Addresses Delivered at the Induction of Frederic Benjamin Stiven DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 15, 1921 SMITH MEMORIAL HALL Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/addressesdeliver00univ_0 c ADDRESSES Music and the University 5 Doctor Peter Christian Lutkin, Dean of the Northwestern University School of Music The Induction 14 President David Kinley The Contribution of the School of Music to the State and the University 18 Professor Frederic B. Stiven, Director of the University of Illinois School of Music PROGRAM OF THE INDUCTION EXERCISES The President of the University presiding Musical numbers by members of the Faculty of the School of Music MUSIC — (a) Theme and Variations in E Flat Minor, for two pianos Chr. Sinding Miss Katherine Seelye Mr. Henri J. van den Berg (b) Quartet, “Bella figlia delP amore,” (Rigo- letto) Verdi Miss Lillian Irene Rutlin Miss Edna Lenore Cass Mr. Frank Tatham Johnson Mr. Arthur Beresford Miss Edna Almeda Treat, at the piano PRAYER Reverend S. E. Fisher, Minister, University Place Christian Church ADDRESS — “Music and the University” Doctor P. C. Lutkin, Dean of Northwestern University School of Music MUSIC— Violin (a) Berceuse, opus 28, No. 3 Paul Juon (b) Hymne au Printemps, opus 18, No. 3 jaraslav Kocian Mr. Manoah Leide Mr. van den Berg, at the piano REMARKS — President David Kinley ADDRESS — “The Contribution of the School of Music to the State and the University” Director Frederic B. Stiven WELCOME to the New Director — Assistant Professor George Foss Schwartz, of the School of Music Provost Kendric C. Babcock, University of Illinois SONG — “By Thy Rivers Gently Flowing” (to the music by Walter Howe Jones, former member of the faculty of the School of Music) By the Assembly, Mr. Johnson leading Miss Treat, at the piano BENEDICTION — Reverend S. E. Fisher MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY Peter Christian Lutkin The definition of the word education is constantly undergo- ing readjustments and additions. Our world of increasing com- plexities is continually demanding more and more of its inhabi- tants. President Butler complains that modern college courses are concerned less and less with teaching us how to live and more and more occupied with teaching us how to get a living. Now-a-days life is too crowded and brief to permit a man to acquire a scholarly education of the old type and at the same time to perfect himself in specialized work. The most we can hope for is a certain proportion of the elements of general culture mixed in with the insistent demands of specific or professional training, and the proper proportioning of these elements is a subject al- most sure to provoke debate and dispute. A rightly balanced scheme of education will concern itself first with the things that have to do with every day life from its simplest to its most complex aspects; in the second place with the things that have to do with morals and conduct; and in the third place with the things that have to do with art and art appre- ciation. There is an increasing tendency to stress the materialistic side of education. This department requires no championing and needs no lengthy explanation to university trustees or boards of education. But the last huge chapter in world history teaches us most vividly that highly developed intellectual or technical training without moral sense is not only negatively deplorable but is positively the most baneful and pernicious end that education can positively serve. Highly trained minds devoid of ethics or morals lead only to the grossest evils in the body politic. A great international conference at Washington is at this moment principally concerned with bringing into its proper equa- tion the moral sense of nations. But the moral sense of a nation can hardly be greater than the moral sense of the individual. Hence it is our bounden duty to see that ethics and morals are brought to a more definite and conspicuous place in our educational scheme, from the kindergarten to the post-graduate school. We should be skilful and tactful enough to be ever impressing our students with the immense gulf between good and evil, right and wrong, honesty and dishonesty, purity and impurity, high-mind- edness and grossness, responsibility and irresponsibility. I fear this is a branch of education that cannot be standardized. It can only be taught as a reflex of personal conviction and character upon the part of the instructor. 5 However, it is not my purpose to enlarge upon matters which many of my audience are far better able to discuss than myself. So I will proceed to the consideration of the third essential of a balanced education — art — a subject in which I am intensely in- terested and to which I have devoted the major part of my life. I think you will all agree with me in picturing the ideal man as being cultured, intelligent, moral, and art-loving. These four qualities seem to be the fundamental endowments of human nature. Not infrequently we find men with a fair equipment of all four. To know them is a delight and privilege. Less fortunate humans may be classified as uncultured, unintelligent, immoral or unmoral, and quite devoid of the artistic sense. They are in- deed to be pitied. A preponderance of any one endowment seems to be at the expense of one or more of the remaining. We all know the absorbed scientist who bothers himself but little with ethics and less with art. He goes through life with scant knowl- edge of the satisfaction of moral well-doing or the joys of art appreciation. We are familiar with the keen and intelligent man of affairs, completely immersed in his material life and when that is taken from him nothing is left, and mental or physical collapse is likely to follow. To others, religion is the beginning and end of human attainments. Such an one may be without formal edu- cation, he may be a child in worldly affairs and utterly devoid of reaction to art in any of its manifestations. Some of this type under the urge of religious zeal accomplish miracles in swaying the hearts of men and in comprehending the workings of the human soul. While we admire them we deplore their limitations. Lastly we have the artistic soul who responds to any expression of beauty, be it the grace of words, a blend of color, a lure of out- line, or a concord of sweet sounds. He may be quite godless and an offense to the 'Scholarly mind, but still he possesses some- thing which may be envied of all men, for he lives in a world of the imagination, full of joys and thrills, and far removed from the dull routine of ordinary life. The seeds of artistic appreciation are planted in every human being and it should be the part of education to seek these seeds — no matter how deeply hidden — and to tend to and nurture them. Enjoyment of art, intelligent or unintelligent, is a precious thing. It