IS AN ENGLISH SCHOOL OF MUSIC DESIRABLE?
THE answer is no. Not because the love of music does not exist, or has never existed in England. The wealth of melody popular among the people from the remotest ages proves that music has always been cherished in this country. The state of musical cultivation in the present day, when compared with the condition of musical linowledge in times past, and not so very long past, is a good ground for liearty congratulation among all interested in the matter as to the widespread desire to know as much as possible of this beautiful art. The frequent concerts and festivals, the existence of many central academies and teaching schools, the numbers of worthy teachers, professors, and exe- cutants, the encouragement of music in the home circle, and many other ways more or less commend- able, are referred to with pride as an answer to the oft-repeated taunt as to the unmusical character of the people of this great kingdom. There can be no doubt that many of the prejudices entertained con- cerning the use of music as a domestic solace, and as an important element of worship, have been broken down, and that greater effects will follow from its more frequent employment in both services. The people being thus musically inclined, however, does not make them necessarily musical. The charm which surrounds tiie practice of music for those who are lovers of the art is sufficiently strong to encourage the belief that the day is near when the old objec- tions to its general exercise will vanisli. There is no important ceremony which does not derive addi- tional importance through the help of music. The attraction it offers has a distinct commercial value. Many modern enterprises in the way of public exhibitions, which are designed to attract the public, for all the value they may possess as educational centres, have — when the financial question was pressed forward — been compelled to court the divinity they ignored at the outset, and to make their primary objects of secondary consideration. These things help to demonstrate the power and influence of music, and serve to show that the love for the effects of the art is universal. Seeing then that music is a recognised factor in the sum of human culture, those who are interested in the progress of art find themselves face to face with a question which is both serious and important. The inhabitants of the British Isles are said to be among the most unmusical nations of the world by those whose pleasure or whose business it is to de- preciate all home-grown efforts. This is an accusa- tion which has been so often combated, and so frequently refuted, that it is needless to enlarge upon it now. By means of figures, we are told, anything can be proved. Taking the thing as a matter of commerce, it could be sho^vn that the English-speaking races are the greatest patrons of music above all others. Those who pay the largest sums in aggregate for commodities of everyday use, may be reasonably accepted as commanding the largest supply. Those who have the largest supply may be assumed to obtain it because they regard it as a necessity of their existence — animal, moral, or intellectual. On one side, moreover, these figures can prove appreciation of art and artists on the part of the peo^ile; on the other that the encour- agement of art is greater in proportion as it is not home-grown. What seems to be required is the admission of the practice of music and the counten- ance of artists on commercial principles compatible with exercise of the art as an art, and as of some degree of practical value as a bread-winning enter- prise. Some enthusiasts affirm that this desirable state of things will follow v.en our native artists show that they have formulated a ' School.' They look hopefully for that school, and believe that in its rise and progress the needful panacea will be found. It can be proved by figures that music is well supported, and that therefore taking figures as representing facts, possession as indicating riches, and constant demand as showing constant need, there is no nation so greatly interested in musical art as our own, no nation more assiduous in the cultivation of its practice, and few in which, all disadvantages considered, the need of forming a distinctive school is more pressing, in order that our native artists may take their proper stand in the world of art. Here we may pause to ask if there is any necessity to persevere in the struggle to form such a school, and if it is possible that any school of music, that is to say, any transmittable code of laws or forms of practice and methods of procedure, can exist at all, or be capable of producing results of permanent advantage.
These questions may be proposed without reference to either financial, mathematical or other qualities which can be proved by figures, though each and all may possibly have some bearing upon them. Admitting that we are not a musical people, but are only a music-supporting people, because we have never shown ourselves to be possessed of a distinctive school, may we not in our turn ask if
