MUSIC AND YOUTH
There is a distinctively musical period in life: the period of youth.
Youth is the age of emotional response and of social awakening, the age
of serious play, the age of decision and elimination, the dominant
learning period, and the age of freedom and leisure. Before this period
the life of the child has been relatively tranquil. After this period
the occupational affairs of life are more exacting. Before this period
most children participate in music in a routine way without professing
it. After this period large numbers of those who have had training or
have expressed their enthusiasms in rich participation in the musical
life cool off, as it were, and continue their musical activities in a
more or less perfunctory way, except for the few who have taken up the
art professionally or continue as enthusiastic amateurs.
YOUTH, THE AGE OF MUSIC
_The emotional age._ For the present purpose we may think of youth as
represented by the age of the teens, usually beginning in the high
school. It is a brief period of storm and stress, emotional awakening
and emotional struggles, in which the various emotional drives, more or
less latent before, assert themselves, often to cool off or to be
attenuated in later life. The older psychologists spoke of it as a
period of rebirth, the passing from the period of protected and directed
life into the emergence of a self-asserting personality. At the time of
this awakening, life is largely emotional; it is the period of ardent
love, of social awakening, of sports and play of all kinds, of fortes
and faults, of artistic efforts, of devotion to ideals, of awakening and
emergence of controlled imagination, of the development of the great
enthusiasms for life. Poetry, conversation, dancing, heroic stunts,
emotional adventures of all kinds have their fling. This emotional
tendency finds its expression in the language of emotion, of which music
is one.
_The age of serious play._ Youth is the age of serious play. Before this
period the child has spontaneously played much and hard enough, but now
youth enters into specialized sports, finds a play outlet in one or more
of the arts, and with the play attitude takes up serious roles in social
responsibilities. All these are comparatively new and are, therefore,
entered on with fresh enthusiasm. Emotion has a way of burning itself
up. Toward the end of the college course, youth, having had its fling,
feels fed up on sports and after that may not even sit on the bleachers
or the side lines. The same is true of many of the artistic outlets.
When youth comes of age, the ventures into poetry, music, dramatics, and
various other forms of art cool off for the majority. This loss of
interest is especially noticeable in the social activities, in which the
vocal arts, the dance, and other instruments of wooing play so large a
role. It should, however, be said that the better our education, home
life, and vocational activities are organized for right living, the less
is the break at the beginning of this period of youth, as well as at the
end.
_The age of decision and eliminations._ The persons exceptionally gifted
in music are precocious in that their artistic awakening comes earlier,
and yet the real assertion and the serious functioning of their musical
inspirations appear most characteristically and pass through their
crucial period in the teens, after which large numbers of those who have
gone through the fire of struggle for survival and mastery pass out of
the picture.
_The educational age._ Youth is the dominant educational period. Those
who in this period qualify for higher education can and should continue
their studies with organized effort and with confidence in success; but,
on account of the American popular demand for higher and higher
education, many of those who should be eliminated during this period
float on, ill-motivated, ill-directed, floundering through college or
professional education without regard to the worth-whileness of the
procedure. Unfortunately American education has not made adequate
provision for the diversifying of training, especially in the practical
outlets at this age.
This educational dominance of the period of the teens is particularly
true for music. Unfortunately, large numbers of youth naturally endowed
with the power of enjoying music have not even been discovered up to
this time, either by themselves or by others, and they may pass through
this last stage of opportunity without being discovered and often
without realizing what they are missing. At this age the prospective
musician will begin to try himself out, will discover the necessity for
untiring and well-directed work, will concentrate in the field of his
most natural musical outlet, and will work hard in the face of the
imminence of the decision as to success or failure in his own judgment,
in the judgment of his teachers, and in the judgment of his companions
and public. If successful here, he may continue his musical education in
specialization, since music is essentially a body of skills. At the same
time he may show a due regard for the necessity of a broadening
education under larger horizons. Fortunate are they who follow these
sound procedures.
However, many students overlook the fact that, if their music is to be
an avocation, it is to be pursued merely for the pleasure inherent in
it. They may struggle along simply because they have had initial
training in this field, but without adequate motivation or anticipation
of significant results. Achievement in music is an artistic performance,
and we should not add recklessly to the large group in society who feel
that their early efforts were wasted and who have to go through life
apologizing for their failure or mediocrity in the artistic sense. At
the same time we must bear in mind that satisfaction in musical
performance for the great majority of persons comes from the pursuit of
the cruder forms of music, especially singing. Group singing, ordinary
piano accompaniment for singing, dance music, and ragtime of all sorts
should not be discouraged in so far as they form a natural outlet for
those who pursue them. After all, "high-brow" music plays a very small
vital role even in high society.
