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THE WESTERN AMERICAN
Advancing Americanization Through Music
Calling For a Higher Standard of Musical Understanding in America,
An Eminent Authority on Music Gives His Candid Opinion of the
Needs of Musical Education A mong the People of Our Country
p EOPLE who have become inter- because we give the public in general
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ested and, in a measure, have small opportunity for selecting one type
responded to the country’s call for of music over another. If you regu­
workers in the Americanization larly cause a man to be fed chocolate
you have no right to assume
movement, are all agreed that aclaires,
that he will not like roast beef, until
America’s wonderful blend of you give him a chance to exercise his
musical strains, that happily own judgment in the matter. This is
enough speak a universal lang­ exactly the case as regards popular
uage, may be made a potential music. Composers, publishers, perform­
factor in turning into uniformity ers, and, alas, many Community Ser­
every unit of our people, no mat­ vice workers assume that the public
ter where they come from, if will, in general, select that music which
is 'bad over that which is good, and in
means are developed to draw from this
they show a profound distrust in
these wellsprings of the human human
nature. The public, in other
heart the deeper emotions that are words, is the victim of the assumption
attached to these treasures brought that “this is what the people want,” and
from many distant shores.
the patient and uninquiring American,
An American educator, Dr. A. deceived into thinking that the music
T. Davison, speaking recently on we call “popular” is, after all, what he
the enabling influence of music, does want, concludes that “good” music
for the delectation of the few. And
before a large force of service is
this leads me to the first of my four
workers of an Eastern city, deliv­ fallacies: namely, that music to be
ered the following masterful re­ “good” must be “highbrow,”- compli­
view of music in America. So cated, difficult, hard to understand.
thoroughly has Dr. Davison cov­
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ered the subject that every Amer­
The truth is that the best music is
ican interested in cultivating the often the simplest, as in the case of folk
nobler qualities of our people songs, which rank among tjie best mu­
should be able to draw from his sic, and which are, besides, the actual
discussion of the subject a prac­ musical language of the people.
It is possible for anyone to enjoy
tical lesson, suggestive of personal
service, to make the people of nearly all kinds of music: only the
America sing, from the Atlantic “highbrow” wishes to do away en­
tirely with ragtime.
But the sad
to the Pacific, from the northern fact
is that practically the en­
to the southern boundary line.
tire musical knowledge of America is
The Boston Transcript origin­ confined to jazz, rag time and the sen­
ally published Dr. Davison’s ad­ timental ballad. Those who have learn­
dress, but as Western Americans ed by experience the real value of good
are as much in need of corrected music can always turn to it as a per­
musical vision and understanding manent and ever-satisfying experi­
as the Americans of the Eastern ence, to which lighter music but Serves
shores of our broad land, we deem an agreeable contrast; whereas, the
majority of the public unac­
it in the interest of America’s great
quainted with the good, unhesitatingly
musical progress to give space in accepts as its musical birthright, the
this magazine for Dr. Davison’s cheap, the vulgar and the vapid. Most
discourse on music.
of this experience, too, is second-hand,
HAVE been asked to speak on “some
popular misconceptions of popular
music,” and of the many commdn fal­
lacies which group themselves about
the music of the people, I have selected
four for your consideration. But first,
after the philosophical manner, Jet me
define my terms. What do I mean by
the word “popular?” Certainly I do
not mean “generally preferred,” as in
the sense of a “popular” man: by “pop­
ular” I mean “generally accepted,” just
as prohibition, though not, perhaps, gen­
erally preferred, is, perforce, generally
accepted. It is indeed difficult to un­
derstand why we should assume that
what we call “popular” music is the
deliberate choice of the people at large
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for in the actual making of music the
public has small part. Winding the
gramophone or pumping the pianola
are first of all types of physical exer­
cise and?-are~slight indications of inate
musicalness. Unless , you sing, ar make
music of one kind or another, and do
it spontaneously, you are not really
musical. This, then, brings me to the
second fallacy, the belief that America
is a musical nation.
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Merely because a great deal of music
goes on in America, we have no right
to assume that she is a musical nation.
When our people sing naturally and
wholeheartedly, and take enjoyment in
it, America will be a musical nation.
I have no hesitation in saying that I
October, 1922
believe a large measure of the blame
for the present musical conditions in
this country should be laid to the mis­
management of music in the public
schools. It is futile to insist upon a
pedagogical programme for American
schools suitable for countries like Eng­
land, France and Italy, because here we
have no such musical tradition or back­
ground as exists in those lands. To
teach the technique of music, sight­
reading, rythmical formulae, etc., before
children have a speaking knowledge of
the musical language is a perversion of
common sense and of the best educa­
tional procedure. The object of Amer­
ican musical education should be to
stimulate appreciation of good music
through the singing of beautiful songs,
for without such a basis for musical de­
velopment we shall never achieve a na­
tional musical distinction. The most
important musical contribution commu­
nity service can make at this time is,
I believe, to undertake to bring those
who have in charge the musical educa­
tion of children to a sense of what this
country really needs in a musical way.
The problem is not an abstract, peda­
gogical one; it is national in every sense
of the word. One of the most potent
agencies in insulating American child­
ren from contact with beautiful music
has been the attitude of many educa­
tors in maintaining that foreign folk
songs are not adaptable to American
school uses: first, because the spirit of
music is alien; and, second, because the
texts translated from foreign languages
are not intelligible to American child­
ren. From this follows my third fal­
lacy, namely, that text and music are
inseparable.
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As a matter of fact the. whole ques­
tion is one of association.
If I were
to sing you the melody of a folk song
you have never heard before, nothing
but the general character of the song
would be evident to you. If the music
were gay, to one it would suggest danc­
ing; to another, wind in the tree-tops;
to a third abstract happiness, and so
on. Consider the number of texts which
are sung to the same hymn-tune. Now
to ninety per cent of the public, and
certainly to every American child, folk
songs are unfamiliar. Here is a field
of beautiful and ever-living music, the
natural language of children and of
grown-ups, the logical introduction to
all musical experience, denied our
children,, either because of an educa­
tional theory or because music teach­
ers prefer to use in their place some
made-to-order tune which will serve to
teach the reading of music at sight, an
acquirement used by only one person
in ten thousand after graduation from
the public schools. Let children learn
the music of all nationalities just as
they learn the geography of all coun­
tries.
The work of Americanization is a
great and necessary one. We must
teach the immigrant loyalty to our laws
and customs, but in heaven’s name let
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