MUSIC
I
THE SCALE
Since the publication of my first volume on the education of small
children, considerable progress has been made in the matter of musical
education. Miss Maccheroni, who came to Rome to work with me on
experiments looking to the continuation of the methods used with primary
classes, was successful in establishing a number of tests which
constituted our first steps into this important field of education. We
are under great obligations to the Tronci firm of Pistoja, which took
charge of the manufacture of materials and gave us the most sympathetic
cooperation.
We had already prepared at the time of that first publication an
equipment of bells to be used in training the ear to perceive
differences between musical sounds. The methods of using this material
were considerably modified and perfected again after the publication of
my _Own Handbook_ (New York, Stokes, 1914), in which for the first time
appeared a treatise on musical method. The foundation of the system
consists of a series of bells representing the whole tones and
semi-tones of one octave. The material follows the general
characteristics of that used in the sensorial method, that is, the
objects differ from each other in one and only one quality, the one
which concerns the stimulation of the sense under education. The bells,
for instance, must be _apparently identical_ in dimensions, shape,
etc., but they must _produce different sounds_. The basic exercise is to
have the child recognize "identities." He must pair off the bells which
give the same sound.
[Illustration]
The bell system is constructed as follows: We have a very simple
support, made of wood (of course any other material might be used) 115
cm. long and 25 cm. wide. On this the bells rest. The board is wide
enough to hold two bells placed lengthwise and end to end across it. The
board is marked off into black and white spaces, each wide enough to
hold one bell. The white spaces represent whole tones, the black spaces
semi-tones. Though the apparent purpose of this board is to serve as a
support, it is in reality a _measure_, since it indicates the regular
position of the notes in the simple diatonic scale. The combination of
white and black rectangles indicates the interval between the various
notes in the scale: in other words, a semi-tone between the third and
fourth and between the seventh and eighth, and a whole tone between the
others. Bells showing the value of each rectangle are fixed in proper
order in the upper portion of the support. These bells are not all of
the same size, but vary in dimension regularly from the bottom to the
top of the scale. This permits considerable saving in manufacture; for,
to get a different sound from bells of the same size, different
thicknesses are required, and this entails more labor for construction
and consequently greater cost. But in addition the child here sees a
material variation corresponding to the differences in quality of sound.
On the other hand, the other bells on which the child is to perform his
critical exercises are of _identical dimensions_.
In the exercise the child strikes with a small mallet one of the bells
fixed on the support. Then, from among the others scattered at random on
the table, he finds one which gives the same sound and places it on the
board in front of the fixed bell corresponding to it. In the most
elementary exercises, only the whole tone bells corresponding to the
white spaces are used. Later, the semi-tones are brought in. This first
exercise in sense perception corresponds to the pairing practised in
other sensory exercises (color, touch, etc.) The next step is for the
child to distinguish differences, and at the same time, gradations of
stimuli (like the exercises with the color charts, hearing, etc.) In
this case the child mixes at random the eight bells, all of the same
size, which give the whole tones of the scale. He is to find _do_, then
_re_, and so on through the octave one note after the other, placing the
bells in order in their proper places. Nomenclature is taught step by
step as in the other sensorial exercises. To familiarize the child with
the names, _do_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_, _si_, we use small round
disks, the circular form serving to suggest the head of the written
note. On each disk the name of the note is written. The disks are to be
placed on the bases of the bells that correspond to them. The exercises
in naming the notes may be begun with the fixed bells, in order (with
children who already know how to read) to associate the sounds with
their names in the first exercise of pairing. Later, when the child
comes to the exercise of putting the bells in gradation, he can place
the corresponding disk on each bell as he finds it.
Some individuals, commenting on this material, have solemnly protested
their native inability to understand music, insisting that music reveals
its secrets only to a chosen few. We may point out in reply that, so
far, our principal object is simply to distinguish notes so widely
different from each other that the different number of vibrations can
easily be measured with instruments. It is a question of a material
difference which any normal ear can naturally detect without any
miraculous aptitude of a musical character. One might as well claim that
it is the privilege only of genius to distinguish one color from another
somewhat like it. Particular aptitude for music is determined by
conditions of a quite different and a much higher order, such as
intuition of the laws of harmony and counterpoint, inspiration for
composition, and so on.
In actual practise, we found that when the material was used with some
restrictions by forty children between three and six years of age, only
six or seven proved capable of filling out the major scale by ear. But
when the material was freely placed at their disposal, they all
progressed along the same lines and showed about the same rate of
improvement, as was the case in our experiments with reading, writing,
etc. When individual differences appeared, it was by no means due to the
_possibility_ of performing these tasks, but rather to the amount of
_interest_ taken in the exercises, for which some children showed actual
enthusiasm. Eagerness for surmounting difficulties and for high
attainment is much more frequently found in children than we, judging by
our own experience as adults, easily suspect. In any event, actual
performance is the only guide to the revelation of particular aptitude,
of personal calling.
When one of the larger children spreads on the table the eight bells of
similar size to make up the scale by ear, the little ones pick up a
single bell, sometimes reaching out for it with the greatest eagerness.
They beat it with the mallet for a long time, they feel of it, examining
it carefully, making it ring more and more slowly. The older children
take special interest in the pairing, often repeating the same exercise
many times; but an unusual charm is found in the successive sounds of
the eight bells when placed in order; in other words, in hearing the
scale. Nennella, one of the children of the "Children's House" of Via
Giusti, played the scale over two hundred times in succession, one
hundred for the ascending scale and one hundred back again. The whole
class is sometimes interested in listening, the children following with
absolute silence the classic beauty of this succession of sounds.
Another child, Mario, used to go to the very end of the table--as far
away as possible, and resting his elbows on the table with his head in
his hands, he would remain without stirring in the silence of the
darkened room, showing his extraordinary interest in the exercise in
every detail of demeanor and facial expression.
At a certain, moment, interest in reproducing the note vocally appears.
The children accompany the scale with their voices. They strive for the
exact reproduction of the sound which the bell gives. Their voices
become soft and musical in this exercise, showing nothing of that
shrillness, so characteristic of children's voices in the usual popular
songs. In the classes of Via Trionfale it happened that some children
asked permission to accompany vocally the scale that a child was playing
softly on the bells. The interest taken in this exercise was of a
higher order than that shown by children in the singing of songs. It was
easy to see that songs with their capricious intervals between widely
separated notes and calling for pronunciation of words, musical
expression, differences in time, etc., are unadapted to the most
elementary exercises in singing.
