Chapter X: Musical Education in America (1)

Early singing teachers and schools--Music societies in
colleges--Introduction of music in the public schools--The
Germanic influence--Conservatories--Musical courses in
colleges and universities; community music--Present state of
public school music--Municipal music.

There seems to be general agreement among students of American music that we are entering upon a national era. That we did not attain this stage long before has generally been laid to the inadequacy of our educational system in music. A less apparent yet more rational statement would be that our educational equipment, growing with the increasing culture of the people and adapting itself to their timely needs and developing comprehension, was the kind most desirable. A 'mugwump' was defined by General Horace Porter as 'a man educated beyond his ability.' Had a European system of musical education, however theoretically ideal, been imposed on young America when necessarily occupied with material problems, we might now be a nation of musical mugwumps, smugly satisfied with ourselves, and incapable of original achievement.

If it be granted, then, that musical culture is conditioned, in kind and degree, upon the character of the people concerned, then the colonization of our country becomes a subject of prime importance, affording, indeed, the best logical method, in conjunction with a general chronological order, for discussing the present subject.

The various colonies which were planted on our eastern shores developed by permeating in successive waves of immigration New York, northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and Michigan and Wisconsin; thence the lines became divergent, broadening through the trans-Mississippi plains until, emerging on the Pacific, they embrace the entire coast, from Seattle to Los Angeles. While the original spirit has been greatly tempered in the course of this progress, its distinctive character still remains--a pale tinge of Puritanism, as it were, which colors every expression of life, and which can be traced on the sociological map of the United States by a narrowing belt of ever-deepening hue, back to its undiluted source: the all-pervasive theocracy of colonial New England.

From the time when this religious influence began to reach beyond its original boundaries, it met and amalgamated, in a social though not sectarian sense, with Presbyterianism, a kindred spirit which, somewhat later than Puritanism, came to America, largely from Scotland, and took root in almost all the colonies from New York to the Carolinas. The 'blue laws' of Connecticut, so repressive of the graces of life, of love and laughter and music, found their counterpart in the Westminster Catechism, wherein the 'moral law,' that is, the regulation of social relations, is said to be 'summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments,' the first four of which are specifically religious.

Religion being the dominant factor in this stream of social influence which flowed through America, and the Bible standing as the chief and final authority on all matters of life, music, the ever-willing handmaid of every human institution asking her assistance, was naturally drafted into the exclusive service of the church. The first singing books were psalm books; the first singing schools were organized for the purpose of the instruction and training of church congregations and church choirs.

I

Private instruction in music was unknown for more than a century after the settlement of the country. In 1673 the British Commissioner for the Plantations reported that there were no 'musicians by trade' in the United States. Indeed, it was not until 1730 that an advertisement appears of a music teacher. In that year a newspaper in Charleston, S. C., printed a notice that John Salter was teaching music in a young ladies' boarding school conducted by his wife.

It is true that some of the psalm-books contained hints for singing, but these were either too obvious or too vague to be of practical value. Thus in the 1698 edition of the 'Bay Psalm-Book' (the work, first published in 1640, ran through seventy editions) there is this general direction: 'First, observe how many note-compass the tune is next the place of your first note, and how many notes above and below that, so as you may begin the tune of your first note, as the rest may be sung in the compass of your and the people's voices, without Squeaking above or Grumbling below.'

As we have seen (in Chapter II), the first books of psalmody pretending to be works of instruction were those of the Rev. John Tufts, of Newbury, Mass., published in 1712 and 1714, and that of the Rev. Thomas Walter, of Roxbury, Mass., published in 1721. Largely as a result of Tufts' and Walter's publications, singing schools to teach the reading of psalm-tunes by sight began to be established in New England, although not without strenuous opposition.

In 1723 the Rev. Thomas Symmes, of Bradford, Mass., published a 'joco-serious dialogue concerning regular singing,' which bore the title '_Utile Dulci_.' In this he presents and answers prevalent objections to singing by note, among which the following are significant of the ignorance, intolerance and pruriency of the 'unco guid' of that day:

'5. That it is _Quakerish_ and _Popish_, and introductive of _instrumental_ musick.

'6. That the names given to the notes are _bawdy_, yea _blasphemous_.'

The second stimulus to musical education in America was imparted by various American reprints of two English books on psalmody: W. Tansur's collection, 'The Royal Melody Complete,' published in 1754, and Aaron Williams' 'The New Universal Psalmodist,' published in 1763. The prevalent taste in England for musical rococo, such as florid and meaningless 'fuguing choruses,' was thus transplanted to the colonies, where it made a deep impression which was harder to remove and persisted longer than in the mother country.

The most conservative strain of English musical culture, that associated with the Anglican church, existed also in America, awaiting its turn to reign, when growth in general culture and artistic capacity should cause the people to tire of the ingratiating but inconsequential music which held sway. Its exponent was William Tuckey, an English musician of high training and culture, who came to New York in 1753 and made an earnest attempt to educate the colonial people in an appreciation of the best church music. His career as teacher as well as organist and composer has already been touched upon in these pages (see Chap. II). Tuckey called himself 'Professor of the Theory and Practice of Vocal Music,' and the part he played in the musical education of New York and Philadelphia fully justifies the assertion that he was the first teacher in America worthy of the title. His pupils became prominent in all movements of their respective cities for the elevation of not only sacred but secular music to the best standards of Europe.

