Cheve leads his pupils through every step of the
theory of music until they are able to read _in the ordinary notation_
every kind of music, and to execute during any piece all the possible
changes of mode or key."

The report--which is duly signed by the officers having charge of the
gymnasium--ends with the expression of their "profound conviction that
the method of teaching music employed by Professor Cheve is faultless,
if it may be judged by its practical results."

There is a very common impression, in this country at least, that the
best new method of writing music has been tried and abandoned, weighed
in the balance and found wanting. This is far from the fact. It is
doubtful if there is one person in a hundred in this country who ever
heard even the name of Galin or Cheve. Some twenty years ago there was
a little interest excited in a new method of musical notation. A class
was formed in Lowell, Massachusetts, and a "singing-book" was used
there with the notes written with numerals on the staff instead of the
usual characters. But it could not have been the Cheve method that
the Lowell professor used, for he employed no new system of teaching
time--a prime characteristic of that method.

Those who examine the subject fairly will be compelled to take the
position held by Galin, Cheve and their school, that a new method of
writing music is imperatively needed, because that now in use lacks
the essential elements of a scientific system: it is neither simple,
clear nor concise. There are certain elementary principles which must
be observed in the exposition of any science, and especially in that
of music, which is addressed to all classes of intelligence. Among
these principles are the following, as stated by M. Cheve: _1st_.
Every idea should be presented to the mind by a clear and precise
symbol. _2d_. The same idea should always be presented by the same
sign: the same sign should always represent the same idea. _3d_.
Elementary textbooks or methods should never present two difficulties
to the mind at the same time; and such textbooks or methods should be
an assemblage of means adapted to aid ordinary intelligences to gain
the object proposed. _4th_. The memory should never be drawn upon
except where reasoning is impossible.

Let us test the exposition of the ordinary musical notation, and also
that of the school of Galin, by these principles and compare the
results.

_First_. Is every idea presented by a