WOMEN AND MUSIC.

Evening Star, Issue 3402, 16 January 1874, Page 3

WOMEN AND MUSIC.

{From the Lady's Newspaper.) 1 A popular delusion exists that all womeii are what is termed “musical,” and therefore, it behoves every girl to spend part of each day in learning to play on ad instrument of music. The instrument chosen is almost universally the pianoforte j and the hours that are wasted in acquiring the art of playing on it are innumerable? After all, what comes of it? The patient endurings of thousands of teachers, the suf- ! feriuks, by no means patient, of further! thousands of girls, produce results which! amount almost to nothing, or worse than! nothing. i

Are the drawing-room performances of an: average youngs lady to be considered as a] satisfactory result of all that has been gone! through to enable her to make that display? Is it not a fact that “ a little music” in &ver-| age circles is the subject for general talk,} and that, not only because some noise is| made under cover of which timid souls mayj venture to make remarks, but also muchl more because, as a rule, drawing-room per-! forxnances are not worth listening to. Thej gymnastic exercises common ! y called “fan-t fasias,” or “mo ceaux” or some such name, acquired with infinite painstaking, produce! P® pleasurable effect upon the general, or! indeed upon any audience, except that of a siccere wish that a speedy end may be iQaQe; and the thanks wbieh politeness re-j tmres to be expressed really often are felt* because the solo (or, worse still, the duet) has come to an end. The playing which touches the heart, which expresses something, is seldom heard. ,

It is often ur*ed that girls ought to learn I to play, because they can thereby contribute* to the amusement of their friends or of! themselves, But there are very few girls! who, after they leave school, and have their time somewhat under their control, continue* to keep up the practice essential to even! tolerablei placing ; aud wheu they marry, as 1 a rule, thay give up playing altogether. If the universal teaching of- the art of playing the piano%tn to girls produced any effects of men.tai cultivation, the amount of time spent on it might be excused. But, aait is n w generally taught, it simply gives a certain kind of exercise tu the lingers, and is of no furthe? value, it must therefore be considered that, in perhaps the majority of cases, the time spent in learning to play is simpiy waited When the number ofthings .thatrbaveCto&e learfft (fcnSngTtße sr6bedO)f education come to be considered andiiiuLe short time allowed for the school life of most girls is also «sß&hibgrfea, l T5MISmnot but regret that matters should be in this condition. t t i lin ß ß a,iae ß undoubtedly* I delusion about the musical capabilities of! xu aren *' B think that all girls can play * if they to4di£MnlDthat if agid! cannot play her education has been neglected : in a moat essential particular. They demand I the teaching lrom, school mis- j tresses and apdi the learning of! rt L Children, and so the present i o| things is brought about. We are • strongly pf opinion that, in the cases where girls show a d pided deficiency of musical' twent, to learn 1 pianoforte playing at all; and that, indeed. unld'S a girl has a decided talent for music, her studies should be limited to the playing of such simple music as may be within Ler power to perform with taste, or to such dance music as may be useful when a party of young folks are met, and want Seme lively tunes played in good tftfte to answer happy meaß F? W their foot-falls. _ Wp.arp told, that the playing of men on the pianoforte is. as a rule, much better than that of women. Perhaps the playing of women would be much better if fewer of thenx undertook it—in fact, only those who took to it from liking, as men do. Nobody ever dreams of making every boy learn playing, whether he likes it or not; and whv should girls, who are inherently more musical thau boys, be compelled to a process of learning what is of little value ? Pianoforte playing is not an essential of education, like reading, writing, arithmetic, or plain-needle-work. Why. therefore, should it occupy time which could be more profitably employ. d ? What a relief would it be to many tortured ears if “practising” were never more t© be encountered, save in the case of those who had a real love for the work; they were doiug 1 J We have carefully abstained all this time firom speaking of pianoforte-playing as music. The study of the one is by no means the study of the other also. Many people who can play, know nothing at all of harmony, and, of the comparatively few players who do know anything of the theory of music, the female pianists are not in the majority. The facts tha , though women so generally learn to play, very lew are even tolerable musicians, and that hardly any are great pian sts, and tnat not one is or has been a great composer, have recently. been urged upon the public attention. It has been said that music is a. subject wbicu oU women learn, and which is supposed to be specially suited t° subject the study of which is quite open to" them, but one in which they are not urged to perfect themselves. It has been said that “ among the numberless points in which learned ladies urge that the education of their sex is deficient, they nearly always fail to mention music.” The truth, we think, is that ladies who are interested in obtaining a better education for the members of their own sex generally feel that too much time is given ito nominal, and too little to real music. i Parents have demanded playing ; they pro- ■■ bably would think learning the theory of \ music u waste of time ; and the demands of | parents have made the rule. ■ We cannot but admit the truth of the ; statement that women are inferior to men as i musicians, both in playing and in knowledge jof harmony. The study of the theory of music among girls has, however, received a i great impetus from the fact that a knowledge of that subject is demanded in the , , University Local Examinations, and that, jin point of fact no mere knowledge of play!ing is even tested by these examinations, i We also know that some of the more successful of the teachers of harmony are ladies. I Sio we may hope that, by slow degrees, a imore scientific knowledge of music than is |at present possessed may be spread among I women.

W e cannot see that it is in the least degree Jreasonab e to assume that because a person !|g a woman therefore she must learn music • •nor can we see that it is reasonable to be iangry with the incapacity of women who have been urged to do that for wh ch they ‘have little power, and even that little badly Cultivated. Music has been badly taught to

women ; let it be better taught, and, thdugb ' -they-may—not -equal—men-, -do • better. If women, desire to, be pxpell,ent as pianists, they must ' hje 1 ' willing' to give'the hard work, and they must receive the careful training, and both these will be thrown away unless .there is ascertained talent to work* upon. s -lt possible, however, that even after much training it may be found that no women have the sical art power, any more than they have taken highest rank in apy bkh.er inteliedfcual ways. In o. der fo ascertain this, or to make steps towards ascertaining it, more thorough training, mustcbe ’given jrranidV?, even; if .this dofes not,develop' the highest genius, it will do much to make.playing; more;tolerable to those who are compelled to listen to it.