104 



THE POPULAB EDUOATOfi. 



practice, and should be ready to do it at the teacher's call, 

 before the class. But the sol-fa syllables, though invaluable 

 as the mnemonics and interpreters of interval, and likely 

 to be always useful in learning new tunes, and in studying 

 the difficulties or beauties of particular passages, are only 

 instruments for accomplishing the higher purposes of music. 

 The learner must acquire the power of perceiving the musical 

 " property " of a note, and of producing it, in connection 

 with any syllable. With this view, the pupil should not 

 shrink from the mental effort of pointing each exercise. This 

 will make the perception of the characters and intervals of 

 notes more perfectly mental, and independent of syllabic asso- 

 ciations. It will also introduce the use of slurs each utter- 

 ance corresponding with a syllable of the verse, and not, as 

 before, with every note of the music. But the highest attain- 

 ment ia reached when, the tune itself being perfectly mastered, 

 it is 



d. SUNG TO SUITABLE WORDS. This exercise should not 

 commence until the words themselves are thoroughly under- 



stood, enjoyed, and loved ; and then it should bo performed 

 with careful regard to EXPRESSION. Thus the pupil is intro- 

 duced to a new study, most elevating and ennobling to the 

 mind, which he will pursue in sympathetic converse with his 

 teacher. 



It is not necessary that the pupil should thus make the 

 fullest use of one exercise before he passes to the next. It 

 would be better that, at every season of practice, each of tha 

 above employments should have place some new exercise being 

 taught by pattern, a previous one sol-faed from books and pointed 

 on the modulator, and an earlier one still "numbered " and sung 

 to words. The pupil should keep a record of progress, both on 

 the book and separately, showing to what extent each exercise 

 has been used. On the book each exercise would be marked 

 with the letters above used in connection with each employment 

 a indicating that the exercise had only been learnt by pattern 

 a, b, that it had also been sol-faed from the book, etc. A 

 separate entry might be made in this wise : " May 6, Ex. 20, a ; 

 19, b, c; 18, di 13, 14, 15, d." 



EXERCISE 25. OLD ENGLAND'S HEART. KEY G. M. 112. 

 The Words from " Ballads for the Times," by Martin Farquhar Tupper. Tune, OLD ENGLISH. 



DA CAPO. 



