What Does Charlotte Mason Say about Music? Volume 2

The second entry of six walking through Charlotte Mason's volumes, searching out everything she had to say about music. In this post, we take a look at Volume 2 - Parents and Children.

(2/185) The seventeenth chapter of this volume deals with the development of the senses. This quote comes from the section entitled "Discrimination of Sounds." "A quick and true ear is another possession that does not come by Nature, or anyway, if it does, it is too often lost. ... Music is, no doubt, the means par excellence for this kind of ear culture. Mrs. Curwen's 'Child Pianist' puts carefully graduated work of this kind into the hands of parents; and if a child never become a performer, to have acquired a cultivated and correct ear is no small part of a musical education."

(2/252) Music is a vital part of the first year of a child's life. The title of this section is "Intellectual Labour of the Child's' First Year." "When we consider the enormous intellectual labour the infant goes through during his first year in accommodating himself to the conditions of a new world, in learning to discern between far and near, solid and flat, large and small, and a thousand other qualifications and imitations of this perplexing world, why, we are not surprised that John Stuart Mill should be well on in his Greek at five; that Arnald at three should know all the Kings and Queens of England by their portraits; or that a musical baby should have an extensive repertoire of the musical classics."

(2/262) Art (which encompasses music) is intimately linked with ideas! "We begin to understand that mere technique, however perfect--whether in the rendering of flesh tints, or marbles, or of a musical composition of extreme difficulty--is not necessarily high Art. It is beginning to dawn upon us that Art is great only in proportion to the greatness of the idea that it expresses; while what we ask of the execution, the technique, is that it shall be adequate to the inspiring idea." "...and lastly, we shall inspire our children with those great ideas whilch shall create a demand, anyway for great Art."

(2/269) Oh, the wonderful twenty-fifth chapter of Volume 2 - The Great Recognition Required of Parents. If you have not studied the fresco on the wall of the Spanish Chapel of the Santa Maria  Novella in Florence, John Ruskin's commentary on it, and Miss Mason's own Recognition that came through it, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you do so! This is a quote about just one small part of that fresco. "Next, Music, with head inclined in intent listening to the sweet and solemn strains she is producing from her antique instrument; and underneath, Tubal Cain, not Jubal, as the inventor of harmony--perhaps the most marvellous record that Art has produced of the impact of a great idea upon the soul of man but semi-civilised."

(2/278-279) "Give him living thought in this kind, and you make possible the co-operation of the living Teacher. The child's progress is by leaps and bounds, and you wonder why. In teaching music, again, let him once perceive the beautiful laws of harmony, the personality, so to speak, of Music, looking out upon him from among the queer little black notes, and the piano lesson has ceased to be drudgery."

What Does Charlotte Mason Say about Music? Volume 1

I'm in the process of studying Charlotte Mason's six volumes to find out just what she said about music and music education in her philosophy and methods of education. I intended to write one post about what she said about music, singing, hymns, folksongs, foreign language songs, sol-fa (or solfege), and music appreciation. But WHEW! what a lot she had to say about these topics! So I've decided to break it up into separate blog posts. This post will cover Miss Mason's words about music in Volume 1. I will link subsequent posts at the end for easy reference.

I've arranged these quotes by volume number instead of topically. I will make a separate post on this first topic, music, for each volume, so we don't have one giant page to have to scroll down. I hope I'm not going to regret that, as this is designed to be a reference post for myself! We'll see how it goes! If I end up hating it, I can always put it all together in one post later.

Volume 1

(1/81-82) The context of this quote is the healthy aspect of the out-of-door life. The section in which it is found is called "Noisy Games." She speaks of exercisng the organs of voice, preventing weak lungs and weak throat, training them to strength through the work of noisy outdoor games. "...if the children can 'give voice' musically, and move rhythmically to the sound of their own voices, so much the better. In this respect French children are better off than English; they dance and sing through a hundred roundelays..."

(1/133-134) This one needs no introduction. It's good stuff! I have a previous blog post that touches on some of these topics. "The Habit of Music.--As for a musical training, it would be hard to say how much that passes for inherited musical taste and ability is the result of the constant hearing and producing of musical sounds, the habit of music, that the child of musical people grows up with. Mr. Hullah maintained that the art of singing is entirely a trained habit--that every child may be, and should, be trained to sing. Of course, transmitted habit must be taken into account. It is a pity that the musical training most children get is of a random character; that they are not trained, for instance, by carefully graduated ear and voice exercises to produce and distinguish musical tones and intervals."

(1/314) This next quote has a reference that I don't quite "get," but I'm including it because I think it has something important to impart about selecting music instructors. "Certain subjects of peculiar educational value, music, for instance, I have said nothing about, partly for want of space, and partly because if the mother have not Sir Joshua Reynolds's 'that!' in her, hints from an outsider will not produce the art-feeling which is the condition of success in this sort of teaching. If possible, let the children learn from the first under artists, lovers of their work; it is a serious mistake to let the child lay the foundation of whatever he may do in the future under ill-qualified mechanical teachers, who kindle in him none of the enthusiasm which is the life of art."

(1/314-315) This quote immediately follows the previous one, but hits a different topic, so I have separated it here. "I should like, in connection with singing, to mention the admirable educational effects of the Tonic Sol-fa method. Children learn by it in a magical way to produce sign for sound and sound for sign, that is, they can not only read music, but can write the notes for, or make the proper hand signs for, the notes of a passage sung to them. Ear and voice are simultaneously and equally cultivated."

(1/315) Here, Charlotte links music, dance, and the Swedish drill she recommends for physical education. "For physical training nothing is so good as Ling's Swedish Drill, and a few of the early exercises are within the reach of children under nine. Dancing, and the various musical drills, lend themselves to grace of movement, and give more pleasure, if less scientific training to the little people."

What Does  Charlotte Mason Say about Music? Volume 2