MUSICIAN’S PREJUDICE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2784, 19 January 1872, Page 2

MUSICIAN’S PREJUDICE.

(From the Musical Record,) Often, when the method has been men* tioned in musical circles, have we heard such remarks as, “Oh! the tonic sol-fa is all nonsense.” We believe that the teachers of the new method have largely themselves to thank for this prejudice, through their perhaps natural, but certainly injudicious ft*al, in displaying the ordinary notation to exalt their own ; but, whatever its opponents may say or think, the systa'm i*j not tlie farragq of nonsense," which it has been called, and it is from a simple love of Justice, and with the view of, if possible, removing prejudice, that we propose in this article to explain what is its real nature, what are its claims to notice and support, and what the limits which we consider it likely to aid in the diffusion of musical knowledge. And first let us say that the tonic sol-fa system is not, as most people who have not examined it suppose, nothing more than a new method of writing music, intended to take the place of that in common use, . . . If the tonic sol-fa system were nothing more than this we should certainly consider our space too valuable to be taken up with a discussion of its merits, hut, in truth, so far is this from being the case, that the new notation is merely what logicians term a “ separable action”—that is it is not an essential portion of the method ; on the contrary, it is not only practicable to teach on the tonic sol-fa system from the ordinary notation, but it has, to our own knowledge, been actually done, the letters, lines, and dots, which, to the uninitiated look like so many cabalistic signs, are simply a method of noting music, which, to young children, and indeed to all who know nothing of the art, is easier of acquirement than the garput in cojpmqp use, PITH op the SYSTEM. What, then, is the pith and essence of the system ? and what is the secret of its indisputable success ? simply this that instead of teaching singing by absolute • pitch, it teaches it on the basis of keyrelationship. It is not the first time that this method has been employed, the late Rev J. J. Waite (whose name will probably be familiar to many of our readers, in connexion with his efforts some years since for the promotion of psalmody among the Congregationalisms) adopted it invariably in his classes; but the tonic sol-fa method does the same thing more completely and accurately. All musicians know that the relation of sounds in a key to the key-note, and to one another, is “constant”- that is, always the same, whatever the position of the keynote. Thus, the interval from the first to the third note of the major scale, is the same, whether it be from C to E, from P to A, or from B D. When once the scale is thoroughly known, the tonic soi-fy

system is virtually mastered ; and the peculiar notation adopted simply saves the pupil the trouble of finding the key-note for himself. The principal advantage, however, of this new way of printing music, is its cheapness; for, as nothing but ordinary printers’ type is required, the cost is so much reduced as to place it within the reach even of the poorest. Thus a large class is brought under the humanising influence of the art, whom the expense would otherwise have debarred from its enjoyment. As to the relative ease with which singing can be taught from absolute pitch or from key relationship, any teacher who has tried both, especially with children, can testify how incomparably easier the latter method is ; and not only is it easier, but it is more true and more thorough. The testimony of the late Sir John Herschel on this subject is worth quoting. In an article contributed a few years since to the quarterly ‘ * Journ.al of Science,” he wrote “ 1 adhere throughout this article to the good old system of representing by do, re, mi, fa, c, the scale of natural notes in any key whatever ; taking do for the key-note, whatever that may bo, in opposition to the practice lately introduced (and soon, I hope to be exploded) of taking do to express one fixed tone, C—the greatest retrogade step, in my opinion, ever taken in teaching music or any other branch of knowledge.” A common error, a very common error, in relation to this subject, is the belief that those who have learned on this method have all to unlearn, or at least to learn over again as soon as you sing from ordinary notes. So far from this being the fact, it is extremely easy to transfer all the knowledge acquired on the one system to the other ; and it has more than once been found by conductors of choral societies that some of the best sight readers in the choir have been those who gained their first know’edge of music as tonic sol-faists.