It was possible to test the absolute memory of the child for the
different notes without any set exercise. After a long series of
experiments in pairing, the children begin to make scales, using only
one series of bells, and they repeat this exercise many times and in
different ways. Sometimes, for instance, a child always looks for the
lowest note, _do_, then for the next above it, _re_, etc. Again, a child
will take any bell at random, looking next for the note immediately
above or immediately below, and so on. It also happens that on picking
up some bell or other, the child will exclaim on hearing its sound, this
is _mi_, this is _do_, and so on. One child had made a splendid
demonstration of the use of the bells before her Majesty, the Queen
Mother. This was in the month of May. Although he had had no further
access to the materials in his "Children's House" of Via Giusti, in the
November following he was asked to use some musical pipes,[9] which he
had hardly seen before, and which happened to be in great disorder since
they had just arrived from the factory. There were sixteen pipes mixed
at random, comprising a double diatonic scale. He took one of the pipes,
struck it and said, "This is _si_," and immediately hung it on the
appropriate hook of the support. On ringing the next one, he said, this
is _mi_, and again put the pipe in the right place. So he went on and
arranged the sixteen pipes in accurate order on the two parallel frames.
He had had a good deal of exercise during the preceding year and had
preserved an absolutely accurate memory of the notes.
As is the case with colors, geometrical shapes, etc., the children begin
at this point to explore the environment. One will come to the teacher
at the piano and say, striking a key, "This is _stee_," meaning that the
note corresponds to the first syllable of the first word in some song he
knows (Stella, Stellina). It happens that the key struck by the child is
a _do_, the very note corresponding to the syllable _ste_ in the song.
We had many touching examples of this musical exploration of the
environment.
FOOTNOTE:
[9] The pipes are an equipment parallel to the bells. They are to be
recommended for schools, which can afford a more sumptuous outlay.
II
THE READING AND WRITING OF MUSIC
MATERIAL: In "The Children's House" the musical staff is introduced by
means of a board painted green with the lines in bas relief. On each
line and in each space representing the octave to which the sounds of
the bells respectively correspond, is a small circular indenture, or
socket, into which the disk for each note may be inserted. Inside each
indenture is written a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The disks used in
this exercise have a number written on the lower face and the name of a
note on the upper: for instance, 1, _do_; 2, _re_; 3, _mi_; 4, _fa_; 5,
_sol_; 6, _la_; 7, _si_:
_do--re--mi--fa--sol--la--si--do._
[Illustration]
This device enables the child to place the notes on their respective
lines without making any mistakes and to examine their relative
positions. The indentures are so arranged as to show an empty space
wherever a semi-tone appears:
_do_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_, _si_, _do_.
In the semi-tone spaces black counters are to be placed. At a later
stage of this exercise the staff is represented by a wooden board
similar to the one described above, but without the indentures. The
child has at his disposal a great many disks with the notes written out
in full on one face. He can arrange thirty or forty of these disks at
random on the board, keeping them, however, in their places according to
the names of the notes; but each time the surface showing the name of
the note should be placed downward on the board, so that on the line
only disks without names are visible. When a child has finished this
exercise, he is to turn the disks over without disarranging them and so
determine from their names whether he has placed them properly. All the
disks on a given line or in a given space should have the same names.
Should any doubt arise as to the proper place of a note, the other board
with the numbered indentures can be used as a check.
[Illustration]
When a child has reached this stage of development, he can practice
reading the musical script, ringing the bells according to the notes he
is interpreting. The musical staffs are prepared on oblong cards about
seventeen centimeters broad. The notes are about two centimeters in
diameter. The cards are variously colored--blue, violet, yellow, red.
The next step is for the children to write notes themselves. For this
purpose we have prepared little sheets which can be bound together into
a book or album.
We offer also a few songs employing two or three notes so simple in
character that the child can make them out by ear on his bells. When,
after some practise, he is certain he can copy the song, he writes the
notes on his staff and so becomes the editor of his own music.
TREBLE AND BASS CLEFS
_Arrangement of the notes in the form of a rhombus:_ All the exercises
thus far have been in reference to the higher _clef_. However, no
representation of this key has as yet been given the child. His first
task is to learn the relative position of the notes on the two staffs.
To supply this want, following the system of the Musical Conservatory of
Milan, we have adopted the double staff.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: A sheet on which the child writes his own music.]
[Illustration: The notes written by the child.]
The broken line (p. 328) indicates the position of _do_, the point of
departure for the scale. In fact, as the notes pass from line to space
and space to line, they form the natural series:
_do_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_, _si_, _do_.
The same situation develops as they go down the scale:
_do_, _si_, _la_, _sol_, _fa_, _mi_, _re_, _do_.
When the position of _do_ has been determined, the other notes above and
below it are easily found. From the _do_ on the left the child can find
his way to the _do_ on the next octave higher and come down again.
Likewise from the same point on the right (_do_) he can go down to the
_do_ of the lower octave and then go up the scale again. When these
notes are represented on the combined staffs with the counters, the
resulting design is a rhombus.
[Illustration]
Separating the two staffs, the arrangement of the notes in the higher
and lower key (the C scale and bass) becomes apparent and the different
significance of the two series can be emphasized by placing to the left
of the staff the two clef signs, which have been prepared as special
portions of our material.
[Illustration]
In this way the children have learned the scale in _do major_ in the two
keys. The arrangement of the black and white spaces puts them in a
position to recognize these notes even on the piano. Our material, in
fact, includes a diminutive keyboard where the keys are small enough to
fit the size of a child's hand. It can be used as an exercise for the
finger muscles. As each key is touched it raises a hammer marked with
the name of the note struck, which the child can see through a glass.
Thus while the child is practising his finger movements, he fixes his
acquaintance with the arrangement of the notes on the keyboard. This
small piano makes no noise. However, a sort of organ-pipe mechanism can
be fitted on above the hammers in such a way that each stroke, as the
hammer rises, connects with a reed which gives a corresponding sound.
All the exercises thus far have been based upon sensory experience as
the point of departure. The child's ear has recognized the fundamental
sounds and initiated him into real musical education. All the rest, such
as the music writing, etc., _is not music_.
III
THE MAJOR SCALES
We have developed additional material for the teaching of the scales.
Here we show a chart somewhat suggesting the arrangement of the bell
material used in the first exercises. That is, the relative intervals
between the various notes of the scale are clearly indicated. The
_scale_ is, in fact, a series of eight sounds, the intervals between
each being as indicated by the black marks in the design: whole tone,
whole tone, semi-tone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semi-tone.
