Miuic in education
No doubt musical America was once (and not so long ago) a colony
of Europe. Performers and educators, the musical repertory and music
education methods had to be imported. Orchestral concerts and opera
performances were more a luxury for the well-to-do than a spiritual
necessity for the common man, a social pastime rather than a religious
experience. But this is now a thing of the past. America’s contribution
to literature, to painting and architecture is no small one; but it is
music that is the first and foremost of the arts.
Take the growth of the orchestra for instance. In 1900 there existed,
in the United States of America, only four established orchestras (in
Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh). Today there are over
twenty orchestras with annual budgets exceeding 100,000 dollars ;
several dozens of minor orchestras; 600 civic orchestras; and an un-
told number (some say over two thousand) of high school orchestras.
Canada, until very recently, boasted only three major orchestras (in
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver); now there is an orchestra in the
making in almost every provincial capital throughout the land. Many
South American orchestras are of recent origin, the dates of their
establishment tell the story: Havana, 1924; Mexico 1928; Santiago de
Chile, 1928; Montevideo, 1931; Bogota, 1936; Lima, 1938; La Paz,
- In 1909 Gustav Mahler thought that the New York Philharmo-
nic was a ‘typical American orchestra, phlegmatic and without talent’.
Strange to think of that remark if one happens to sit in Carnegie Hall
listening to orchestra after orchestra conducted by men like Toscanini,
Munch, Monteux, Mitropoulos, Walter, Rainer or Ormandy.
American concert life is equally impressive. It is very efficiently or-
ganized. Any artist of rank can be heard wherever he hails from; but
that is perhaps less significant than the work of countless music clubs
and the development of civic and community concerts which testify
to the genuine interest in music, apart from financial considerations.
Radio plays its part of course; the Saturday afternoon performances
of the Metropolitan Opera, Sunday afternoon performances of the
NBC Orchestra have literally millions of listeners. The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation-less dependent on sponsored programmes
than the United States networks-is able to stimulate interest in good
music on a nation-wide scale; its Wednesday night performances are
famous all over the continent.
There is much more that could be mentioned: children’s and high
school concerts; a steadily growing number of music camps; institu-
tions like Tanglewood in the Berkshires where talented youngsters
from all over the United States of America and Canada spend the sum-