Music As A Language

Music As A Language

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Title: Music As A Language Lectures to Music Students
Author: Ethel Home
Release Date: July 6, 2005 [EBook #16225]
Language: English
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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