In the _do major_ scale the intervals are indicated as follows: a whole
tone between _do_ and _re_; _re_ and _mi_; _fa_ and _sol_; _sol_ and
_la_; _la_ and _si_; and a semi-tone between _mi_ and _fa_ and _si_ and
_do_. If, however, instead of beginning with _do_, the scale starts from
some other note, the mutual intervals characterizing the scale remain
unchanged. It is as though the whole scale with its characteristic
construction as regards tone differences were moved along. Accordingly,
as our plate shows, under the figure of the two octaves there is another
figure. This latter is a movable piece of cardboard which shows the
construction of the octave in black and white. This movable card is
fastened to the large chart by a ribbon. Supposing now we slide this
movable piece, as indicated in the figure, to the level of _mi_. The
intervals between the tones of the _mi_ scale are the same as in all the
other scales. In other words, they remain as indicated on the small
movable card. It is necessary, accordingly, to strike on the grand scale
the notes corresponding to the white spaces of the movable slip: viz.,
_mi_, _fa_ diesis, _sol_ diesis, _la_, _si_, _do_ diesis, _re_ diesis.
This process may be repeated by sliding the movable card to all the
notes in succession. In this way all the scales are gradually
constructed. This becomes an interesting theoretical exercise, since the
child discovers that he is able to build _all possible scales_ by
himself.
[Illustration: The monocord. In the first instrument the notes are
indicated by frets. On the monocord in the foreground the child places
the frets as he discovers the notes by drawing the bow across the
string.]
[Illustration: Material for indicating the intervals of the major scale
and its transposition from one key to another.]
We have, however, for this purpose a real musical material, as appears
from our design. Here on a wooden form like that used for the bells, but
two octaves instead of one octave long, we have arranged prisms of equal
dimensions but painted black and white according to the tones they
represent. Each prism shows a rectangular plate exposed to view. The
plates are identical in appearance on all the prisms. They are, however,
really of different lengths according to the different prisms. When
these plates are struck, they give the notes of two octaves, the prisms
acting as sounding boards. The sounds are soft and mellow and unusually
clear, so that we do not exaggerate in describing this mechanism as
really a musical instrument (resembling the Xylophone). In our design
each piece is arranged in its proper position in the _do major_ scale.
Since the intervals between the tones are the same for all the scales
without distinction, if the group of prisms is moved as a whole from
right to left, sliding along the wooden form, some of the prisms will
fall. The resulting effect is the same as that produced when the small
card was moved over the larger chart (see above). No matter how far
the group of prisms is moved, the scale can be obtained by striking all
the prisms corresponding to the white spaces on the wooden form.
[Illustration: The upper cut shows the music bars arranged for the scale
of C major. The lower cut shows the transposition of the scale,
preserving, however, the same intervals.]
For instance, let us take away the two first prisms, _do_ and _do
diesis_ on the left, and push the whole group of prisms from right to
left until _re_ reaches the point formerly occupied by _do_. If, now, we
strike the plates which correspond to the notes of the major scale, we
obtain the major scale in _re_. On examining the notes which make up
this scale, we find: _re_, _mi_, _fa diesis_, _sol_, _la_, _si_, _do
diesis_, _re_.
This brief description will indicate how interesting this instrument is.
It contains in very simple form and expresses in a clear and delightful
way the fundamental principles of harmony. Its use can be made apparent
to teachers by the three following tables.
As the children derive in this way all the possible scales, they should
transfer them to their copy books, making use of all the symbols of
musical notation. The copying of the scales should be developed
progressively: first the scale with one _diesis_, next the scale with
two, then the one with three _dieses_, etc. Fine opportunities for
observation are here offered. A child may see for instance that a scale
with two _dieses_ has the same _diesis_ which appeared in the preceding
scale; a scale with three _dieses_ has the two _dieses_ of the preceding
scales, and so on. The _dieses_ recur at intervals of five notes.
Since in using the first material, by changing the third and sixth bell,
the child was taught to recognize the harmonic minor scale, to construct
it and listen to it, it is now an obviously simple matter for him to
make up all the minor scales.
We have thus developed exercises which prepare for the recognition of
the major and minor tones as well as for the recognition of the
different tones. It also becomes an easy matter to play a simple _motif_
in different keys. It is sufficient to move the series of plates, as has
been indicated, and play them over according to the indications of the
white and black spaces of the wooden form.
With all the plates in position.
[Illustration]
With two plates removed. Scale of D.
[Illustration]
With four plates removed. Scale of E.
[Illustration]
With five plates removed. Scale of F.
[Illustration]
With seven plates removed. Scale of G.
[Illustration]
With nine plates removed. Scale of A.
[Illustration]
With eleven plates removed. Scale of B.
[Illustration]
Scale of C[flat].
[Illustration]
With one plate removed. Scale of D[flat].
[Illustration]
Scale of C[sharp].
[Illustration]
With three plates removed. Scale of E[flat].
[Illustration]
With six plates removed. Scale of G[flat].
[Illustration]
Scale of F[sharp].
[Illustration]
With eight plates removed. Scale of A[flat].
[Illustration]
With ten plates removed. Scale of B[flat].
[Illustration]
Here is a specimen of key transposition:
[Illustration]
At this point children usually develop great keenness for producing
sounds and scales on all kinds of instruments (stringed instruments,
wind instruments, etc.)
One of the instruments which brings the child to producing and
recognizing notes is the _monochord_. It is a simple, resonant box with
one string. The first
Scale of C.
[Illustration]
Scale with sharps. Scale with flats.
[Illustration]
exercise is in tuning. The string is made to correspond with one of the
resonant prisms (_do_). This is made possible by a key with which the
string can be loosened or tightened. The child may now be taught to
handle the violin bow or mandolin plectrum, or he may be instructed in
the finger thrumming used for the harp or banjo. On one of our
monochords, the notes are indicated by fixed transversal frets, the name
of each note being printed in the proper space. These notes are,
however, not written on the other monochord, where the child must learn
to discover by ear the proper distances at which the notes are
produced. In this case the child has at his disposal movable frets with
which he can indicate the points he has discovered as producing a given
note. These frets should be left in position by the child to serve as a
check on his work. The children have shown considerable interest also in
little pitchpipes, which give very pleasing tones.
. . . . . . . .
Thus in composing the scales and in listening to them the child performs
real exercises in musical education. A given melody in the major scale
is repeated in various keys. In listening to it carefully, in repeating
it, in observing the notes which make it up, the child has an exercise
similar to the audition of the note, but an exercise of a far more
advanced character.
C Pitch.
[Illustration]
D Pitch.
[Illustration]
E Pitch.
[Illustration]
F Pitch.
[Illustration]
This exercise is to be the starting point for _understanding_ melody. To
make the hearing of music an intelligent act and not like the mechanical
process which appears when children read, in loud monotone, books which
they cannot understand and of the meaning of which they have no idea,
preparatory exercises are required. We get this preparation through
various exercises in the audition of various scales for the recognition
of key, and in exercises on the interpretation of rhythm.
