Music in educafion
As will be seen from the figures quoted, there are still plenty of com-
petitions, contests, festivals and concerts, which are followed with
interest by large audiences. In addition, there are public lectures on
music, illustrated by recitals.
The figures quoted are interesting and give evidence of the remarkable
work being done by the choral and instrumental societies. They show
that one out of every 100 Belgians belongs to an amateur musical
society. While this figure is too low, and is considerably smaller than
would have emerged from a similar inquiry in 1910, it does never-
theless give cause for some satisfaction. But we want to do something
more than revive the glories of the past: we want to get at least 10 to 15
per cent of our compatriots into our male voice choirs.
Perhaps a few comparative figures may be given in illustration of
this statement :
Whereas in the United States of America, with a population of 125
million, and about 180,000 school choral societies,brass bands and brass-
and-reed bands, there are now no more than 1,000 amateur musical
societies for adults, about 1,800 popular musical societies at present exist
in Belgium, which has a population of only 8.5 million. The Grand
Duchy of Luxembourg, with 280,000 inhabitants, has 220 amateur
choral societies, brass bands and brass-and-reed bands. This proves
that popular music education counts for something in old Europe.
The first gleams of reviving interest are already to be seen, and we
are grateful to Unesco for giving us its help at our first appeal. Im-
pressive contests between brass-and-reed bands and brass bands from
nine countries took place in 1952 at Vichy and in 1953 at Bolzano.
Unesco and the International Confederation of Popular Music Societies,
to which 13 countries now belong, offered prizes for these contests,
and cups were presented by the Municipalities of Vichy and Bohano.
The competing societies performed really fine works such as Paul
Gilson’s Ouverture Sbculaire, Marcel Poot’s Tartarin de Tarascon, Peter
Benoit’s Charlotte Corday, Tchaikowsky’s 1812 Overture, Rimsky-Kor-
sakoff‘s Antar, Liszt’s Preludes, Wagner’s Overture to Rienxi, or the
prelude to the third act of the Mastersingers of Nuremburg, Berlioz’s
Roman Carnival, Nicolai‘s Meny Wives of Windsor, J. S. Bach’s Toccata
and Fugue, Weber’s overtures to Euyanthe and Oberon, etc.
All these works were performed with remarkable success by these
amateur societies, whose members included workmen, clerks, farm
workers and intellectuals, under the conductorship of talented and
experienced leaders. Each country has other societies just as good as
those which competed, but the number that could be sent was necess-