is ever with us, ever ready to counteract the sordid and materi- alistic, ever ready to supply us with sane and satisfying entertain- ment, ever ready to expand our emotional life and to feed our cravings for better and higher things with wholesome and endur- ing nutriment. Few men who have once learned to appreciate and enjoy fine poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture, or music would willingly surrender their capacity for pleasure in 6 these regards. History is replete with men who have undergone great hardships and endured poverty and want rather than give up the artistic life. Great scientists in their latter days have de- plored their lack of artistic susceptibility and professional men realize too late the need of a counterirritant to an exacting daily routine. Even a small taste of art means much to many hungry souls. I recall particularly a hard-handed business man and a civil engineer, both of whose lives were literally transformed by the seductions of Japanese art, and a well-known educator who wished to high heaven that he had had less mathematics and more music in his youth. If art can mean so much to man there is surely something amiss in an education which makes no pro- vision for its development, which makes no effort to discover latent possibilities in our youth, or what is far worse, which tends to deaden and extinguish the spark of appreciation of things beautiful and noble. The study and final comprehension of music as an art is in the last analysis a development of the better emotions and an education in the finer perceptions. The art of music embraces within itself not only the essence of the sister arts but also no inconsiderable amount of the exact sciences, and the educational value of music study can only be appreciated by those who have pursued it earnestly and persistently. Music has all the emo- tional charm of poetry and its rhythmical possibilities far trans- cend those of verse, for music is not confined to a single voice or to the restricted capacity of human utterance. It is polyphonic and its many voices may discuss and argue, agree and disagree, simultaneously. Like painting, it has light and shade, color and perspective. From sculpture it appropriates beauty of outline and symmetry of proportion, while, like architecture, it is based upon well-defined structural principles and the minutest parts must have a just and precise relation to the whole. It has logic of development in its highest and acutest sense. It must obey the laws of proportion and contrast, of variety and unity. It exacts mathematical precision and nicety. It demands sympathetic in- tellectuality and keenest intuition. It emphasizes order and method. It is essentially spiritual. It voices the whole gamut of the emotions and disciplines and develops the inner as well as the outer ear. If we consider artistic performance, no other study combines at one and the same time so much mental, emo- tional and physical activity. Few other occupations make such demands upon nervous and muscular control. None other of the arts contains so many integral parts or requires such intricate machinery for the proper presentation of its greater master works. The sculptor wields his mallet and chisel and the shapeless mass 7 of marble is changed to an enduring work of art which appeals at once to the beholders. The painter uses his palette, brush and colors, and the finished product tells its own story without extraneous assistance. The poet or philosopher pens his deepest thoughts and the printed page presents them permanently to the world at large. But the composer cannot reach his public so directly. Through a tedious process he must commit his ideas to paper. They are then a sealed book as far as the general public is concerned. He depends upon at least two agencies before his musical thoughts receive expression. First comes the performer, who must be sympathetic, comprehending, and gifted; then the instrument, or instruments, which must be sensitive works of art. If either of these agencies is lacking the composer suffers, for his work is inadequately expressed. If it concerns the larger compositions such as oratorios, operas, or symphonies, the difficulties of proper presentation are enormously increased. A small army of per- formers is now necessary, each of whom must be skilful, sympa- thetic, and talented. The conductor of these forces must needs be thoroughly appreciative of the spirit of the works, able, alert, vigorous, and commanding. Even then the desired effect may fail if either singers or players lack in intelligence, interest, capaci- ty, or appreciation. Aside from the charm of concordant sounds and the inter- weaving of more or less independent voices, music possesses an attribute which parallels closely the fundamental principle of life — the principle of regularly recurring pulsations. It is the quality of rhythmic movement that is the essential basis of all music and without it music is but a spineless and meaningless quantity. This vibrating force which is the amplification and multiplication of the life-blood principle, plus the every-varying tone combinations which are more or less imitations or expansions of the human voice, gives a human touch to music possessed by no other art. It is a marvelously sensitive art whereby the most intimate emo- tions can be expressed. Not only are they most amply expressed but they may be discussed and argued at great length and in constantly shifting aspects. It is precisely in this indefinite and inexhaustible capacity for logical argument and development that the enduring power of so-called classical music lies, and the fact that classical music is not more widely understood and appreci- ated is simply because the average person is too inexperienced or too untrained to catch the purport of it all. An art of this complex and far-reaching character demands unswerving devotion, high ideals, and unremitting labor on the part of those who would interpret it worthily. So exhausting are 8 its demands upon time and effort that it becomes a serious ques- tion as to its proper relation to an educational scheme. This sug- gests the general topic of Music in the University which will now be considered briefly. This subject naturally groups itself under three headings: I Music and the General Student Body. II Music and the Amateur Musician. Ill Music and the Professional Musician. Group I brings up the query what can or what ought to be done for the students who have neither the time nor the inclina- tion to pursue ordered music studies. There are two answers to this question, the first of which is to organize and develop community and group singing. The second is to deliver popular lectures and to give specially arranged concerts so that the stu- dent body at large may obtain some little insight into the import and purport of music — some little knowledge of the great com- posers and their works. Our great American musician, Edward MacDowell, when occupying the Chair of Music at Columbia University, started a train of trouble which culminated in his resignation when he accused the authorities of graduating bar- barians. This harsh criticism savored of artistic temperament perhaps, but MacDowell maintained that a university graduate should at least have a speaking acquaintance with the creative geniuses of the various arts as well as with their outstanding pro- ductions. His vigorous protest seems to have borne but little fruit. Singing seems to be almost a natural function of the human body. Many will emphatically deny that they can sing, but under stress of great feeling or excitement, ninety-nine out of a hundred find they can produce vocal effects approximating singing. Com- munity singing is not necessarily an artistic product. Its primary purpose is the focusing of feeling or emotion through the peculiar qualities of music. The exigencies of rhythm require that all say the same word at the same time. The expressiveness of melody enhances and intensifies the meaning of the text and harmony enriches and suffuses the whole structure with a warmth and charm of its own. If you doubt this statement, have your audi- ence recite a national hymn instead of singing it. There are few things which bring so large a return on the investment as singing. This was demonstrated in the army and in the wave of commu- nity singing which spread over the land. Unfortunately, a move- ment of this kind can well be started by enthusiastic amateurs of which there are plenty. But the upbuilding and development of such a start requires trained leadership and through the lack of such leadership community singing has declined. In a univer- 9 sity, however, such trained leadership should be at hand, and if a tradition of student singing is once thoroughly established in an institution it will be an achievement that is eminently worth while. As a nation we are too reserved, too self-conscious, and too finicky about our vocal dignity. Mass singing is a pleasant and effective antidote for these unlovely ills. The next provision in a college curriculum will be for the musically inclined students, those who have already paid more or less attention to its study and who wish further to perfect themselves as performers or who desire to have a more intelligent insight into the nature and structure of musical art. For these there must be classes in harmony, appreciation, musical form and history, counterpoint, composition, and so on, as well as instruc- tion in singing and playing. There is so much native talent in our country that gifted amateurs often vie with professionals in their musical abilities. Without a body of interested and appre- ciative non-professionals, no art can possibly progress, if indeed it can survive. They are the people who support high artistic endeavor and who encourage both executant and composer. The artistic status of any country is dependent upon these genuine art lovers and their education is* of the first importance. It is from the ranks of this class of students that choral societies, glee clubs, orchestras and bands will be recruited. They will act as musical missionaries not only to their fellow students but also to their home communities in later life. To take proper care of the student who wishes to make music his chief aim in life is a problem that I have been wrestling with for thirty years. There are certain advantages in making elaborate pre-requisites for the student of law, medicine, engineer- ing, or any profession which does not call upon physical dexterity. They are thus given a broader foundation and the increased mental training fits them all the better for their specialized work. But unfortunately, the basis of sound musicianship consists of an intimate knowledge of tones and notes that only comes after years of close application to some instrument. Maturity of muscles spells increasing rigidity and unless one is well started in his teens, it is well-nigh hopeless to become a capable executant. Moreover, the process cannot be interrupted for a term of years no matter how favorable a start may have been made. Virtuosity means ceaseless slavery to voice or instrument and even the more moderate modicum of playing ability required for the composer, conductor, or teacher demands continual atten- tion. The result of this is that it makes it practically impossible for a music student to develop a professional technique, acquire the necessary theoretical and esthetic knowledge of his art, and io pursue all the required college subjects for a liberal education at the same time. The college years are precisely the years which will determine his standing in his profession. As a matter of fact there is little time to do else but purely musical studies. But it must be borne well in mind that there are certain compensating conditions. For instance the history of music should be taught as correlated history. Politics, industry, learning, and art are all inextricably interwoven in the development of mankind and the music student should be taught the proper perspective of his own art to these factors. Then harmony and counterpoint, especially the latter, make distinct demands upon the mathematical faculties. These studies make continuous demands upon the calculative and analytical powers of the student. Good music is made up of other elements than emotional gush. It requires real brains to compose or even to dissect a large musical composition. Such a work calls not only on rare qualities of feeling, taste, and judg- ment, but its mechanics are as involved as the engine of a battle- ship and each part to the minutest must function properly. A great symphony, opera, or oratorio is no haphazard production guided by so-called inspiration. Inspiration plays its part in the initial urge, but when one has witnessed the manner in which a Beethoven slowly and meticulously develops a masterpiece out of crude beginnings, one readjusts his idea of inspiration and admits that intellect plays the larger part. To get the message in a seri- ous work, such as a sonata or symphony, requires years of prepa- ration, an analytical bent, and great concentration of both mental and artistic faculties. Another department of music study which makes especial demands upon trained intellect is that of criticism and esthetics. To explain the artistic content of music or to put in words the definite but still elusive message of music is indeed a difficult task and calls upon literary qualities of a high order. James Huneker, Daniel Gregory Mason, Edward Dickinson and Philip Goepp, to mention the better known musical litterateurs, all possess the rare gift of giving verbal equivalents to the spell and spiritual signifi- cance of music. These