Music As A Language

Music As A Language

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Music As A Language, by Ethel Home This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Music As A Language Lectures to Music Students
Author: Ethel Home
Release Date: July 6, 2005 [EBook #16225]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MUSIC AS A LANGUAGE
LECTURES TO MUSIC STUDENTS
BY
ETHEL HOME HEAD MISTRESS OF THE KENSINGTON HIGH SCHOOL G.P.D.S.T.
OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1916

PREFACE
The following lectures were delivered to music students between the years 1907 and 1915. They have been partly rewritten so as to be intelligible to a different audience, for in all cases the lectures were followed by a discussion in which various points not dealt with in the lectures were elucidated.
An experience of eight years in organizing a training course for students who wish to teach ear-training on modern lines to classes of average children in the ordinary curriculum of a school has shown me that the great need for such students is to realize the problems, not only of musical education, but of general education.
Owing to the nature of all art work the artist is too often inclined to see life in reference to his art alone. It is for this reason that he sometimes finds it difficult to fit in with the requirements of school life. He feels vaguely that his art matters so much more to the world than such things as grammar and geography; but when asked to give a reason for his faith, he is not always able to convince his hearers.
He feels with Ruskin that:
'The end of Art is as serious as that of other beautiful things--of the blue sky, and the green grass, and the clouds, and the dew. They are either useless, or they are of much deeper function than giving amusement.'
But he has not always the gift of words by means of which he can describe this function.
We want our artists, and their visions, and those of them who can realize a perspective in which their art takes its place with other educative forces are among the most valuable educators of the rising generation.
ETHEL HOME. KENSINGTON, _January, 1916._

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE TRAINING OF THE MUSIC TEACHER 9
II. THE ORGANIZATION OF MUSICAL WORK IN SCHOOLS 15
III. THE TEACHING OF VOICE PRODUCTION AND SONGS 20
IV. THE SOL-FA METHOD 26
V. FIRST LESSONS TO BEGINNERS IN EAR-TRAINING 31
VI. THE TEACHING OF SIGHT-SINGING 35
VII. THE TEACHING OF TIME AND RHYTHM 40
VIII. THE TEACHING OF DICTATION 43
IX. THE TEACHING OF EXTEMPORIZATION AND HARMONY 48
X. THE TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION 55
XI. THE TEACHING OF TRANSPOSITION 60
XII. GENERAL HINTS ON TAKING A LESSON IN EAR-TRAINING 65
XIII. THE TEACHING OF THE PIANO 70
XIV. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS ON LEAVING A TRAINING DEPARTMENT 79


CHAPTER I
THE TRAINING OF THE MUSIC TEACHER
Let us consider the case of a young girl who has finished her school education, and has supplemented this by a special course of technical work in music, which has ended in her taking a musical diploma. She now wishes to teach. What are the chief problems which she will have to face? She must first of all make up her mind whether she wishes to confine her work to the teaching of a solo instrument, together with some work in harmony or counterpoint, along orthodox lines, or whether she wishes to be in touch with modern methods of guiding the general musical education of children, as taken in some schools in the morning curriculum. If the latter, she must enter on a course of special training.
There is also a practical reason why many who wish to teach music at the present time are entering a training department. In a paper recently issued by the Teachers' Registration Council we find the following paragraph dealing with 'Conditions of Registration':
'The applicant must produce evidence satisfactory to the Council of having completed successfully a course of training in the principles and methods of teaching, accompanied by practice under supervision. The course must extend over a period of at least one academic year or its equivalent.'
Now, those who have studied the question of the teaching of music in accordance with modern methods have realized that music provides a _language,_ which should be used primarily for self-expression and intercourse with others. The whole of life depends on the expression of ourselves in relation to the community. 'Self-expression is a universal instinct, which can only be crushed by a course of systematic