among young amateurs. The virtuosi emerge as a consequence of a
long and patient process of selection, which is initiated at the average
level of the many. The day when the teaching of music declines, when
the growth of a new generation of amateurs is jeopardized, the decline
of the virtuoso will have begun. And as we must have virtuosi to
make our mechanized music, that day-which, I trust, will never
come-will bring home to men that the facilities afforded by our
wonderful mechanization have ended by killing music, since they have
robbed us of our virtuosi and indeed of our creative artists.
May our children and our children’s children be spared such a fate!
[Translafed from the Frencb]MUSIC AND INTERNATIONAL
UNDERSTANDING
bY
Doming0 SANTA CRUZ
Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Santiago, ChileThe Preparatory Commission of this conference has honoured me by
asking me to give the opening talk, at this first plenary meeting, on the
subject of ‘Music ,and International Understanding’.
Trusting, no doubt, too much in my capacity, they have given me
this difficult task-difficult not only because of the scope of the subject,
but also because of the need to rise above the usual more or less literary
commonplaces. There is also the danger of drifting into considerations
which have nothing to do with art in the strict sense, and thus of
moving away from the field of our daily work and our usual preoccu-
pations.
Dr. Charles Seeger, who has taken an active part in the preparation
of the programme of this conference, has recently published an article
in which he raises a number of questions regarding our work and inter-
ests. He points out that the ideas of professional musicians and edu-