It may be argued that considerable expense is already incurred by municipalities and states, for training in musical appreciation in the form of concerts, public school instruction, park bands, etc. These expenses are admittedly very large and yet what is their productive value along the line of musical instruction? What is the real value, for instance, of the many thousands of dollars annually expended upon public Music in a city like New York? The educated listener finds the programs faulty, falling far short of a true expression of a composer’s idea, while to the uneducated hearer, it is principally a diversion of his attention, without teaching him anything. The establishment of musical departments in colleges will never be able to meet this crying need. The majority of the institutions which depend even in part upon tuition-fees received from their pupils, reach the least needy of our people, and sometimes the least talented. Where the industrial shoe pinches the hardest, there is where the national social or political danger lies, and there is where the need is greatest. Where the social pressure is most felt, there is formed a mine of musical diamonds. Neither the city nor the state can so control musical development, as to produce a national type in musical composition. Music is a universal need, passionately craved by the nation’s children. Hence our federal government should attend to this demand, which is becoming more and more insistent every day, indicative of a national want. We venture the not idle prophecy, that the whole American nation would cheerfully bear a tax, for so good a work as the establishment of national free schools of Music all over our land. That European countries have recognized this need is shown by the statistics which will be found below.[3] These statistics were very difficult to procure, and are rather surprising in content.
A copy of the questionnaire sent out will be found in Appendix A. The nations from whom we expected the least expenditure for musical culture, were found to be the most lavish. The United States stands apart from the world’s array of musical patrons. The recent interest in Indian and Negro Music may, however, prove an entering wedge to a wider cultivation of our national musical resources. Our State universities and our public schools are institutions of which the nation is justly proud. Why not open your arms a little wider, generous America, and take into your embrace your own fair musical child, now so weak and puny, but full of promise for the future? The hope of the writer is, that this cry will be heard by the nation’s head.
With such national support in view, we have gathered our statistics. City ventures are not considered; park bands, military bands,[4] new buildings for national musical academies, in short, all outlays for Music not tending to contribute directly toward the musical education of the people under consideration, are omitted. Thus the large contributions of cities for public entertainments are left out of our calculation entirely. The United States has not fallen into line with European countries in national culture of Music, but probably this is simply because the attention of our nation has not hitherto been called to Music as a health measure. Too much ink has flowed in describing Music as a diversion, as an amusement, as an ideal, as a superfluous luxury, whereas no greater physical and mental need exists, than the unconscious physical need of rhythm, the conscious physical need of Music.
The world, it is true, may not at once accept the theory of “rhythm” herein set forth. An investigation of it, however, would bring about some new and interesting discoveries, in regard to unsuspected effects of Music upon the nervous system. In any case, Music is a wonder worker which should now occupy the attention of sociologists, psychologists, and physicians.
Music has been generally regarded as the language of the emotions, but it has never been determined why these emotions, having art, poetry, the dance, and many other means of partial expression, so insistently require sound for complete self-realization. The beat of the pulse and the measure in Music are similar rhythmic expressions, but the close relation of one to the other has heretofore been ignored. Yet groups have a pulse; history has a pulse; the phenomena of the physical universe have a pulse; all life manifestations are demonstrations of pulse action.
What becomes of the countless millions of musical sound vibrations sent into space by the orchestral performances in a great city? Are they all impotent, reaching only to the auditory organs, and dying there? Or do they actually enter the human system and set to their own perfect rhythm, all of the discordant motions therein encountered? Do they not “act as stimuli on the sensitive psychoplasm and effect changes in its molecular composition?”[5]
All rhythm, however divided, is perfect motion. Rhythm, acting upon a disturbed motion, tends to impose its own motion upon the discord, if stronger than the disturbance encountered. This theory not only imputes a higher mission to Music than has heretofore been realized, but also accounts for phenomena of organized sound vibrations, and for the craving of all human life for Music. This passionate desire for Music is an established fact, and it remains but to show the need of this inspiring sound stimulus, in order to place Music in the list of recognized national necessities.
The willing response of Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, Denmark, England, Equador, France, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and the United States to the author’s request for musical statistics merits special mention. Prussia alone of the nations applied to for statistics appeared either unwilling, or unable to furnish the same regarding her national support of Music. The author shared the general opinion that Prussia led the world in this field. But although requested through proper official channels, from several influential quarters, no response was obtained. A cable from the United States Consul in Berlin says that the musical “statistics are unavailable.” The letter from the Minister of Saxony may give some insight into the real condition of German musical support, and as such it is added in Appendix E.[6]
The Appeal in this work is for a system of public musical instruction upon the principles governing our public school management. This would be a step in advance of the systems of governmental support of musical institutions, as represented in the statistics included in this work, which systems generally place a small charge upon those pupils who are able to pay. All of these institutions admit to full privileges free of any charge, the exceptionally talented among the poor. The object of each such institution as we advocate, should be the support, by the government, of native musical talent, without regard to profit or loss in the management. Music is one of those sciences which do not attract the untalented to their study, and, this being the case, little loss of instruction is involved. The proper study of Music includes so many of the regular public school studies, and so much of the elements of higher education, as Psychology, Biology, Sociology, Physics, Economics, Social Legislation, History, Languages, Literature, Physical Training, Self-Control, to say nothing of the mathematical studies included in such branches as orchestration, harmony, counterpoint, etc., that a model musical college would furnish an education and culture, far more beneficial to individuals and the group, than is offered by some of the present systems of education. The immediate cost would be immense, but the author is convinced that this outlay would bring quick returns, in decreasing costs for the protection of the native individual, from many of the effects of nerve derangement in children and in adults, in lessening discontent, riots, antagonism between labor and capital, and many manifestations of partial insanity. In short, such a system is a prime factor in social control, to the lack of which may be ascribed in some measure the present peril to civilization.
We take this opportunity to express our indebtedness for the statistics furnished in each case to the following gentlemen, who, either in their official or in a private capacity, replied to the questionnaire submitted, and whose co-operation has been invaluable in our attempt to present the most recent conditions of State-aided Music abroad: Wilhelm Bopp, Director of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Music and Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria; M. Steiner, Minister of the Interior for Religion and Schools, Bavaria; M. Phillis, Minister of Arts and Sciences, Belgium; J. Clan, Danish Consul-General in New York, and Cornelius Rübner, head of the Music Department of Columbia University; Olmedo Alfaro, son of the President of Equador, and the Directors of the Conservatory of Quito, Equador; A. W. Twenlyman, of the English Education Board, London, England; I. Philipp of the Paris Conservatory; Th. Heemskerk, Minister of the Interior, Holland; Luigi Credaro, Minister of Public Instruction, Rome, Italy; Ole Olesen, Military Inspector of Music, Norway; Wm. Thackara, American Consul-General, Berlin, Germany; Alexandre Lyssakovsky, First Secretary of the Russian Embassy, Washington, D. C.; (Graf) Vitzhum von Eckstaedt, Minister of the Interior, Saxony; Bror Beckman, of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Stockholm, Sweden; L. A. Kalbach, Chief Clerk of the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.; Mr. Wm. H. Taft, ex-President of the United States; Naray-Szabo, Secretary of State, Hungary, and Dr. Paul Majewsky, Chief of the Fine Art Section of the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Public Worship and Education, Budapest.