MUSIC.
The Singing-Master; containing Instructions for Teaching Sing- ing in Schools and Families. With a Selection of Popular Airs, arranged also for Three Voices, with suitable Words. By W. E. HICKSON.
Those who have been accustomed to read our musical lucubrations, will not need to be told how often and how earnestly we have advo- cated the diffusion of vocal instruction throughout the people,—how often we have pointed out the folly of regarding that as an expensive luxury, the exclusive property and possession of the rich, which seems so plainly designed to be the enjoyment—the cheap, innocent, rational enjoyment—of all. Our opinions on this point are spreading and taking root. The seed is sowing, and in the next generation the harvest will be gathered in. It is to this period we confidently look for that im- proved musical taste which is the result of knowledge : and it is from the middle and lower ranks, who are fortunately debarred from hearing that species of music which is at once the most expensive and the most worthless, that we anticipate a due appreciation and a zealous cultiva- tion of musical excellence. The BEI.LINIS and DONIZETTIS of the next age (for those of the present generation will then be forgotten) will be the exclusive possession of the aristocracy ; while the great masters of Germany, England, and Italy too, will delight thousands of plebeian ears.
In Mr. Ilicasorr we have a powerful and zealous fellow labourer ; as the following extract from his sensible and judicious preface will testify-
" This work was designed as the contribution of an individual to the cause of national education. If the time should come (and it cannot be fir distant)
when a Government shall exist sufficiently enlightened to perceive that its first duty is to provide for the moral and mental culture of the people, the blessings of education will not only be extended to the children of all classes, but we may fairly presume that something more will be done to improve the mind and hearts, and promote the happiness of the rising generation, than has hitherto been attempted. " Among other means of effecting the object proposed by a good education, vocal music will, sooner or later, be introduced in every public and private scholastic establishment. In Prussia and the German States, singing is now taught in all the schools. Indeed, a knowledge of music is there one of the essential qualifications required of every candidate for the profession of a school- master, " In this country singing has been introduced with great success in infant schools; but the advantages of teaching singing universally to children above as well as below the age of seven years, have not yet been understood. Let us briefly depict them. " 1st. Singing is a mode of varying in the most pleasing manner the lessons of school, and calculated therefore not only to relieve the attention when too much fatigued with study, but to create a conviction in the minds of children (which it is not always easy to produce in any other way), that they are sent to school to be made happier as well as wiser. " 2d. The songs taught to children may be such as will impress their minds with kindly feelings, and kindle or strengthen just and generous emotions more effectually than can be done by any mode of persuasion or reproof. " 3d. The children will be put in possession, for their whole lives, of a source of enjoyment which cannot be too highly valued, for several reasons. The pleasure to be derived from music by a cultivated ear is inexhaustible. It is an innocent pleasure ; less likely to be carried to a hurtful excess than almost any other, and having a tendency to wean the mind from vicious and debasing pursuit,, in which too many indulge because they have never learned any means of rational amusement. Vocal music has also another recommendation, which renders it peculiarly fit to be encouraged among the labouring classes—it is a cheap amusement. In this respect, vocal is superior to instrumental music, while superior also in the power of producing musical effects. If the poor man should regret his inability to purchase costly musical instruments, let him learn that the human voice is itself the finest instrument in the world. All voices are indeed not equally good ; but four voices heard in harmony together, will produce a more perfect effect than any equal number of keyed or stringed instruments played upon by skilful performers. A party of German peasants singing to- gether in a cabin will often produce better music than the whole baud of the Italian Opera. A family of villagers, competent to the task of singing the glees of Callcott and Webbe, need not sigh for grand pianofortes and double- actioned harps. Even in regard to accompaniments, when vocal music is really good, it is almost invariably better without an accompaniment than with it. The sounds of different instruments (which seldom assimilate sufficiently with the voice, and often prevent its being distinctly heard) distract the ear, and withdraw its attention front the harmony. " To facilitate the introduction of vocal music in schools, and thus to nation- alize music in this country, as in Germany, it was necessary first to make a collection of songs adapted to the comprehension and tastes of children. No work of the kind existed, or the author and compiler of the following pages would gladly have spared himself the time and labour which they have cost. Simple as his task may appear, it was not found very easy in the accomplish- ment. The most serious difficulty to be overcome was the necessity of com- posing new words to nearly all the airs selected for the work. The peculiar metre of most of the airs rendered it impossible to find words which, if suit- able in themselves, were equally suitable to the tunes; the words originally adapted to the tunes were generally found objectionabl on other grounds."