Already there was the leaven of German influence working for the betterment of music in America. In 1741 Moravian Brethren in their community at Bethlehem, Pa., a little town which has retained to the present day the distinction of being a home of music of the highest order, had established singing schools. Ten years later they formed, in connection with these, an orchestra for the rendition of secular as well as sacred music. In the correspondence of the time, lovers of their country, men who, like Samuel Adams, of Boston, had begun to think nationally and who shortly afterward were to become patriots of the Revolution, put on record their gratification at this important contribution to American culture.

A taste for good music and a desire to inculcate it were also developing in Philadelphia and Baltimore, as shown by records of the time. In 1764 the vestry of St. Peter's and Christ Church in the prosperous city founded by William Penn extended a vote of thanks to two of its most cultured and public-spirited citizens, William Young and Francis Hopkinson (who was soon to achieve distinction as a poet and patriot of the Revolution), for instructing the children of the church in psalmody. In 1765, at St. Anne's Church, Baltimore, Hugh Maguire, probably the organist, established a singing school, for use in which he published 'a new version of the psalms, with all the tunes, both of particular and common measure.' He announced that he would teach singing at their homes to young ladies who played the spinet, his remuneration to be fifteen shillings a quarter and an entrance fee of one dollar.

Returning to New England, we find in William Billings, the 'great Yankee singing-master,' the most important musical influence of the time. The date of publication of his original compositions, 1770, marks an era in American music. By this time the old psalm-tunes in use, only four in number, were worn to death, and the new tunes, having been composed in the novel fuguing style of the English compositions, became instantly popular with the singing schools, which Billings was energetic in organizing and conducting. The most notable of these, that at Stoughton, Mass., is elsewhere described, as well as the general activities of Billings and other teachers of the same general school.

In the circle of musical development of which Philadelphia was the centre, Andrew Adgate of that city was the leading spirit. In 1784 he established an 'Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music' supported by subscription and governed by trustees. So fervent was Adgate in the cause of 'music for the people' that, as conductor of the institution, he organized 'public singings,' which became so popular that within a year the trustees, objecting to 'the indiscriminate assemblage' of the general public, restricted admission to subscribers. Adgate thereupon resigned his position and established a free school, 'Adgate's Institution for diffusing more generally the knowledge of vocal music.' It is significant of the public spirit of the 'cradle of independence' that he found a number of influential men willing to act as trustees of the new organization. The splendid institution which is now the University of Pennsylvania opened its doors to the new enterprise. Inviting requests to join these free classes, Adgate announced: 'The more there are who make this application and the sooner they make it, the more acceptable will it be to the trustees and the teacher.'

Adgate's Institution had a marked influence in Philadelphia in the development of musical appreciation, which is an essential precedent in any community of the practical cultivation of the art. Foreign music teachers after trying vainly in other places, such as New York, for something like remunerative recognition, finally found it in the city whose civic spirit had been broadened by Adgate to include artistic as well as material progress. Among these may be mentioned William Tuckey, already noted; the English musician, Rayner Taylor, who came to America in 1792; and Filippo Trajetta, a Venetian, the son of the noted composer Tomaso Trajetta. Filippo was trained by the best masters, notably Piccini; entering the revolutionary army of Italy, he was captured by the royalists, but, escaping, fled to America, arriving in Boston in 1799, where he taught singing. He toured through the South as a theatrical manager, and finally settled in Philadelphia, teaching and composing music ('Washington's Dead March' being his most popular composition) until his death at the age of seventy-eight in 1854. He published 'Rudiments of the Art of Singing' as a text-book for the 'American Conservatorio,' an institution established in Philadelphia by his pupil, Uri K. Hill; in this he advocated the Italian system of _solfeggio_ to supersede the 'defective sol-fa-ing' in universal use in America.

In New England, more particularly Boston, we find that the foreign influence was making itself felt in music through 'The Massachusetts Compiler,' a work which embodied something of the theory of music as given in the works of German, French, and English authorities. The introduction of this element was probably due to Hans Gram, the German organist at Brattle Church, Boston, who, with Oliver Holden and Samuel Holyoke, published the work in 1795. To Gottlieb Graupner, another German, was mainly due the foreign influence which caused Boston to become for half a century the leading city of the country in musical influence. The 'Philharmonic Society,' which was formed by Graupner and his associates in 1810, prepared the way for the Handel and Haydn Society, founded in 1815, which not only educated Boston and New England in musical appreciation, but had a formative influence on the taste of the entire country.

English talent conjoined at Boston with German in this educational work. Dr. G. J. Jackson, an English musician of the order of William Tuckey and Rayner Taylor--indeed, he was Taylor's schoolmate--had come to America in 1796, and taught music at Norfolk and Alexandria, Va., and Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In his northward progress he arrived in Boston in 1812, and became organist successively of the Brattle Street Church, King's Chapel, Trinity Church, and St. Paul's Church. He was the leading choirmaster of his day, teaching the English method of chanting, and was employed as music teacher by the first families. He published a book of chants, anthems, etc., and contributed original compositions to 'The Churchman's Choral Companion,' published in New York in 1808 by the Rev. William Smith. His friend Rayner Taylor was also represented in the collection.