aspects of music and music study are so little known that I cannot refrain from dwelling upon them. A well-informed musician has no need to apologize for the quality of his mentality. It may differ in kind from that of his scientific colleagues, but it is there and represents the accumulations of painstaking devotion to and concentrated study of an abstruse subject and one that is but little understood outside of the higher walks of the profession. Musicianship in the average mind is too often confounded with performance. While practical performance does make for ii musicianship and is usually an essential to fine musical under- standing, yet it is possible to be a great composer, conductor, critic, theorist, or litterateur with little or no performing ability. The gifts of oratory bear a close relation to the gifts for musical performance. Quite young people with a talent for verbal ex- pression will put into the recitation of a classic poem far more than their intellectual understanding would warrant. Their na- tures respond readily to emotional suggestion and a glimmering of proper comprehension is all that is necessary for an effective reading. On the other hand, many people with a deep and search- ing appreciation of a great poem cannot possibly give it adequate vocal expression. It is precisely so with musical performance. Some persons have an extraordinary instinct for interpretation, an instinct which is not always backed by sound musicianship or an analytical knowledge of the intent of the composer. On the other hand, there are intellectual musicians with a keen flair for the subtleties of a Brahms or a Debussy, but who cannot bring this appreciation to others through their own performing ability. Such musicians, as has just been intimated, develop into com- posers, conductors, writers, or teachers. It is the part of the university schools of music to take the native musical talent as it presents itself and endeavor to balance up the final product into a well-rounded whole, striving to place a more solid foundation under the intuitive player and helping those who lack in musical self-expression to a fuller utterance. It is also distinctly the duty of such schools to stress morals and conduct and to give to its students as much general culture as is humanly possible. A word for the interpretative gift which seems to spring from no deep well of knowledge or understanding. In its higher man- ifestations it is a rare and precious gift and it is to be by no means underrated. It gives to the world vivid tone pictures of the inner soul of both poet and musician. Without its persuasive eloquence the arts of poetry and music would suffer greatly in their ministry to humanity. In our schools, then, let us endeavor to help these talented souls to a better understanding of their own genius. When we stop to consider what beauty and nobility of language, of line, of color, of sound has meant to human beings, it is difficult to understand why objections can possibly be made to the inclusion of art and art study as a recognized, stable, and important place in our program of education, lower as well as higher. Strip Europe of her art treasures, her concert halls and opera houses and how much of the lure of travel in her direction would remain! What pride we take when an American million- aire brings a great work of art to our shores! 12 The regrettable part of it all is that a trip to Europe is so often the first awakening of higher art appreciation on the part of a people who have been all but starved in their own country. Art is accounted the flower of all culture, but we as a nation have been contented with the weeds. The latent talent among us is amazing and needs but little urge to blossom forth. The state institutions of learning, and more particularly the state universities, occupy strategic positions in our educational systems. They encompass a wider social range than the endowed seminaries and colleges. Their inexpensiveness opens their gates to multitudes who otherwise could not consider higher education. They of all institutions should strive to train the minds, the con- sciences, and the artistic perceptions of our young people, and to set before them and fix in their minds ideals of a truly broad culture. The position of the Director of Music of the University of Illinois is one of significance and responsibility. It is a formidable task to have the musical destinies of a large educational institu- tion upon one’s mind and conscience. Such a task has been mine for over thirty years. At Northwestern we have made progress in the building up of a professional school and in choral, orches- tral, and festival activities. Much has been left undone due to lack of equipment and human limitations. Where we have mostly failed is in the extension of music in the general life of the Uni- versity. While much is offered to him who will take, still music has not been sufficiently planted in the path of the great mass of undergraduates. If they will not come to it, it must be brought to them. It goes without saying that music in the university as outlined here can only be brought to fruition where the master mind can control a sufficient number of skilled assistants to carry out fully so comprehensive a plan. Your new Director of Music enjoys a wonderful physical plant — the finest in the country — and such noble architecture can only house the highest and best in musical art. He comes from an institution which has rendered a great service to the country in his chosen profession. He is able to bring a definite and dis- tinct contribution to the development of music and music study to the University of Illinois. I trust all plans for the the dignify- ing and the enlarging of his department may be met with open minds and sympathetic understanding. Personally, and on the part of my colleagues at Northwestern, I wish both him and the great institution he represents a notable and successful career in the upbuilding of an art which greatly enriches life and which ministers so abundantly to rich and poor, the cultivated and the ignorant, the just and the unjust. 