General expo.&So the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of vocal teaching in
schools. Since 1900, instrumental music and appreciation (or listening)
lessons were added to the school music programme: with the as-
tonishing result that nearly every American high school (think of it:
nearly every American high school-there are thousands of them) has
boys’ and girls’ glee clubs, mixed choruses, instrumental classes, bands
and orchestras ; to which sometimes a capela choruses are added, courses
in theory, history and appreciation of music. The most advanced
students form intercollegiate orchestras and choruses whose technical
proficiency is simply astounding. I shall never forget the day when I
heard such organizations for the first time. It was in Rochester, New
York. An intercollegiate high school orchestra played a Mendelssohn
concerto accompanying a teenage soloist ; an intercollegiate choir sang
Faurt’s Requiem in Latin. The average age was about 16 years, yet
their performances would have put many a professional organization to
shame. It should be noted here that the data just given refer mainly to the
United States of America. With regard to instrumental music in schools,
Canada follows in the footsteps of the United States of America, but
with a time-lag of about fifteen years. It is a vast country, sparsely
populated, divided by differences in language, religion and tradition,
part English, part French, in origin, yet more and more adopting the
‘American way of life’. In South America, music education in schools
seems in the initial stages of development with Mexico and Brazil
leading the rest of the continent. Villa-Lobos, as Director-General
of Music Education in Brazil, has introduced novel and challenging
methods of musical instruction, particularly with regard to choral
singing.
Music instruction in colleges and universities (in the United States
of America and Canada at least) is so different from music offerings in
other countries that it must be briefly referred to. There are two
distinct forms of organization for the teaching of music in colleges:
first, the university school of music which is a professional training
centre, a mixture of a conservatory and a university department re-
taining the best features of both; and secondly, the department of
music in the liberal arts college whose function it is to introduce stu-
dents to music as an integral part of a cultural pattern without making
the attempt of preparing them for a professional career. In other words,
universities offer either vocational or avocational training, and some-
times both. In most cases they have orchestras, choruses, bands, glee
clubs and are well able to provide students with musical experience
beyond the high school stage. If we remember that there are 2.5 million