II

A singing club, more social than serious in its purpose, had been formed at Harvard in 1786. In 1808 a novel institution, the 'Pierean Sodality,' was established at the college. This was a singing fraternity, the members of which were linked together by a common interest in music. The Sodality was the germ of the present Department of Music in Harvard University. Out of it there arose in 1837 the 'Harvard Musical Association,' composed of alumni of the college who had been members of the Sodality. The report of the committee on organization admirably described the fraternal function of music and stated the fashion in which this was to be realized by the new association:

'Nothing unites men more than music. It makes brothers of strangers; it makes the most diffident feel at home; the most shy and suspicious it renders frank and full of trust; it overflows the rocks of separation between us; it comes up like a full tide beneath us, and opens a free intercourse of hearts.

'We propose, then, to form an association which shall meet here annually on commencement day: if for nothing more, at least to exchange salutations and review recollections, and feel the common bond of music and old scenes....

'But the ultimate object proposed is the advancement of the cause of music, particularly in this university. We would have it regarded as an important object of attention within its walls, as something which sooner or later must hold its place in every liberal system of education; and that place not accidental or a stolen one, but formally recognized. We that love music feel that it is worthy of its professorship, as well as any other science.'

As we shall see later this high purpose was fulfilled in the establishment of a Department of Music in Harvard on an equal basis with the other departments. The association stated that one of its objects was to collect a musical library, and another to promote the production of great symphonies. This program was greatly extended in the course of the existence of the association; chamber concerts, hitherto unknown in Boston, were given in the winter under the leadership of such artists as Herwig and Hohnstock. These concerts led in 1849 to the organization of the Mendelssohn Quintet Club for the exclusive cultivation of chamber music. In 1852, with the moral backing of the association, J. S. Dwight, one of its leading spirits, established 'Dwight's Journal of Music,' a periodical of the highest aim and most authoritative character. Its publication ceased in 1881.

The 'Handel Society of Dartmouth College,' discussed in another connection, had a fate unworthy of its high character and sadly significant of the low state of musical appreciation in the smaller colleges of the times, and in the 'common people' from which class their students were chiefly drawn. It dwindled and died for lack of recruits. Pity it is that some loyal patron of the college had not provided for the perpetuation of the society, if only as a memorial of Dartmouth's chief glory, even surpassing that of having trained in some measure the classic rhetoric and Olympian accents of the greatest of American orators. Our democracy alone, unaided by college culture, produced Lincoln, in most minds the rival of Webster in perfect phrase and his superior in heart-moving utterance, if not in ear-entrancing tone. It has not yet brought forth the compeers of these in music, since education is required to supply the nurturing musical environment found abroad but hitherto lacking in American life. Had music been permanently established as a part of the curriculum of Dartmouth alone, not to speak of the other colleges, a few young men with a native taste for it would undoubtedly have been found in every class and these would have cherished and transmitted the sacred fire with increasing ardor until the inevitable time arrived when native genius would be kindled into immortal flame.

III

A new order of native-born music teachers, those who pursued European methods in their instruction, was now arising. The chief of this class was Lowell Mason. Mason was born at Medfield, Mass., and spent his youth and early manhood in Savannah, Ga., where he was engaged in business. A music-lover from early childhood, he carried to the South the psalmody of New England, but, becoming master of a church choir, he felt the inadequacy of existing collections of church music and, with the valuable assistance of a local music teacher, Mr. Abel, prepared a new one suited to his needs.

He came to Boston seeking a publisher and found it in the Handel and Haydn Society, which, in 1822, not only published the collection but gave the society's name to it. It met with great success, running through many editions. In 1826 its compiler delivered a series of lectures in Boston churches on church music which attracted such favorable attention that he was induced to make his home in the city. In time he became president of the Handel and Haydn Society, and, when the Boston Academy of Music was established, largely through his efforts, he was put in charge of it.

At this period began a movement to reform radically our entire system of school instruction, and the moment was propitious for the introduction of music in the public schools, a purpose upon which Mr. Mason had set his heart. In 1830 William C. Woodbridge delivered before the American Institute of Instruction in Boston an address on 'Vocal Music as a Branch of Common Education,' illustrated by Mason's pupils, in which the lecturer, recently returned from Europe, warmly advocated the cultivation of music as an essential element of American, as it was of foreign life. One sentence of his lecture is startling to us of the present generation in its inferential revelation of the primitive nature of juvenile instruction in the United States as late as 1830. Mr. Woodbridge, speaking of music being 'the property of the people' in Germany and Switzerland, heard in field and factory, and in gatherings for pleasure no less than in assemblies for worship, added: 'But we were touched to the heart when we heard its cheering animating strains issuing from the walls of a schoolroom.'

Mr. Woodbridge was an enthusiast over the Pestalozzian method as applied to instruction in music. He not only collected all the literature he could on the subject, but even translated the more important works and turned over the entire material to Mr. Mason. This wise teacher experimented first with the method before adopting it. The success of the trial made him an ardent supporter of the new system of instruction, which completely overthrew the old custom of starting the pupil off with a complete tune and correcting defects as these manifested themselves. The Pestalozzian method is truly the natural one, building up, instead of patching up. This will be seen by examining its principles:

1. To teach sounds before signs (have the pupil learn notes
orally first).

2. To lead the pupil to observe and execute differences in
sound, instead of explaining these to him, i. e., to make
him active instead of passive in learning.