13 THE INDUCTION President David Kinley The occasion of our gathering tonight is of much significance, not only to the University but to the whole Central West. The development which this gathering indicates is significant of a fur- ther advance of the educational frontier which follows surely the advance of the economic frontier. In other words, the satisfac- tion of the economic needs of the life of a people gives an impetus to those other elements of culture which appeal more particularly to the intellect, the heart, the soul of man. Tonight we are inducting into office a new director of our School of Music. I trust that before the year is over we shall in a fitting way dedicate the new building of that school. I hope that in these fine new quarters and with the impulse given by a new administration, the musical interests of the University will take a larger place in our life and influence more deeply and more widely the culture of the whole institution and, indeed, of the State; and I trust that that influence will take the shape of arous- ing mental and spiritual activity on the part of the students so that instead of being the passive receptacles of faculty instruction, they will themselves become sources of inspiration and leader- ship in matters that affect the spirit. Of course there are many people in whose opinion skill in music and appreciation of music, of literature, and of the fine arts in general, are entirely and delightfully useless. Of what use is a mere musician in these days of strenuous industrial and other economic activity? Let our starving painters turn to some useful occupation like house painting. Bid our sculptors handle clay by taking it out of ditches instead of molding it into beautiful sym- metries. I do not, of course, sympathize with this view. We need in our education here and elsewhere, especially in this country, more that will teach us to live, instead of merely to make a living. The latter is in a sense first; but no one’s days are wholly filled with making a living. His leisure time in his active days, and frequently years of his old age, require knowledge of and skill in some of those subjects commonly but roughly described by the name, fine arts, including literature, painting, sculpture, music. No person is fully educated, therefore, in a liberal sense and, in- deed, no technically trained person is fully “trained” for life, how- ever well prepared he may be for his technical calling, who has not acquired some sense of appreciation or an interest in one or another of these fields. It is for this reason that I am anxious to see an interest in music and art and general literature spread among the students of the University. To be sure, some will tell me that the students are now generally interested in music. But there is music and music. We listen to the lofty strains of that instrument which, after all, is the one that draws us nearest heaven — the pipe organ — and feel our souls lifted. We listen to the so-called “jazz” music, if we can without degradation attach the word “music” to this sort of noise, and feel ourselves either degraded or at war with all that is beautiful. For music is an agent that may lift the soul to heaven or cast it down to hell. It is, or may be, an accompani- ment of the noblest emotion or the finest act of heroism, on the one hand, and of the most degraded feeling and the vilest deed, on the other. One could spend much time in philosophizing upon the relation of different kinds of music, of the creations of different musicians, and of different kinds of musical instruments, to the kinds of emotions which they respectively educe. But it would require one more learned in these things than I am to do it. I may be permitted, however, to express the opinion that the so- called “jazz” music is the musical aspect of the intellectual and spiritual demoralization, the cultural anarchy, which in a large degree has overtaken the world in recent years. It is a return to the tom-tom period. On the literary side it has its counterpart in those so-called literary productions which, expressing in more or less jerky prose somewhat platitudinous opinions of cloudy thinking writers, are by a stretch of imagination classified as poetry of the modern sort. The impressionist in art, the “jazzist” in music, the poet without poetical expression, are all in the same class. Their work does embody and reflect certain truths. It does in a real sense mirror certain aspects of life — but it is the riot of life, the demoralization of life, a departure by choice from that clear vision of heaven which the rebel angels made when they fled with Satan from the flaming sword of Gabriel. It would be interesting, too, to reflect upon the effects of music as ex- pressed through different musical instruments. But where the poet dared not decide, I may not venture even an opinion. So, with Dryden, I must Let old Timotheus yield the prize Or both divide the crown , He raised a mortal to the skies She drew an angel down. It is my hope that the work of this School of Music will be in several fields and accomplish several results. By fields I do not mean different kinds of instrumental and vocal music. I mean rather divisions of the educational or inspirational fields within which music of all kinds finds its expression. In other words, I hope that the work of this School will be to train performers, to inspire creators, and to give to the life of all the rest of us who are neither performers nor music creators a new light, a better appreciation of the fine things of life, a knowledge which will be to each of us a means of making life sweeter and more enjoyable. To put the matter in another way, its largest duty* or perhaps I should say its duty to the largest number, will be to instill in us a finer appreciation of good music. Its second duty will be to train its immediate students to a greater or less skill in musical performance. Its third, I trust, and in a way its highest, although in scope its smallest, duty will be in time, after the years, to give to the State, to the country, and to the world some great musical performer or creator. A great musical creator is a creator, like other artistic creators, only in the sense that he grasps the spirit of humanity in some age or aspect or conditions and gives it expression in his particular language — music. He cannot get away from life; but he is a great musician, just as one is a great sculptor or a great writer, only if he gets a large and true view of the finest relations of life and has the ability and technique to give expression to his vision. I hope that in time from this School of Music such a creator will go. I trust, too, that into the life of the University the music of the School of Music will enter more largely than ever before. It is an opportunity for the Music Faculty to interest most or all of us in music and to get us all to do what we can in a musical way. Musical education in the United States has a longer life and has exerted a wider influence than many people think. If I were to describe even briefly the attempts made in this country since the middle of the seventeenth century to develop music through conservatories and musical societies of one kind or another, I would use the whole evening. I cannot do more than call atten- tion to the fact that such efforts to develop music in America have run on for more than two hundred years. The attempt to de- velop music as a part of education in colleges and universities is much more recent. I think that it was Harvard University which anticipated by a few months in 1875 the University