IV
EXERCISES IN RHYTHM
One of our most successful exercises has proved to be that originally
conceived as a help in teaching children to walk, viz., "walking the
line." It will be remembered that among the exercises in motor education
used at the outset of our method, appeared that of walking with one foot
in front of the other on a line drawn on the floor, much as do
tight-rope-walking acrobats. The purpose of this exercise was to
stabilize equilibrium, to teach erect carriage and to make movement
freer and more certain.
Miss Maccheroni began her exercises in rhythm by accompanying this
walking of the children with piano music. In fact, the sound of the
piano came to be the call signal for the children to take up this
exercise. The teacher starts to play and immediately the children come
of their own accord, and almost without exception, to take up their
positions on the line. At the very beginning the music seems to be
purely a signal, at best a pleasant accompaniment to the motor exercise.
There is no apparent adaptation of the child's movements to the musical
rhythm. However, as the same measure is repeated for a considerable
period, the rudiments of this adaptation begin to appear. One of the
children begins to keep step with the rhythm of the music. Individual
differences in adaptation persist for some time; but if the same musical
rhythm is kept up, almost all the children finally become sensible to
it. In fact, these little people begin to develop general attitudes of
body, in relation to the music, which are of the greatest interest.
First of all, the children change their gait according to the music: the
light walk, the war-like march, the run, develop on the impulse of the
rhythmic movement. It is not that the teacher "teaches" the child to
change his walk according to the music: the phenomenon arises of its own
accord. The child begins to interpret the rhythm by moving in harmony
with it. But to obtain this result the teacher must play perfectly,
carefully noting all the details of musical punctuation. The creation of
musical feeling in the children depends upon the teacher's own feeling
and the rigorous accuracy of her own execution.
It will be useful to give here a few details on the execution of these
first rhythmic exercises. The children begin, as we have said, by
learning to walk on the line. They develop a passion for walking on that
line, yielding to a fascination which grown-up people cannot conceive.
They seem to put their whole souls into it. This is the moment for the
teacher to sit down at the piano and without saying anything to play the
first melody in our series. The children smile, they look at the piano
and continue to walk, becoming more and more concentrated on what they
are doing. The melody acts as a persuading voice; the children begin to
consider the time of the music and little by little their tiny feet
begin to strike the line in step with it. Some of our three-year-olders
begin to keep step as early as the first or second trial. After a very
few attempts a whole class of forty children will be walking in time. We
must warn against the error of playing with special emphasis on the
measure; in other words, of striking more loudly than is required the
note (thesis) which marks the inception of the rhythmic period. The
teacher should be careful simply to bring out all the expression that
the melody requires. She may be sure that the rhythmic cadence will
become apparent from the tune itself. The playing of one note more
loudly than the others, thus to emphasize the rhythmic accent (thesis),
is to deprive the selection of all its value as melody and therefore of
its power to cause the motory action corresponding to rhythm. It is
necessary to play accurately and with feeling, giving an interpretation
as real as possible. We get thus a "musical time" which, as every one
knows, is not the "mechanical time" of the metronome. If it is certainly
absurd to play a _Nocturne_ of Chopin on the metronome, it is hardly
less absurd and certainly quite as disagreeable to play a piece of dance
music on that instrument. Even those people who have a great aptitude
for feeling "time" and who play with special attention to exactness of
measure, know that they cannot follow the metronome without positive
discomfort. Children feel the rhythm of a piece of music if it is played
with _musical feeling_; and not only do they follow the time with their
footsteps, but, as the rhythmic periods vary, they adapt the whole
attitude of their bodies to the melodic period, which is developed
around the beats constituting the rhythm as around points of support.
There is a vast difference between this exercise and that of having
children march to the clapping of hands or to the time of _one_, _two_,
_three_, etc., counted in a tone of command.
A child of ten years was dancing to the music of a Chopin waltz played
with most generous concessions to the different colorations indicated in
the text. She put into her movements a certain fullness of swing, to
bring out the effect which a marked _rallentando_ gives the notes. Of
course this method of dancing demands on the part of the children a
perfect and intimate identification of spirit with the music; but this
is something which children, even when they are small, possess in a very
special way, and which they develop in their long and uninterrupted
walks on the line to the sounds of a tune often repeated. It is curious
to see them assume a demeanor entirely in harmony with the expression of
the music they are following. A little boy of three, during the playing
of our first melody, held the palms of his hands turned parallel with
the floor and as he walked he bent his knees slightly with each step. On
passing from our first to our second tunes, he changed not only the
rapidity of his footsteps, but the attitude of his whole body.
Considered as something external this may be of slight importance, but
considered as evidence of a mental state, the change in demeanor bears
witness to a distinct artistic experience. The composer of the tune
could well be proud of such a sincere response to his work, if the test
of musical beauty be regarded as successful communication of feeling.
Our second tune is a rapid _andante_ somewhat _staccato_. The first was
slow and blending (_legato_). The children feel the _legato_, answering
it with very reserved movements. The _staccato_ lifts them from the
floor. The _crescendo_ makes them hurry and stamp their feet. The
_forte_ sometimes brings them to clap their hands, while _calando_
restores them to the silent march, which turns, during the _piano_, to
perfect silence. The completion of the musical period brings them to a
halt and they stand there expectant until it is taken up again; or if it
be the end of the whole tune, they suddenly stop.
Beppino, a little boy of three, used to keep time with the extended
forefinger of his right hand. The music was a song in two parts repeated
alternately, the one in _legato_ and the other in _staccato_; with the
_legato_ he used a uniform regular movement; he followed the _staccato_
with sudden spasmodic beats.
To-day forty children may be seen walking as softly as possible during a
tune played _pianissimo_. These same children on the day when they first
heard the _piano_ kept calling to the teacher "play louder; we can't
hear" and yet at that time the teacher was playing not _pianissimo_, but
_mezzo forte_!
At first the children interested in the first tune are deaf to any
other. The children in the St. Barnaba School in Milan got in step with
the first tune. They did not notice that the teacher had changed to the
second and kept their step so well that when the first tune was resumed,
the teacher found them in perfect time, while on the faces of the
children appeared a smile of recognition, as it were, of an old friend.
If the teacher is sufficiently cautious, she can discover without
disturbing the children the moment when they have caught a new tune; and
even if only a few succeed in following both of the first two melodies,
the teacher can satisfy these few by alternating the tunes. This does
not disturb the others who come, little by little, to notice the change
in the music and to fall in with the new movement. In a public
kindergarten at Perugia an attempt of this nature was made without
warning by a lady, who, being a visitor, felt free to take this liberty.