3. To teach one thing at a time--rhythm, melody,
expression--instead of a selection embodying all these
elements.

4. To have the pupil master each step by practice before
passing to the next.

5. To explain principles after practice (the inductive
method).

6. Analysis and practice of articulation of speech in order
to use it in song.

To apply this revolutionary method to teaching music was the central purpose of the establishment of the Boston Academy of Music. It had a useful career during the fourteen years of its existence. Mr. Mason, like Mr. Adgate, of Philadelphia, believed in 'music for the people,' and his generosity in extending this without considering material profit kept the institution in constant need of funds until it gave up the struggle and closed its doors in 1847.

The Academy was more than a New England institution: it was a national one, in that music teachers in every part of the country wrote to it for guidance in their work. And it left behind it the finest of mmorials, the establishment in Boston, and, through Boston's example, all over the nation, of music in the public schools, not merely as a relief from other studies, but as a study itself. This innovation was made by the city fathers of Boston in 1837, after a trial of the propositions had proved successful. T. Kemper Davis, chairman of the school committee, made a long and learned report upon the subject which is a classic of its kind, and as such may be read with profit by teachers of music, particularly those in the public schools.[56]

Music in the public schools of New York had an independent origin. In 1835 Darius E. Jones experimented with the idea of forming singing classes in the schools and teaching them without compensation. The trial was successful, and the school board gave him permission to continue the work provided no expense was incurred and regular studies were not interfered with. Music in the New York schools was not effectively recognized by provision for compensation until 1853. T. B. Mason, the brother of Lowell Mason, introduced singing in the public schools of Cincinnati. Pittsburgh began such instruction in 1840. Nathaniel D. Gould, a music teacher and composer, claimed to have been the first to teach singing to children in a systematic method. From 1820 onward he organized such classes in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

The recognition by municipal authority of music as an essential element of education has been ratified in the fullest manner by national authority. Philander P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, addressing the National Education Association convened at St. Paul, in July, 1914, asserted that music is of more practical value than any subject of the usual curriculum, except reading and writing, and with these studies, and physical culture and arithmetic, forms the fundamentals in elementary education.

While in the later thirties colleges and universities were not prepared to grant music a place in the academic curriculum, they began to recognize it as an important element of culture, and to extend to it their patronage. In 1838 William Robyn, a professor in St. Louis University, formed, under the auspices of the institution, a musical society called the 'Philharmonic' for the performance of public concerts. These were well patronized.[57]

IV

The German immigration was in full force in the forties, cities such as St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee becoming the homes of great numbers of this music-loving people. In the broad sense of the term, they formed the greatest educational influence in music that the country had yet received. It is said that wherever two Germans settled in America they organized themselves into a _Sängerbund_. Tyrolese and Swiss singers and bell-ringers began to tour the country in 1840 and delighted Americans of every class--even now they are popular in the Chautauqua circles. However, when, lured by the success of the _jodlers_, really fine German bands, such as the Steiermarkers, Gungl's band, the Saxonia and Germania, came over in quest of American dollars, they met with consistent failure, and were forced to dissolve--to the great benefit of American musical education, for the individual members generally became teachers of instrumental music in the localities where they were stranded. It was only by playing dance music and popular airs that the bands met with any success whatsoever. Gungl (whose 'Railroad Galop,' an imitative composition, was the most popular in his répertoire) wrote home to a musical journal in Berlin that music 'lies still in the cradle here and nourishes herself on sugar-teats.'

The sentimental strain in German vocal music of the period made it more popular than German instrumental music, in that the American palate had been prepared for sentimentality by a saccharine sort of psalmody and secular music which was being sprinkled over the country by a second generation of Yankee music teachers of the Billings order. Elijah K. Prouty and Moses E. Cheney were leading representatives of this class. Prouty was a peddler, singing teacher, and piano tuner. Cheney was a leader of a church choir. In 1839 they organized and conducted a musical 'convention' at Montpelier, Vt., at which, with shrewd perception of popular interest in novelty and variety, they practised 'unusual tunes, anthems, male quartets, and duets and solos for both sexes.' For the secular music they used the 'Boston Glee Book and Social Choir,' compiled by George Kingsley. In order to attract the attendance of non-musical people, in the intervals between performances short debates were held between the local ministers, lawyers, and other prominent citizens.

In May, 1848, another musical convention was held in Chicago, which discussed the general question of musical education and the specific one of music in the public schools. Four years later William B. Bradbury led a similar but larger convention. At this convention the 'Alpine Glee Singer,' a compilation by Bradbury, was used for secular music, indicating the strong influence which the elementary sentimentality of German popular music exerted upon Americans. Sugared American psalmody, flavored with German sentimentality, and colored with a crudity of technique almost aboriginal produced that sort of musical candy which we know as the Sunday-school song. Bradbury was a pioneer in the composition and publication of such music, although, to do him justice, the especially deleterious coloring of the mixture was added by his successors, among whom Ira D. Sankey and P. P. Bliss may be mentioned as chief offenders. The collections of this school of musical composers must be reckoned by thousands in editions and millions in numbers of copies. Bradbury alone compiled more than fifty singing books, containing many of his own compositions. Of these collections 'The Jubilee,' published in 1857, sold 200,000 copies; 'Fresh Laurels' (1867), 1,200,000 copies; and a series known as the 'Golden Series,' 2,000,000 copies.