of Pennsylvania in establishing a Department of Music. Professor John J. Paine, who had under somewhat strenuous conditions taught music at Harvard fourteen years, was appointed Professor of Music in 1875. Professor Hugh A. Clark was appointed Pro- fessor of the Science of Music at Pennsylvania in the same year. Music was taught early in the life of the University of Michigan, but I think it was not until 1888 that the appointment of Professor A. A. Stanley established music as a fully recognized part of the University curriculum. Yale followed in 1894 with the appoint- ment of Horatio W. Parker, and Columbia in 1896 with the ap- 16 pointment of Professor E. A. MacDowell. Such departments or schools now exist in a large number of educational institutions, among them Dartmouth, Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, Yale, our own institution, as well as many others. Musical study was first offered in this University in 1872-3. Music has been taught continuously here, organized as a depart- ment until 1894, being part of the work of one of the undergrad- uate colleges. In 1894, the courses were reorganized, and Mr. C. W. Foster of Champaign was made Director. At this time we began giving certificates of graduation in Music. The follow- ing year the work was organized as a School of Music, with Walter Howe Jones as Director, who remained with us until 1901. He was succeeded as Director by Professor Frederick Lawrence in 1903, who remained here until 1910. Following Professor Law- rence came Professor Charles Henry Mills, who left us in 1914 to go to the University of Wisconsin. His successor was Professor John Lawrence Erb, who joined our staff in 1914 and resigned last summer. The present Director, Mr. Frederic B. Stiven, was born in Ionia, Michigan, in 1882. He studied two years, beginning 1909 with Alexandre Guilemant in Paris. In 1911-12 he studied or- chestration with Widor and became an Associate of the American Guild of Organists in 1912. He received his degree of Bachelor of Music fpom the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1907. Mr. Stiven taught in the Oberlin conservatories as instructor, associate professor, and professor from 1907 to the date of his coming here last September. During part of that time he was organist and choir master of the Euclid Avenue Christian Church and the Calvary Presbyterian Church of Cleveland. Director Stiven, you are called to a great opportunity and a great responsibility. It is your duty and responsibility to de- velop this School of Music not only so that it will turn out good musicians but so that its influence will permeate the life of the whole University and raise our standards of musical taste and improve our cultural spirit. That you will be successful in your work I do not doubt, and I wish you for the Trustees and the colleagues of the faculty God speed. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC TO THE STATE AND UNIVERSITY Frederic B. Stiven Every thoughtful student of humanity today recognizes that one of the great influences of civilization is music. He is indeed a man with a small vision who belittles the importance of this art in the progress of the world. There is nothing that so binds to- gether the hearts of men, that so draws them into a “fraternity of common need,” that so consoles the broken-hearted or gives ex- pression to the joyous enthusiasm of life, as music. The history of mankind is the history of music. The hiero- glyphic inscriptions of ancient Egypt and Assyria give proof that music was an important social agent of that early period. The Hebrew nation sang the Psalms of David and gave praise to their Jehovah “upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psal- tery.” The early Church depended largely on music for its in- spiration and consolation. Luther’s battle was half won when the people began to sing the hymns of the Reformation. The patri- otism of the French- was inspired to deeds of valor by “La Mar- seillaise” in the Revolution. “John Brown’s Body” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” kept up the spirit of the North in the dark days of our own Civil war; and no one has the courage to deny what music did in this last great war; how it fired the patriotism of the soldier; how it inspired the generosity of the man at home; how it brought tears to the eyes of the loved ones left behind; how it comforted the sick and wounded. There is no question, then, as to the importance of music in the economy of the world. Nor can there arise naturally any doubt as to the importance of the need of education in music. An art, which through the ages has exerted, even in its undeveloped state, such an influence, must hold in its depths a power for good far greater, infinitely larger than any that has yet been compre- hended. Such a power must be utilized, then, in the building up of life, in giving more of joy and peace to man. What the world needs is not bread and butter but a changed mentality, and music is one of the great factors which will go far in harmonizing the hearts of men. Because the world does need ideals of religion, art, music, these are as legitimate and important goals of educa- tion as are the more material branches. For some years past, American educators have been awaken- ing to this fact. The educational progress of music in this country during the last half century has been remarkable. Indeed, a noted writer recently declared that not more than twenty-five years ago “music was not part of a serious education; it was a fashionable 18 accomplishment. What were called ‘lessons’ were given, but nothing was taught. Such a method, if method it might be called, is now changed for a full, rational, and liberal study, carried on just as thoroughly, as intellectually, and as systematically as in any other serious branch of learning.” In this development, the thinking musician has been looking to the educational institutions of the country as the place where the furtherance of this progress can best be accomplished. “Music suffers like the drama,” says a prominent critic, “from the com- mon use of it among intelligent people for recreation and amuse- ment, rather than as something intellectually profitable and de- manding serious mental application as its right.” To the univer- sity and the college, then, the serious minded musician has nat- urally turned, and it is gratifying to see how the doors of those great halls of learning are gradually being flung open to his art. There has been a great deal of agitation in musical circles recently about the establishment of a National Conservatory of Music, sponsored by the Federal Government under the direct supervision of a proposed Secretary of Fine Arts. Some of the European countries, notably France, have for many years main- tained national conservatories of high rank. Indeed, practically