Our Growth in Music the Pianoforte a Vital Factor

WE are known as a musical nation and this generation has been called the most musical that ever lived.

Viewed in a broad way this is perhaps true. The country is certainly alive with things musical and never as in recent years has Music reached out in one form or another to capture so many millions of new devotees.

Men are taking a much greater interest in music—one of the most stimulating symptoms of our present musical growth. No longer need any boy hesitate to confess to a love for music in the fear of being thought effeminate. Now many of our foremost men in business proclaim the inspirational benefits they have received from the study of music. A list of notable Americans who are also fine musicians would probably amaze the average reader. They are to be found in cities and towns all over the country.

“ Enlightened business men cannot ignore Music.” That is the judgment of Mr. George Eastman, one of the notable figures in American business who has performed extraordinary service for musical education in this country. And the opinions of such men, based on their own experience and wide observations, are having a practical and far-reaching effect on their fellow men—great numbers of whom have found that music in some ways is more necessary to them in undergoing the modern business strain than it is to women.

Parents are taking a much greater interest in music and are more impressed than ever before with the great cultural and mind-training benefits that the study of music alone can give. In organized bodies they are urging upon school authorities wherever necessary that the study of music along practical lines be made a part of their children’s early training.

Music is in fact becoming recognized as one of the great forces in education. This is a matter of such importance not only to the individual but to the community and to the nation that it is receiving the support of progressive men and women everywhere. No less an educator than the late Doctor Charles Eliot maintained throughout many years that Music, rightly taught, is the best mind trainer on the list and that we should have more of it in our schools the country over. And it was Woodrow Wilson who declared, “The man who disparages music as a luxury and non-essential is doing the nation an injury.”

The more recent awakening of the general public to the possibilities and the power of Music and to its need in our daily lives has been brought about in various ways.

The phonograph, the player-piano, the radio, have each been of great value in increasing musical knowledge, musical appreciation and musical receptiveness. Possibly our advance along these lines has been more notable than has our progress in the art itself. For Music, in order to develop, must depend upon the trained intelligence of listeners. To get the highest value out of music one must actually give it some study.

It is fortunate therefore that in creating distinct places for themselves in public favor, the phonograph, player-piano, and radio have been serving to bring about wider realization of the basic importance of the pianoforte.

For the pianoforte, or piano as it is now generally called, like the illustrious pipe organ, is one of the really fundamental musical instruments. It is the only one on which the three elements of music rhythm, melody and harmony—can be produced simultaneously and completely, It is the one instrument above all others that will most readily and richly repay its study and actual use.

It was Owen Wister, an accomplished musician as well as one of our greatest authors, who wrote: “Music, as an Art, may be best approached through the pianoforte. That is, unless some one is preparing to make a specialty of some other instrument it is perhaps a mistake to inaugurate a musical education with another instrument. There is nothing in the literature of music that cannot be explained through the piano.

“It is for this reason I feel very strongly that everyone who desires to study music, whether the design is professional or amateur, should at first strive to gain a certain pianistic facility. The piano is easily the most practical instrument for this purpose and the average student gets more from it.”

Because of this generally accepted view, and because so much of the musical history and progress of the past century has been written around this single instrument, one of the earlier purposes of the music talks to appear in this magazine will be to tell the story of the piano from its early beginnings and throughout its stages of development to the splendid instruments of the present day.

The talks on this and other subjects will aim to be of interest to every one interested in music and of as much practical value as possible in the way of helpful information and occasional suggestions.

“Music is fundamental — one of the great sources of life, health, strength and happiness.”

—Luther Burbank.