General exposhextend equal facilities to those who will not become virtuosi, concert
singers, or composers, but nevertheless have so much musical talent
that they could become excellent amateur musicians who in turn
would contribute to the popularization of music as an art. Translated
into practice this means that the system of elementary musical tuition
should be as comprehensive as possible, and that our elementary
schools of music should be open to all children whose musical gifts
are obvious and for whom the musical instruction afforded by ordinary
schools is inadequate.
In my country we have, since the war, tackled this problem in
earnest, and the network of elementary schools of music has conse-
quently been greatly extended. In Slovenia, one of the six Yugoslav
republics and with about one and a half million inhabitants, there are
25 elementary State schools of music with large subventions. In
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, there are no less than seven such
schools for a population of 125,000. Besides these, there are two
secondary schools of music in Slovenia and the Academy of Music in
Ljubljana. Conditions are similar in other Yugoslav republics. There
are elementary schools of music everywhere. They serve a double
purpose: they raise the number of intelligent musical amateurs, and
they facilitate the selection of specially gifted pupils for further training
at musical secondary and high schools. Apart from State schools for
elementary musical education, there are numerous People’s Musical
Schools, 18 in Slovenia alone. If to these we add the 25 elementary
State Schools of Music and eight preparatory schools, there are no
less than 51 elementary schools of music in this one small republic.
And, of course, for the whole of Yugoslavia the number is propor-
tionally greater.
I would not say that the present form of our elementary school
music system is final. What I want to point out is that the fundamental
conception of creating a system of musical education on democratic
lines has proved successful, and profitable for the development of
musical culture as a whole. In this way a greater number of children
have the opportunity for musical education, not only in towns but
also in the country. Experience proves that the number of gifted
pupils in the secondary schools of music is increasing.
The next and no less urgent problem is that of musical instruction
at secondary schools and at the university. At most European uni-
versities, the chair of musicology provides an opportunity for special-
ized study; apart from that, the question of musical life is solved
largely by the activities of music colleges. Perhaps the question of