General expodsof serious music, the kind of art which can ennoble them, which can
help develop their minds and help qualify them as members of human
society, conscious not only of their rights but also of their duties
towards their fellow men and society.
Let youth speak for itself! Just before the war, in 1938, I conducted
an inquiry in the lower forms of the secondary schools and teachers’
colleges of Slovenia. In the course of this inquiry I became especially
interested in the question of whether the scholars themselves con-
sidered that music ought to be a compulsory subject in the lower
forms. Ninety-six per cent of their replies were in favour, and the
remaining 4 per cent consisted mainly of scholars who already fre-
quented some school of music and therefore did not feel the need for
musical instruction at the secondary school. In their replies, the
scholars pointed out that they already felt the lack of this subject in
their cultural outlook and feared that they would feel it even more
acutely in adult life. They criticized a system which taught them all
about Alexander Bach, the advocate of absolutism in Austria in the
1850’s, and nothing at all about Johann Sebastian Bach, or Mozart, or
Beethoven, or indeed any of the giants of music. After the war,
I conducted a similar inquiry in the eighth (the highest) form of our
secondary schools, with practically the same results. I think that in
every European State secondary school, where musical tuition has not
yet been satisfactorily solved, pupils would respond in the same way.
Musical studies at secondary schools should not be limited to the
elementary theory of music and singing. They should include the
history of music, its aesthetic values, and other aspects which could
help complete an all-round education and provide a more thorough
understanding of social development. We must not deprive secondary
school students of their right to the sort of education given to others-
indeed we cannot do so if we have a correct conception not only of the
final purpose of secondary school education but also of the supreme
importance of placing musical education on a democratic footing with
its proper part in contemporary culture.
This question of democratizing musical education and tuition and
integrating it in education as a whole must be tackled with firmness
and resolution. It is essential to the education of modern man, and if
mankind is to achieve its ideals, the art of music is as necessary as
progressive thought.