This flood of sentimentality, completely inundating the Sunday-school, poured into the public school, and almost swamped the ark of juvenile education in music which careful hands had just committed to that great stream of popular culture. When music became recognized as an essential element of education, it was inevitable that the only available juvenile songs, those of the Sunday-school, should be introduced in the public schools. Indeed, the singing of anything in the schools was preferable to the entire absence of song, and so this order of music, representing, as it did, the popular taste of the time, marks, although we are loath to say it, an important step forward.

Dr. Lowell Mason was the chief assistant at an event which marks an epoch in American musical education, namely, the birth of the normal musical institute from the so-called musical convention. This occurred in 1856 at North Reading, Mass., where an annual musical convention of the usual sort was converted into a school of a fortnight's duration for instructing its members, particularly teachers, in both musical theory and practice. The example was followed all over the country to the great benefit of musical pedagogy. Associated with Dr. Mason in this work of popularizing music was George F. Root, who journeyed over the country conducting conventions, lecturing, etc.[58]

V

During the second half of the nineteenth century the teaching of music passed in large measure from the hands of single, independent teachers into the direction of music masters associated in institutions for class instruction, which are generally known as conservatories, although this term in its European signification of a large, completely equipped and nationally endowed school of music is misleading. Indeed, the pretense seems to have been deliberate. Dr. Frank Damrosch, in an address on 'The American Conservatory,' before the Music Teachers' National Association at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1906, said:

'The so-called conservatory, college, or university of
music ... may be found in every American community.... It
is usually organized by an individual whose commercial
instincts are stronger than his musical conscience, and
who, banking on the dense ignorance of the average citizen
in matters of art, offers what seems to be a great bargain
in the acquisition of musical ability in one form or
another.... There are many such schools which seemingly
flourish by the glittering, if empty, promises which they
advertise. Some of them confer degrees; ... one of the first
musical doctor degrees conferred by the director of one of
these schools was on himself!'

While there are hundreds of conservatories of the class described by Dr. Damrosch scattered over the Union, a number of institutions are to be found which rank in thoroughness and comprehensiveness of instruction with the best European conservatories. These have been in every instance of slow growth, the most pretentious in chartered plans having made early and signal failures in the province of musical education, though some of them won success in other musical activities. A typical example of this order is the Academy of Music of New York, whose career is recorded in Chapter VI.

The earliest American conservatory worthy of its name is the Conservatory of Music of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, which was founded in 1857. Its chief contribution to American musical education has been the Peabody concerts, a series of eight performances having been given annually since 1865. From 1872 to 1898 Asger Hamerick, the Danish composer, was director. He organized an orchestra of fifty performers, which became, under his intelligent training, a highly efficient instrument for the rendition of the most advanced music. The programs of his concerts were formed of overtures, symphonies, concertos, suites, and vocal solos. He gave especial attention to works by American, English, and Scandinavian composers, performing for the first time in America many notable compositions, among them a number of his own. The good work of the Peabody concerts, attracting, as it has done, the respectful attention of foreign masters, should be a matter both of encouragement and pride to those who have the cause of American music at heart. It points the way to high attainment in our musical appreciation and notable achievement in native composition.

The year of 1867 is notable in American musical history for the establishment of five leading conservatories or musical colleges: the New England Conservatory in Boston; the Boston Conservatory; the Cincinnati Conservatory; the Oberlin Conservatory; and the Chicago Academy of Music, later known as the Chicago Musical College.

The New England Conservatory was founded by Eben Tourjée, whom Sir George Grove, in his 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians,' denominates the 'father of the conservatory or class system of instruction in America.' The nature of this system and its advantages have been well expressed by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who said: 'The class system has the advantage over the private instruction of the individual in that, by the participation of several in the same lessons and studies, a true feeling is awakened; and in that it promotes industry, spurs to emulation, and is a preservative from one-sidedness of education and taste.'

Dr. Tourjée, in 1851, at the age of seventeen, formed classes at his home, Fall River, Mass., for instruction in vocal and instrumental music. In 1859 he founded a musical institute at East Greenwich, where he greatly developed his method. In 1863 he visited Europe to gain information concerning the conduct of European conservatories, and upon the ideas thus secured he established the Providence Conservatory of Music, and in 1867 the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. For a time he conducted both schools, then devoted himself exclusively to the latter. From its beginning the Boston institution secured the best masters available and gave a maximum of musical instruction at a minimum of cost. It has sent forth over the country thousands of accomplished pianists, organists, and vocalists, and, what is even more pertinent to the present subject, music teachers, trained in Tourjée's methods. After the founder died (in 1890), Carl Faelten acted as director, until in 1897 he founded a school of his own for instruction in the piano. No school of its kind stands higher in America.

