General Principles
(1) Music is pursued primarily for the pleasure of the pursuit without ulterior purpose. (2) When music renders service, this service is essentially the giving of pleasure. (3) The depth and the quality of a person's affection for music vary significantly with the degree and kind of musical inheritance. (4) If the natural urge toward music is there, it will be readily molded through training and facilitation of the environment. (5) It is psychologically possible to present a natural history of the origin and development of the love of music in terms of its objects and motives. (6) The inceptive psychology of musical experience and behavior can be pursued in the laboratory and the studio through experiment and measurement. (7) There is a charm in knowing that we love music but even more so, why and how. (8) It is also worth knowing why some people do not and others cannot love music.
Questions to Consider
(1) Is the play attitude in music opposed to hard work? (2) Why is high intelligence essential to the composer? (3) Can a moron love music genuinely? (4) Is the musical temperament essential for the love of music? (5) How can the adrenal glands affect the love of music? (6) Is the love of rhythm primarily inherited or acquired? (7) What hereditary factors may block the development of the love of music? (8) What factors in musical talent are most telling for the development of the love of music? (9) What educational motives are most effective as a means of enhancement of the love of music? (10) What is the nature of musical ecstasy?
Discuss These True Situations
(1) The typical "house" for the season's performance of the symphony orchestra is arrayed in festive attire and poses in attentive and festive mood. Make an estimate of the relative proportion of the audience there (a) to see and be seen, (b) to perform a social obligation, (c) to satisfy curiosity, (d) to learn something about music, (e) to thoroughly enjoy the orchestral music.
Chapter II
MUSIC BEFORE THE AGE OF SIX
The psychology of music and the psychology of the child are giving us new vital conceptions of the nature and role of music in child life. To understand this fully is to understand adequately the nature of the child mind and the nature of music.
From smile to music. All mental development begins with some inherited form of behavior and gradually differentiates into richer and richer meanings and forms of expression. The taproot of all music is the smile. This in its first appearance is a pure reflex, expressing the well-being of the organism.
Observe some typical steps in its history in high lights. When the infant has had its fill from its mother's breast, its head falls back and the mouth puckers as a result of withdrawal from the nipple. The mother looks at this and says to herself, "He is satisfied." The child has thus acquired one means of communication—the expression of well-being. This rapidly radiates into many situations. When the infant is patted on the back, is bathed, is rocked in the arms, or feels the waft of comfortable air, the same puckering of the mouth seems to convey to the mother a sign of well-being, and the meaning of this puckering is thus enriched.