The children were invited into the large hall and left to themselves
while the lady was playing on the piano our third melody, a march. The
older children caught the movement at once. After they had been
marching for some time a _galop_ was played. Some hesitation appeared in
a few pupils while others apparently were not aware of the change in the
music. Suddenly two or three began to run, as though swept away by the
rhythmic wave, as though borne along by the music. They hardly seemed to
touch that floor to which, but a few moments previously, the march
seemed to have glued them at every step! A portion of the children in
this class had taken seats in the sloping auditorium around the room.
They were the youngest children; and when the victorious charge broke
out to the tune of the _galop_, they began to clap their hands
enthusiastically. Some of the teachers felt alarmed, but certainly the
spectacle was an inspiring one.
It follows that if we are to _tell_ the children to "hop," "run," or
"march," there is no use in our giving them music. We must take our
choice: either _music_ or _commands_. Even in our reading lessons with
the slips, we do not tell the child the word that he must read. We must
do without commands, without false accentuation of notes, without
enforced positions. Music, if it be in reality an expressive language,
suggests everything to children if they are left to themselves. Rhythmic
interpretation of the musical thought is expressed by the attitude and
movement of body and spirit.
Nannina, a girl four years old, would gracefully spread her skirt, and
relax her arms along her body. She would bend her knees slightly, throw
her head back and turning her pretty little face to one side, smile at
those behind her as though extending her amiability in all directions.
Beppino, four and a half years old, stood with his feet together
motionless at the center of the ellipse drawn on the floor, on which the
children were walking. He beat the time of the first tune with an
outstretched arm, bowing from the waist in perfectly correct form at
every measure. The time consumed in this bow of Beppino exactly filled
the interval between one _thesis_ and the next and was in perfect accord
with the movement of the tune.
Nannina, the same pretty girl we mentioned above, always grew stiff when
a military march was played; she would frown and walk heavily.
On the other hand, the intervention of the teacher to give some apposite
lesson, tending to perfect certain movements, is something which gives
the children extraordinary delight. Five of our little girls embraced
each other rapturously and smothered the teacher with kisses when they
had learned a few new movements of a rhythmic dance.
Otello, Vincenzino and Teresa had been taught to get a better effect
from their tambourines, their steps and gestures. Each of them thanked
the teacher for the profitable lesson in a special way. Vincenzino gave
her a beaming smile whenever he marched past her; Teresa would furtively
touch her with her hand; Otello was even more demonstrative--as he went
by her he would leave the line, run to her and embrace her for a second
or two.
If the spontaneity of every child has been respected; if, in other
words, every child has been able to grow in his or her own way,
listening to the tunes, following them with the footsteps and with free
movements--interpreting them; if each child has been able to penetrate,
without being disturbed by any one, into the heart of the beautiful fact
which the understanding of music constitutes; then it is easy for the
teacher who has forty children (between three and five and a half years
of age) only one assistant, and preferably perhaps a whole apartment
instead of a closed room, to sit down at the piano and teach eight
children a long and intricate dance,--the lanciers in five parts. And
then just like the orchestra leader who has prepared his pupils, the
teacher with a minimum of effort gets the very effect in dancing, etc.,
which teachers generally are so anxious to obtain. Then we can get
marches, counter marches, simultaneous movements, alternate movements,
interweaving lines,--anything in fact, that we wish, and with perfect
accuracy besides; since every movement in the children corresponds
exactly with the development of the tune.
For instance, the children are marching two by two, holding each other's
hand, during the playing of a short tune. At the end of this melody they
slowly kneel, but in such a way that on the sound of the last note they
are touching the floor very gently with their knees. There is something
sweet about the accuracy and the perfect simultaneousness attained by
the children, under the guidance of the tune. The effect of these
exercises on them is to bring repose to their whole body and a sense of
peace to their little souls.
On one occasion in a school just opened in Milan, 1908, the children
re-acted to the piano by jumping about in confusion, waving their arms,
moving their shoulders and legs. This was really an attempt to represent
by a sort of chaos the complexity of the rhythmic movements they were
hearing. They were actually making, without any assistance from others,
a spontaneous attempt at musical interpretation. They soon grew tired of
this, saying that "the thing was ugly." They had, however, divined the
possibilities of an orderly motory action; and when they had become
quiet again, they began to listen to the music with great interest
waiting for the revelation of its deep secret. Then suddenly they began
to walk again, this time regularly and according to the real measure.
One of the children, whose graph was somewhat as follows:
[Illustration]
(pauses, that is, on the line of quiescence, with frequent excursions
into the negative field), took no part in these rhythmic exercises. On
the contrary, he was always breaking them up by pushing the other
children out of line or making a noise. Finally, however, he did learn
not to disturb others; in other words, to stay _quiet_, something which
he had never known how to do before. It is a great conquest for a
disorderly child to gain the ability to become quite motionless, in a
gently placid state of mind. His next step was to learn to move
delicately, with respect for other people; and he came to have a certain
sensitiveness about his relations with his schoolmates. For example, he
used to blush when they smiled at him and even when he took no part in
what they were doing, he shared their activities with an affectionate
attention. From this point on Riziero (that was the child's name)
entered on a higher plane of existence--one of order, labor and
politeness.
The fact also that children at times listen to the music, while
remaining seated comfortably around the room, watching the other
children dance and march, is in itself a pretty thing. The children who
are seated become very self-controlled. They watch their schoolmates or
exchange a few words cautiously with each other. At times, even, they
let themselves go in interesting expressions of movement with their
arms. The manifestations of placidity and interest here seen cannot be
disjoined from a healthful, spiritual upbuilding--a beautiful
orderliness, which is being established within them. Obviously, a
wonderful harmony springs up between the teacher, who plays with
enthusiastic feeling and with all possible skill of hand and abundance
of spirit simply because she feels the musical phenomena around her in
the children, and the pupils who, little by little, are transformed
under this influence, and show an understanding of the music, which
becomes for them something more and more intimate, more and more
complete. It is no longer a question of the _step_, but of the position
of the whole body: arms, heads, chests _are moved_ by the music.
Finally, many of the children beat time with their hands, and interpret
correctly without ever having been taught distinctions between 3 and 4
time, etc. When a keen interest in "guessing" the time is awakened in
them, the children look about for various objects--wands, tambourines,
castagnettes, etc., and the class exercise is developed to perfection.
The child comes to be "possessed" by the music. He obeys the musical
command with his whole body and becomes more and more perfect in this
obedience shown by his muscles.
Here is a pretty story which will show to what extent children can feel
themselves dependent on the music which "makes them move." Once my
father went into a room where a little Parisian girl whom he was very
fond of was passionately marching to the rhythm of a tune played on the
piano. The child usually ran to meet the old gentleman; but that day the
moment she saw him she began to shout to Miss Maccheroni, who was
playing, "_Arrête, arrête!_" She wanted to go and shake hands with my
father, something she could not do as long as the music was continuing
to _command_ her to move with the rhythm. And in fact, it was not until
Miss Maccheroni stopped playing that the little girl was able to run and
deliver her greeting.