In 1897 George W. Chadwick, the professor of harmony, composition, and orchestration, was made director of the New England Conservatory. For several years Mr. Chadwick had conducted the annual musical festivals at Springfield and Worcester, Mass., and his special attention was thereby directed toward great orchestral and choral performances by the students, whose number was mounting into the thousands. By the generosity of patrons of the Conservatory, especially Eben D. Jordan, president of the trustees, a large building was erected in 1902, containing facilities for instruction superior even to those of European conservatories, and an auditorium, Jordan Hall, whose large size and fine acoustic properties render it one of the important concert halls of the country, use as such being frequently made of it by visiting artists, to the great advantage of the students as well as the general public. The instrumental equipment of the conservatory is large, the collection of organs, including the pipe organ in Jordan Hall, which is one of the largest in the world, being especially notable.

The conservatory possesses one of the best working musical libraries in the country, a unique feature being the choral library of the Boylston Club (founded 1872) and its successor, the Boston Singers, which contains many copies of manuscript treasures in European collections. This library was a gift to the conservatory by George L. Osgood. The Boston Public Library nearby contains the Allen A. Brown collection of musical books and manuscripts, which is excelled in America only by the Congressional Library at Washington. Accordingly, the pupils of the conservatory have at hand every facility for acquiring a musical education which the most ardent student could desire. It is not surprising that among its three thousand and more students every one of the forty-eight states of the Union is represented, as well as a dozen foreign countries, even distant Russia and Turkey.

The curriculum of the conservatory has been generally described by Frederick W. Colburn in 'The Musical Observer' for July, 1913. Mr. Colburn, after mentioning special features, such as the conservatory orchestra of seventy-five members, affording the training and routine indispensable to professional performers whose ranks it is annually supplying, says: 'While the new is studied, the fundamentals are not lost sight of. All the courses have been planned to avoid turning out narrow and one-sided specialists. The management realizes that the professional musician has need of very broad and very correct culture. The students listen to lectures on the history and theory of music from such authorities as Louis C. Elson and Wallace Goodrich. The modern languages and English diction are taught by experts, several of whom are authors of their own text-books. The pianoforte instruction follows approved methods; it shows much of the influence of the late Carl Baermann, one of the most eminent of the German musicians who have settled in this country. The vocal instruction is along the lines of the old Italian method which has formed the voices of most of the world's great singers. The teaching of the organ accords with the practice of the best German and French organists. In all departments there is present the idea of thoroughly grounding the student in the essentials of musical art and of avoiding easy, ready-made and get-culture-quick methods.'

The Boston Conservatory, second in the list of five founded in 1867, was organized by Julius Eichberg, a distinguished German violinist and composer, who had been, since 1859, director of the orchestra at the Boston Museum. This speedily won and long maintained a high reputation, particularly for instruction in the violin, on which subject Eichberg prepared a number of valuable text-books.

The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was founded by Clara Bauer, who still is active in its management, having charge of the home for the female pupils. This was the first conservatory in the country to establish a residence department--indeed, its group of buildings and park-like grounds give the conservatory a truly academic aspect possessed by few institutions of its kind that are situated in cities. Miss Bauer, however, recognized from the beginning that the all-important element of a conservatory was its teaching force. She secured representative talent in the various branches of music from the various European musical centres, thereby securing warm approbation of the institution from foreign musical artists and critics. The faculty now numbers sixty members; it contains artists notable for excellence in every branch of musical arts and pedagogy. General cultural studies, such as dramatic art, literature, and modern languages, are conducted with special application to their relation to music.

The Cincinnati Conservatory was the first to conduct a summer music school. The sessions have been uninterrupted since 1867. Attended largely by music teachers, they have greatly advanced the cause of musical education in the territory tributary to the city.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, at Oberlin, presents so many object lessons of musical pedagogy that it demands rather extended treatment here.

In the first place, the institution had a natural origin: it was formed to teach psalmody to a religious community and, in growing beyond this limited field by adding one musical feature after another as the developing taste of the people demanded, it typifies the history of music in the nation. Secondly, the conservatory has a proper environment. It was planted in a soil already enriched by culture, Oberlin being the seat of a college distinguished for progressive ideas and high ideals, the reaction of which upon musical work is always inspiring--indeed, is essential to the highest achievement. Thirdly, the Oberlin Conservatory has a proper organization. It is a social democracy and thereby calculated to produce that free and fraternal spirit which is the soul of art. Young men and women meet on equal terms and there are no distinctions among them based on wealth or nationality or even race, Oberlin having been the first college to include negroes among its students. Lastly, the conservatory has a sound program and is living up to this as well as could be expected in view of the pressure exerted on all 'schools of the people,' to supply immediate demands. It believes in constructive work, in learning by doing. Thus it regards a practical knowledge of the science of musical composition as necessary to an intelligent appreciation of musical masterpieces, and to this end has established a course in theory and composition which requires four years of hard study and assiduous practice. The class system of instruction is the one adopted as the chief method, it being supplemented by private instruction.

