MUSIC. 



547 



conference and discussion. Suggestions that 

 gave promise of improvement were made the 

 subject of experiment, and at the annual meet- 

 ing notes were compared. If an expedient 

 was found to be an improvement, it was adopt- 

 ed. Thus the system grew out of work and 

 experience, not of one teacher, but of many. 



In 1851 the first number of the ''Tonic Sol- 

 fa Reporter M appeared. It was at first only 

 printed at irregular intervals, but in 1853 it 

 began its existence as a monthly journal, and 

 it has since been the organ of the movement 

 in Great Britain and her dependencies. In 

 1853 the " Tonic Sol-fa Association of London " 

 was formed, with Mr. Cur wen as president. 

 At the close of 1856 the number of pupils of 

 the system was estimated at twenty thousand. 

 On June 21, 1857, the London Association 

 held a juvenile choral meeting at Exeter Hall, 

 and the interest excited by this meeting sug- 

 gested the idea of a juvenile concert on a large 

 scale at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. This 

 plan was realized on the 2d of September fol- 

 lowing, when three thousand children sang to 

 au audience of thirty thousand people. Of 

 this event one of the London papers said, " It 

 was left for an almost unknown institution to 

 draw a larger concourse of persons than has 

 ever been attracted in this country to a musi- 

 cal performance." This extraordinary success 

 lifted the movement at once into national im- 

 portance. A classical concert, given in Exeter 

 Hall in 1858, still further confirmed this favor- 

 able impression by showing that the value of 

 the system was not confined to children or to 

 elementary music. Musicians and teachers of 

 the highest order became interested. 



A most important feature of the movement 

 is the series of certificates, by which the stand- 

 ing of every teacher and pupil of the system is 

 determined elementary, i n term 3d i ate, matric- 

 ulation, and advanced certificates, and also 

 what are called " Theory Honors," showing the 

 degree of proficiency in the theory of music. 

 Every effort was made by Mr. Curwen to in- 

 duce teachers to require their pupils to take 

 these certificates in their order, and his signal 

 success is the cause of the remarkable coher- 

 ency observed in the Tonic Sol-fa movement. 



In 1865 Mr. Curwen established the Tonic 

 Sol-fa press at Plaistow, near London. The sale 

 of books had by this time become large, but he 

 refused to enrich himself with the proceeds of 

 the increasing business. The profits were 

 chiefly employed in the publication of stand- 

 ard works in the Tonic Sol-fa notation. All 

 the vocal works of the great masters are stere- 

 otyped and printed in this notation, besides 

 thousands of English and German glees, sacred 

 music, etc. The catalogue is immense. In- 

 struction-books and music for instruments and 

 bands are also published in this system. 



In 1867 a musical competition was held in 

 connection with the Paris International Exhi- 

 bition, at which any nation was allowed to 

 compete. A prize of 200 and a gold wreath 



were to be given to the best choir. A chorus 

 of about seventy voices was sent by the Tonic 

 Sol-fa Association, with Mr. J. Proudman as 

 conductor. The singing of this choir excited 

 the utmost enthusiasm, and the new system 

 again received a mighty impetus. Owing to a 

 simple technicality (the prize could only be 

 given to a choir of men's voices, and the Eng- 

 lish chorus was "mixed"), the highest honor 

 could not be given them. But a special laurel 

 wreath was given by the Emperor, with a gold 

 medal, a diploma, and the badge of the Orphe- 

 onists of France. 



A most important element of success in the 

 Tonic Sol-fa movement was the foothold it 

 gained in the board (public) schools. This 

 was accomplished in the face of the most de- 

 termined opposition, her Majesty's Inspector 

 of Music being a sworn enemy of the method. 

 But all the power of governmental influence 

 availed nothing against the popularity of a 

 system that made the reading of music as easy 

 as the reading of the English language, and 

 the movement swept on with an increasing 

 tide of success. The latest improvements of 

 the method were the following: In 1867, 

 adopting a system of time-names from the 

 French (with slight modifications); in 1870, 

 making use of a series of hand-postures (man- 

 ual signs) to indicate the seven tones of the 

 scale as a means of training classes. In 1875 

 the "Tonic Sol-fa College of London" was in- 

 corporated, and it is now the great center of 

 authority and influence. A building for the 

 college has been erected at Forest Gale, in the 

 eastern suburbs of London. 



Thus the greatest musical reform of the cent- 

 ury grew in a single generation from the hum- 

 hie efforts of an unknown and unmusical cler- 

 gyman. The aims of Mr. Curwen and his 

 associates were, from the beginning, rather 

 philanthropic than professional or artistic. The 

 new power of music was constantly used for 

 the benefit of the ragged school, the Band of 

 Hope, and other efforts in behalf of the lower 

 classes. Missionaries also introduced the sys- 

 tem in all parts of the world, and usually found 

 that the natives could learn to read the lan- 

 guage of music by this method much sooner 

 than their own tongue. The system has been 

 thus introduced into Madagascar, Cape Colony, 

 Hong-Kong, Beyrout, Mount Lebanon, Fiji, 

 South Africa, Bombay, Calcutta, Barbadoes, 

 St. Helena, Spain, Burmah, Chili, and the Sand- 

 wich Islands. 



In a recent issue of the London " Times," 

 Mr. J. S. Curwen gives the following statistics: 



There are now, in the elementary schools of the 

 United Kingdom, about 1,000,000 children learning to 

 sing at sight upon pur system. The Tonic Sol-fa Col- 

 lege has twenty-eight different kinds and grades of 

 musical examinations, and these were passed last year 

 by 18,716 persons. Every examination includes indi- 

 vidual tests in singing at sight. We have between 

 4,000 and 5,000 teachers at work, and at the present 

 time they have under instruction some 200,000 adults, 

 in addition to the children already mentioned. 