. . . . . . . .
We have prepared a series of tunes for this work and I think it will be
useful to give here three which we finally selected because they have
succeeded, whenever they were tried, in arousing in the children the
phenomena above described. There are eight movements chosen from
repeated over and over again and played with all possible accuracy, will
surely, sooner or later, be felt in every rhythm by the children.
The transition from following the time by ones (that is, one beat for
every rhythmic element) to the indication of simply the beginning of the
measure (that is, one beat on the _thesis_) appeared for the first time
in a "Children's House" directed by Miss Maccheroni. There, one morning
when the children were following the music with great pleasure, marching
about and beating on tambourines, it was a girl who first caught the
strong beat (_thesis_). A little boy behind her made the conquest a
second later; but while the little girl lost what she had gained almost
immediately, the little boy developed it to perfection. Shortly after
other children made the same progress, apparently as a saving of effort;
they began, that is, by beating once on every step. This required a
rapid movement and an endless succession of beats. All of a sudden they
began to beat on the first note of a measure.
[Illustration: The children using the music bells and wooden keyboards.
(_The Washington Montessori School, Washington, D. C._)]
Here, for instance, is a case of 4/4 time:
|_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _
| | | | | | | | | | | |
The children at first marked the time without regard to the measure,
thus:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
But the moment comes suddenly when they catch the measure: then they
beat it as follows:
| · · · | · · · | · · ·
In other words, their beats fall only on the first note at the measure.
Maria Louise, a little under four years of age, was walking to the sound
of a 2/4 march, played rather lightly. Suddenly she called to the
teacher: "_Regarde, regarde, comme je fais!_" She was making little
skips, gracefully raising her arms on the first beat of the measure. Her
invention was extraordinarily happy and graceful.
Usually in teaching the divisions of musical time, it has been the
custom to play _forte_ the time called theoretically _tempo forte_: in
other words, to strike hard on the first note of every rhythmic measure.
In fact, teachers of children or young people can often be heard playing
a tune with special emphasis on the first note of every measure and
playing the successive notes _pianissimo_. Naturally the motory action
corresponds to this: it will be tense for the strong beats and light for
the weak beats. But what value has all this in relation to the feeling
of the rhythmic measure? What is called theoretically _tempo forte_
has no relation to the meaning of the words "strong" and "weak" in their
ordinary sense. It is a question of _emphasis_ and _expression_, which
derive their nature from the laws of musical time and melodic
composition and certainly not from the wrist muscles of the person
playing. If this were not so, a person could play the first, second or
third note of a measure as _forte_, whereas, in reality, it is the first
that is always "strong."
[Illustration: Analyzing the beat of a measure while walking on a line.
(_A Montessori School in Italy._)]
In practise, children, to whom the six tunes we proposed for the
beginning of this study were played--and played always with rigorous
musical interpretation and with expressiveness--succeeded in recognizing
the first beat of the measure as "strong," and went on thus to divide
into measures some thirty pieces of music of varied rhythm. Even the
following year, after the summer vacation, they kept asking for new
pieces of music just for the "fun" of working out the measure in them.
They would stand at the side of the teacher at the piano and either with
their hands or with soft playing on the castagnettes or tambourines,
accompany their new piece of music. In general they would listen in
silence to the first measure and then fall in with their little beats
like any well-trained orchestra. They took the trouble no longer to
march to the music: they were interested in this new form of study;
while the smaller tots, delighted with the new music, were still walking
undisturbed along the elliptical line on the floor which was to guide
them to such great conquests!
The strong beat (_thesis_) is the key that opens to the higher laws of
music. Sometimes it is played, for reasons of expression, very softly
and always possesses the solemnity of the note which dominates the
rhythm. It may even be syncopated or lacking entirely, just as when the
orator on reaching his climax pronounces in a very low voice the phrase
which is to produce the great effect, or even pauses and is silent: this
sentence rings powerfully in the ears of those who listen.
The same error which leads to heavy stress, in playing, on the first
beat of every measure in order to attract the attention of the children
to it, also leads to suggesting secondary movements in addition to the
one which marks the _thesis_. The children, for instance, must make four
movements for a 4/4 time: movements in the air for the secondary beats,
and a more energetic movement for the _thesis_. The result is that
interest in the succession of movements replace attention to the fact of
most importance, which is _to feel_ the value of the first beat.
Children who feel the first note because it is played "strong" and who
proceed from one strong beat to the following strong beat guided by a
succession of movements, are not, it is obvious, following the tune. One
little girl who had been prepared by this method found herself, on
having mistaken the beat, constantly persisting in her mistake under the
guidance of her four movements. It is like presenting a cube or a
triangle to children of three years with the teacher enumerating the
sides, the angles, the apexes, etc. In reality the children do not get
any notion of the triangle or the cube.
Our children come ultimately to represent the secondary beats with the
slight movements, as follows:
|_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
and then they count them. When we have, gone thus far we reach the point
which is exactly the _point of departure_ for ordinary methods, namely,
counting _one! two! three! four!_ to keep step in time.
. . . . . . . .
As a practical application of the information already acquired in the
division of time into measures, we next pass to the exercise of playing
the scales in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 time and with the triplets. The scale,
the classic type of the melody, lends itself beautifully to these
interpretations of various measures. Every one must have passed hours at
the piano playing simple scales and finding a delicious variety in the
exercise. The _do_ scale itself may be played, for instance, thus:
[Illustration]
or thus:
[Illustration]
or thus:
[Illustration]
Our little piano may be of use in this exercise; but it is better first
to use an exercise more easy for finger movement and for the position of
the hand:
. . . . . . . .
Children who have succeeded in identifying and dividing the melody into
measures and the measure itself into 2, 3, 4, understand very easily
the time values of the notes. It is sufficient to let the child _hear_
each exercise _first_ and he will repeat it with precision. Thus all
kinds of dry explanation of musical _values_ disappear.
[Illustration]
The following notation
[Illustration]
presents no special difficulty if the child has once heard it.
Our next step is to use some exercises for the analysis of the measure,
for instance:
[Illustration]
The children follow these exercises, marching so as to put one step on
every note. Even children of four years when prepared with the preceding
exercises succeed in following these with the very greatest interest.
They are especially delighted with the long note which keeps them
hanging in position with one foot in front of them on the line and the
other one behind them also on the line. The position is that of a person
who stops before bringing up the foot which is still behind him.
Since the children already know how to _read_ music, there is hung up
before them a green chart (similar in dimensions to the musical staffs
already familiar to them) on which is written the exercise which is
being played at the piano by the teacher and which they execute on the
floor-line.