Unfortunately, as in academic subjects, the real elimination of the
unfit is not accomplished effectively, and there are masses of music
students dribbling along with at best a low mediocrity as the
destination in sight. Since music, to be of service in later life, must
be either professional or eminently satisfying as an avocation after
advanced work in the subject, the necessity of making discriminating and
wise eliminations before a youth is of age cannot be stressed too
strongly. A wise selection and guidance at this stage should, however,
in no way discourage those who get a genuine satisfaction out of music
and are wisely motivated, especially for the keeping of an avocational
interest alive with a modest degree of attainment.
We must face the fact that most of those who are highly gifted in music
and are deeply devoted to it will not enter the profession of music and
may be engaged in such exacting occupations as to limit the time that
they can devote, avocationally, to their favorite art. Yet of all the
lovers of music, these are perhaps the ones who get the greatest
enjoyment out of music and contribute most happily to the musical life
of the community.
It is not sufficient to get children started in musical education. They
must also be motivated and given the outlets for self-expression which
tend to have lasting value in their lives. A drab picture is drawn by
comparing the number of those who, through high school, have had the
privilege of good training with the number of those in the best social
groups of our cities today who actually contribute, and take pleasure in
contributing, to the musical life of the community and to their own
personal moments of leisure. Here is a challenge to adult education: a
challenge to find and encourage self-expression in music in adult life.
Nevertheless, a strong argument can be made for musical education even
if it functions only during the period of adolescence.
_The age of leisure._ Youth is, in a sense, the age of leisure. We think
of a gentleman of leisure as a person who, by virtue of his being a
gentleman, is active in pursuits which are not necessary for the earning
of his bread and butter. If he is not active, he is not a gentleman. If
his activity does not add to a genuine enrichment of his own life and
the life of the community, he is not a gentleman. If he does not know
how to play, he is not a gentleman. The same ideas apply in principle to
the concept of a lady of leisure. The adolescent youth has many of the
characteristics and the opportunities of a gentleman of leisure. These
opportunities do not mean an easy life, but a life characterized
especially by the freedom to do just the things that he likes to do.
These opportunities include, for many happily adjusted personalities,
the development of the art of loafing: the substitution for mere
sitting, for mere gossiping, for mere eating and drinking, and for
degrading pastimes, an active life of restful, satisfying, wholesome
self-expression in the play attitude.
The high-school or beginning college student is not, as a rule, working
for a livelihood, is not held down to the specific demands of a trade, a
business, or a profession. He is in a period of preliminary skirmishes,
and the public school programs provide liberally for these. He may spend
his leisure time in the strenuous work of athletics or of any
intellectual, artistic, or social pursuit lying outside the demands of
the curriculum; he has time for such excursions.
One of the happiest ways of spending his leisure time may be in the
enthusiastic pursuit of musical activities. When he gets into college,
these opportunities are more restricted; when he gets into his job, they
are still more limited. Whatever the line of pursuit, these
extracurricular activities are indulged in as a form of play. Nobody,
however, can express in play all his intellectual, artistic, and social
dreams or urges. Therefore the gentleman of leisure in the high school
is forced to make a selection, and, in doing so, he rightly follows his
natural bent of mind. If he casts his lot with music, he will train
hard, and have the social satisfaction of supporting his musical group.
Music becomes a game, involving contests with defeats and victories. It
becomes a topic for conversation in social leisure. While the
high-school program and the junior-college program do not emphasize
rigorous technical training as a part of the academic curriculum, the
majority of students get their musical satisfaction from the way in
which they utilize their leisure for music. It is significant that at
this age the stress is not on the hearing of music but rather on
participation in musical performance. This period is the age of action,
perhaps the best type of preparation for the listening stage since it
follows the educational principle of learning by doing.
MUSIC FOR YOUTH
During the present century most extraordinary progress has been made in
the provision of musical facilities for youth by the recognition of
music as an academic subject, by the early and vital training in the
grades, by the development of group activities in voice and instrument
as a dominant extracurricular activity, by the motivation of training
through opportunities for public performance and contest, and by the
popularization of music through phonograph and radio.
Up to the end of the past century youth had had no significant
opportunities for music in the scheme of things. Music had to come
through the taking of private lessons, often a drudgery without regard
to likes or dislikes. The approach was purely technical. The mastery of
the scales, though technically significant, was not inspiring to the
emergent musical mind and did not reveal the vast vistas of opportunity
for self-expression in music. Music lessons were limited to those who
could afford to pay for them. Few people had heard any good music. It
had no significant status in the program of public education. Youth had
no chance. _Music for youth has been discovered in the past forty
years._
_Music, an academic subject._ When music gained recognition on a par
with the three R's in primary and elementary education, America entered
on a new era. National music organizations of teachers developed. These
began with the slogan, "Music for every child at public expense."
