urs could readily be molded into a musical nation if
a firm foundation for musical knowledge and appreciation were laid in
our schools. After the rudiments were mastered, it could easily be
decided which pupils had a natural bent demanding special training.

Where music study becomes compulsory the blunder of permitting the
compulsion to be felt must be avoided. Socrates of old, in Plato's
Republic, advised making early education a sort of amusement. Those who
heed his counsel should not forget that in turning music study
altogether into play work there is danger of weakening the will. The
tottering footsteps should be guided wisely, as well as tenderly, in the
first approach to the Temple of Art, that the pupil may learn to walk,
as well as to observe and think independently. We most prize beauty that
we are able to discern for ourselves. We gain strength by intelligently
conquering our own problems and perplexities. "Nothing is impossible,"
as Mirabeau has said, "for one who can will."

The aim of music study is to know music, to gain a correct conception of
how it should sound, and so, as far as possible, to make it sound. This
aim can never be reached by the mere cultivation of technical
adroitness. Untold sacrifices are made to-day to what becomes the
unrighteous mammon of technique when the mechanical side of practice is
exalted above its interpretative aspects. Schumann deemed brilliancy of
execution only valuable when it served a higher purpose. That higher
purpose is to reach and express the soul of music. Unless enriched by
it, all mechanism is dead. It is not desirable that every one should
perform acrobatic feats on some musical instrument, or indulge in vocal
pyrotechnics, but it is desirable to extract music out of whatever
technique may be attained. Instead of racing onward with feverish haste
to ever increased technical skill at the expense of other development,
it were well for the student to pause until each composition attacked,
be it but an exercise, could be interpreted with accuracy, intelligence,
and feeling. We should then have more musicianly players and singers. We
should more often be brought under the magic spell of exquisitely shaded
tone that may make a simple little melody alive with beauty.

[Illustration: BRAHMS]

A grave blunder of our present music study is the neglect of ensemble
playing and singing. Some of the noblest music written is for
part-singing and for two or more instrume