Dr. Florens Ziegfeld, a distinguished German pianist, still conducts (1915) the conservatory which he founded in Chicago--the last of the five started in 1867--under the name of the Chicago Academy of Music, and which is now called the Chicago Musical College. The institution was burned out in the great fire of 1871, but with indomitable courage Dr. Ziegfeld at once secured new quarters and continued his classes. The course of study was steadily enlarged until now it includes every department of music and the principal modern languages, the faculty being one of the strongest in the country, comparing favorably with those of European conservatories. By authority of the State of Illinois the college grants music teachers' certificates and confers musical degrees. The college is finely situated on Michigan Boulevard, overlooking Lake Michigan and Grant Park. It contains a concert hall seating 1,000. A student orchestra of seventy members is maintained, affording practical training in conducting and ensemble playing.

In 1871 a conservatory of music was established in Jacksonville, Ill., the seat of Illinois College. Its founder was Professor W. D. Sanders, a leading Western educator, and its first director was I. B. Poznanski, a violinist and composer who later became instructor at the Royal Conservatory, London. In 1903 the conservatory was merged with the college. The Cleveland Conservatory of Music was also founded in 1871. It adopted the European conservatory method of instruction.

In 1873 Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., became a co-educational institution and at once established a 'Conservatory of Music' that began, and for many years thereafter remained, on a low plane of instruction. The university authorities, in the manner of old-time monarchs, 'farmed out' to the director of the conservatory the privilege of running the business for a percentage of the receipts, and gave him a free hand and full responsibility. Naturally the conservatory was conducted in a way to produce the greatest immediate returns.

In 1891 Prof. P. C. Lutkin was put in charge of the conservatory. He insisted that the title be dropped and that the school be made a department of the university, directly under control of the university authorities; and that its director should receive a full professorship with a fixed salary, in order that educational ideals should not be compromised by financial considerations. These changes were authorized, and Professor Lutkin radically revised and extended the curriculum to make it conform to academic standards. By 1895 a four-years course was developed, to correspond with that of the Liberal Arts department. The 'Department of Music' then assumed the title of 'School of Music' and became a coördinate division of the university, like the School of Law, the School of Mines, etc., with its own dean and faculty. Its pupils, of course, retained all the opportunities for general culture afforded by the college of Liberal Arts.

In an address delivered before the Music Teachers' National Association at Oberlin in 1906, Professor Lutkin said: 'The exact point where general education should give way to the study of music is a much discussed one, and we will not stop to consider it here, except to say that we have placed it at the point of entrance-requirements in the College of Liberal Arts. The fact that the students are able to pursue advanced work in history of music, harmony, counterpoint, analysis, etc., is of itself a clear index as to their mental capacity, and places them, without doubt, upon a plane of mentality quite up to that required of college students.' The music department of the Northwestern University now ranks with the best conservatories in the country.

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Concerts have always formed the leading element in developing American appreciation of music. The enthusiasm created by the festivals conducted in Cincinnati by Theodore Thomas in the early seventies led directly to the establishment in 1878 of the Cincinnati College of Music by Miss Dora Nelson. The institution was planned along the lines of European conservatories, with a close relation to superior public performances in the city, the patrons of which were patrons of the college. With a fine faculty the institution has retained to the present the high reputation it won at the outset. Theodore Thomas was the first musical director of the school, and among his successors is Frank Van der Stucken.

Of the important Chicago schools of music the earliest was the Chicago Conservatory, established in 1884. Quite a typical institution is the American Conservatory of Chicago. It was founded in 1886 by its present head, President John J. Hattstaedt, with the assistance of several of Chicago's music-loving citizens. Its quarters were in Weber Hall Building, corner of Wabash Avenue and Jackson Street, which were retained for ten years, when the conservatory was removed to the adjoining building--Kimball Hall, where it still remains.

From a small institution it has grown to be one of America's largest schools of music, registering about 2,000 students annually. The faculty numbers seventy-five, and contains many teachers of national reputation. A modern and thorough curriculum includes all branches of instrumental and vocal music, theory and composition, dramatic art, expression, physical culture, and modern languages. Special features are: a complete and well-established Normal School, a student's orchestra, a musical bureau and a carefully arranged series of faculty and pupils' recitals.

In 1885 two conservatories, the American Institute of Applied Music and the National Conservatory of Music, were established in New York. Miss Kate S. Chittenden was the founder of the Institute, Mrs. Jeannette M. Thurber of the Conservatory. Both are flourishing to-day under control of the founders and with excellent faculties and ample musical facilities.

The National Conservatory, because of certain philanthropic features, is deserving of special mention as a type of institution which is not wholly commercial in its ends, and which has prepared the way for a type that is purely artistic in its purposes. It offers musical instruction to every applicant without regard to race, sex, or creed, the sole condition being that he shall give proof of a natural talent for music; this instruction it imparts without cost to those unable to pay.

The title of National Conservatory is formally justified by the fact that it was chartered in 1891 by a special act of Congress, the official home being designated as Washington. A far better claim to the title could be based on the facts that names of even more than national fame appear on the roll of its faculty from the beginning, when such musicians as Rafael Joseffy, Camilla Urso, and Victor Herbert were connected with the institution, down through Dvořák's brilliant régime to the present day.