Realizing the futility of making every child musical, they modified this
slogan to, "Music at public expense for every child in proportion to his
natural ability." The market was flooded with educational music books
and systems. Time for musical training was set aside in the regular
curriculum of the schools. It was recognized that only a person who has
musical ability and training can teach music effectively. Scientific
principles from other subjects were adopted. Specialized training for
musical supervisors was provided in teachers' colleges. Teaching was
improved. Groups of children were segregated into vocal and instrumental
organizations, both for curricular and extracurricular activities.
Instruments were furnished at public expense. Credit for music gained
current coinage on a par with history and chemistry. The introduction of
principles of educational psychology led to selective admission and
elimination and gave the teachers a basis for the administration of
praise or blame in achievement. Few public school subjects can point to
a similar epoch-making stride. These achievements today give youth a
chance in music.
_Orientation in the grades._ For the musical life of youth at and soon
after the high-school age, the training in the grades was most
significant, and that, in turn, was rooted in a national awakening to
the possibilities and the responsibilities of music in the earliest
years in the home and the kindergarten. This awakening was strengthened
by the recognition given art in general. Music early became associated
with the speech arts, the dance, and other games. The development in the
graphic and the plastic arts, though slow, was somewhat parallel with
music for these early years. In the eight years in the grades there
developed a process of selective opportunities for the pursuit of music
so that freshmen entered the high school as a group fairly
differentiated on the basis of abilities, opportunities, likes and
dislikes, and ambitions for music.
This differentiation had a twofold effect on the high school: First, the
elimination of pupils who, on various legitimate grounds, did not
qualify for musical training at public expense at this stage and,
second, the beginning of specialization for those who had previously
found themselves or who at this stage made a happy decision. Thus the
development of music in the high school has followed logically on the
early development of music in the grades, and in like manner the
development of music at the college level is now beginning to follow the
development of music in the high school.
_Group activities in voice and instrument._ Youth is the age of learning
by doing. This principle has been implemented in high-school education
by the development of group activities, both in theoretical and in
practical music, both in the curricular and in the extracurricular
activities. Throughout, the emphasis has been on action. Instruments are
supplied at public expense; opportunities are given for participation in
programs of entertainment; and a stimulus has been climaxed by the
introduction of local, state, and national contests for groups and for
individuals.
The adoption of the principle of group instruction at this level has had
many significant advantages. It draws large numbers of pupils into group
activities for the social value of the activity in itself and for the
social value of participation in public life. It has lessened the cost
of musical education many times over by training ten or a hundred pupils
in a group as effectively, in many respects, as they could be trained by
individual instruction. Group instruction has, perhaps, been the
strongest leverage for the motivation of musical pursuits in the school.
It has increased the pursuit of individual instruction on the basis of
discovered needs, for example, in the mastery of a particular instrument
for participation in the band or orchestra or in the development of a
voice discovered in the group. The individual instruction has thus been
motivated and made to fit into particular niches in the musical groups
or in the choice of vocational pursuits in society.
_Contests._ The development of contests both in individual and in group
performance has had a profound effect on the development of music in
youth and is destined to serve in large part as a clearinghouse.
Educators recognize many drawbacks in the plan of contests. Preparation
for the contests requires excessive time and highly trained teachers. A
contest becomes an occasion for the revelation and the objectifying of
differences in individuals and groups. It involves some little expense.
It tends to discourage the pupils who cannot qualify.
But let us look at the other side. In the state of Iowa, for example,
the state-wide contests, which have been conducted for about the past
ten years, have done far more than anything else to vitalize music
education in the high school. Four years ago I became acquainted with a
group of ten girls who came from a little town three hundred miles away.
They had not placed in the contest; they had had no chance. I supposed
that this contest would be the last that we should see of them, but the
next year they appeared in a body--happy and optimistic, in a fighting
mood--and won honors. I asked how they accounted for their success, and
they said, "When we got home and reported that we had had no chance in
the state contest, the commercial club of our town raised a purse and
employed a teacher to come into the high school and train us in music."
When the commercial club goes into its pockets in the interest of
putting music on the map in its community, music is beginning to
function in that community.
Nobody cares to tune a fiddle for four years; but, if he has the
opportunity to play a tune, he will gladly keep the fiddle tuned. This
fact has been shown on a large scale as a result of the contest plans.
Not only have the final local, district, and state contests become
goals, but every daily practice has gained an objective and is a topic
for social conversation. The contests have made each participant
critical of his own performance and the performance of the group and
have also made each ambitious for improvement. They have raised
standards of selection in musical material. They have resulted in the
giving of higher musical education to large numbers of gifted persons
whose talents would not otherwise have come to the serious attention of
parents or educational interests. The methods of judging these contests
have been greatly improved in the direction of offering encouragement
where encouragement is due without discouraging more modest attainments
where they are indicated.
