Music education in the cupricrlumtrained in the Eternal City were entrusted with the establishment of
similar schools in all the countries of Europe, through which they
were to spread the use of the Gregorian chant. The Anglo-Saxon and
Irish monks came to the help of these cantors in the eighth and ninth
centuries ; in England the work of conversion, together, among other
things, with instruction in music, had already been begun as early as
the end of the sixth century by some forty missionaries sent by Pope
Gregory the Great and placed under the direction of Saint Augustine,
founder of Canterbury. During the second half of the eighth century,
these Anglo-Saxon and Irish monks established or reformed about a
hundred abbeys and priories on the Continent. Instruction in music
was given a decisive impetus with the appearance of the &ole du
Palais, instituted by Charlemagne (A. D. 742-814) at Aix-la-Chapelle.
This primitive university, provided with a full teaching staff, intro-
duced sweeping reforms in the school curriculum most of which are
preserved in the document Admunitiogeneralis (A. ~.787). All episcopal,
collegiate and monastic schools were obliged to carry out this imperial
edict. The course of studies included, in addition to the minimum basic
subjects of dogma, canon law and theology, the trivizlm (grammar,
logic and rhetoric) and the qMadrivizsm (geometry, arithmetic, astro-
nomy and music). This general curriculum was the only one in force
until the end of the ninth century.
With the creation of the first universities in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, music was separated from the philosophical branches
of knowledge. There occurred in fact a division of studies : a distinction
was made between the faculty of theology (from which philosophy was
later detached) and the faculty of arts. In spite of this separation, which
had become necessary, we rejoice to see that chairs of music were set
up in the universities of Oxford and Paris as early as 1200 or there-
abouts. As university studies developed, the teaching of the arts in
general, and more particularly of music, disappeared from these estab-
lishments of higher education. Our century may pride itself on having
made a serious effort towards entrusting the universities once more
with the scientific teaching of music. It is advisable, nevertheless, to
make an objective, critical survey of the results already obtained, in
order to have a better appreciation of what has been done up to now
and to be able, if necessary, to envisage courageously and in time the
measures to be taken for the future.