port for 1873_): "Experience proves that as music is perfected and
used in the daily routine of school duties, just in that proportion are
the deportment and general appearance of the schools improved." Indeed,
it is difficult to calculate all the good results that in course of time
must follow from general musical instruction in our schools. It is
certainly the only effective method of removing in a few generations the
reproach that we are not a musical people. In Germany--which perhaps has
done more for music than all other countries combined--the foundation
for musical culture is laid in the schools by the singing of folk-songs
(_Volkslieder_) and chorals in three-or four-part harmony. And those who
have read the history of music know that these same folk-songs and
chorals were the first musical fruits grown on German soil: they were
the fruits on which in past centuries the people lived and formed their
taste. It is evident, therefore, that in now teaching these folk-songs
and chorals to their children the Germans are guided by that important
law of evolution which shows that the development of the child partly
does, and partly should be made to, conform to the development of the
race, step by step.

There is no reason why we should not follow this same principle. Of
course it will not be necessary to confine ourselves to German
folk-songs, although these are on the whole the best. We are a mixed
people, compounded of all nationalities, and hence the folk-songs of
Italy, France, Scotland, Russia and various other countries should all
be acclimated in our schools. There is something peculiarly healthy and
fresh about folk-songs which one only finds again in the very highest
efforts of individual creative genius. They are like flowers that have
grown up in virgin forests, nurtured by rain and sunshine, fanned by
vigorous breezes and shielded from all the hot-house influences of a
morbid civilization. So rich and spontaneous are many of these melodies
that they can be thoroughly enjoyed even when sung without harmony or
accompaniment, while for advanced classes it is easy to write second and
third vocal parts, thus adding to their interest and value.

While early familiarity with the best of these songs would have a good
effect in refining the popular sense of melody, the appreciation of what
came last and is highest in music--of harmonic progressions--could best
be taught by a similar familiarity with the German four-