Educators used to think that football was the only thing that would
arouse enthusiastic support in the field of avocational activities for
youth; but, as I have witnessed the attitude of high-school pupils in
training for musical contests, heard reports of the attitudes of the
parents and the backers, and watched the culmination of enthusiasm at
the annual contest, I can say that there can be, for youth, as
substantial enthusiasm in contests of music as there is in football. In
other words, the youth of the state have entered into music in the
spirit of play, with determination to train well, play hard, and win if
possible. Enthusiasms for a center of interest in public and in private
have been found in this music.
_The hearing of music._ Within the past forty years, also, America has
for the first time begun to hear music, good, bad, and indifferent. When
the first phonograph came to our city, the host at an evening reception
furnished music in a mysterious way. He had installed the phonograph in
a niche curtained off in the hallway so that the direction from which
the sound emerged was difficult to detect. He played three or four songs
by a male quartet, which were richly applauded by his audience on the
supposition that he had stationed a male quartet somewhere in the house.
Music had come into the social group in a mysterious way.
Throughout the foregoing discussion I have stressed musical performance
because action is the way of youth, the way of education, and the way of
any preparation for the listening mood and critical attitude. The
development of the opportunities for listening has, of course, been
unparalleled in the history of the world. The masses are given the
opportunity of hearing good music. Many have taken the attitude of
sneering at the music offered by phonograph and radio on the grounds of
quality of rendition and of choice of type; but it is safe to say that
what is offered is what people want, and there is some basis for saying
that to a great extent what people really want is what is good for them.
On the other hand, the furnishing of music at all levels has
unquestionably had the marked effect of raising the American level of
musical appreciation step by step. People can be educated to listen, and
in a marvelous way the radio has really taught people to listen. You
cannot learn to swim without going near the water. Radio has had the
effect of discouraging some persons from the development of musical
skills in performance, because they realize that what they can hear is
so superior to anything that they can do. On the other hand, radio has
stirred the musical interests of the masses into appreciation of the
possibilities of music at their respective levels and not only has made
them whistle the tunes but has encouraged them to participate in various
modes of performance. Listening to the "canned" music has certainly gone
far to develop the ability for listening to legitimate music on the
stage.
Some years ago I had the privilege of being the guest of the city of
Copenhagen for a week. Among the entertainments offered by the city was
a grand opera. The invitation came in the form of a large, beautifully
engraved card of marked distinction and good taste. Attached to it was
the actual ticket to one of the best seats in the house, and the price
printed on this ticket was, in American money, twenty-three cents. It
can be said almost literally that, when grand opera is played in
Copenhagen, people of all classes come out and tend to listen with
appreciation and more or less discrimination. The people have been
educated to hear music. It has been brought down to their level.
Therefore music functions in the social and home life of that city.
Music of a very high order furnishes the entertainment in the parks and
the public halls. That tradition is fast coming to this country, and the
effective training of our youth will do much to hasten the day.
THOUGHT REVIEW
General Principles
(1) The high-school age is the most significant period for the
development of an avocation.
(2) With the coming time for leisure, education for avocation is a
sound educational policy.
(3) It is fortunate that musical education at this age is elective.
(4) Education for musical taste must be gradual, not by leaps.
(5) Expansion of high-school music may advantageously be
extracurricular in large part.
(6) Music contests have greatly aided in the promotion of musical
education.
(7) The radio and the phonograph have in recent years been the most
effective media for the dissemination of musical information.
(8) It is quite natural and well that the fervor for music should cool
off for many at the end of the teens.
Questions to Consider
(1) Should the schools supply musical instruments at public expense?
(2) If so, what selective procedures and restrictions should be set
up?
(3) Is the author's conception of the characteristics of adolescence
generally accepted by educators?
(4) What are the evils of music contests?
(5) What are some of the unfavorable musical effects of the radio?
(6) What problems arise in connection with the change of voice in
boys?
(7) Should the high-school _a cappella_ choir exhibit the vibrato in
singing? (See the author's _The Vibrato in Voice and Instrument_,
University of Iowa Press.)
(8) How can high-school musicians render larger religious, social, and
patriotic services in the community?
Discuss These Situations
(1) Last fall (1939) I saw seventy-eight marching high-school bands
with over 6000 instruments in a two-mile parade on the morning
before a football game at the University of Oklahoma. Here was a
cross-section of the youth of the state, many of them Indians; all
in uniform in dancing march for musical display. Consider pro and
con the implications of this phenomenal outbreak of music from (a)
the musical, (b) the social, (c) the educational, and (d) the
economical points of view.
(2) There is a splendid tendency at present to integrate the school
with social life, community services, and part-time employment.
What features in such integration seem most promising for music?