Examples:
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Here is another:
[Illustration]
We even give a simple time like this one (composed by Professor Jean
Gibert of the Montessori Primary School of Barcelona):
[Illustration]
Of course, sooner or later children fix their attention on the varying
form of the notes and discover that this difference in form bears a
relation to differences in time-value of the notes:
[Illustration]
This is the time to give in very brief explanation the lesson on the
value of the notes. Thereafter the child may write from memory a simple
melody which the teacher has first played on the piano. Almost always
the child writes this down with accuracy, showing that he has control
over the musical values appearing in the melody in question. The child
uses for this purpose a large green chart containing various musical
staffs on which movable notes may be fixed at pleasure. These notes are
equipped with a pin which may be pushed into the wood. The simple
exercises given for the analysis of the measures, transferred into
various keys, can after some practise in playing them on the system of
plates be put into their copy books by the children. These exercises for
measure-analysis are so simple that the children themselves have
sometimes learned to play them on the piano. It then has happened that
the class went of its own accord into the piano room; one child began to
play and the others followed the music on the floor-line. The children
as they walk ultimately come to sing the scales and the easy tunes (of
which they have recognized the notes) pronouncing the names of the
notes; but in so pronouncing them they soften, their voices to the point
of attaining an expression which may be called even artistic. When the
teacher plays, the music gains the added charm of harmony, since the
teacher can give not only the simple scale, but the relative chords, and
this gives the scale a vigorous and very sweet fullness.
These exercises in measure analysis have also been particularly useful
in their application to gymnastic exercises. The children follow them
with gymnastic movements, using especially the movements of Dalcroze,
which are admirably adapted to the measures of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, etc., and
which have a real beauty. We discovered that these exercises proved to
be complexly difficult for the children who had not practised
sufficiently in the interpretation of the different note values. On the
other hand, they were very easy for those who had come to have a clear
feeling for these different values. This was proof to us that sensorial
preparation must precede these exercises, and furthermore, that the only
difficulty Dalcroze movements encounter in children arises from
insufficient sensory preparation in the children themselves.
In the same way we illustrate the different details of of musical
writing: the dotted note,
[Illustration]
the triplet:
[Illustration]
the _legato_, the _staccato_, etc.
Here is an example of a _legato_ effect:
[Illustration: (Sonnambula. Quintet)]
This example which derives all its expressive value from the ties, also
brings out the value of the note:
[Illustration]
We need, accordingly, a collection of musical selections in which the
value of the notes is obvious and clear to such an extent that the
children come to recognize the different values. This recognition must
be obtained by ear through listening to the music, not by eye looking at
the symbols while the teacher explains.
The 1/4 note always has a different musical content from the 1/16 note.
A musical piece made up of the 16th or 32d notes has a character of its
own (joy or agitation); and a piece made up of half or whole notes has
likewise its peculiar character (religious, sad, impressive).
The same may be said of every musical symbol, the value of which is
brought out by the note being played with that value and in reference
to that symbol. It has been held that in playing for children and in
copying music for the use of children the expression-symbols should be
suppressed. We should observe that these signs of expression bear to the
music the relation that punctuation bears to the written sentence; their
suppression takes away all value from the notes. For example, the
_legato_ and symbols which indicate that difference ([image] and ·) have
therefore the greatest value.
The children succeed quite easily in using and reading the accessory
symbols of music. They already know their meaning through having heard
them. We have not found it necessary to use such signs as _sense
objects_, such as bars (to be placed on the wooden staff to divide
measure from measure), time fractions, parentheses and so on. Although
we had these manufactured, we ultimately abandoned them because we found
that they were simply in the way.
On the other hand, we found considerable utility in our large colored
cards with a single staff already described. On these are written
various measures which the children read with a special pleasure and
execute on their bells.
. . . . . . . .
With all this a way has been opened to a really musical education. Once
Miss Maccheroni, while executing her customary rhythmic tunes,
reproduced a melodious religious movement, "_O Sanctissima_," which the
children heard for the first time. The children all left the line and
gathered around the piano to listen. Two or three little girls kneeled
on the floor and others remained motionless executing plastic poses
with their arms. This revealed to us their sensitiveness to melody; they
felt moved not to march but to pray and assume various poses.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
We have not yet been able to push our experiments far enough precisely
to define the musical material adapted to children of various ages. We
have, however, made a very great number of successful attempts to bring
children to enjoy melody and sentimental expression in music. The
practicableness and utility of musical auditions, or, if you wish, of
concerts for children, graduated in difficulty, executed on various
instruments, but on one instrument at a time, are beyond all question;
this applies above all to songs reproduced by the human voice, when a
well-trained voice is available.
If a real artist should take up the task of analyzing for children the
language of music, bringing them to enjoy it phrase by phrase and under
different _timbres_ (voice, strings, etc.), his new and scientific
application of the art would be produced in the future from these groups
of little ones, so intelligent in music, who follow the most expressive
tunes with so much passion and in a silence more absolute than any
celebrated artist can dream of attaining in a meeting of adults! No one
among these little hearers is cold, far away in thought. But on the
faces of the children appears the interior working of a spirit, tasting
a nectar essential to its very live.
How many times a plastic pose, a kneeling posture, an ecstatic face,
will move the heart of the artist to a sense of joy greater than that
which any applause of a throng of people often indifferent or
inattentive, can possibly give him! Usually only those wounded at heart
by the difficulty of being understood by others, or discouraged by the
coldness or rudeness of other people, or oppressed by disillusion, or
filled with a sense of painful loneliness or need of expansion in some
other way, feel in music the voice which opens the doors of the heart
and causes a health-giving flood of tears or raises the spirit to a
lofty sense of peace. Only they can understand how necessary a companion
for humanity music is. We know, of course, to-day that music is an
indispensable stimulant for soldiers rushing forth to die. How much more
truly would it then become a stimulant for all who are to live!
This conviction is already in the hearts of many people. In fact,
attempts have already been made to reach the populace by concerts in the
public squares and by making concert halls accessible to people of every
class; but after all, do such attempts amount to more than putting the
cheap editions of the classics into circulation among illiterates?
Education is the prime requisite; without such education we have a
people of deaf mutes forever barred from any music. The ear of the
uneducated man cannot perceive the sublime sounds which music would
bring within his reach. That is why though the music of Bellini and
Wagner is being played in public squares, the saloons are just as full
as before.
If, however, from these pupils of ours a whole people could grow up, it
would be sufficient to go through the streets with a good piece of music
and everybody would come out to hear. All those places where the rough
and abandoned wrecks of humanity seek enjoyment, like homeless dogs
looking for food in our ash-cans, would be emptied as if by magic. We
would have an actual realization of the Allegory of Orpheus; for hearts
which are to-day of stone would then be stirred and brought to life by a
sublime melody.