The plan of this work is similar to that of one in very general use in Prussia, called " /11usikalisches Schulgesanybuch ;" although we con- chide, from Mr. HicssoN's not having used any of its materials, that it is unknown to him. As an elementary work, that of Germany is, certainly, the better ; being more systematically arranged, and the airs being written and arranged with a direct reference to the instruction and progressive improvement of the learner. Mr. HicesoN has con- tented himself with selecting such popular airs as were the best suited to his purpose.
" All the airs are not only arranged as songs, but are harmonized, so that they may be sung in three parts. In teaching music, very little is effected if the pupil is only enabled to sing the air, or melody. Glees containing four or five parts, however, we cannot expect will ever be generally performed in schools, and we have therefore confined the parts to three. " In boys' schools the two upper parts should always be taken by the children, and the third, when too low for their voices, by the master and his teachers. In girls' schools, the third part may sometimes be taken by the mistress. In private families, the girls may take the upper part, the boys the second, and the father and elder brothers the third. Many of the airs may be sung by three equal voices, both treble and tenor ; and some of them may be sung as duets, without the bass. It is only necessary to remember, in arranging the voices, that the voice of the highest pitch must always take the highest part ; a treble voice must never take the second, when a tenor or bass voice takes the air. The second parts will always be sung with most effect by boys between the ages of twelve 'sad fourteen. " To prevent the inconvenience of too many crowding over one copy, the jamas for the second and third voices are published in separate books, price one shilling and sixpence each ; the bass, or part for the third voice, being transposed into the treble clef."
All this goes on the supposition that the children will be taught to read notes, in like manner as they are taught to read words,—that they will have the means of acquiring musical knowledge through musical notation ; and not, as is the universal practice in our charity-schools, merely taught to squall by dint of hammering the same air upon the memory ; by which ingenious process, the pupil plods on at the musical tread millwithout ever advancing a step, and the master toils hard in order to reap no fruit from his labour save his salary, and to leave his scholars as ignorant as he found them. And even in higher life, much that passes for vocal instruction is of the same kind ; ac- complishing only the power to execute a given number of songs, and never aiming to teach the art of singing: Mr. IlicitsoN recommends the practice of social Glee-singing ; and we add, emphatically, our recommendation of social Madrigal-singing, both for the sake of variety, and because the latter extends the social circle indefinitely. In the former, the number of voices engaged in performance is few—seldom exceeding four, never going beyond six: but in the latter, the greater number of voices employed, the more per- fect and pleasing is the effect. But he is quite mistaken in asserting that the "words of most of the cheerful glees of the old masters relate to the pleasures of drinking." For, in the first place, "the old masters knew nothing of glee-writing : that class of music which we designate by the term "glee " is altogether modern : and of bacchanalian glees, the proportion is not more than one-fourth—probably not more than one fifth of the whole number. Our best glee- composers have, in truth, been eminently distinguished for their discernment of poetic beauty ; and through their well-directed researches, many choice mor- sels of our old lyric writers have been rescued from obscurity. We were astonished at Mr. HICKSON'S selecting "the collections of Psalm Tunes by RIPPON and WALKER, as the best he had ever met with." If for "best" he had written "worst," it would have been nearer the truth. The psalm-singing of our Dissenting chapels is, for the most part, the most vulgar demonstration of the art that this or any other kingdom can exhibit : and the materials for it are usually furnished from the worst compositions in these collections, which are in especial favour because their supply of this kind of ware is so abundant. Several other remarks are suggested by our author's work and his preface ; but we must refrain from extending this article. Cordially do we bid Mr. HICKSON " God speed ;" for his work is a " labour of love." Its im is to extend the innocent enjoyments of youth and maturity; and he who does this, removes one of the causes of guilt, and makes his fellow creatures better as well as happier.
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