We now come to the vexed question of the interpretation of music by children.  An interesting point can be noted about the practice of the early classical composers.  They were accustomed to give the minimum amount of indication as to tempo and general detail for the performance of their works.

And to what conclusion does this lead us?  Surely this—­that these giants in music recognized the necessity for every performer of their works to express themselves through the music, subject to the broad conditions laid down by the composer.  As Hegel said:  ’Music is the most subjective of all arts.’  And is it not true that it is this constant necessity for personal interpretation, so strongly felt by the majority of artists, which gives the permanent interest to music?

We say, ‘by the majority of artists’, for now and then we meet an artist who seems to have strayed from the path of beauty, and who is devoting his energies to an ascetic determination to keep alive one particular interpretation of a composer’s work, or works; who dictates these interpretations to his pupils, and who talks of other artists who feel the bounden duty of self-expression through the said works as ‘outsiders’, and ‘not in the cult’.  Such musicians do not appear to see that such an attitude is ‘idolatry’ pure and simple.  They have not pondered the well-known anecdote of Brahms, who, when asked by a singer whether his interpretation of one of his songs was ‘the right one’, answered:  ‘It is one of the many hundred possible interpretations.’

A word must now be said on the organization of instrumental work in the school.  It is important that this should be in the hands of one person, who will not only keep a supervising eye on questions of method, choice of music, lengths of lessons and practising, &c., but who will evolve some means of testing the progress of the pupils every term, in the same way in which their progress is tested in other subjects.  The progress of the individual pupil should not be a secret between herself and her particular mistress!

It is a good plan to arrange a short recital every term in a school, at which from twenty to twenty-five pupils should play at a time.  Such recitals should not exceed more than 1-1/4 hours in length.  Nothing is more wearisome to the outsider than to listen to amateur performances which stretch out to two and sometimes to three hours’ length.  If the above plan be adopted, no child will be able to play more than one short piece.  A mistress who is ambitious for the success of a few specially gifted pupils will sometimes suggest that a recital shall consist of the performance of two or three of these only, and that each pupil should play more than once.

Such suggestions should be frowned at.

What we want, if we have an educational end in view, is not so much to give the few musical children in a school the opportunity of gaining experience in playing in public, and indirectly of showing their progress to an admiring audience, but we want to give every music pupil in turn the same opportunity.