THE CRITICAL PERIOD IN MUSIC STUDY

BY DOROTHY M. LATCHEM

THERE are doubtless very few of the teachers throughout the country who do not have to light continually against trashy music. The teacher has the conviction that a certain kind of music is right and realizes that the first three years of the pupil's musical education forms the critical period. If the taste is not established then it will be difficult to make changes thereafter. Unfortunately, the teacher's battle is by no means always with the child. Imagine a world in which there was no musical trash. The child would then take to good music, through its ignorance of the bad. However, the parent is often the most difficult obstacle in the teacher's way. The teacher is obliged to placate the parent and her own musical conscience at the same time.

One good way to do this is to find pieces that bridge over the great gap between trashy music and the complicated works of the masters. There are thousands of such pieces. They please the parent and do not injure the pupil's musical taste materially. With plenty of music of this sort the teacher can introduce Bach in small quantities without challenging the pupil's whole family to a lengthy argument upon the indeterminable subject of the merits of different styles of music.

Bach's Indentions are invaluable when studied intelligently. In his preface the great composer said: "Herein one will find a plain method to learn how to play clean." That is just what Bach seems to do. He induces musical cleanliness. His works are so exacting that if played at all they must be played right. Bach practice is a kind of insurance against bad lingering, bad phrasing, slovenly touch and careless technic. In a conversation with a friend, Brahms once said: "I would go forty miles on foot to hear something by Bach well rendered."

If the teacher can, by a compromise, introduce the works of some great master such as Bach and at the same time keep the family appeased during the critical period, she need not worry over the musical future of the pupil.