General expo.&to the twentieth century are identical, going back to the ancient vocal
music of the Jewish temple and the hymns of antiquity. The philoso-
phical background of musical education is also to be found in Europe,
in Plato’s writings, especially in his Repablic, in the psalms of David
and in the books of the Prophets. We still recognize these as the
fountainhead of our Judaic-Christian beliefs, and therefore as the foun-
dation of European ethics and culture. The subject with which we are
concerned is the dynamism of development in all its forms and
variations or, in other words, the eternal change and constant trans-
formation of all musical conceptions and evolving forms. Musical
composition, musical interpretation and naturally, still more, musical
education, change as religious and social ideas and concepts change.
Everything in Europe is in a state of constant flux, under the uninter-
rupted impulse of a multitude of mighty forces. In the history of this
dynamic process through which we are living, new fields are con-
stantly being opened up; and in the logical course of this process the
new era in musical education with which we have to deal began
about 1900. In the history of musical education up to 1750 we can
follow a gradual ascent to the lofty heights of composition for two or
three voices, culminating in the whole work and genius of Johann
Sebastian Bach. Bach in fact epitomizes the whole of European mu-
sical education. The period of the victorious rise of Individualism, the
Classic and Romantic phases up to Gustav Mahler, was typically an
era in which instruction took precedence over education; this was a
time when, in response to the demands of composers, virtuosi and the
general public, the main emphasis in all kinds of musical pevformance
and music education was placed on perfection of ‘skilful achievement’.
Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that, even in the nineteenth
century, there were many bright though fleeting stars in the firmament
of European music education-for instance, Goethe’s Padugogiisce
Provinx or the efforts which the young Fram Liszt, inspired by Saint-
Simon, made to revolutionize music education and, in another field,
the similarly inspired work of Ruskin and Morris (News from Nowbere).
With regard to efforts in the actual field of music teaching, Wilhem
and Hullah, Curven and Glover, Hundoegger and Kretzschmar are
representative of the forerunners of the great new epoch in musical
education.
What did the new movement stand for and what, at the present
time, does musical education in Europe stand for? Neither more nor
less than an attempt, from the standpoint of European music education,
to assist in the solution of the great questions facing the world, by