Getierai exposismer studying orchestral techniques, chamber music, opera and com-
position under teachers of international repute; the rise of the American
performer; and finally the growing galaxy of American composers like
Barber, Copland, Menotti, Villa-Lobos, Chavez and many others.
American musical life has certainly progressed with lightning speed.
There is no doubt about the results-but how was it achieved, and
achieved so quickly?
It is often thought that music must have its roots in the soil, that it
needs the humus of tradition and centuries of slow growth. Yet it
might be truer to liken it to religion: the gospel can be preached any-
where, it conquers and reforms the most heterogeneous societies. Music
is certainly a social product growing out of community life; but if it is
sufficiently great, it has the magic power to grow into, and to permeate,
community life. It is formed by society but it can reform society in
turn. In this process there will at first be a gap between a highly deve-
loped art and a society lacking in tradition: it is this gap that can and
must be closed by education. Americans, particularly North Ameri-
cans, have a touching faith, an almost childlike belief in the power of
education. It is that belief perhaps and the resulting educational acti-
vities, astonishing in their speed, determination and comprehensive-
ness, which explains America’s musical achievements.
Music education always starts with professional education, at the
conservatory stage. Rightly or wrongly it is felt that a supply of
well trained musicians must be safeguarded before the musical needs
of the general public can be taken into consideration. Here again,
recent developments have brought America to the forefront of the
nations. Only 30 years ago, after the first world war, American talent
migrated to France as it had migrated to Germany and Austria before
that time. But during the last two decades Bartok and Schoenberg,
Hindemith and Stravinsky, Milhaud, Krenek, Martinu and equally
illustrious men in the instrumental and vocal fields had been residing,
lecturing and teaching in the Americas. Unique and highly endowed
institutions, like the Juillard School of Music in New York, the East-
man School in Rochester, the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia have
come into being. The Conservatorio Brasileiro (1940) and the Instituto
de Extension Musical in Santiago de Chile (1940) must be added to the
list, also the Conservatoire de Musique in Montreal and the Royal
Conservatory of Music in Toronto which exerts a powerful influence
on the musical life of the whole of Canada. These are training centres
of the first order, headed by creative musicians like William Schumann,
Howard Hanson, Edward Johnson, Doming0 Santa Cruz-a develop-