The Project Gutenberg eBook, Music Talks with Children, by Thomas Tapper

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Title: Music Talks with Children

Author: Thomas Tapper

Release Date: December 13, 2004 [eBook #14339]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN***

E-text prepared by David Newman, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN

by

THOMAS TAPPER

Philadelphia
Theodore Presser

1898

  "Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,
  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
  Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
       * * * * *
  "God being with thee when we know it not."

—WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

TO THE CHILDREN AT HOME

  "Teach me to live! No idler let me be,
  But in Thy service hand and heart employ."

—BAYARD TAYLOR.

PREFACE

A book of this kind, though addressed to children, must necessarily reach them through an older person. The purpose is to suggest a few of the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding in joy. Music with these characteristics is the true music of the heart. Unless music gives true pleasure to the young it may be doubted if it is wisely studied.

Our failure to present music to the young in a manner that interests and holds them is due not so much to the fact that music is too difficult for children, but because the children themselves are too difficult for us. In our ignorance we often withhold the rightful inheritance. We must not forget that the slower adult mind often meets a class of difficulties which are not recognized by the unprejudiced child. It is not infrequent that with the old fears in us we persist in recreating difficulties.

There should be ever present with the teacher the thought that music must be led out of the individuality, not driven into it.

The teacher's knowledge is not a hammer, it is a light.

While it is suggested that these chapters be used as the subject-matter for talks with the children, they may read verbatim if desired. All foot-note references and suggestions are addressed to the older person—the mother or the teacher. There is much in the literature of art that would interest children if given to them discriminatingly.

THOMAS TAPPER.

BOSTON, October 30, 1896

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PREFACE

I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS

II. WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC

III. MUSIC IN THE HEART

IV. THE TONES ABOUT US

V. LISTENING

VI. THINKING IN TONE

VII. WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR

VIII. THE CLASSICS

IX. WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY

X. THE LESSON

XI. THE LIGHT ON THE PATH

XII. THE GREATER MASTERS

XIII. THE LESSER MASTERS

XIV. HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT

XV. MUSIC AND READING

XVI. THE HANDS

XVII. WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID

XVIII. THE GLORY OF THE DAY

XIX. THE IDEAL

XX. THE ONE TALENT

XXI. LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL

XXII. IN SCHOOL

XXIII. MUSIC IN SCHOOL

XXIV. HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER

XXV. THE CHILD AT PLAY

APPENDIX

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Chats with Music Students; or Talks about Music and Music Life.

"A remarkably valuable work. It is made up of talks to students, calculated to make them think; of hints and suggestions which will be of immense assistance to those who are earnestly trying to become proficient in music."—Boston Transcript.

"No other book covers the same broad field which this covers in such a pleasant and inspiring manner."—The Writer (Boston).

The Music Life and How to Succeed in it.

"These ideas are worthy of attention from students and workers in all branches of art, science, and literature, who mean to be serious and earnest."—Boston Transcript.

"Exceedingly valuable because of its broad impartiality in its exposition of truth, its depth of understanding, and, above all, for its earnest desire, manifest in every word, to lead music students to a love for music itself…. It abounds in high artistic thought and insight."—The Boston Times.

CHAPTER I.

WHAT THE FACE TELLS.

"And the light dwelleth with him."—Daniel II: 22.

Once a master said to a child:

"If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy face shall be filled with light."

So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the light was coming. But at each time she was disappointed. No light was there. Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would, it was always the same.

I do not know if she doubted the master or not; but it is certain she did not know what to make of it. She grieved, and day after day her disappointment grew. At length she could bear it no longer, so she went to the master and said:

"Dear master, I have been so diligent! I have tried to learn and to do good unto others. Yet every time I have sought in my face the light which you promised, it has not been there. No, not a single time."

Now the master listened intently, and watching her face as she spoke, he said:

"Thou poor little one, in this moment, as thou hast spoken to me, thy face has been so filled with light that thou wouldst not believe. And dost thou know why? It is because every word thou hast spoken in this moment has come from thy heart.

"Thou must learn in the first days this lesson: When the thought and the deed are in the heart, then the light is in the face, always, and it is there at no other time. It could not be. And what is in thy heart when