SINGING
Singing began with the scale. The singing of a scale, first in
accompaniment with the bells and later with the piano is a first and
great delight to the children. They sing it in various ways, now in a
low voice, now very loud, now all together in unison, now one by one.
They sing divided into two groups, sharing the notes alternately between
them. Among the songs which we offer to the children, the greatest
favorite proved to be the syllabic Gregorian Chant. It is something like
a very perfect form of speech. It has a conversational intonation, the
softness of a sentence well pronounced, the full roundness of the
musical phrase. The examples given here have almost the movement of the
scale.
Many other verses of the Gregorian Chant have, like these, proved to be
the delight of the Montessori Elementary School of Barcelona. There the
children are especially keen about this very simple music which they
like to play on the piano, on their plates (Xylophones) or on their
monochords.
[Illustration: Music
Rorate Coeli de super et nubes pluant justum
Puer natus in Bethlehem, alleluia.
Unde gaudet Jerusalem
Alleluia Alleluia
In Cordis jubilo
Christum natum adoremus,
Cum novo Cantico.]
MUSICAL PHRASES FOR THE INITIAL RHYTHMIC EXERCISES
We give here in complete form the musical phrases used by us for the
first rhythmic exercises. They are adequate for giving the sensation of
rhythm and for suggesting the motory actions associated with the rhythm.
This musical material now forms in our schools part of the material
which is experimentally established.
_Works from which Selections are Taken_ _Motor Reactions Provoked_
1. "Ancora un bacio," mazurka, Bastianelli Slow walk.
2. "Si j'étais roi," Adolphe Adam Accelerated walk.
3. "Eagle March," Wagner March step.
4. "Galop," Strauss Run.
5. "Italian folk-song" Hop.
6. "Pas des patineurs" Sedate walk.
ANCORA UN BACIO
[Illustration: Music]
SI J'ÉTAIS ROI
[Illustration: Music]
EAGLE MARCH
[Illustration: Music]
GALOP
[Illustration: Music]
ITALIAN FOLK SONG
[Illustration: Music]
PAS DES PATINEURS
[Illustration: Music]
O SANCTISSIMA
[Illustration: Music]
V
MUSICAL AUDITIONS
The movement entitled "O Sanctissima," played by Miss Maccheroni one day
by chance among the rhythmic exercises, is regarded by us as an
introduction to _musical audition_. It will be recalled that the
children had been accustomed to alter their style of marching on the
floor-line according to changes in the music. It had never, however,
occurred to them to leave the line. When this piece was played they all
crowded around the piano, motionless, thoughtful, absorbed; while two or
three little ones fell to their knees and assumed various poses. This
experience suggested to us the idea of "musical auditions," if you wish
"concerts for children."
Children, little by little to be sure, but no less admirably, enter into
the spirit of music. After the numerous rhythmic exercises, as soon,
that is, as they have mastered the problem of measure, almost any
_sonata_ is within their reach. They can handle not isolated movements
merely, but whole pieces of music. The same is true of the auditions. At
first, of course, it is better to select simple phrases; but gradually
the children come to enjoy "the best music," joyfully recognizing the
feeling which it expresses and which inspired it. Our pupils used to
exclaim, for instance: "This piece is for weeping," "This is for
prayer," "Now we must laugh," "Now we must shout," etc.
We cannot, however, insist too strongly on the need for the greatest
possible care in the execution of the selections used. A child audience
is a very special one. It demands something more than is expected by the
average "intelligent audience." It is one in which musical intelligence
must be _developed_. Our object must be the creation not merely of
higher and higher grades of understanding but also of higher and higher
grades of _feeling_. In this sense, we can never _do too much_ for the
children. It is a task not beneath the dignity of the greatest
composers, the most accomplished technicians. Indeed, any one of such
might well esteem it a privilege some day to hear it said of his work
that it aroused the first love for music in the hearts of one of these
little ones. For thus music would have been made a companion, a
consoler, a guardian angel of man! It is of course not the lot of all of
us to attain the exalted position of greatness whether as artists or
technicians. We must content ourselves with assuming an obligation: with
_giving_ all the soul and all the skill we possess. We must conceive of
ourselves as transmitters of the largess of music to our children. We
must deeply feel our calling as bestowers of a divine gift.
The following titles were all used successfully by us in our
experiments. They are supplements to the "O Sanctissima" and a "Pater
Noster."
A. NARRATIVES.
_Trovatore:_ "Tacea la notte placida."
_Lucrezia Borgia:_ "Nella fatal di Rimini e memorabil guerra."
_Lucia di Lamermoor:_ "Regnava nel silenzio."
_Trovatore:_ "Racconto di Azucena."
_Sonnambula:_ "A fosco cielo, a notte bruna."
_Rigoletto:_ "Tutte le frese al tempio."
_Fra Diavolo:_ "Quell'uom dal fiero aspetto."
B. DESCRIPTION.
_Beethoven_: "Moonlight."
_Bohème_: "Nevica; qualcuno passa e parla" (Act II, prelude).
_Aida_, prelude as far as "Cieli azzurri."
_Aida_, "Marcia trionfale" (containing the motive of the scene to
which it belongs).
C. SENTIMENT AND PASSION:
_Gaiety:_
_Traviata_: "Libiam nei lieti celici."
_Sonnambula_: "In Elvezia non v'ha rosa fresca e bella al par
d'Alina."
_Traviata_: "Sempre libera deggi' io folleggiar."
_Faust_: Peasant song, "La vaga pupilla."
_Contentment:_
_Aida_: "Rivedrò le foreste imbalsamate."
_Passion:_
_Traviata_: "Amami Alfredo."
_Lucrezia Borgia_: "Era desso il figliuol mio."
_Anguish:_
_Lucrezia Borgia_: "Mio figlio, ridate a me il mio figlio."
" " "Infelice, il veleno bevesti."
_Threat:_
_Cavalleria Rusticana_: "Bada, Santuzza, schiavo non son."
_Allurement:_
_Barbiere di Siviglia_: "La calunnia è un venticello."
_Iris_: "La Piovra."
_Comic:_
_Barbiere di Siviglia_: "Pace e gioia sia con voi."
_Fra Diavolo_: "Grazie al ciel per una serva."
_Invitation:_
_Faust_: "Permetteresti a me."
_Bohème_: song of Rudolph, "Che gelida manina."
_Anger:_
_Sonnambula_: "Ah perchè non posso odiarti."
_Sorrow of sacrifice:_
_Bohème_: "Vecchia zimarra senti."
_Meditation:_
Mendelsohn: Romances.
Mozart.
Chopin.
D. FOLK SONGS AND DANCES.