The shrill, noisy brass bands of early days have been supplanted by fine symphonic bands. Master instrument makers have invented a variety of new band instruments capable of producing many novel and artistic effects. Gifted musicians are composing and arranging music especially suited to these various instruments. The band has proved its worth and earned its right to the large place which it now occupies in our American way of life. A band is a necessary part of every community.
And just as the whole future of America is dependent upon the young people of today, in like manner, the fate of the bands of tomorrow depends upon the musical education and training received by the boys and girls of this present time. Youth must go marching on.
Throughout the ages man has found music to be essential in voicing his own innate sense of beauty. Music is not a thing apart from man: it is the spiritualized expression of his finest and best inner self.
There is no one wholly unresponsive to the elevating appeal of music. If only the right contacts and experiences are provided, every life can find in music some answer to its fundamental need for aesthetic and emotional outlet.
The Music Educators’ National Conference, at its national meeting held at Los Angeles in 1940, in full acceptance of its responsibilities as the representative and champion of progressive thought and practice in music education, pledged its united efforts in behalf of a broad and constructive program for music education for the youth of America. The organization recommended that the following measures be taken in the direction of general improvement:
1. Provision in all the schools of our country, both urban and rural, for music experience and training for every child, in accordance with his interests and capacities.
2. Continued effort to improve music teaching, and to provide adequate equipment.
3. Carry-over of school music training into the musical, social and home life of the community, as a vital part of its cultural, recreational and leisure-time activities.
4. Increased opportunities for adult education in music.
5. Improvement of choir and congregational singing in the churches and Sunday schools; increased use of instrumental ensemble playing in connection with church activities.