all of the famous musicians of France for over one hundred years have been products of the Conservatoire National, and the list is one of which France may well be proud. In my opinion, these names also give irrefutable answer to the arguments frequently heard against the institutional method of music study. But France is not America. The racial conditions, the governmental situa- tion, the extent of the physical boundaries, the departmental divisions of the state, all are so different in France that the condi- tions under which the National Conservatory flourishes there do not exist in this country. The population of France is overwhelmingly native born, akin in temperament, outlook, education. The United States is the most cosmopolitan country in the world. Every shade of temperament, every phase of racial characteristic is to be found here; a thousand viewpoints have to be considered; an educational condition exists that runs the gamut from illiteracy to the most profound scholar. The government of the French Republic has always fostered the arts, and the Minister of the Beaux Arts exercises an important influence in the affairs of state. Our gov- ernment has not as yet formally recognized the fine arts, though I think the time is not far distant when there will be at least some official departmental recognition. In size France is smaller than our largest state; the United States covers an area sixteen times the extent of the French Republic, and it is this great geographical 19 expanse of our country, with the attendant wide variation of popular interests and ideals, which forms the greatest obstacle to the successful establishment of a national conservatory. But this very obstacle gives rise to an opportunity for the individual states to build up within their own state universities institutions devoted to this most beloved of all arts — music. To Illinois belongs the honor of being the first state to put its School of Music on the same basis as the other colleges of its great Uni- versity. Nowhere in all this wide country is there a university which offers the young people of the State a thorough education in the different branches of the musical art, with practically no financial expenditure on the part of the student. To those of us who are conversant with the expense of obtaining an education in music this fact looms large, not only from an economic stand- point, but because it heralds a day when music throughout the country will be stamped with the state seal of approval as one of the legitimate factors in academic education. Now that Illinois has so declared herself, we of the School of Music have an obligation to perform — a duty to each and every citizen of this great Commonwealth. As a result of the gift of one of the former trustees of the University of Illinois, together with the cooperation of the State, there has come to this campus this magnificent building devoted to the cause of music — a building which has no equal in all the country. With this equip- ment and in these surroundings, inspiring and uplifting, it de- volves upon us so to develop the instructional resources, so to foster a zealous enthusiasm that we may send forth from here students who have received the broadening influence of academic studies, who are professionally well equipped as technicians, and who above all have retained for the art the love of the amateur; that they may go out into every part of this great State to train the coming generation and to educate the masses in hearing and understanding what is good in music. I cannot lay too much stress on this last mentioned opportunity — the education of the great general public to a comprehension of the real message of music to mankind. Dr. Dickinson says: “The necessity of instruction in the art of hearing music can hardly be denied by one who thinks about the matter The amateur, too long neglected, is beginning to understand his needs and to make them known.. . .He has no wish to become a brilliant player or vocalist or if he has, there is no place in his life for the long preparatory drudgery.. . .But he does wish to cultivate his ear and his powers of judgment, to know what to listen for, to hear what musicians hear in a musical per- formance, to learn in what consist the factors that make good 20 music.... In a word, he wishes to make music also, along with books and pictures and all beautiful things, a means of enriching his inward life.” In the present situation there are two ways by which this may be accomplished. First, of course, as I have already stated, by so training the students who matriculate in the School of Music that they may go out with an adequate education and above all with an enthusiasm to spread the leavening influence of good music throughout the State. The second way, however, which will contribute to this accomplishment is one of far greater im- portance. It is to bring into the lives of all students of this Uni- versity opportunities to hear and to study worth while music; to give to the seeking amateur that which will meet his needs; to awaken in the indifferent student an interest in this phase of his cultural education; to convince the scoffer that classical music, so called, is no more out of date than is Shakespeare or Browning, but is comparable in every way to the products of the great minds of literature. This to me is the outstanding service which we as one of the Colleges of this institution can render to the University. Thus devolves upon us a second duty, a duty which if well done will be far-reaching in its influence. Already the School of Music has done much. There are registered today three hundred and ten students from other colleges who are taking some study offered in its curriculum. They represent every college on the campus save one. It is worthy of attention to know that forty- one from the College of Commerce are taking advantage of this opportunity, twenty-one from the Engineering School — all of them men, Two hundred and five from the College of Liberal Arts and sciences, eighteen from Agriculture, and so on. This is encouraging but it is only a beginning. It is but the dawn which heralds a new day in the School of Music, a day when every gate- way of knowledge and appreciation will be wide open, that every student may enter and learn that his feeling for the art deepens with his understanding of it. Browning says: To match and mate Feeling with knowledge — make as manifest Soul's work as mind's work, turbulence as rest, Hates, loves, joys, woes, hopes, fears that rise and sink Ceaselessly .— Could music rescue thus from Soul's profound, Give feeling immortality by sound, Then were she queenliest of arts. In a survey of the departments of music in the leading col- leges and universities of the country, there seem to be four dif- ferent aspects of study emphasized. 