The Conservatory at its outset secured experts in special lines of music as instructors. For three years (1892-95) Dr. Antonin Dvořák was its director. Under his management liberal prizes were awarded for original compositions, and the works, a symphony by Henry Schoenefeld, a piano concerto by Joshua Phillen, a suite for string orchestra by Frederick Bullard, and a cantata by Horatio W. Parker, were performed in public concert. Under the direction of the distinguished composer the National Conservatory orchestra became notable not only for artistic excellence, but, what pertains more to the present subject, for the superior training it afforded poor young men of talent, and the places this enabled them to obtain in leading American orchestras. This work, of course, did not cease with Dr. Dvořák's retirement.

An institution incorporating in a systematic and substantial way the public and philanthropic spirit which has called into existence so many of our conservatories and schools of music is the Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York. This is the model institution of its kind in America; and, as there is promise that its example will be followed in other cities of the Union, leading to the establishment of musical education on a high and uniform plane, it deserves special notice.

Recognizing that schools of music, inaugurated with fine ideals and a sound program to attain these, have almost without exception been forced by the need of funds to lower their standard and modify their curricula to suit the popular demand for easy and flashy courses, Dr. Frank Damrosch determined to found an institution wherein commercial considerations would not enter. In James Loeb, a New York banker, he found a patron of art in thorough sympathy with the project. By a fund of a half million dollars, given in memory of his mother, Betty Loeb, Mr. Loeb put the splendid idea into concrete form, and in 1905 established and endowed the Institute of Musical Art with Dr. Damrosch as its director.

The purpose of the Institute is to provide thorough and comprehensive courses in music, each of which is planned to include every study necessary for mastering a particular branch of music, and all of which taken together cover the whole art. The Institute is enabled to execute this plan inflexibly because it is independent of tuition fees, since the revenue from these is supplemented by the interest of the funds. Accordingly the fees have been fixed at moderate and uniform rates, while no expense is spared in securing the best talent available as a teaching and training force.

The roll of the faculty contains seventy-seven names. The faculty council which directs the policy of the Institute consists of the director and five other experts. Since operatic and concert managers agree that individual instruction and criticism cannot be too carefully given in the case of students intending to make the performance of music a profession, and, as this thorough system of education is equally beneficial to the amateur, it has been adopted by the Institute. Theoretical subjects are the only ones taught in class.

In addition to the direct personal teaching which the student receives, he is surrounded by artistic and educational influences calculated to broaden his general knowledge and culture and to improve his taste and discrimination. The discipline which is an essential principle of the Institute, and which is lacking in private instruction, where the pupil often demands and obtains relaxing modifications of the instructor's system to suit his inclinations, since he is paying for his education, is of the highest value in developing character. Students of an art which in its nature tends to overstimulate the emotional nature need a corrective cultivation of the powers of the intellect and the will which students of other subjects do not so much require, since, from their studies, intellectual development is acquired directly and, reason being the governor of the will, control of this great moral force is indirectly imparted.

Like the National Conservatory the Institute is open to students of both sexes, irrespective of creed or race. The only demand is that they give proof of general intelligence, musical ability and serious purpose. Every regular student is required to follow a prescribed course not only in the specific branch which he has selected, but, in order to provide a proper foundation for this, in the subject of music in general. The student begins the course at the stage for which his attainments and abilities have prepared him, as these are indicated by three tests: as to his general knowledge of music; as to his sense of musical hearing; as to his vocal or instrumental talent.

The departments of study are singing, piano, organ, stringed instruments, orchestra, public school music and theoretic course. The courses are divided into seven grades, the last four being post-graduate. The post-graduate diplomas are of two types, called teachers' and artists'. For the teachers' diploma two grades of pedagogy and advanced work in theory and technique are required; for the artists', either two or three grades in theory, technique, and ear training, according to the proficiency of the student, which is tested not only by work done in the Institute, but by a public recital before musicians not connected with the Institute. The work of the seventh grade in the artists' course is confined to the study of composition in the various forms of complete sonata, chamber music, vocal forms, overture and orchestration. A prize sufficient to provide for a year of European life and experience is given annually to that graduate in any of the artists' courses, or in composition, whom the faculty and trustees think most deserving of the award and distinction.

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The leading schools of music in Canada are the Toronto Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium of Music in McGill University at Montreal.

The Toronto Conservatory was founded by the late Dr. Fisher in 1886 and opened in 1887. In the thoroughness of its courses and the completeness of its equipment it ranks with the best conservatories in Europe. In 1897 it purchased its present centrally located site, in close proximity to the cluster of educational and public buildings, and began the erection of the structures which now form its commodious home. Its music hall is architecturally one of the finest edifices of the kind and its auditorium is acoustically one of the most satisfactory halls in Canada for chamber music and other recitals. It contains a three-manual concert organ which is a masterpiece of Canadian workmanship. The main hall is supplemented by smaller ones for lectures and recitals and by practice rooms equipped with two-manual organs. The musical equipment in general is ample and comprehensive, meeting the needs of the 2,500 pupils in attendance.

On the death of Dr. Fisher in 1913, Dr. A. S. Vogt, whose work as conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto is well known, and who had been for many years teacher of piano in the Conservatory, was advanced to the position of director. The faculty consists of 139 professors and instructors. It is almost exclusively British in composition, in striking contrast to the faculties of leading conservatories in the United States, on whose roll Continental European names abound, often to the point of a majority. However, many of the instructors have received their education at foreign conservatories.