Mmic in educationconfusion between the music of verse, for example, and that produced
by instruments and voices, giving forth and blending sounds. True
music now is the art and science of producing sounds in conformity
with certain rules (which, incidentally, may vary from people to people),
and, in certain cases, of grouping and harmonizing the sounds so
produced to obtain concerted effects and simultaneously to enrich our
feeling and our conception of the world. Silence is naturally an integral
part of music, so defined; silence is the foundation and prerequisite
for any music.
If we leave aside the obviously gifted individuals who are naturally
inclined towards the profession of music, and those children who,
while showing no outstanding aptitude, are given musical training
because they come of a musical family, we find that, in France for in-
stance, the musical instruction received by the general run of children
falls far short, as regards both its scope and the standards to be reached,
of the instruction given in many other subjects. The main object of the
primary school in France is to teach children reading, writing, arith-
metic, history, geography, and elementary physics, chemistry and
natural science. Gymnastics and music take a very secondary place.
Some municipalities employ a singing teacher but, in certain regions,
the inspectorate is already objecting to their liberty to do so, The
present tendency is to insist that music-and this always means, as
might be expected, vocal music-must be taught by the ordinary pri-
mary teacher, who in many cases himself has only the barest notions of
sol-fa among the multitude of things it is considered essential for him
to know. The primary teachers’ training colleges are now seeking to
remedy this deficiency. Music, which is still treated as an optional sub-
ject in certain private schools, is compulsory in the public schools, 75
minutes a week being devoted to it out of a total of 30 hours’ teaching.
Leaving aside the question of individual aptitudes, what both pupils
and teachers need, in the last analysis, is more time.
The regulations on the question of music education in secondary
schools seem to be no stricter. Instrumental musical instruction is,
quite understandably, left to the children’s families. Vocal music seems
to be fairly well provided for in secondary schools. High school pupils
generally spend one hour a week on singing, and also learn something
of the history of music and the science of acoustics. The conclusion to
which this brief survey leads is that music is still looked upon as an
‘accomplishment’. The music lesson comes at the very end of the day,
before physical education, i.e. at a time when the fine edge of a child’s
capacity for attention must be blunted. We shall see, however, in the