But let us look at the other side. In the state of Iowa, for example, the state-wide contests, which have been conducted for about the past ten years, have done far more than anything else to vitalize music education in the high school. Four years ago I became acquainted with a group of ten girls who came from a little town three hundred miles away. They had not placed in the contest; they had had no chance. I supposed that this contest would be the last that we should see of them, but the next year they appeared in a body—happy and optimistic, in a fighting mood—and won honors. I asked how they accounted for their success, and they said, "When we got home and reported that we had had no chance in the state contest, the commercial club of our town raised a purse and employed a teacher to come into the high school and train us in music." When the commercial club goes into its pockets in the interest of putting music on the map in its community, music is beginning to function in that community.
Nobody cares to tune a fiddle for four years; but, if he has the opportunity to play a tune, he will gladly keep the fiddle tuned. This fact has been shown on a large scale as a result of the contest plans. Not only have the final local, district, and state contests become goals, but every daily practice has gained an objective and is a topic for social conversation. The contests have made each participant critical of his own performance and the performance of the group and have also made each ambitious for improvement. They have raised standards of selection in musical material. They have resulted in the giving of higher musical education to large numbers of gifted persons whose talents would not otherwise have come to the serious attention of parents or educational interests. The methods of judging these contests have been greatly improved in the direction of offering encouragement where encouragement is due without discouraging more modest attainments where they are indicated.
Educators used to think that football was the only thing that would arouse enthusiastic support in the field of avocational activities for youth; but, as I have witnessed the attitude of high-school pupils in training for musical contests, heard reports of the attitudes of the parents and the backers, and watched the culmination of enthusiasm at the annual contest, I can say that there can be, for youth, as substantial enthusiasm in contests of music as there is in football. In other words, the youth of the state have entered into music in the spirit of play, with determination to train well, play hard, and win if possible. Enthusiasms for a center of interest in public and in private have been found in this music.
The hearing of music. Within the past forty years, also, America has for the first time begun to hear music, good, bad, and indifferent. When the first phonograph came to our city, the host at an evening reception furnished music in a mysterious way. He had installed the phonograph in a niche curtained off in the hallway so that the direction from which the sound emerged was difficult to detect. He played three or four songs by a male quartet, which were richly applauded by his audience on the supposition that he had stationed a male quartet somewhere in the house. Music had come into the social group in a mysterious way.
Throughout the foregoing discussion I have stressed musical performance because action is the way of youth, the way of education, and the way of any preparation for the listening mood and critical attitude. The development of the opportunities for listening has, of course, been unparalleled[unparalleled] in the history of the world. The masses are given the opportunity of hearing good music. Many have taken the attitude of sneering at the music offered by phonograph and radio on the grounds of quality of rendition and of choice of type; but it is safe to say that what is offered is what people want, and there is some basis for saying that to a great extent what people really want is what is good for them. On the other hand, the furnishing of music at all levels has unquestionably had the marked effect of raising the American level of musical appreciation step by step. People can be educated to listen, and in a marvelous way the radio has really taught people to listen. You cannot learn to swim without going near the water. Radio has had the effect of discouraging some persons from the development of musical skills in performance, because they realize that what they can hear is so superior to anything that they can do. On the other hand, radio has stirred the musical interests of the masses into appreciation of the possibilities of music at their respective levels and not only has made them whistle the tunes but has encouraged them to participate in various modes of performance. Listening to the "canned" music has certainly gone far to develop the ability for listening to legitimate music on the stage.
Some years ago I had the privilege of being the guest of the city of Copenhagen for a week. Among the entertainments offered by the city was a grand opera. The invitation came in the form of a large, beautifully engraved card of marked distinction and good taste. Attached to it was the actual ticket to one of the best seats in the house, and the price printed on this ticket was, in American money, twenty-three cents. It can be said almost literally that, when grand opera is played in Copenhagen, people of all classes come out and tend to listen with appreciation and more or less discrimination. The people have been educated to hear music. It has been brought down to their level. Therefore music functions in the social and home life of that city. Music of a very high order furnishes the entertainment in the parks and the public halls. That tradition is fast coming to this country, and the effective training of our youth will do much to hasten the day.
THOUGHT REVIEW
General Principles
(1) The high-school age is the most significant period for the development of an avocation. (2) With the coming time for leisure, education for avocation is a sound educational policy. (3) It is fortunate that musical education at this age is elective. (4) Education for musical taste must be gradual, not by leaps. (5) Expansion of high-school music may advantageously be extracurricular in large part. (6) Music contests have greatly aided in the promotion of musical education. (7) The radio and the phonograph have in recent years been the most effective media for the dissemination of musical information. (8) It is quite natural and well that the fervor for music should cool off for many at the end of the teens.