The leading schools of music in Canada are the Toronto Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium of Music in McGill University at Montreal.
The Toronto Conservatory was founded by the late Dr. Fisher in 1886 and opened in 1887. In the thoroughness of its courses and the completeness of its equipment it ranks with the best conservatories in Europe. In 1897 it purchased its present centrally located site, in close proximity to the cluster of educational and public buildings, and began the erection of the structures which now form its commodious home. Its music hall is architecturally one of the finest edifices of the kind and its auditorium is acoustically one of the most satisfactory halls in Canada for chamber music and other recitals. It contains a three-manual concert organ which is a masterpiece of Canadian workmanship. The main hall is supplemented by smaller ones for lectures and recitals and by practice rooms equipped with two-manual organs. The musical equipment in general is ample and comprehensive, meeting the needs of the 2,500 pupils in attendance.
On the death of Dr. Fisher in 1913, Dr. A. S. Vogt, whose work as conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto is well known, and who had been for many years teacher of piano in the Conservatory, was advanced to the position of director. The faculty consists of 139 professors and instructors. It is almost exclusively British in composition, in striking contrast to the faculties of leading conservatories in the United States, on whose roll Continental European names abound, often to the point of a majority. However, many of the instructors have received their education at foreign conservatories.
The Conservatory is divided into eleven departments, schools for the piano, the voice, the organ, the violin, and other stringed instruments, theoretical instruction, embracing harmony, counterpoint, composition, orchestration, musical history and acoustics, orchestral and band music, expression (including education, physical culture, etc.), modern languages, piano tuning, and kindergarten music method. The extremely practical elements of this curriculum indicate the attention paid to the fundamental needs of the public.
The Conservatory maintains an orchestra for practice in routine and training for students sufficiently advanced to justify their assignment to places in the organization. Frank E. Blatchford, of the violin faculty, who is also concert master of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, is the conductor.
The Conservatory is affiliated with its near neighbor, the University of Toronto. Students who pass the conservatory examinations in musical theory are exempted from corresponding examinations by the University for the degree of Bachelor of Music. In its desire to spread at least a measure of musical knowledge and appreciation among the people, the conservatory conducts correspondence courses in musical theory, and, for the convenience of practice, especially in the piano, maintains eleven branches in the outlying residential districts of Toronto.
The McGill University Conservatorium was opened in 1904. The Conservatorium, however, was then only in its experimental stage and it was not until October, 1908, that the connecting link between the University and the Conservatorium was completed by the appointment as director of Dr. Harry Crane Perrin, professor of music in the University. In 1909 the orchestra was formed, which was composed of students of the Conservatorium, and in February of that year they gave their first orchestral concert.
VI
Henry Dike Sleeper, professor of music in Smith College, a women's college of the first rank, has made an interesting analysis of the character of musical instruction given in the leading universities and colleges where the subject is taught. He says that there are four ideals of study:
1. Musical composition: Great emphasis is laid on this at the University of Pennsylvania, and it is a predominant, though lesser element in the schemes of Harvard and Yale.