Gemral expos&It was after the second world war that new approaches to music
education in Europe emerged akin to those appearing in the fields of
philosophy (Jaspers), psychoanalysis (Jung, Neumann) and biology
(von Neergard). A new conception is gaining ground, namely that
music education can no longer, as in the past 200 years, do without
the basic inner spiritual force which should give it strength, but that,
once more on a basis of religious belief, education by, through and
for music is absolutely necessary.
A prosaic, pragmatic observer may be sceptical and incredulous as
to the practical effect of an international conference on the role of
music in education. In this godless world, in which the scars left by
two world wars are not yet healed, in which mechanism divorced from
the arts rules all, and dogmas seem to hold undisputed sway, it would
seem to be unrealistic, utopian idealism to conceive of the very idea
of international music education. But it is the reaction against me-
chanically empty desolation, against the neglect of the soul, against
the anguish, distress and danger of man that become every day more
evident, that gives us our faith, our confidence, our belief in artistic
creation. Moreover, this conference as the solemn prelude to the
future, continuing work of the International Association for Musical
Education, in which our hopes are placed, binds us to confirm and
put into practice the guiding principles of music education.
The question we are dealing with seems to us so urgent that we
venture once more to repeat what has already been said. All our
efforts, now and in the future, should be based on three articles of
faith : universality, communal activity and religious ethics.
We have long been aware that the idea represented by the term
‘Europe’ has become narrower, smaller and less tenable. Never-
theless, let us once more proclaim, in opposition to the emphasis on
technology in science, art and music, the despised and belittled ideal
of humanity as it was once expressed in the tradition of the old, the
better Europe: ‘All men are brothers.’
We now come to our second article of faith-communal activity.
Music education lays the main emphasis not upon the excellence of
individuals but upon the harmonious co-operation of the group. In
folklore, mythology, the Bible, legends and folk songs, we find a
rich and inexhaustible store of inspiration for a free and creative com-
munal music, able to draw on the ancient but still vital vocal music of
the Jewish temple. Gregorian chant and organum, medieval French
motets, the Netherlands music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
on the folk songs and children’s songs of Haydn and Mozart, and