An earlier chapter in this book has dealt with the teaching of extemporizing, first, treated as vocal expression, then as instrumental.  When a class of children has arrived at the stage of being able to extemporize a tune of sixteen bars, in any given key and time, and introducing given modulations, it is quite ready to begin the more formal study of composition, and to be initiated into the mysteries of form.  Hitherto the experiments of the class in this direction have been chiefly spontaneous; the teacher has of set design left the child who is extemporizing as free as possible, but the time has now come for a new ‘window’ to be opened in its mind.

A preliminary talk should be given on the need of form in music.  It must be pointed out that we cannot be intelligible without it, that it is not enough to have a language at our command; we must have shape in order to convey our ideas to others.  The child should realize that the great artists in all the arts are under the same necessity as the youngest beginner in composition.  Inspiration must be embodied in a definite form, or others cannot share the vision of beauty.

For a time the child now has to learn to select a musical form, then to choose a musical thought which can be fitly expressed in it.  It will seem a cramping process after the freedom of extemporizing, but the child who loves the work will willingly submit to the discipline.  It cannot be too often impressed on the young teacher that children as a whole like discipline.  They despise those who are indifferent to it, and give a ready submission to those who expect it, provided they feel sure of an underlying sympathy.

The first lessons in form should consist of the analysis of simple tunes, preferably of the Folk Song type.  The forms known as AB, ABA, and the variants derived from these will be explained, and the class will write examples of each, at first not harmonizing the melodies, but afterwards doing so.  The old dance forms will then be taken.  At this stage it is absolutely necessary for those of the class who are musical, and who wish to give a little extra time to music, to go through a course of strict harmony and counterpoint; endless time will be wasted if they do not do so.  The work will be very much lightened because of the foundation already laid, for, without knowing it, the children have been doing a little free counterpoint for some time, when they added vocal parts to a given melody, and their knowledge of practical harmony will make it possible for them to take many a short cut in the formal work.

The dance forms, together with very simple fugues and contrapuntal studies, and a few ‘free’ exercises in songs and short pieces, will be as far as the majority of children will get in the study of composition.  But there will always be a few in each class who will be eager and able to go farther, and to begin the study of sonata form.  For such children, and certainly for all teachers of music, there can be no better text-book than Hadow’s Sonata Form, published in the Novello Primer Series.  This book is often described as ‘more exciting than a novel’!  Somervell’s Charts for Harmony and Counterpoint are also most valuable, and will save the necessity of a text-book in these subjects—­at any rate for the beginner, who works under guidance.