General expo&MUSIC EDUCATIONWITHIN THE REACH OF ALL
byy
Dragotin CVFXKO
Professor at the Music Academy, Ljubljana, YugoslaviaFor several decades past, the problem of making musical culture and
education accessible to all has been discussed both as regards men’s
outlook on life in general and as regards choosing a practical starting
point. The subject has also been dealt with at several local congresses
for music education, notably at Prague in 1936. Several resolutions
were passed, embodying valuable ideas towards a solution of the
question. Such efforts have not been entirely fruitless, and yet the
problem needs discussing again and again.
In direct connexion with this ‘democratization’ of musical studies,
it is a long-established fact which modern musical psychology has
formulated on the basis of experience, that every normal human being
is endowed with a certain capacity for musical appreciation, varying
greatly and therefore affording widely different opportunities for deve-
lopment. It follows that totally unmusical individuals do not exist, at
least not among normal people. This admission is very important in
relation to musical education because it emphasizes that everyone has
a right to musical instruction, not only the elect few in whom excep-
tional musical talent shows at an early age.
Once this premise is accepted, the problem of musical education on
democratic lines is intelligible. And here I must point out something
else, namely that manifest musical talent presents no problems to
solve: the problem lies in that musical disposition which is latent, or
so slightly perceptible that psychological methods are needed to allow
it to express itself. Such cases (which are very common) are not
identical with the condition of minimum talent, although they have
much in common with it. It is above all a question of discovering why
musical gifts sometimes remain latent and how they may be induced
to assume an active form. So this aspect, too, leads to the idea of
musical education on democratic lines.
In whatever way we consider the above problem, a ‘democratized’
musical education is a necessity. There is nothing new in this idea: it