21 The first is musical composition, proceeded, of course, by a more or less thorough course in the more elementary branches of theoretical study. Certain of the large eastern universities stress this side of the study of music, one of them even offering the de- gree of Doctor of Philosophy with music the major subject. The sec- ond class of schools lays emphasis on the side of virtuosity in pub- lic performance, seeking to graduate students who are preeminently successful as executants. A third class aims to give the students interested in music, courses of a cultural nature only, leading to a better appreciation of the art but neglecting to a greater or lesser degree the practical and theoretical branches. Then there is a fourth class of schools in which the ideal for the music de- partment is a balance of the three aspects just mentioned — com- position, executive ability, and a sincere appreciation of the art. This embraces that for which I believe the School of Music of the University of Illinois is striving, and which I am sincerely con- fident will be reached. In addition to this there must be a certain proportion of time given to subjects of general cultural education outside the realm of music. Just what this proportion should be is a debatable question. Although I am convinced of the worth and necessity of such subjects, I do not lose sight of the fact that the musical education of the School of Music student is of primary import- ance. There is a tendency in most educational institutions devoted to the art of music — and I am convinced that we are not free from it here — to blight the individuality of the student. The process of putting every person through practically the same curric- ulum mold, hoping to turn him out the same kind of a musician as his brother, is a fallacious one. It is evident that this could not be followed in other branches of the liberal arts or sciences with any degree of success. A student majoring in philosophy, for example, can not be made to follow precisely the same curriculum as one who wishes to major in French, if he expects to have any specialized knowledge in his chosen subject. Just so it seems obvious that a student in music who wishes to major in public school music, for example, cannot be well grounded in his partic- ular branch, if he has to follow practically the same curriculum as the student who is majoring in piano. All education can be divided into two branches, vocational and cultural. Music by its very nature belongs to both. The course of study, then, of the ideal school of music must look con- stantly at both these goals. There must always be borne in mind the fact that the duty of an academic institution of music is, first of all, to provide a foundation of general knowledge, a solid basis, 22 comprehensive in its scope, which will give to its students a tech- nical and an appreciative understanding of music and its relation- ship to other arts. In addition to this cultural training there must come some degree of specialization in a particular musical branch — the vocational aspect of the training offered. Just what the proportion of these two elements should be is the problem on which leading educators in music are focusing their attention at the present day. Let me say here very emphatically that I do not believe that the School of Music should in any sense be a specialization school as such. Our aim should be to give a broad fundamental training with an opportunity to develop along one particular line, but not to emphasize this particular line at the expense of the founda- tional training. The equipment of the musician who goes out from a collegiate institution with a Bachelor of Music degree ought to be quite analogous in every respect to the equipment of the student who secures the Bachelor of Arts degree. He has completed a course of general foundational knowledge, with special stress laid on one particular branch. But it is only after further pursuit of specialized study that the student becomes an authority in his chosen subject. Similarly, a Bachelor of Music candidate can never expect to be at graduation a great pianist, an accomplished vocal artist, or a violin virtuoso. It will be only after further years of concentrated specialized study that artistic mastery can be obtained. Thus the School of Music has a duty which it owes to itself in order that its contribution to the State and to the University may be of the greatest value. Upon the Director falls the re- sponsibility in a large measure of so formulating the policies, of so directing the instruction, of so adjusting the courses that the students may go out from here well trained musicians, men and women with a thorough understanding of their subject and with a zeal to carry their work into every part of the State. Coupled with this responsibility, there is for the Director here at the Uni- versity an opportunity which is well-nigh boundless. Eight thousand students are within his reach to be in some way influ- enced by music. It may not be possible to reach all of them, but to many he will have the joy of opening up visions of a new world, a spiritual world untrammeled with human sordidness. William Butler Yeats says: “We who care deeply about the arts find ourselves the priest- hood of an almost forgotten faith, and we must, I think, if we would win the people again, take upon ourselves the method and fervor of a priesthood.” 2 3 “Consecration — yes — a priest must have that, together with a willingness to undergo resistance, indifference, hope deferred. He must likewise possess knowledge and wisdom, knowledge of the truth he teaches so that his own faith will not be shaken, knowledge of the needs and aptitude of those among whom he labors, and the wisdom which enables him to adapt the means to the end, and to seek that end on the higher levels and not the lower.” ( Education of a Music Lover — Edward Dickinson.) Mindful of this responsibility, may I, then, as the Director of the School of Music, pledge myself to do everything within my power to give to the people of the State of Illinois through its School of Music an unrivalled opportunity for a professional education and here in the University to make it possible for good music to touch the life of every student, that he may realize in some degree the transcendent power of the art to assuage the bur- dens of mankind and to give joy and peace to life. 24 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN Issued Weekly Vol. XIX December 19, 1921 No. 16 [Entered as second-class matter December n, 1912, at the post office at Urbana, Illinois, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at the special rate of postage provided for in section 1103 Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 31, 1918.] Addresses Delivered at the Induction of Frederic Benjamin Stiven director of the school of music DECEMBER 15. 1921