid of these semitones. 

 1 knew they were on the staff before me somewhere, 

 but I could not see them. They lav concealed, but 

 dangerous to tread upon, like a snake in the grass. 

 No sooner had I, with great pains, taught my ear an 

 interval, than I found frequently the very next example 

 of what seemed the same to be quite a different thing 

 by half a tone ! I longed for some plan by which these 

 puzzling deceivers might he named and detected with 

 equal facility in all their shifting abodes on the staff. 



Visiting Miss Glover's schools at Norwich, in 

 1841, he was delighted with the method she 

 employed, and was at once convinced that it 

 furnished a clew for unraveling the mysteries 

 of music. On returning to his home, he ex- 

 claimed, " Now I have found a tool to work 

 with!" In the same address from which the 

 previous quotation was taken, he speaks thus 

 of the old method and the new : 



I soon found that the old methods had deceived me 

 with the shell of knowledge, instead of giving me its 

 kernel. The thing music I perceived to be very dif- 

 ferent from its names and signs. I found it much 

 more simple and easy in itself, and incomparably 

 more beautiful, than the mere explanation of the signs 

 of the old notation with which elementary books are 

 commonly filled. I had easily mastered them all, and 

 had also studied a "first book" on harmony, but I 

 seemed to have known nothing of music till then. 1 

 now saw that Miss Glover's plan was to teach, first, 

 the simple and beautiful thing music, and to delay the 

 introduction to the ordinary antiquated mode of writ- 

 ing it until the pupil has obtained a mastery of the 

 thing itself. Her method was, beyond all controversy, 

 more deeply established on the principles of the sci- 

 ence than any other, and by giving it a fair trial on 

 myself, and on a little child who lived in the same 

 house, I became convinced that it was also the sim- 



Elest of all, the easiest to teach, and the easiest to 

 arn. 



From this time Mr. Curwen devoted him- 

 self to the work of adapting music to the wants 

 of the people. A partial failure of health com- 

 pelled him to give up preaching, and his whole 

 time was thus left free to this, which proved 

 to be his life-work. Being convinced that 

 Miss Glover's system embodied a great educa- 

 tional principle, he adopted it, with some neces- 

 sary modifications. From this time the pro- 

 cess of growth continued for years, till the 

 system was complete. Many teachers became 

 interested in the new method, and the experi- 

 ence of all was made use of in perfecting the 

 system. Annual meetings of teachers from 

 various parts of the kingdom were held for 



